Nighttime Chase and Pod Deployment

The armada is still in Hays, Kansas, and this is Leora reporting from an indoor poolside, while a group of kids shimmies down a water slide. Josh chose this as the location of our makeshift office. Our team's spirits have lifted considerably following a riveting chase on Thursday night. After spending the greater part of the day at a sweltering gas station waiting for signs of emerging supercells, we heard from Josh that it just wasn't happening. We should get dinner and prepare for a boring stretch of weather. The mood was grim. The DOW drove off, but luckily Justin and Aaron weren't prepared to give up. Hannah, Probe 1 driver, was watching her husband: "I can read Justin's face really well...Justin was getting way frustrated, he wanted to go so bad. It had been days of driving and nothing."

As the sun assumed that disarming evening glow, the junior meteorologists checked their monitors and the sky, radioing back and forth to Josh. Then just before 8:15, Justin announced triumphantly: "OK, it's been tornado-warned." The picture above shows the storm as it appeared from WaKeeney moments before we set off in pursuit.

Our convoy, including most of the production vehicles, bumped along a dirt road with the storm to our north. It was moving east at about 25 miles an hour, flashing frequently. When we passed through the town of Morland, the tornado sirens blared. For Hannah, a newcomer to storm chasing, that was the moment she realized "this is really something, this is really going to happen." It was an isolated storm with a broad mid-level rotation and a clear back-sheared anvil. These are all elements chasers look for in deciding to target a supercell. But the environment was not particularly favorable to tornado genesis because the air was dry and temperatures were dropping.

We reached the intercept road shortly after 10:00 p.m. and executed our first pod deployment. Probe 1, Probe 2 and Scout teams placed a total of 12 pods by the roadside at intervals of about one quarter of a mile. Probe 1 was located closest to the core, with Justin and Hannah getting soaked and taking some hail. The deployment took about 15 minutes--longer than anticipated--but went smoothly overall. "Everything seemed so easy because I was so excited," says Hannah about lowering the 120-pound, unwieldy pods with Justin. She didn't even notice she was knocking her legs against the metal: "I have bruises all over my knees this morning."

Of course, the ultimate question is, did a tornado cross the road? Josh, who focused on the radar scans, hampered by a somewhat dysfunctional antenna, says the peak rotations don't indicate a tornado. Justin and Danny think they spotted a tornadic funnel in a flash of lightning. I caught my breath when I saw a sky-to-earth cloud that looked temptingly like a tornado roping out. But I'm just a beginner. A spotter reported a tornado at our exact location with a time that correlates with our deployment. And that same storm went on to damage a house further to the east that night. So the verdict is still out. Justin hopes the pod data will give some credence to those of us who think we intercepted a tornado.

Comments

[Richard r]

Hi Leora,

Well you might be in luck with a tornado. Is there a minimum size for the DOW to distinguish a tornado? Well with all the probes deployed on a real time chase it proves it can be done. So you have been successful. If you think you are getting me jealous about sitting by the pool and sipping daiquiris its not working. Well maybe a little bit.

Good News when I get back from Iraq next year I will have loads of time off. So if you need a good stills photographer (combat proven fifth tour). I am your man.

I have a technical question for Josh. If a storm is happening with CG lightning how come we never see any lightning going up through a tornado? With all that static electricity and the tornado itself being a natural short we never see any lightning. I was only asking this that volcanoes when producing high speed ash and clouds that hit the ground you get lightning. Hope you understand what I am asking. It confuses me that nothing is happening.

Well hope everything works out ,

Play safe

Rich