TORNADO

Day 4 - 31st May 2010

An absolutely incredible day with a once in a lifetime tornado, one of the greatest days of my life. I'm in the Blue Spruce Motel in Lamar Colorado and it's 01:30 and I'm too shattered to do the full write up.

Short Version:
A "low risk day" gives us a chase target of SE Colorado and we end up around Campo. A supercell thunderstorm has already initiated and is moving at only 5mph; basically we sat andwatched it from mid afternoon until 21:00, and initially we were the only crew on it until word got around - it was the only storm within 200 miles. In late afternoon it dropped a funnel, we were about 10 miles away and had a great view - my first tornado.

Then we got closer and closer. The storm was rotating and threatening to put down a tornado over and over until it eventually put down a stunner and we were only a quarter of a mile away. The forecast for the rest of the week is promising - stay tuned!

Longer version

Well, as I couldn't sleep due to all the excitement (even some beer failed to have the soporific effect) I'm up at 07:30 and have just forced down the worst motel breakfast I have ever eaten. For the folks back home, writing this blog takes time as and when opportunities arise, so it may not always be bang up to date. Take last night: we got to the hotel at around 23:30, apart from all the usual stuff you have to do, I have to back up all the photos to a hard drive, battle to get a wifi signal and find the code to log in, do the blog, find some photos worthy of uploading, update the facebook status and charge 2 camera batteries, phone and laptop with only 2 adapters which I'm now sharing with the other 3 as they have contrived to have only one between them. Anyway, I digress!

Today was all about Mother Nature. Despite all man's wisdom, knowledge, experience and technology, what happened yesterday just happened, when really it just shouldn't have. But it did!

The day started with a comprehensive forecast from Brian. This was really informative as Brian went through the models and explained how he arrived at his chase target. Predicting severe weather requires balancing many factors - location A may have better shear, location B better CAPE (energy) and location C may have a better road system and so on. You pull together the pieces of the puzzle to get the best combination. I'm really enjoying this part.

Today was another slight risk day with a 2% tornado risk (haha!) and Brian picked chase targets in SE Colorado/SW Kansas and NW Kansas with the latter the preferred option. We headed west and Brian would review the models later and refine the target area while I tried to digest the breakfast...Liam and I said "it'll be the same as yesterday"as the wind shear wasn't that strong. Shows what we know!

We continue to head west through the Oklahoma Pan Handle to Guymon where we stopped for a Sonic Burger. I had a chicken burger on a brown bun, so I'm not sure how my body will react to the fibre. Mark describes the menu as "toxic waste" and the food "even worse than Braums" which I think was a little unkind.

We keep heading west into Baca County, Colorado; the last time I was here in 2006 Liam almost had a mega crash as the van he was in ended up on 2 wheels. We hear that there is some wind shear as a mesoscale discussion is issued for the area - this is quickly upgraded as we pass through Boise City and the storm we are looking at becomes tornado warned. Yay! Then reports of a funnel come in. We head north on the 385(?) and park up after heading through Campo.
The supercell is practically stationary so we get out to take photos. Just as we get back in the van, Liam (I think this was Dawn really) spots a lowering and we all get back out. Funnel cloud! We all get back out and start taking photos as it keeps lowering - Tornado #1 and my first confirmed ever. Shortly after a second elephants trunk tornado starts to form at the same time - Tornado #2! Two tornadoes on theground simultaneously!

This supercell was amazing in that it was barely moving and there were no other storms for 200 miles. We didn't have to move for over an hour just watching it and taking photos. It did get a bit disorganised at one point with precipitation falling into the updraft and I felt that would be that as it looked like there was insufficient shear.

I needn't have worried as it regained its composure and produced a series of rotating wall clouds, one after the other, teasing us with the prospect of a tornado; one had to be close as funnels were forming that would then dissipate. By this time, around 18:00, many other chase teams were on station including Cloud 9 and Silverlining Tours - haha we were there first.

We started retreating as the storm speeded up slightly and we started to receive precipitation - time to put on the waterproofs. We headed south, back through Campo and took up a good position to watch yet another rotating wall cloud. I've dreamed about seeing tornadoes and screwing up the photography, so I was determined to get it right. I had the D700 mounted with the 16-35mm ultra wide and the D90 with the 70-300 telephoto at the ready with Ratty acting as photo assistant. I was also videoing this wall cloud rotating with a compact camera (not HD I'm afraid) when it happened.

I could here Liam saying "it's definitely forming a funnel" and sure enough it did, and it started lowering from a high cloud base to form an absolutely beautiful stove pipe - tornado #3 - but this one was the daddy. It was close by, just over a quarter of a mile away and stunningly photogenic. It wasn't moving left or right but it was gettingbigger - it was heading towards our position on collision course!

We ran back to the van and headed for a safer vantage point squealing with delight. The wind was amazing and the van was hit by a powerful inflow jet. We were now being hit by large hail up to golf ball size as we retreated to a better position filming as we went. Dawn's battery went and I

handed her mine - "keep filming!"

The tornado had been on the ground for 20-25minutes (most are a minute or two) when we lost sight of it. We sped through Keyes, Oklahoma to get out of the precipitation and stopped by a field full of cows - and there was tornado #4 in the distance! We moved on and were able to see the full supercell structure and took some more photos. Incredibly, a white, low contrast, rain wrapped tornado was observed - #5! We also saw some of the guys from Tornadovideos.net (I think this was Dave Holder) but there were no sign of any of the TV celebratory chasers or Vortex 2.

Both Tank and Woody say it was the best tornado they had ever seen as did Liam ("by a country mile"). Brian, who has chased for 14 years puts it in his top 5 and says it is the closest he has been to a tornado. I don't think the other guests realised how lucky they were - 5 tornadoes on their first full day including an absolute beauty. It's easy this storm chasing, it really is just like the film Twister!

Further accounts can be read here, so don't just take my word for it:

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24309

http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

It won't be possible to assign a rating to the main tornado as it didn't damage anything being out in fields. It automatically gets an EF0 rating, but it is likely to be around the EF2 mark, but that is really only speculation. It did behave as a "right mover" starting north east, then east before heading south east.

We were all shattered but buzzing and head to Boise City for a Subway sandwich then drive North and eventually end up in the Blue Spruce Motel in Lamar, Colorado.

What an absolutely incredible day. So much for a "slight risk".

Total miles 415