Omaha Tornado Chaser: July 2008

This wasn't an actual "chase" for me as it literally happened in my own backyard. When I was maybe 10 years old or so, there was a tornado that actually touched down in Pierre, SD where i lived at the time. That was the last time a tornado touched down in a town i lived in until this event. The main severe weather event was expected to occur during the day of June 7th when there was a moderate risk most of the day and a tornado watch was issued at 430 pm. Nothing really materialized despite the attempts of the many cumulus clouds that filled the sky early in the evening.

towering cumulus trying to develop around 6pm

more towers going up

After nothing really got going all evening, storms developed out in western and central nebraska and began moving east across the state. The SPC changed the tornado watch to a severe thunderstorm watch at midnight. I was up late watching the storms move across the state and right as they got to western douglas county, they weakened and the warnings were discontinued. It was after 2 am so i went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. A few minutes later i was brushing my teeth and the lights in the bathroom were flickering. i figured it was just the storm blowing through with some gusty winds and didn't think anything of it. As soon as i walked out of the bathroom though i could hear the intense roaring of the winds and my weather radio was going off. i immediately ran over to the back windows to see what was going on. There was intense rain and winds that i estimated at 70+ mph. i grabbed my video camera and went down to the front door. What i'll always remember is that everytime the lightning would flash it was eerily green outside. About 5 minutes after the radio went off for the severe tstorm warning, it went off again this time for a tornado warning. I called sarah who was over at her sisters dog sitting to tell her to get in the basement and then i turned to the local tv station to see what was going on. they began to come in with reports of damage in the millard area, which is where i live. soon there was reports of an actual sighting of a tornado or funnel in the area as well. After the storm passed i went to bed. The next day sarah and i went out to take some pics and video. most of it ended up being video so there wasn't many pics that i could include. the biggest area of damage was blocked off so we couldn't get any pics from there. the day after the nws came out with their damage survey and path. the path literally went within a couple of blocks of us just on the east side of 132nd street! what was also "disturbing" was that the tornado was on the ground almost 10 minutes before a tornado warning was issued. a severe tstorm warning was first issued for the storm. then a couple of days later they came out with an updated report that said there was a 2nd tornado that moved across the area. this tornado literally went over the top of our house!!!! it then met up with the other tornado a couple of blocks away from our house!! so while i was looking out the front door, a tornado passed right over the top of me!! scary!!!! i've included the links of the surveys(you might have to scroll down a bit to see the info on the links):
1st survey:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=14378&source=2

2nd survey:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=14377&source=2

large tree branch on cars

map of stongest tornado path that just missed our house

map of both tornado paths. the top path is the tornado that passed directly over our house. we're right to the left of where they meet

