I am out on my second chase trip of the season, with a group from Western Kentucky University. Saturday was our second chase day, and it was pretty solid. Below are a couple of pictures of the tornado we saw a few miles southwest of Bowdle, SD. We were on HWY 47, looking north, as the tornado crossed the highway in front of us.
Definitely the most intense motion I have ever seen on a storm. You can see rain, hail, and dust being wrapped around the circulation near the ground in the image above.
It then traveled just north of Bowdle and become an intense "wedge" tornado as our view became obscured by rain. Others, including Walker, managed to slip out ahead of the storm and get some great shots of a very violent tornado. Our path was impeded by downed power poles, sketchy gravel roads, and the caution associated with driving a 15-passenger university van. So, we fell in behind the circulation and watched the intense rain and hail being sucked around the circulation in front of us. Our view of the tornado(es) was shot, but the motion was very impressive (and educational) for the students on the trip.
Our ominous view looking due east ~3 miles WSW of the tornado. You may be able to see that the power lines are hanging a bit low. That is because three of those towers were taken out just to the north of us at this time...it looked like one was bent over near the top and the other two were completely collapsed.
Hail shafts (bright white regions to the left and right of the highway) being wrapped around the circulation. If the road were one mile to the south, we could have shot ahead and had a great view, but we had NO intentions of trying to punch through this nastiness.All in all, a great day for this chase group, and my first good tornado of the year.
2 comments:
Looks pretty boring to me. I'd rather see Delia with a mohawk any day.
Love that anticyclonic motion on the right flank of the RFD. Perfect symmetry. -Walker
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