MovingPictures

Cool Wedding Photos From the Weekend...

Another Year of Storm Chasing in the Books...

Well MESO completed another two weeks of storm chasing in the plains last Friday, and though it has taken me a few days to catch-up at home, I smile as I look back at the trip. We had two weeks of great friendship, BBQ, and fun with the crew this year as always. We caught one tornado in Fort Scot, KS and a couple of close-call gustnadoes a few days before that. Even though our chase just ended, we are counting down the days until next year, our 13th year chasing together in the plains. I will have some chase days here in Ohio this summer and it will not be quite the same without the rest of the MESO crew along for support and laughs.

Last Day of the Chase...

MESO and I are heading for our first stop in Emporia, KS for our first target for today and a 10% tornado probability, here is hoping we pull out another tornado today.

Tree Damage in Fort Scott, KS...

Ed Colter cleans up a tree limb a foot in diameter from last nights storm.

Last night we got a brief rain wrapped tornado in Fort Scott, KS, and we went back today and got some clean-up of tree damage, which leads us to believe that it was a weak tornado. We are overnighting it in Wichita, KS to get in position for tomorrow's storms.

Tornado Last Night in Fort Scott, KS...

A rain wrapped tornado appears in Fort Scott, KS last night at 7:55 p.m.

The day began like so many others.  We (MESO) were up early after NOT getting enough sleep the night before, when we had gotten in to Norman, OK at about 1 a.m.  We’re not early morning people to begin with, but realizing that we needed to go into central Missouri from where we were, we steeled ourselves for what was ahead.

Once again, all the elements were there, but as the afternoon wore on, initiation of the storms was not forthcoming.  We sat in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart somewhere in Missouri, thinking we had gotten skunked again.  Then the storms started to appear, popping up in a line that extended from NE to SW.  They were about two hours from our location, but we reasoned that if they were moving east and we moved west, we might have a shot at them before dark.  Off we went, our target being Nevada, Missouri.

We went beyond Nevada, and caught the storm just outside of Fort Scott, viewing it from a small road out where visibility was good, but not great.  At this point we were VERY close to the core, which was about 5 miles away.  The storm was huge, and showing on our computers to have 130 mph sheer.  It was showing us magnificent lightning, and a bit of wind.  It was also showing us a very robust rain shaft that about to catch up with us, so we decided to move a bit south.  Moving South, we decided, heck we’re this far and we only have a half hour before we lose sun completely…let’s move a bit closer and go east.  We got to a place of fairly good visibility, but then thought; well…maybe the next hill has even BETTER visibility.  What ended up happening is that we landed ourselves right smack dab in the middle of Fort Scott, Missouri on residential tree lined streets with ZERO visibility…and sirens sounding, wind blowing, and a growing sense that maybe we had talked ourselves into a predicament.  

We found ourselves in heavy precip, which is relative safety when you’re that close to a tornado.  A few times in the past, we’ve ducked in to the precipitation of a storm as the tornado cannot exist in there.  Of course, the rain started to turn into hail, presenting another problem.  We found a good solid bank and pulled under the overhang for the drive up teller, happy that for at least a few moments, we were out of rain, hail, and debris. See the rest of the night's photos CLICK HERE.

May 12th Texas Panhandle Photos...

We did not get a tornado, but we got most everything else, a gustnado, wall clouds, mammatus, and a rainbow to beat all rainbows, on our way to Missouri today, CLICK HERE to see photos.

DOWs and VORTEX 2 in Clinton County OK...

As we went West in I-40 today in Oklahoma despite SPC dropping their slight risk in the Western OK, TX, panhandles, we thought it still looked like a good target. We had had a feeling that the SPC did this on purpose to keep chasers away from the area they were going. Our initial target was Woodward, OK, but EVERY hotel room in the town was booked, we ended up staying in Perryton, TX, in the Baymont Motel, a nice place, with not so nice internet. It seems funny to me that the whole VORTEX 2 team would go to an area that did not warrant a slight risk anymore. But some of our forecasters think they will re-post the slight risk at 1:00 a.m., just in 15 minutes, we will see. Things are looking good, on day 2 and three, so we are crossing our fingers.

Nice Cell too Close to Dark...

Shot this cell going up right at dusk last night near Ardmore, OK, it did yield a nice rotating wall cloud also, see more photos HERE.

Under a PDS Thunderstorm Watch...

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF...A LARGE PART OF KANSAS NORTHERN OKLAHOMA
 
EFFECTIVE THIS FRIDAY MORNING FROM 1205 AM UNTIL 800 AM CDT.
 
 ...THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION...

EXTREMELY DAMAGING THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH...LARGE HAIL
TO 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN
THESE AREAS.
 
THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 80
STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 55 MILES WEST OF
GARDEN CITY KANSAS TO 25 MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF CHANUTE KANSAS.

No Storms Formed, but Good Bar-B-Q Found...