I called this post a "Tornadofest", because that's exactly what it was. Over the 2 day period there were over 100 reports of tornadoes in the central plains of the U.S. and most of those were in Kansas. Prior to this chase I had yet to see a tornado in my lifetime, and after this chase I might have(probably) seen one and only one, despite the massive tornado outbreak that occurred. So while I was excited to maybe(probably) have seen my first tornado, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that I didn't see more! It was a series of bad events and bad luck especially on Friday that caused me to miss everything. Alright back to the chase! I had watched the computer models and discussion pages and they all pointed to a major severe weather outbreak with an early spring like weather storm coming across the Plains. I decided to make it a 2 day chase in the same area, since neither day necessarily looked better or worse than the other and they both looked amazing! I made a hotel reservation in Hays, KS and made my way down there on Thursday afternoon. I arrived around 5 to check in and looked at the computer and immediately saw a tornado warned storm heading north for I-70 about 50 miles west of Hays. I headed west and found an exit east of the storm looking back to the west. I was one of the first couple of cars there, and eventually the whole exit on either side filled up with mainly storm chasers. Eventually the DOW showed up but no TIV?! This storm was a beast and the inflow into was amazing. I would say easily 50 mph winds sustained as the storm moved south to north in front of me less than 5 miles away. There was tornado reported on the ground all the way to the interstate just south of Collyer, KS. I believe I saw a tornado a few times in the video I recorded but the supercell was so HP and the wall cloud with it was basically on the ground that it made it hard to see anything. I watched this storm move north across the interstate and slowly weaken. I thought there might be a chance of strengthening again with the warm front in the area so I decided to jet back to Wakeeney so I could head north on Hwy 283 towards Hill City, KS. I never saw anything else with this storm and soon my weather radio went off again, this time there was a tornadic cell heading towards Wakeeney. Here's the deal with the roads in northwest and northcentral Kansas, for every 5 or so exits off of I-70, there might be one that is actually for a paved road. Heavy rain, gravel roads, and tornado chasing do not make a good combo, especially with driving a car without 4 wheel drive. So my only option that i saw on the map was to fly back to Wakeeney and I-70 to try and get east of the storm. As I got closer to the interstate the lightning was more and more intense. It was after 9 at this point so it was dark out, especially with the storms. Each lightning strike was so sharp and a single bolt that seemed to hit the earth every time. It was probably the most intense lightning I had ever seen! Just as I made it back to town and the interstate I started to get hit by hail and rain. Luckily the hail was nickels or so. I shot east on the interstate and found the next closest exit so i could look back at the storm. I couldn't see much with darkness and the reports soon said the tornado had lifted. I headed back to my hotel room in Hays and took a look at the computer models again for the next day. I was awoken to the power going out at the hotel at around 530 in the morning. An intense cell with hail and crazy lightning was moving through Hays and lightning had hit something to knock out the power. I thought this is a good sign for the day! Friday i awoke and knew i had some time to kill before the storms were supposed to fire later in the afternoon. I looked at some of the storm reports and saw that a tornado did indeed hit Wakeeney and caused some damage to the airport and the northeast part of town. I went over to Wakeeney and drove around and took some pics that i've included below. It was now around 1230 or so and I had a dilema. I could eat at the cafe in Wakeeney and have some breakfast or I could just catch some fast food. I decided to eat at the cafe. It was there that I met some nice guys that were from Indiana and Colorado(i believe) and they told me their good luck from the day before. The cafe had great food but unfortunately was a little slow for service. During my lunch the low clouds and fog that had stuck around cleared and the temps immediately shot up into the 80s. I thought this is great, and looked out to the south and could already see the towers going up. Now here's where it all goes downhill!! I decided to leave and head south out of Wakeeney probably around 2. Not even 2 miles down the road i blew a fuse for my cig lighter. I need the cig lighter for my equipment so i had to decide whether to keep going south to the next town and maybe catch up with the guys i talked to at the cafe who had just driven by, or go back to the Wakeeney. I decided to go back and after trying the gas station i had to find an auto parts store. Its amazing how hard it is to find a store in such a small town! SO probably after an hour delay i got back on the road. there were already warnings for storms south and west of me and so against my better judgement i decided to start heading west after going south for a while to intercept. this forced me to take gravel roads. the roads were fine at first but got muddier the further west i went as i headed into areas where heavy rain had fallen the night before. finally i figured i should get back to the interstate before i get stuck and just wait for the storms to come to me. i came to a "T" in the road just south of the interstate and thought i could go west just a little bit more to find a road that would meet the interstate. this only led me under the interstate!! i saw a road that went back to the east that i got on, but this road was actually a drive that lead to a farmstead. this road was pure muck and soon i was sliding all over the place. the road curved around towards the farm so i had to slow down and immediately became stuck. i tried and tried to get out of the mud, but after 15 minutes i was only deeper in the mud. i was beginning to panic bc i knew the storms were coming and even though i was only several hundred feet from the interstate i had no cell service! i began to run around the farm sheds and buildings desperately looking for something to help me get unstuck. eventually i found 4 pieces of wood fencing that i stuck under my car and tires that allowed me to get traction. so at least an hour later i was finally back on the road. come to find out while i was stuck in the mud, the first Quinter tornado had crossed the interstate roughly 15 miles west of where i was!! i decided to head back to Wakeeney and then south to Ness City where there was a huge sup heading north. I arrived in plenty of time waiting to see a tornado, but it never produced(while i was on it anyways). After the storm passed just north of Ness City, i sat there for a while taking pictures and just hanging out. i woud regret this decision of not staying on the storm! soon after passing Ness City the storm started to drop tornadoes. somehow i never caught up with the storm, mainly due to indecisions on my part. at one point there was several reports of a large tornado that almost seemed to be stationary by the Cedar Bluff Rec area. I was heading that way when i ran into the TIV crew near the city of Brownell south of the rec area. i stopped thinking if they are just hanging out here the tornao must have lifted. i was wrong! the tornado was still on the ground and now heading towards ellis, ks. i wasted like 20 minutes sitting there!!! a second storm was now developing back to the southwest, but i decided to try and still catch up with the tornado that was nearing ellis. Again bad luck struck as somehow i missed my turn on the highway and it took me 30 miles out of my way. i made it back to hays, and then near ellis just in time to watch the 2nd storm approach ellis and hear of reports that this also produced a tornado by the cedar bluff rec area. i met a nice man who was actually from omaha and we chatted for a while. i had to drive home yet so i headed back to Hays to fuel up. There i ran into one of the guys that i met back at the cafe earlier in the day. He told me of the multivortex tornado they saw near Shields, KS earlier in the afternoon(that's where i was headed before my fuse problem). how cool would have that been to see a tornado there?! my last name is Shields. i left Hays slightly aggravated and made it back to omaha around 4 a.m. What a trip!

Mammatus clouds heading towards the first supercell

check out the inflow on the storm! this is dust being blown into the storm from a couple of miles away!

wallcloud coming into view. there's supposedly a tornado on the ground somewhere in there!! (sorry about the spots on the pic, don't know why those were on there! probably from the blowing dust)