Chase DetailsMarch 12, 2006 (Eastern Kansas to western Missouri)
Chase Type: Tornado
Chasers: Joel Taylor
Location: Eastern Kansas to western Missouri
Distance: 850 miles
Tornadoes: 0
Max Hail Size: Baseball
Summary
Anticipating a tornado outbreak of historic proportions, we spent the night in Joplin, MO, expecting convective initation early the following afternoon in eastern KS along the dryline. We analyzed a significant amount of model output and observations the next morning and decided to head north to an initial target of Harrisonville, MO, well east of the forecast initation area because of the extremely fast storm motions. At 8 am, the warm front was just south of Joplin, MO, with overcast conditions and temperatures in the 50s. Just south of the front, temperatures sky-rocketed into the mid to upper 60s with sunny skies, and the warm front was quickly lifting north. Supercell thunderstorms had already initiated in northeast KS where temperatures and dewpoints were in the 40s, with a few reported tornadoes. However, given the stable low levels of the atmosphere, we had difficulty believing these reports.
In Harrisonville at around noon, we learned that initiation was imminent along the dryline in eastern KS as skies cleared nicely in the warm sector south of the warm front. Given ample low-level shear (0-1 km SR helicity values of 150-300 m2/s2) over eastern KS, we though that tornado development would occur immediately after the storms became supercellular, so we decided to drive southwest to intercept the storms over ideal stormchasing terrain. We intercepted the storm of the day just south of Chanute, KS, and were in awe at the crisp anvil and textbook flanking line (Fig. 1) A tornado warning was issued shortly after 1 pm for eastern Wilson County. Just east of Chanute, we decided to punch through the hail core and observed a very large wall cloud with minimal low-level rotation (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). After experiencing golf ball-sized hail, we drove at a high rate of speed to stay ahead of this fast-moving supercell. North of Ft. Scott, KS near the MO border, we were faced with the decision of either flying east for a later storm-intercept in MO, or cutting in front of the now rapidly-rotating wall cloud and hopefully heading east before arrival of the damaging hail core. Under-estimating the storm motion, we chose the latter and observed an incredible wall cloud to our west with a tornado appearing imminent (Fig. 4),and then our windshield was destroyed from baseball-sized hail. (Fig. 5).
After having our chase nearly terminated by hail damage, we were able to keep up with the supercell into SW Missouri for another hour before losing ground from bad road options. Just southwest of Sedalia, we had to abandon the storm despite a perfet clear slot and a rapidly rotating wall cloud just to out northeast. We knew a large tornado would likely be produced by this storm, and unfortunately, a reported half-mile wide tornado caused substantial damage to the town of Sedalia just to the northeast. It was clear to us that an essential ingredient for tornadogenesis was missing in eastern KS and extreme west MO during Sunday afternoon, but was defintiely present further east into central MO. We hypothesize that the low-level shear dramatically increased to the north and east where surface winds were much more backed. Also, mixing in the sunny conditions just east of the dryline likely caused the low level shear to deteriorate in eastern KS and western MO until the low-level jet commenced later that evening.
In Harrisonville at around noon, we learned that initiation was imminent along the dryline in eastern KS as skies cleared nicely in the warm sector south of the warm front. Given ample low-level shear (0-1 km SR helicity values of 150-300 m2/s2) over eastern KS, we though that tornado development would occur immediately after the storms became supercellular, so we decided to drive southwest to intercept the storms over ideal stormchasing terrain. We intercepted the storm of the day just south of Chanute, KS, and were in awe at the crisp anvil and textbook flanking line (Fig. 1) A tornado warning was issued shortly after 1 pm for eastern Wilson County. Just east of Chanute, we decided to punch through the hail core and observed a very large wall cloud with minimal low-level rotation (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). After experiencing golf ball-sized hail, we drove at a high rate of speed to stay ahead of this fast-moving supercell. North of Ft. Scott, KS near the MO border, we were faced with the decision of either flying east for a later storm-intercept in MO, or cutting in front of the now rapidly-rotating wall cloud and hopefully heading east before arrival of the damaging hail core. Under-estimating the storm motion, we chose the latter and observed an incredible wall cloud to our west with a tornado appearing imminent (Fig. 4),and then our windshield was destroyed from baseball-sized hail. (Fig. 5).
After having our chase nearly terminated by hail damage, we were able to keep up with the supercell into SW Missouri for another hour before losing ground from bad road options. Just southwest of Sedalia, we had to abandon the storm despite a perfet clear slot and a rapidly rotating wall cloud just to out northeast. We knew a large tornado would likely be produced by this storm, and unfortunately, a reported half-mile wide tornado caused substantial damage to the town of Sedalia just to the northeast. It was clear to us that an essential ingredient for tornadogenesis was missing in eastern KS and extreme west MO during Sunday afternoon, but was defintiely present further east into central MO. We hypothesize that the low-level shear dramatically increased to the north and east where surface winds were much more backed. Also, mixing in the sunny conditions just east of the dryline likely caused the low level shear to deteriorate in eastern KS and western MO until the low-level jet commenced later that evening.
Radar Images
Sorry....no radar images have been uploaded for this chase.General Photos
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Highlight Video
WARNING: This may contain language not suitable for children! Be advised!
hail storm supercell video
The stormchasing team encounters baseball-sized hail from a fast-moving tornadic supercell near the Kansas/Missouri border, that destroys their windshield.
Calendar
Categories