We busted on our hunt for severe storms today as we waited in Sedan, KS, a town mostly know as the birthplace of the famous clown Emmett Kelly. All we can say is that we were there and the storms decided not to show, anywhere in the states of Kansas, or Oklahoma. On the way home we stopped at a BBQ place called Bad Brad's BBQ in Pawhuska, OK, it was the best BBQ we have had by far, just slightly over Dougan BBQ in Ponca City, OK.

We are looking at a slightly better forecast tomorrow in central OK.

Goodbye Texas, Hello, Oklahoma...

Well, we kissed Texas goodbye this morning, heading north into north-central Oklahoma. We are looking forward to the possibility of some supercells on Thursday, and have even higher hopes for Friday.  Inhibiting factors would be actually the LACK of a cap tomorrow, causing storms to pop up all over, at once. A cap, or capping inversion, is a layer of warmer air aloft that halts the convection at a certain level. Much like a top on a pot of boiling water, the energy beneath builds. Traditionally, MESO has exhausted themselves waiting for the cap to erode somewhat, to allow the storms to continue their vertical development into the giant supercell storms that so often parent tornadoes. If the cap is too strong, nothing breaks through. If it is too weak, everything does. What we look for is a moderate cap that will curtail the activity of all but the strongest and most potentially severe storms. And tomorrow, that may happen, but Friday is our more likely chance.

Tonight, though, we have given ourselves a well earned night off, and intentionally stopped a little south of where we should be tomorrow so we could meet up with John Diel, a MESO member living in Ponca City, OK. We’re spending the night at the Ponca City Super 8. We stayed at this hotel back in 1998, obviously in its much better years. We have been here less than two hours, and have had to reject one room because of a horrible smell, a flickering light in one of the other rooms, and Nancy was attacked by a bat as she went through the breezeway. We won’t know precisely where we’ll be heading over the next few days, but we don’t need SPC to tell us that we will be moving OUT of this particular facility. We’re all very charged up over the storm yesterday, and yearning for more action still to come.

Texas Supercell Yields Many Wall Clouds...

Yesterday we caught the storms perfectly, with the smug pleasure of being on them from initiation on, way before the rest of the pack.  Our forecasters are nearly psychic, and we add to that the phone and email advice from Chris Rozoff in Wisconsin, and Dan Lindsey in Colorado.  We jumped on the first cell the instant it was ANYTHING, but it moved east-northeast and crossed north of the warm front… instant death.  A few minutes later, a second cell developed in nearly the same location, and gave us everything SHORT of a tornado.  It was perfect, with a pronounced and persistent hook echo nearly from the start.  It tracked eastward along the front at first, then right-turned for hours, increasing the shear and inflow.  We were treated to wall cloud after wall cloud, ominously vivid green clouds (indicative of the large hail it contained), loads of close lightning, and hail.  Though there were reports of 2.75” and 4” hail from that cell not far from where we were, we only experienced up to 0.75” stones (luckily). See all of my photos from the day click HERE...

Waiting in Albany...

Sitting here in Albany, TX waiting for initiation, we have all the elements needed for storms, but it is still early as far as the day goes.

Tonight's Sunset in Childress, Texas...

Greensburg, Kansas Making Progress 2 Years Later...

We (MESO) drove through Greensburg, Kansas yesterday, just one day shy of the two year anniversary of the EF5 tornado that wiped out 95% of the little Kansas town. Compared to the one year mark, the tow has homes and businesses springing up all over. The "Bigh Well" now has a tourism center again, and the town has a new arts center and a business incubator. All in all, it is looking much better.
 

Oklahoma City F5, 10 Years Ago Today...

Ten years ago today, I was in Oklahoma City shooting photos of the aftermath of the May 3rd, 1999 F5 tornado that hit most Norman, Midwest City, OKC, Mulllhull, Bridgecreek and other small towns around the OKC area. The tornado outbreak killed 48 people, and spawned 66 tornadoes that day.

Having BBQ at MESO's Aunt Meg's House...

Each year before our MESO storm chase, we have dinner at Sue Melena's house in Kansas City, she is our honorary Aunt Meg. Now if you have seen the movie Twister, you will remember Aunt Meg as the motherly Aunt of Helen Hunt, who fed the entire chase team, before they ran out for their fifth twister of the day, ha. I digress, I now smell ribs, corn, baked beans, chipolte bread, chips and salsa, mmmmm....

Sue Melena will be chasing with us this year also for five days for her first time.

Supercell From Rule, TX...

Here is one of the photos I shot from yesterday near Rule, TX last night, I have other photos online HERE on Flickr. We got close, had a ragged Mothership and a really nice funnel cloud, it is back to KC today to meet the rest of the MESO team.

Sitting in Altus, OK in a Moderate Risk...

Chris Howell and I made the trek from Edmond, OK to Altus, OK this morning in preparation for a good chase day. By the time we got down here, the SPC upgraded it to a Moderate Risk. We will see what comes of today, we have a 10% or greater chance of tornadoes. As we chase down here most of our MESO group is converging on Kansas City, where we will have to head tonight. As of now, we are going to mosey over to Wichita Falls, TX.