Tornado Camp

We have officially ended the 2008 season with the Texas Tech.  The last few days of chasing (around June 4-6) we spent most of our time in Northern Nebraska and Iowa (before the severe flooding hit the area).  We did not have much success during these few days.  We only saw about 2 to 4 mesocyclones and no tornadoes.  Most of the cells on the storms in these areas that were chased had reports of tornadoes, but these cells were difficult to get to with the abundance of small cells and heavy rains that appeared with these storms.

On June 7th, Paul, Jen and myself left the group to head back to Ann Arbor.  Kim and Joe stayed out with the team an extra few days as they traveled back south, but I do not believe the team had much luck deploying on any more storms.

So the final count of tornadoes seen is 4 for the season.  It was a very successful season from both the mesonet and sticknet point of view.  Sticknets were able to collect some great data and it will be interesting to see what conclusions they can draw from that data and hopefully they can “advance the science.”  From my perspective, my knowledge of forecasting has grown exponentially over this trip.  I look forward to using these skills I have developed in the future, and to next season when VORTEX 2 takes place.

On our last deployment, we had to do some re-arranging do to some personnel shifts therefore I volunteered to switch from my position as the driver Mobile MesoNet 2 to a helper in StickNet 3. The switch occurred the evening of May 24. As we deployed back to south-central Kansas the next day, I was prepped on my new duties in deploying the instrumentation. I also was briefed on the experimental plan and ideal behind StickNet. StickNet, for those who are unaware, is a stationary data collection system devised by Chris Weiss at Texas Tech University. They are comprised with wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure and GPS instruments.

Our deployment turned out to be a good learning experience all around. We ended up having to wait out a couple storms to verify if they were going to be a viable target. After we were given the go-ahead, StickNet 3 deployed north to south every 2 miles in order to create the corse array. Once the deployment was complete it was soon realized that our system was quickly transitioning into a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS). These systems carry heavy precipitation and can be long lasting. Since the original target was already dispersed, StickNet decided to travel back into the MCS to retrieve our instruments.

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the other side of our project. Mobile MesoNets are full of action and can get into some interesting positions relative to the mesocyclone, however StickNet carries the stationary aspect of the project. It takes a greater amount of forecasting skill to properly place the corse and fine arrays in order for the mesocyclone to pass directly through it. I, unfortunately, have recently switched back to the mobile Mobile MesoNets due to another personnel shift. Through all my experience interacting with the personnel in StickNet, I hope to bring a lot more experience and an overall sense of purpose back to the Mobile MesoNets.

On our last chasing trip, we made a stop in Greensburg, KS to see what the town was like a year after the tornado from last year. I took some pictures from that visit to share, enjoy!

Greensburg, KS on 25 May 2008.

Matt Onerlinde and Joe Merchant in Greensburg.

Mesonet in Greensburg, KS.

Greensburg, KS. Kim Billmaier took the picture.

To the east of Greensburg, there was an interesting cell that we could see over a field.

Last night we had thought that there might be a small chance for us to deploy today, but a lack of moisture in our target region has greatly limited us. Even though it appears there will be convection in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa sometime today, budget constraints and a lack of targets in that region tomorrow have left us in Lubbock for the day. This will give us an opportunity to go after better targets for a more extended period of time later on in the project.That being said, I have some pictures from the first few weeks that I thought were interesting. Hope you enjoy them!!!

This photo of the meso was taken on one of our first days in the field, near Eden, TX on May 13th, 2008.

This picture of Professor Samson was taken outside of Dighton, KS as he was taking pictures of the various clouds around us. Credit goes to Brad Charboneau for dubbing this the “Perry-Dog.”

This is a picture of the sunset roughly 15 miles north of Greensburg, KS on May 25th. There was some late afternoon convection occurring, although we did not go after any cells.

This is a picture of a RFD spin up we saw on May 25th north of Bison, KS. Although it’s not terribly evident in the photo, the dust being kicked up on the ground was more pronounced than shown here.

We finally got back into Lubbock early Tuesday morning after being out on the road for around 6 days. We spent most of that time in WaKeeney, KS. One day we did go up to Nebraska, but that day turned out to be a bust due to little forcing mechanisms and a decent cap on the atmosphere. It was fine though, cause it gave us a nice day to relax after two busy days of chasing before that. On Sunday, we returned to the Western Kansas for some more chasing. We were able to see one tornado just outside of Bison, KS. It was on the ground for about one minute, and appeared to do little damage. After that we were close enough to Greensburg, KS that we stopped by to see how the town was recovering from the massive tornado that had caused a great deal of damage there just one year before. The town had made some progress in rebuilding, but sadly some areas still looked like a tornado had just blown through the night before. It was really a humbling experience and puts into perspective of why we are out here watching these storms. It is not to see the power of mother nature, but rather to study these storms and try to learn how to better warn and protect people.
That night we stayed in Dodge City and set out the next day back to Lubbock. On the way back a super cell just outside of Mangum, OK and decided to chase it. We did not see any tornadoes formed, but we were able to see an impressive wall cloud with some amazing lightning that started a few field fires. After that we made it back to Lubbock for a well earned day off.

This is a picture of a wall cloud around Ness City, KS. This cell did not produce a tornado, but you can begin to see the hail core, which is the greenish/blue color seen in the clouds.

The previous two pictures are both wall clouds from another storm in Kansas (I apologize for not remembering where this cell was) on 5/22.

Sunset over Greensburg, KS on May 25 looking at a line of storms just off to the east.