Severe Weather 4-4-23 and 4-5-23

[CheeselandSkies]

Well, I couldn't catch lightning (or a tornado) in a bottle twice in a row. Spent the afternoon moseying on down from Dubuque to Mt. Pleasant. Didn't want to commit to the stuff further west in Iowa because I thought the mixing problems would kill tornado potential with it. Finally decided to start making my way east on 34 into IL while the seemingly disorganized convective cluster was coming out of MO just to my south. My main goal at this point was just to stay out of any heavy rain/hail from it and start making my way home. Of course this is when it finally got its act together and went tornado warned, but there was no way I could get a view of the base without driving directly through the core, so I just continued heading home. Elevated hailers kept firing all around making for a decent lightning show, but I managed to avoid nearly all precip on the drive up US-67 to the Quad Cities, then north on 61 back to Dubuque and 151 home.

Didn't sting nearly as bad as it would have without Friday, though.

[frostfern]

9 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Here are two videos from yesterday. First one is of the supercell itself and the second is from inside the tornado. I'd like to apologize in advance for not only using phones, but also recording in vertical format. Didn't have time to pull the DSLR out unfortunately for good shots of the storm, and obviously I'm just happy to have any footage from inside the tornado at all. 

Oh yeah, and please excuse my language in the second video. Hard to stay PG when you think you're about to get maimed. Looking back I didn't even duck down, idk what I was thinking.

 

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d5M407cuge4?

feature=sharehttps://youtube.com/shorts/fRWcBVP-nUA?feature=share

 

Again, apologies for the excessively amateur impression I'm making here. 

 

 

I think phone footage is okay when you're literally inside a tornado.  I didn't get the DSLR out for my short hail chase either.  Glad you and your partner are okay.  When you're directly under a storm it's really hard to know what's coming or which direction you should go to get out of the way.  I thought the hail core was passing to my east because the sky looked a little brighter to the west, but it was actually still west of me even though the sun was coming through a little.  Absolutely nothing compared to what you went through, but I would have had some windshield damage too if I hadn't stopped under a gas station canopy in time.  Absolutely nothing will protect a vehicle from a tornado though.   Scary.

[Chicago Storm]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:41 PM, Malacka11 said:

Here are two videos from yesterday. First one is of the supercell itself and the second is from inside the tornado. I'd like to apologize in advance for not only using phones, but also recording in vertical format. Didn't have time to pull the DSLR out unfortunately for good shots of the storm, and obviously I'm just happy to have any footage from inside the tornado at all. 

Oh yeah, and please excuse my language in the second video. Hard to stay PG when you think you're about to get maimed. Looking back I didn't even duck down, idk what I was thinking.

 

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d5M407cuge4?

feature=sharehttps://youtube.com/shorts/fRWcBVP-nUA?feature=share

 

Again, apologies for the excessively amateur impression I'm making here. 

 

 

welcome to the 0 meter club.

[Malacka11]

4 hours ago, Chicago Storm said:

welcome to the 0 meter club.

Thanks hoss. 

[Malacka11]

Couple of updates regarding the other day's chase:

1. The tornado that hit us was an EF1, max winds of ~110mph. The messed up part is that it formed less than a mile before it hit us and dissipated less than a mile after. That fucker JDAM-missile style tracked us down. Makes me feel a bit better about being hit that we can't have possibly seen it given that it formed only after we were between houses and only a few hundred meters away. 

2. There was a much larger EF3 with max winds of ~160mph forming right behind the wall of wind driven rain that we thought was the tornado. 

All in all, these new revelations make me feel a little less incompetent. Yes I fucked up, but in the heat of the moment, we probably did as well as we could with the cards we were dealt. 

Here's the link to one more video, showing exactly what we were running from and why it was impossible to actually see what was going on. https://youtube.com/shorts/7pvTvyIsgzE?feature=share

 

 

 

 

 

[WaryWarren]

Don't beat yourself up too much, Malacka. Just look at this guy.
 

 

[Malacka11]

10 minutes ago, WaryWarren said:

Don't beat yourself up too much, Malacka. Just look at this guy.
 

 

Damn. That's really fucked.

[hlcater]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:41 PM, Malacka11 said:

Here are two videos from yesterday. First one is of the supercell itself and the second is from inside the tornado. I'd like to apologize in advance for not only using phones, but also recording in vertical format. Didn't have time to pull the DSLR out unfortunately for good shots of the storm, and obviously I'm just happy to have any footage from inside the tornado at all. 

Oh yeah, and please excuse my language in the second video. Hard to stay PG when you think you're about to get maimed. Looking back I didn't even duck down, idk what I was thinking.

 

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d5M407cuge4?

feature=sharehttps://youtube.com/shorts/fRWcBVP-nUA?feature=share

 

Again, apologies for the excessively amateur impression I'm making here. 

 

 

Dude be careful out there. Losing situational awareness can total your car or worse. Other chasers were also hit by tornadoes from this storm and fared far worse than you did.

 

Despite what some may say, 0 metering is not worth it in most cases. Oftentimes the 100-250 meter shot is better anyways

[cyclone77]

Very interesting that the tors that the monster supercell put down in an environment that had temps near 50 degrees Tue morning in the QCA were all anti-cyclonic.  In the Colona video the vid was facing west, and in the beginning the debris is moving right to left, and towards the end it is moving left to right.  Radar shows anti-cyclonic couplets as well, particularly the east Geneseo EF-2.  

