TIG Storm Chase 2012

The 2012 TIG storm chase was fast out of the gate with the theme being HAIL.  The first day in Kansas the group was treated to a large hail-nado (as Tim calls it) with some 1" hail hitting the vans and a much larger ball in Cawker City.  The next day we traveled south to northern Texas where we saw a nice supercell which produced 23 minutes of continuous hail and some delicious rainbows. Our third day found us in northwest Oklahoma with great storm structure and a few hail stones to two inches.  The group is again targeting northwest Oklahoma for our fourth day of chasing.

Hail Shaft

 Big Ball (Not Hail)

 Real Hail

Bows of Rain

Nice Storm

 Nicer Storm 

WOW Cool Storm

Fire and Ice

Our day started off in Pratt, KS.  We headed to Hutchinson, KS and hung out in a park there for a couple hours.  Storms started to fire to our northwest around 3:00.  We caught up to the storms and got to see some awesome mammatus clouds from the first storm.  We stopped two times just west of Sterling to take pictures with them! 

From Sterling we headed south and found a spot to stop for the next storm near Arlington.  We saw a lot of chasers on the road and one group drove by us yelling "tennis balls"!  The hail markers on radar said 3.5", but it didn't actually get that big.  We ended up seeing hail around golf ball size, the largest we've seen so far!

After the hail, it was tornado time!!  We saw two different tornadoes from the squall line with imbedded supercells.  The first tornado was near Murdock and very straight, long, and skinny.  We only saw it for a little bit before it became rain-wrapped and died.  The second one formed a little south of Murdock.  It was much more defined and impressive.  It had a really strong circulation and was very long-lived.  It lasted at least 15 minutes and kept reforming itself.  There was some debris and dust around the bottom and extending up into the cloud deck so it was easy to see.  We could see it around a wind farm and we later heard that it damaged a blade on one of the wind turbines, but that has not been confirmed yet. 

 

 

 

After those tornadoes, we set up in Danville because we had heard there was another rain-wrapped tornado that was sometimes visible.  We didn't see that one, but we did see some amazing lightning, including some very close to the van.  One nearby strike scared the whole crew and had us piling in the van in less than 10 seconds- record time!  After that we decided we had to move, especially once we started smelling something weird.  It only took a minute to find out what the smell was- the lightning had struck a nearby wheat field and it had caught on fire!  It hadn't spread too much when we drove by and hopefully it was put out by rain soon after.

We headed south from there towards Oklahoma. On our way we happened across a beautiful sunset as the sun dropped below the cloud bases.  We all got out of the van to watch it set, take pictures, and enjoy the beautiful sight before getting back into the van and heading to Perry, Oklahoma.  What a way to end our journey! 

From Canyons to Oz

Wednesday we woke up in Amarillo and went to Palo Duro Canyon.  It is the second largest canyon in the United Sates, after the Grand Canyon.  Its name translates to 'hard wood', after all of the Mesquite trees that are found there.  To quote Georgia O'Keeffe,  "It is a burning, seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color".  It gets as deep as 820 feet in some areas.  We went to the visitor's center to get some information and take pictures from the top of the canyon.  We then got to drive down into the canyon, through water crossings, bushes, cacti, and camping areas.  

After a delicious lunch at Fat Boys (it has its name for a reason), we headed west of Amarillo to Cadillac Ranch.  It is an art exhibit in the middle of a cattle field consisting of 10 Cadillacs stuck halfway into the ground and meant to represent the angle of the Great Pyramid of Giza.  They were moved to their current location in 1997 and the cows seem very happy with the arrangement, as cow pies were prevalent surrounding the sculptures.  There has been graffiti accumulating on the cars since they were set up and we felt the need to add our own contributions: "MSU Storm Chase 2012" and "8 students came to Amarillo to storm chase.  We didn't find any storms, but we did find Cadillac Ranch.".

