Here is a teaser, Scandia, Kansas tornado
Within the JWSevereWeather organization, we
have the ongoing perk of constant communication among other members and weather lovers. Imagine
that, a team that communicates! Seriously though, communication with other like minded storm chasers is
so incredibly helpful when trying to decide where to go on a chase day. We had been talking back and forth quite a bit on the days leading up to May 6th. Initially, it was enough of a setup to keep me from sleeping. The choice was very, very difficult. I posted
this in our forecast discussion before the sun had risen, the morning of May 6th, the day that over verified.
“At
this point I think it's more promising in Kansas. I may be wrong though because
the environment is also favorable in Oklahoma... just seems like things will
have a hard time getting going. Looking forward to the HRRR... I will be
leaving in 2 1/2 hours, any thoughts put in here before then will be
appreciated. (if you are awake... I'm a freak, can't sleep.)”
I
was currently located in Joplin, Missouri. I wasn't able to sleep that night so I woke up early, and hit the models and chat. I wanted to make a decision soon, and
stick with it. The environment over Oklahoma was favorable for explosive storms
that would surely produce, IF they formed. I personally did not think they
would form. There was a very strong cap in place. But I also knew I would
likely regret it if they did form. The environment in north central Kansas was
painting the picture of some possibly strong, isolated supercells that
could potentially produce very large hail and in the evening, a couple strong
tornadoes with the strengthening low level jet. This seemed like a more certain
bet to take. Here are the infamous words that I believe served to push me to the
North and further reinforcing my gut feeling.
“So, you
play north, probably win. You play more south, could be bigger and more
violent, but far higher potential to bust too. Choose wisely. You guys know
what to do.” - Jesse Walters
You may also be asking this question. Why is
Ben deciding to write about this event now, isn’t it a bit late? Honestly, life
does not present enough hours in the day. I’m sure anyone can relate. It is not
until now that I feel I could sit down and make time to write about my storm
chasing ventures. (Currently, I am enjoying a week off, recovering from
reconstructive ACL surgery.) I’m sure I could get better at time management,
and I plan to. I am open to advice! But recently starting a new management job, it has been interesting figuring out how to balance everything. Now back to May 6th!
So, before embarking on the long journey, I ventured to Walmart to pick up some velcro, then starbucks for some happy juice. Then, the long rainy drive began.
Ethan
Mulnix was also planning on chasing that day, but he had not yet made a
decision on where to go. He was currently positioned in South Central Kansas, which was a good spot given the environment. When the mid-day Storm Prediction Center
discussion came out, they had given the north central part of Kansas a 10% for tornadoes,
which solidified his decision to chase in Kansas. So, our targets were picked.
I chose the target of Hutchinson. Around 2pm CDT, the first storm had developed SW of Oklahoma City, which made me me think perhaps I had made the wrong decision. Shortly after that however, another storm initiated well to my north, but I figured I would try and catch it. After nearly 2 hours of trying to catch up to it, I gave up. It did produce a large confirmed tornado, but still well to my north. At that point however, some new storms had developed to my south and west. One of them Ethan was chasing, and we were able to meet up and chase this storm convoy style. His particular storm was still isolated, and was in a great environment. We met up in the town of Brooksville Kansas, and chased it together until Interstate 70. At this point the storm had some good structure, but was moving north over a network of muddy roads. Not worth it, we decided to go around to Interstate 81 and head north to try and get ahead of it, then cut over again to the west. After hours of driving with no real reward, and seeing what was happening in Oklahoma, (terrifying storm, incredible radar signature, and historical flash flooding) we were about to give up on our cell. Especially because to our immediate south there was now another tornado warned storm that looked promising. But our current storm still did show some signs of strengthening as we pulled into Concordia Kansas around 5pm CDT. Ethan and I decided to take Highway 28 over to Jamestown to intercept the storm again. This time, it paid off. The storm went tornado warned at 5:06pm CDT, and we were in great position. At about 5:15pm CDT we could confirm a tornado touchdown.
Courtesy of Robert Hoff and Radarscope
Courtesy of Ethan Mulnix
Taken by Benjamin Jurkovich (not the best picture ever, sorry)
On that day, I was essentially navigating, driving, looking at radar, and trying the film what I could. I did not have a chasing partner in the vehicle with me. The photos I did manage to grab, were frankly not the best ever. But this photo is evidence of a tornado at the time of 5:22pm CDT. From here on out, everything was documented pretty thoroughly with video. This tornado was later rated an EF2, and it did manage to miss the town of Scandia just barely. After a very frustrating day, of being in seemingly the wrong spot all day, this storm was a turning point. We are very thankful that we were able to report what we were seeing the media and the NWS and that no one lost their lives in this storm.
