The Joplin Tornado Day

I am realizing that the more exciting/difficult the chase, the less pictures we have. It is tough when we have such a small crew and are working hard to stay on the storms. Not to mention the fact that during most of our chases our storms have merged with others into a nasty glob and/or line, making it difficult to stay in the money spot. Regardless, here is a belated recap of the Joplin day.

The most favorable conditions for tornadic thunderstorms were in SE KS - NE OK - SW MO. The only chase-friendly terrain would be SE KS. So we set up shop in Cherryvale, KS and tried to wait patiently...

However, I got restless and impatient and we took a brief jaunt south, but only to return to Cherryvale minutes later to get into position on the beginning of the Joplin storm. Thinking back I am disappointed that we ever left Cherryvale, because we could have been some of the first people on the storm.

It ended up being a difficult chase and we (along with most chasers) were forced to the western side of the Joplin storm when storms popped up on either side. Here is a radar snapshot including storm chaser locations. I think it is 10 minutes before the tornado if the report we read was correct. We are the large blue circle and the other chasers are the red dots. The Joplin storm is to the east, with its new buddies to the west and south. (You can also see that we aren't working with the best radar software. Never again will I chase without GR Level3.)

When we were on the storm we were able to see a lot of rotation, and (as you well know) the cell moved east and dropped a significant tornado in Joplin, MO. This Washington Post article includes a chaser's perspective on the storm from my friend (and master's advisor) Grady Dixon.

We, along with most chasers, then set our sights on the western cell.

We saw this wanna-be funnel, which I am sure would have been scary to an innocent bystander.

After the western cell escaped us to the east we tried to get south and east around the linear cluster of storms. The roads were hilly, twisting, and tree-lined, we lost data, and we began to get hit by hail. We retreated back west for our safety (and the safety of the rental car) and called it a day.

It took us a little while to get on the road, as cops were directing traffic and not letting anyone take the interstate toward Joplin. On our way to Tulsa we listened to the Joplin radio stations and heard the horror in people's voices as they searched for information on their loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they put the pieces of their lives back together. As we drove we watched the sun set on the western side of the line of storms as they continued to move east. There was obviously still strong convection on this side of the storms. We had a tough time getting a good picture of it, but snapped a few with our phones as we drove to Tulsa. As with most of our pics, it was much more impressive in person.