We went to the famous Big Texan Steakhouse for dinner, home of the free 72 oz. steak.  A total of 5 people attempted it while we were there- and they all failed.  Most of us ended up with  the Man vs. Food special- 18 oz. steak, rolls, baked potato, and salad- that's a lot of food!  Plus 3 deserts around the table.  Everything is bigger in Texas- especially the meals!
This morning we headed north from Amarillo through the panhandles of both Texas and Oklahoma to get to Garden City, Kansas.  Along the way, we stopped in Liberal, KS, the home of Dorothy's House and the World of Oz.  We spent some time playing on the kid's playground before joining a small tour through the house and Oz land!  The tour guide was a young girl who basically reenacted the movie as we moved through a building containing replicas of movie scenes.  We also visited the saddest Subway in the world- we don't recommend that part of the trip.

Storms were developing to our northwest when we left, so we went after them.  We found an area on the edge of a huge wheat field to park and watch the storms move across the area.  The winds were really strong- playing frisbee was impossible.  Evaporative cooling allowed for dense air aloft to descend, creating strong downbursts, which helped create gustnadoes on the leading edge of the downburst.  There were at least 4 or 5 that passed through our area, making the wind even stronger and whipping dust around the area and eventually mixing with very cold rain.  While the storms were shallow with high-bases and low-tops, they were prolific wind producers.  The Radar image below shows numerous fine-lines indicating horizontal rolls.  These horizontal tubes can be pushed into the vertical with strong outflow winds creating brief gustnadoes as seen below.

We managed to get on the other side of the storm so we had a great view of the lightning as the storm passed us again.

West Texas Chill

After waking to a cold rain in Roswell, NM the group heading south to the Big Bend region of Texas.  The rain and storms migrated south as well crushing the warm sector, which we hoped would bring us a shot, albeit small, for a tornado.  The shear was good, but the cold air won the battle reducing the low-level instability.  A couple of small storms made their way to our area, but quickly collapsed.  The decay stage of the storm below, did provide us with 10 minutes of small hail, and some nice views as it moved through the mountains.

Underground, Under Hail

Today we were in a slight risk for most of the immediate area (Roswell, NM).  There was a 2% chance for tornadoes, 15% for hail, and 15% for wind.  Storms were not expected to begin until the afternoon, so we went south to Carlsbad Caverns to occupy the morning.

The area leading up to the park was breathtaking and huge.  The caverns were over 700 feet below the surface and it took about a minute to get down to the caverns in the elevators.  The caverns were most active during the last Ice Age when New Mexico was a rainforest.  The walk around the caverns was about 2 miles long.  We saw many types of rock formations including stalagmites, stalactites, a 'bottomless pit', soda straws, and gypsum rocks.  Many were formed from hydrogen sulfide and are still growing to this day.  It takes about 8 minutes for rain water to get from the surface into the caverns, but New Mexico is not know for its heavy rainfall.

On our way out of the national park, we passed a tarantula on the road.  However, it was not a tarantula for long.  Just seconds after this picture was taken, its life was tragically ended due to homicide by car.  This caused a rather long stretch of screaming/squealing/'poor thing' from most of the girls.

After we left the park,  we headed north again to see if we could catch some storms.  Since it was still early, we stopped at a park so we could wait to see where we would need to go.  The boys played some weird golf game, trying to get the ball as close to possible to two of the trashcans in the area.  Dr. Brown won, but at the expense of many golf balls.  Once we saw a severe thunderstorm warning come up, it was time to leave!

We headed to an area west of Roswell.  We stopped on the side of the highway so we could see the storm form as it came over the mountains.  We could see the updrafts and a shelf cloud developing and the area dividing the rain and hail.  Then the rain-cooled air began to develop a roll cloud.  Renny got a timelapse of the storm (below) before we left.

Once it started raining there, we left in search of a better angle.  We pulled off on a road that led to the Roswell Correctional Facility a little farther south.  There we had a great view of the self cloud approaching and the lighting.  Dr. Brown got an awesome timelapse of the shelf cloud as it approached (below).