Courtesy of Robert Hoff
After this storm went by Scandia, I then had to go and grab gas. About an hour later I witnessed another tornado near Clyde, Kansas. I then worked on getting out of the way of a line of storms that had formed. I eventually made it back to Salina to get a room and edit some video. Don't mind the title on my video, silly editing mistake. But do enjoy the footage.
Here is the link to my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R91A17T54g
Here are the links to Ethan Mulnix's videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gSDuCsmhCo
Here is the official report written by the Topeka NWS, which matches up exactly with what we witnessed.
.TORNADO #4 LONGER TRACK TORNADO...
RATING: EF-2
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 130 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 25 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: 800 YARDS
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0
ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 130 MPH
PATH LENGTH /STATUTE/: 25 MILES
PATH WIDTH /MAXIMUM/: 800 YARDS
FATALITIES: 0
INJURIES: 0
START DATE: MAY 6TH 2015
START TIME: APPROX. 520 PM CDT
START LOCATION: APPROX. 7 MILES S COURTLAND
START TIME: APPROX. 520 PM CDT
START LOCATION: APPROX. 7 MILES S COURTLAND
END DATE: MAY 6TH 2015
END TIME: 604 PM CDT
END LOCATION: MOVED OUT OF REPUBLIC COUNTY 1.5 MILES WSW CHESTER NE.
SURVEY_SUMMARY: THE FIRST DAMAGE WAS NOTED JUST NORTH OF THE JAMESTOWN STATE
WATERFRONT MANAGEMENT AREA AND THEN PROGRESSED NORTHEAST AND CUT A PATH BETWEEN
COURTLAND AND SCANDIA PASSING JUST WEST AND NORTHWEST OF SCANDIA DAMAGING A
ETHANOL PLANT...FEEDLOT AND SEVERAL HOMES ALONG THE PATH. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS
WIDE AT TIMES TO AROUND ONE HALF MILE HOWEVER MOST DAMAGE WAS RATED EF1 OR
LOWER FOR MOST OF THE PATH. THE EF2 DAMAGE WAS NOTED AT THE ETHANOL PLANT
AND TO A HOME APPROX. 2 MILES NORTH OF SCANDIA. IT IS LIKELY THAT ALTHOUGH THE
CONDENSATION FUNNEL WAS VERY WIDE AT TIMES THAT THE DAMAGE WAS DUE PRIMARILY TO
SMALLER VORTICES THAT WERE ROTATING WITHIN THE MAIN FUNNEL. THE DAMAGE PATH
CONTINUED NORTHEAST INTO NEBRASKA. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS DAMAGE PATH WAS DUE
TO A FEW TORNADO OCCLUSIONS OR A FAMILY OF MORE THAN ONE TORNADO. HOWEVER THE
LACK OF DAMAGE INDICATORS ALONG THE PATH AND INCONCLUSIVE RADAR DATA MAKE THIS
DIFFICULT TO VERIFY.
WATERFRONT MANAGEMENT AREA AND THEN PROGRESSED NORTHEAST AND CUT A PATH BETWEEN
COURTLAND AND SCANDIA PASSING JUST WEST AND NORTHWEST OF SCANDIA DAMAGING A
ETHANOL PLANT...FEEDLOT AND SEVERAL HOMES ALONG THE PATH. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS
WIDE AT TIMES TO AROUND ONE HALF MILE HOWEVER MOST DAMAGE WAS RATED EF1 OR
LOWER FOR MOST OF THE PATH. THE EF2 DAMAGE WAS NOTED AT THE ETHANOL PLANT
AND TO A HOME APPROX. 2 MILES NORTH OF SCANDIA. IT IS LIKELY THAT ALTHOUGH THE
CONDENSATION FUNNEL WAS VERY WIDE AT TIMES THAT THE DAMAGE WAS DUE PRIMARILY TO
SMALLER VORTICES THAT WERE ROTATING WITHIN THE MAIN FUNNEL. THE DAMAGE PATH
CONTINUED NORTHEAST INTO NEBRASKA. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THIS DAMAGE PATH WAS DUE
TO A FEW TORNADO OCCLUSIONS OR A FAMILY OF MORE THAN ONE TORNADO. HOWEVER THE
LACK OF DAMAGE INDICATORS ALONG THE PATH AND INCONCLUSIVE RADAR DATA MAKE THIS
DIFFICULT TO VERIFY.
Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/BenjaminJurkovi and also check out our website JWSevereWeather.com
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