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April 11, 2005 ne KS Supercell

Busted by staying home the day before so was sure not to miss "the day after". Congrats to all who bagged tubes the day before in nw KS. This is shortly after noon somewhere north of Manhatten KS. I'm targeting the surface low and am basically just ne of it. These little towers struggle for a long time before congealing into one decent storm....though multicellular at first and rather unorganized for a long time. I met up with Amos while trying to chase the core on xm somewhere near Greenleaf KS(near Waterville I think). It was really hard telling where the updraft base was. It amazed me how hard it was at first to figure out what was doing what with goofy wnw storm movements. Finally the one storm we'd been on turns right a bit and goes straight north. We race back east and then go north on 148 north of Barnes KS. We were in Washington Co. KS for the duration of this chase.

Here is the intersection of 36 and 148 looking northwest at our storm getting extremely interesting. There really was no structure until this point. It had a really low wall cloud and a nice beavertail stretching north.

We keep going north on 148 and pull over just ne of this awesome rotation. I'd have to say this is the closest thing to tornadoing without doing so I've ever seen. I'd of bet the house on it tornadoing at the time.

It rotates on and on and occludes and rapidly goes back to look like crap mode.

We move north some more and man did a new very low base form fast to the north of the old one.

Looking south down 148 at the long beavertail going nw.

South from the same spot at the updraft base. Rapid motions to the sw in the beavertail. It is raining on me in this shot so I leave to get north and more east.

A few miles northeast of where I was, now just into NE s of Beatrice. Amos can be seen here looking west with the long beavertail behind him. We met up with Jon Garner and his chase partner for the second time here on this road. We crept east as it approached from the sw. This thing wanted to get new areas of rotation on the far eastern flank, a bit ne of the old ones.

Well when it gets to us something crazy happens as we are standing on the gravel road. First off we had been in strong very cold north winds all the while on this e-w gravel road in NE(on the border more or less). The kind of cold north winds you don't expect anything to stop. All the sudden they slow up and start coming from the south. We all noted this as we stood there sort of being wow'd how those strong n winds just let up. Then the south winds stopped. We had just been watching an area of rotation to our south but it looked to have lost its organization. At the same time we noticed this, crazy motion in the field to our sw comes racing ne at us. The crops in the field were being pushed down violently as the whole thing rotated right at us(30-40 yards away?). We wow'd loudly for a brief second at the motion it was making in the field and then BAM. It hit us really dang hard sending gravel flying horizontally at us. I don't know what the winds were but they were the strongest I've ever been in. I'm glad I was close to my car and the door was open as it kept me from blowing by. The car was facing east and that was the way the wind was blowing and all the sand was going right off my door and into the car. It only lasted up to 10 seconds and then it dropped all the way back off. It was some vortex and we couldn't of been standing in a "better" spot. On the way home I figured out what description would be good for it. The noise and feel of the sand reminded me of the dillo cam video. We were human dillo cams I think, lol. It is just too bad none of us had the cams in our hands when it happened and no one has an anemometer on their vehicles.

A few weeks back there was a strong system and I was "chasing" sleet showers at my parents. I was trying to do timelapse of them. This day there were a number of reports from surrounding towns of wind gusts to 58-62 mph. I was out in it for quite a while and it stung a bit when it was sleeting with it. Well, these winds on this chase felt much much higher than those that day. It hit so fast and ramped up so quickly it left you thinking, "whoa whoa"....wondering how high it is going to peak...then bam it was gone. It woke the 4 of us up and was really fun. We stopped a mile or so after that and get out again and everyone is taking the sand out of their hair. I imagine it takes a decent wind to lift gravel and sand up off the road. It wasn't just lifting it, it was driving it so hard, it is hard to explain. It was high enough I'm not sure any of us got into our vehicles. I managed to get my head in and on the seat but must have not felt safe enough to lift a leg up. I don't know. I remember wanting in, but it was making sense to just lean up against the open door with the head in. It was stay low type of wind, lol. I guess Amos just dropped down, grabbed his truck and shielded his face. I didn't see anything that was happening but my car seat. Now I will wonder what exactly that was forever.

Amos has a great account of what happened here: Shane Adams was also on this storm and has a great account from just a couple miles north of us when the vortex happened. It was a really fun day and nice seeing fellow chasers out on the road. This was yet one more storm Shane and I were both on and never see each other.

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Busted by staying home the day before so was sure not to miss "the day after". Congrats to all who bagged tubes the day before in nw KS. This is shortly after noon somewhere north of Manhatten KS. I'm targeting the surface low and am basically just ne of it. These little towers struggle for a long time before congealing into one decent storm....though multicellular at first and rather unorganized for a long time. I met up with Amos while trying to chase the core on xm somewhere near Greenleaf KS(near Waterville I think). It was really hard telling where the updraft base was. It amazed me how hard it was at first to figure out what was doing what with goofy wnw storm movements. Finally the one storm we'd been on turns right a bit and goes straight north. We race back east and then go north on 148 north of Barnes KS. We were in Washington Co. KS for the duration of this chase.
Here is the intersection of 36 and 148 looking northwest at our storm getting extremely interesting. There really was no structure until this point. It had a really low wall cloud and a nice beavertail stretching north.
We keep going north on 148 and pull over just ne of this awesome rotation. I'd have to say this is the closest thing to tornadoing without doing so I've ever seen. I'd of bet the house on it tornadoing at the time.
It rotates on and on and occludes and rapidly goes back to look like crap mode.
We move north some more and man did a new very low base form fast to the north of the old one.
Looking south down 148 at the long beavertail going nw.
South from the same spot at the updraft base. Rapid motions to the sw in the beavertail. It is raining on me in this shot so I leave to get north and more east.
A few miles northeast of where I was, now just into NE s of Beatrice. Amos can be seen here looking west with the long beavertail behind him. We met up with Jon Garner and his chase partner for the second time here on this road. We crept east as it approached from the sw. This thing wanted to get new areas of rotation on the far eastern flank, a bit ne of the old ones.