We wanted to get to see some hail today, so we left to try to get to an area where we could experience some!  We ended up farther south, closer to Artesia.  The storm we were chasing had hail markers of 1.5", so we were very hopeful about seeing some hail- and we did!  It was not quite 1.5", but it was still bigger than anything we'd seen so far, mostly near quarter size, and accumulated rather quickly.  We were parked in front of a house and we could see the hail build on their roof, lawn, and driveway.  The road and field across the street were also covered in hail!

The possible highlight of our day was Toto! As the hail began to fall, Barrett happened to see a small dog moving through the storm and getting hit by hail right before it took shelter under our van. We were very concerned about the dog because of the heavy rail, hail, and high winds.  As soon as the hail stopped, Barrett hopped out of the van and got him to come out from under the van.  He took the dog (who we named Toto) up to the house we were parked in front of, but they said the dog did not belong to them and they didn't recognize him so Barrett brought him back to the van to get out of the rain and cold.  Toto was so wet and cold!  We tried to dry him off with some paper towels, but he was shivering so badly!  We ended up zipping him up in Jessica's jacket to try to warm him up.  We drove in the direction Toto had come from and pulled into a house.  Barrett and Jessica took Toto up and talked to the people who lived there.  They did not know Toto either, but they offered to take him and ask the neighbors and take him to the local vet if no one claimed him since we were not from the area.  We were very sad we could not keep him as our mascot, but hopefully they can help find his family!

Day 1 Recap (Tornado!)

Video of Storm 1 Rotation

Yesterday we got to see more than expected.  After leaving Houston, we got caught behind both a State Trooper and Construction truck that slowed us down a little as we headed towards the San Antonio area.  However, if not for these occurrences, we may have missed the elusive tornado.  The first storm that we arrived at was just north of Three Rivers, TX.  Immediately, we could tell that it had great rotation.  Within minutes, it began dropping several different funnel clouds and shortly after, a brief tornado appeared!  For most of us, this was our first tornado that we have seen.  As the storm got closer, we decided to re-position ourselves so we could stay with this storm.  At our second location, we could see more funnel clouds, and possibly a few more tornadoes, but they were difficult to see because trees they were somewhat rain-wrapped.

Group with Storm 1

Panoramic of Storm 1

Group in Front of Tornado (look close for debris on ground)

We let the first storm go after this because there were more storms coming along behind the first one on what appeared to be on the moisture boundary.  We were heading back to the original location that we saw the first storm, but found a better viewing location along the way so we stopped.  While this storm looked equally as impressive, it did not produce any tornadoes however, it was an impressive site with some incredible lightning.

Storm 2

After the second storm we headed to Beeville, TX.  Here, we watched two supercells merged into each other to form a small MCS.  This only lasted for a brief moment before they separated and became supercells again. Due to the general lack of rotation of these storms with some small hail possible, we decided to let the storm fly over us so we could see the inside of a supercell's structure.

Beeville Storm

After about 30 minutes, we decided to call it a day and head towards our stopping point for the night in Victoria, TX.  While on the road, we passed through a section of Bee County that was experiencing some mild flash flooding.

When we got to our hotel and settled in, the storms were not over.  After a few minutes, we experienced more hail at our hotel.  It was only a little larger than pea size, but it was enough for us to scoop up in our hands and get our pictures taken.  All in all, this was an incredible first day of chasing.  After hearing other chasing stories, it has really been a humbling experience to know that what happened to us today is a rare experience.  With that, we are looking forward to the rest of the chase!  Will post more soon.

Hail at Hotel!

Shelf Cloud Time Lapse

Yesterday was a fantastic day.  There is more coming on that later.

Here is a time lapse of a shelf cloud, one of many storms we saw yesterday.

Storm Chase 2012

Two instructors and eight students left MSU on May 9th to begin the search for storms and hopefully tornadoes.  The students were cautioned that the models do not look good (at least for the first week) in terms of developing a well forecast area of severe storms.  We headed to southeastern Texas in hopes of chasing tomorrow in southern Texas.  While the atmosphere appears marginal for severe storms, there will be a surface front and some mid- and upper-level winds.  In fact, the late afternoon time-frame shows some impressive shear.  We are cautiously hopeful as we begin our journey.

A portion of our trip through southern Louisiana