Storm Chase Update #4

On Sunday, we decided not to chase storm clusters in Oklahoma, and we made our way down to Garden City, KS (from Lexington, NE) in preparation for another southeast CO chase day on Monday. Our initial target was Springfield, CO again, which was just 2 hours away.

We arrived in Springfield around 2pm, and there were already a couple of small, weak thunderstorms west of town. As we slowly approached them on dirt roads, one began producing multiple little funnels.

Still a long way to go if you want to become a tornado.

We were so hesitant to let the funneling storm out of our sight that we waited right up until the last minute before the core of the southern storm pounded us with hail before seeking cover in the town of Pritchett. We found a car port covering an old RV, and there was just enough room for our van to get under.

The group huddled between the RV and the abandoned building as we tried to avoid the golf balls falling around us.

The two cells merged to our west, and then immediately began moving toward the southeast. This meant we were in the hail core for ~15 minutes. Right before the rain and hail totally obscured our line of sight, this is the view we had of the forming tornado (just to the left of the road sign) 5 miles to our southwest. Reports from other chasers (including Walker) confirm this was on the ground despite a condensation funnel only halfway down. This is also when the tornado sirens began blaring in Pritchett. We knew we were safe, but we were frustrated to lose our view of the funnel. It was still a ton of fun. Notice the hail stones falling (look like spots on the lens) and bouncing in the grass.

Once the golf balls became peas, we boogied back to Springfield so we could head south on 287 and get ahead of the storm. Of course, while we were doing this, the storm apparently produced a nice cigar-shaped tornado with a long, ropey satellite tornado. By the time we caught back up, it was producing funnel after funnel, but nothing would touch down.

So close.

Lots of motion as it produced wall clouds and funnels galore.

For the next hour, we traversed the grid of gravel roads through Comanche National Grassland as the cell drifted toward the southeast. The whole time, little to no precipitation fell on the southwest side of the storm. So, we stayed on the backside of the circulation in hopes of a white, sun-lit funnel...an ideal goal of many on the trip the whole time. Then, just as we crossed into the Oklahoma panhandle on a very primitive, open-range road, the wall cloud started to look very good. Within seconds of stopping the van, we were treated to this tornado with nobody else anywhere in sight (though several chasers were near the tornado on HWY 287).

No color enhancement here. Bright sun lighting up the grassland and the funnel.

Almost as fun as whiffle ball on the roof at UGA.

The whole WKU group. I have a feeling this will be on a flier advertising next year's trip.

Our tired, dirty van. Doors open because of the excited rush of people leaving it...AND to let some of the funk air out.

About 5 miles to our northeast as the tornado crosses HWY 287 south of Campo, CO. This tornado was on the ground for ~13 minutes, by our account.

Reports from other chasers vary on this, but our perspective showed that the first tornado lifted to the point of having no funnel at all. Then, ~6-8 minutes later, it touched down again.

After lifting again, this nearly rain-blocked view shows the third tornado within the last 20 minutes. This was visible for only a couple of minutes and we never saw it lift...just hid by precipitation.

At this point, our road options became troublesome as we took a gamble on some dirt roads that were dead ends despite all of our maps saying otherwise. This put us in poor viewing position for about 15 or 20 minutes. We eventually got back in front of the storm to see a tornado already on the ground.

Definitely the final tornado of the day, this may have been on the ground continuously since the previous photo or it could be #4 over the last hour. Either way, other chaser reports confirm that this was a relatively long-lived tornado. In fact, some say it was on the ground continuously for over 30 minutes, and that only 1 or 2 tornadoes were produced during the last hour of fun. Certainly possible, but we disagree based on our view of at least 2 tornadoes dissipating rather than just being blocked by precipitation.

Beautifully-structured supercell now very near Keyes, OK

GIF animation of the storm moving away from us just after sunset. It is still rotating rapidly, but no other tornadoes were reported as we slipped and slid along some sloppy dirt roads on our way down to Amarillo for the night.

A wonderful end to our chase trip as we saw somewhere between 3 and 5 tornadoes with virtually non-existent chaser convergence. We will begin making our way home today, with some sight-seeing stops in Amarillo and Oklahoma City along the way.