Neosho Co. Kansas Tornadoes
April 21, 2005

My timing seemed to be very good in April 2005 in the State of Kansas for chasing cyclic tornadic supercells. I was chasing solo this day and left work at 3pm and headed north from Tulsa. I studied the SPC Mesoanalysis SE Kansas sector closely throughout the day. A severe wx parameters bullseye started to setup across SE Kansas by mid afternoon, with a theta ridge poking northward from NE Oklahoma. This seemed to be a very obvious supercell setup and hoped to get lucky that one of these supercells would become tornadic. Good pooled instability and fairly decent shear was present over SE Kansas. I decided to head up US 169 through Coffeyville KS and continued northward to Chanute, to where the theta ridge was poking when I left Tulsa. As I got northward, I could see that storms were just starting to pop to my northwest and north. I called Jeff Piotrowski for a radar update and he confirmed that radar was showing these storms coming up fast in intensity. To my northwest over SE Wilson County, I could see one of these storms blossoming and developing a nice sharp anvil canopy. The further north I got, the better the cloud features appeared with this storm. As I came up on the intersection of US 400 and US 169, I could already see the nice barrel shaped vertical updraft and strengthening core with the storm. Near the Neosho-Labette Co. line, I pulled over and decided I would watch this storm closer. As if on queue, the storm quickly started to show some rotation. Inflow bands appeared on the eastern side of the updraft and I already had some helical striations showing on the updraft wall. I called Jeff again for the latest radar update, and he said it was growing nicely in size and was already dropping 1-1.5" hail. He said the core was moving towards Thayer, a small town just north of where I pulled over. I figured this storm was in the process of becoming an established supercell and that the hail would only get bigger. I wanted to avoid being cutoff by the expanding hailcore so I headed further north to get a road option east. . I found the hailcore about 3 miles southwest of Thayer and quarter to very occasionally golfball sized hail pounded the road. 

I beat the hailcore into Thayer just barely and got to K-47 Highway and my road option east. My plans were to let this storm organize and then I would meet up with the updraft about 30 mins. later - a plan which really worked to my advantage. By the time I reached US 59, the supercell had matured and started to take on that classic boomerang shape visually. The updraft was hanging well to the back of the supercell (southeast of Thayer).  A severe wx statement came out and hail was now reported to be up to golfball sized and the town of Galesburg was mentioned as being in the path of this now  "dangerous" storm. Initially the storm had a northeast movement of around 35mph. However, as it started to move east, and I was very happy with that motion ( as this would enhance the SRH quite a bit for an increased tornado threat). Sure enough. I caught my first views of the rain free base as I pulled over east of Galesburg. The hail started to fall at my location but was very intermittent with most of the hailstones in the dime to quarter sized range. I could see the hailcore just to my west and figured that this was where the golfballs and larger hailstones were falling. I had to battle rain and found out that my trusty camcorder had a condensation/dew lock activated and was not operating. Just great...

Fortunately my more trusty Kodak digital still camera was very much operational and with a fresh battery. I knew my camcorder was toast so I quit futzing with it, and concentrated more on the developments to my southwest. I was able to catch a break in the rain and hail to get out and grab some shots of the developing wall cloud which was organizing rapidly to my southwest about 3-4 miles. The wall cloud had the look that put a big smile on my face. It tightened up and started to have those tell-taled fingers showing up and disappearing. I called into the NWS Wichita and let them know a tornado was imminent south of Galesburg. Very quickly,  the wall cloud was firmly established and there was a brief helical tornado which appeared under the wall cloud .  No sooner I got my car turned around, and this blast of hail hit me out of nowhere. Quarters, golfballs, and some discus shaped hailstones I could not discern an exact size. I was fearing maybe some baseballs so I got out of there quick. Fortunately I did escape because I could see some fairly large white objects splatting on the road behind me in my rear-view mirror. By the time I reached the highway (US 59), the hail had stopped and the rain had stopped too. I was excited about what was about to happen. I was without any doubt getting ready to see this storm get after it. Now my worry was to find a good open area to watch things get wild. I dropped south about a 1/4 mile trying to locate a good clearing. As I passed some open areas, I could see the wall cloud was very well structured. Not only did it have those vorticity fingers but it also had that classic misty rain curtain that 9 times out of 10 develops right before the tornado makes it's appearance. Sure enough a truncated funnel soon appeared.