[WaryWarren]

 

[cyclone77]

More evidence the Tue morning tors were anti-cyclonic.  The circulation on radar passed a bit north of MLI.  The wind there shifted from relatively light easterly, to strong northwesterly at nearly 70mph, and then had 90mph gust from east-northeast on south side of circulation, and then 90mph southeast as circulation moved on by just to the north.  

 

 

[fluoronium]

Tuesday was a legendary chase for me. Incredible mothership structure and the strongest tornado I've seen while chasing so far. Lightning was bonkers as well. It definitely makes my bust on 3-31 less painful.

[frostfern]

15 hours ago, cyclone77 said:

Very interesting that the tors that the monster supercell put down in an environment that had temps near 50 degrees Tue morning in the QCA were all anti-cyclonic.  In the Colona video the vid was facing west, and in the beginning the debris is moving right to left, and towards the end it is moving left to right.  Radar shows anti-cyclonic couplets as well, particularly the east Geneseo EF-2.  

I would love to see a writeup on this.

[cyclone77]

2 hours ago, frostfern said:

I would love to see a writeup on this.

I'm not even sure DVN has realized.  I'd imagine they have but it doesn't say anything about it on their page.  

It makes you wonder if anti-cyclonic circulations have an easier time punching through the stable surface layer.  Probably not but maybe an eager college kid can do a paper on it lol.

[SchaumburgStormer]

A deputy in Fulton county got the Malacka treatment as well. https://fb.watch/jMrh8zfKbN/?mibextid=tejx2t

[RCNYILWX]

I'm not even sure DVN has realized.  I'd imagine they have but it doesn't say anything about it on their page.  
It makes you wonder if anti-cyclonic circulations have an easier time punching through the stable surface layer.  Probably not but maybe an eager college kid can do a paper on it lol.

There likely were gravity waves or an undular bore acting upon the stable layer. In these cases with elevated convection, the lower level stable layer ducts the gravity waves or bores, which can then temporarily augment the stable layer. It's more common to see damaging wind as the main threat when there is strong low level stability, getting tornadoes is more rare.

I was one of the co-authors on published research regarding the June 30, 2014 double derecho and QLCS tornado outbreak. The northern tornadoes with a MV that passed right near LOT had signs of bore propagation in augmenting the much shallower stable layer north of the stalled OFB/effective warm front.

Wouldn't be surprised if there ends up being published research on Tuesday's event in the QCA. Fascinating stuff.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[frostfern]

1 hour ago, cyclone77 said:

I'm not even sure DVN has realized.  I'd imagine they have but it doesn't say anything about it on their page.  

It makes you wonder if anti-cyclonic circulations have an easier time punching through the stable surface layer.  Probably not but maybe an eager college kid can do a paper on it lol.

The stable layer might be shallower some places due to where standing gravity waves set up.  The supercell itself was cyclonic, so the anticyclonic tornado was probably displaced from the main mesocyclone.  I think the reason elevated supercells don't usually produce tornadoes is the fact that the low pressure in the center lifts up the stable layer similar to how a hurricane storm surge lifts the water surface.  This makes the inflow above the stable layer more sloped as opposed to the abrupt rising motion you get under a surface based mesocyclone.  But if you have an anticyclonic circulation it's probably not directly in the center of the main mesocyclone.  I recall the El Reno tornado of May 31, 2013 produced at least one anticyclonic tornado displaced quite a ways from the main tornado.

[Radtechwxman]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:41 PM, Malacka11 said:

Here are two videos from yesterday. First one is of the supercell itself and the second is from inside the tornado. I'd like to apologize in advance for not only using phones, but also recording in vertical format. Didn't have time to pull the DSLR out unfortunately for good shots of the storm, and obviously I'm just happy to have any footage from inside the tornado at all. 

Oh yeah, and please excuse my language in the second video. Hard to stay PG when you think you're about to get maimed. Looking back I didn't even duck down, idk what I was thinking.

 

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d5M407cuge4?

feature=sharehttps://youtube.com/shorts/fRWcBVP-nUA?feature=share

 

Again, apologies for the excessively amateur impression I'm making here. 

 

 

The headlights across from you are me and my chase partner. I didn't even see a car across from us get impacted. I'm glad you're okay man. Could have been way worse. 

[Malacka11]

5 hours ago, StormChaser4Life said:

The headlights across from you are me and my chase partner. I didn't even see a car across from us get impacted. I'm glad you're okay man. Could have been way worse. 

Wow, small world dude. Kind of cool to think about though. 

So far I've replaced my windshield and my mirror. The mirror I managed to do myself relatively easily. That leaves the the quarter glass which I've ordered online and will need someone to install and then eventually a new fender. For now I just took a crowbar and pried the fender back out far enough so that it lets the driver's door travel freely again. Considering the fender was already rusted to shit and I was looking at replacing it this summer anyway, I hardly count that as a loss. Really, I'm just glad that I was able to drive the car home because the cost of a tow (my insurance plan does cover most towing costs but idk about a 200+ mile job, I ought to check up on that) and a lift for my friends and I would easily have cost more than all of the repairs I've had to do. Between that and the fact that I didn't die + now have a one in a million story to tell isn't a horrible deal I suppose. Obviously I would never ever want this to happen again but the fact that it did and I got off easy in the grand scheme of things is definitely something I am thankful for. 

Cheers though. Hopefully our paths cross again in the future.

 

 

 

[Chicago Storm]

Final event (April 4th & 5th) tornado count of 9 in IL.