I called the NWS Wichita again and said that a tornado was on the ground about 3 miles to my west and south of Galesburg. I figured the movement was about 25 mph and I could also tell that it was tracking right towards me. I pulled over and ran over to the fence line west of the highway. I knew to blow off my camcorder so I left it in the car and started to crank away the still pics. It transitioned from a truncated cone to a full fledged small stovepipe structure. It reminded me of a smaller version of the Seward NE tornado a few years ago. The rain curtains were still hanging around but were thin enough to see the tornado clearly. The tornado changed shape quickly to more of wider stovepipe. I continued to fire off pics and could now tell that this tornado was in fact moving east right for me. I was very much in awe of how well developed this tornado became. The misty rain curtains went away as I am guessing the rfd blasted them away. I was right next to a farm and I saw the farmer's family scrambling for the tornado bunker. The last words I heard from the farmer was "tornado comin'..get your @#& in the cellar ( I am assuming this was directed to his wife LOL). The tornado was making a beeline for his farm. The cows were all spooked and running in mass to the east and towards the farm house. They knew something bad was coming and so did I. The tornado was about a mile and closing steadily. I kept cranking away the shots and had to keep in mind of my distance from my car from where I was standing. The tornado picked up a lot of debris and had a large debris cloud around the main tornado vortex. I was very patient and waited the tornado out before spazzing and running for the car. I have not been this calm on a chase as far as I can remember. I guess my chasing skills put me at ease. Lucky I remained calm, cool, and collected. The tornado really slowed and started to do it's curtain call. The rope stage was soon to be so I stayed right where I was. The tornado closed to about 1/2 mile and I could hear the whirring noise as it started to shrink/weaken. The swirling debris cloud widened as the condensation funnel started to rope out. I was able to watch the tornado spin out before it reached the farm and the highway. The dissipating tornado was last seen on the ground about 1/2 mile west of the highway to my northwest. Aloft, the post rope stage funnel ominously dangled over US 59 but from my vantage point it remained just a well developed rope type funnel cloud. At this point large amounts of debris started falling out of the sky. There was a lot of tree debris at first, then actual building material (insulation, small pieces of roofing, and structural type wood pieces) started to rain down. It was at that point that I had realized that this tornado had hit a home type structure. I was focused on watching for the second "show" to start happening. The classic occlusion process was underway and I was back in business....

For those who may not be chaser savvy, after the original tornado ropes out ...one just needs to look off to the east or southeast of the dissipating tornado to find the next potential tornadic circulation. Often this transition takes only a matter of around 10 mins. before a new tornado is on the ground. I called the NWS Wichita to let them know the original tornado had dissipated west of the highway, and I told them that things were looking pretty dangerous to my southeast and south of the town South Mound (Neosho Co.) I found a good directional road to catchup to the developing tornado/funnel, but it was not good for speed. It was a loose gravel road which meant I would be doing some yee-ha'ing to get back up with the tornado that was ALREADY on the ground about 4 miles to my east. This time, the tornado had dropped under that magic 10 mins. so I knew I was on a special cyclic tornadic supercell. I headed east with a group of other chasers/spotters and local people and most of them stopped about 2 miles behind the tornado. When you are chasing, the rule is if you're behind the tornado and you stop for a longer period of time, you'll stay way behind. I continued on with a few followers who were also chasers...of which my chaser buddy Shane Adams and his chase partner JR Hehnly were in that group. I reached Trego Rd, and tornado was nearly stationary just 1/2 mile east of the road. It stayed small with a nice debris cloud as it remained over an open field/pasture. It stayed there about 2-3 mins. and then started to move east. The location of this tornado was 5 NE of Parsons in Neosho Co. and just north of the Neosho/Labette county line. It looked like a powerful rfd had blasted in and the tornado seemed to widen and intensify. The rain curtains around the tornado also increased in intensity and started to mix with large hail. The entourage of chasers and spotters continued east towards the Neosho River and further on towards the Crawford Co. line.  The tornado widened significantly and had a strong to violent look as it vanished from time to time in heavy rain/hail curtains. The multiple vortex tornado was probably about 300-500 yards wide at this point as it moved into the Neosho River Valley area and through some wooded areas. It exacted some major tree damage as it moved east. The chaser and spotter entourage including myself were making good progress towards the tornado but were still behind about 1/4 to 1/2 mile. What normally happens when a wide multiple vortex buzz saw goes through trees happened on the road just west of the Neosho River. Several large trees were across the road and it was blocked. Several chasers jumped out of the car to try to move the fallen trees but my estimation of the situation was that we were screwed...or at least I was. I was in a low clearance Honda Civic and knew that I had no chance to go over even the limbs without harming my car. I turned around headed back west to Trego Rd. I finally made it north to K-57 and east of the town of St.Paul. I did find large hailbombs on the road south of St.Paul & some were tennis ball sized. 

I had to plot yet another intercept of this tornadic supercell. There was too much daylight remaining to throw in the towel. If I hustled I knew I could probably catch it again probably near the town of Pittsburg. I had all highways to get there but I also needed I had at all costs to avoid the hailcore which was producing up to baseball sized hail across Crawford Co. I made some good time getting over to Pittsburg and reached the south side of town just before the hailcore came in, and ahead of the circulation. Luck was on my side this day...had I been just 2-3 mins later, I would have been bombarded by a solid golfball hailcore. As it was, I found the circulation so I pulled under a pull-thru car wash on the south end of Pittsburg and faced south. The tornado sirens were blaring as the strongly rotating wall cloud moved into the south part of town. The winds kicked up to about 50 mph on the north side of the wall cloud. A very close CG lightning strike rattled my molars and left the burned in image in my eyes for about 10 seconds. It hit a light pole about 200 yards away in a shopping area parking lot. I was thinking..ok storm, you've got my attention and now my respect. An extremely powerful rfd came blasting down and ripped the wall cloud apart. This time it was not warm and muggy, but very damp and chilly. I was assuming at this point, the supercell had moved away from the good instability axis that had sustained it for hours and allowed for cyclic tornado formation. At that point, the chase was over. I was very happy with the overall easiness of this chase. The two downers if you can call them that were my camcorder going on the fritz as the action was getting good...and the trees across the road. Special thanks is extended to Jeff Piotrowski for the radar nowcasting when I needed it most.

F3 tornado pictorial (clip#1) - Neosho Co. Kansas

Tornado track map link - courtesy NWS Wichita