Chase Report: 1 May, 2010 - East Arkansas Supercell- The long chase
Probable tornado, just NE of De Witt, AR from Hwy 1 looking ENE, ~ 9 p.m. CDT:
May 1 was a High Risk day for much of AR. Left Malvern, AR pre-noon and leisurely worked my way down to Fordyce, AR, where I picked up more supplies. From there, went down to Camden, where I found Tabor ave:
Spent the rest of the aternoon waiting on initiation. When towers first started going up, realized with a panic that my AllisonHouse feed was not actually working, and that I was relying on NWS servers for radar. They have been completely unreliable lately, largely because of the sheer demand of the thousands of new chasers.
Posted my problem to Stormtrack, and almost right away, got the fix (Many Thanks to ST'er Toni Scholz!!). Was able to get my data going just in time to get the radar update of numerous mature supercells in progress just to my S. Picked the closest cell and intercepted, somewhere west of Thornton. Couldn't see much for terrain, but it didn't look that good visually.
Charged back east to pick up a cell coming up from El Dorado. Caught that cell west of Star City, where I punched the hook area and had some white knuckle wind-shift moments. The circulation reformed SE of where I was (I think), and almost immediately, I was in catchup mode.
Followed storm from Gould to Gillette as complete darkness fell. Saw a couple of ominous funnels east of Gould. From there to De Witt to St. Charles to Marvell to Marianna to Brickeys to Hughes to West Memphis, occasionally catching the updraft region again. Each time, there were wall clouds, funnels, and one likely tornado NE of De Witt, AR. Here are a few of the better shots:
East of Gould, AR looking N/NE ~8:20 p.m. CDT
Likely tornado between De Witt and St. Charles, AR ~9:00 CDT
Wall Cloud/funnel/lightning near Marianna, AR ~9:40 CDT
West Memphis, AR ~ 10:30 CDT, along I-40 looking East:
Continued around Memphis to 40 NE, where I was several miles behind the cell. I got close, but was running out of gas. Fastest gas stop ever off the interstate, added ~ 4 gallons, ~ 90 seconds from exit ramp to entrance ramp. Got off I-40 at Brownsville to make one last desperate shot at catching the updraft. Storm still had T-warnings. Got blocked by sheriff's patrol and floodwaters in Alamo, TN. Drove south to Bells, TN and stopped at the Rama Inn. I was on this supercell from 7:45 - 12:15, 4.5 hours, and ~255 miles. The cell was moving NE at 45+ mph, so there was little time to stop and take pictures, get gas, etc. Here is the GPS log from that portion of the chase:
Shortly thereafter (check times), another cell with rotation moved towards the hotel from the SW. I took the vid camera and intercepted it at the top of the hill the hotel sits on. Lots of nice CG's, and then scary white-out as precip hit and lights of town disappeared (not because of power outage, as I thought at the time, but because precip was so dense). After core passed, followed cell east out of Alamo. Caught gnarly low funnel with storm exhibiting nice low-level rotation, ~2:20 a.m. CDT:
Continued towards Humboldt, TN, but was finally thwarted by closed/flooded roads. White knuckle desperation attempt to find open road failed. And I was probably fortunate not to drive into one of the numerous lakes of water that had formed from all the flooding.
Managed to find a back way back to the hotel that was not completely washed out. Definitely one of the tenser post-dark chases I have experienced.
Depart Malvern, AR: 10:30 p.m.
Arrive Bells, TN: 12:45 a.m.
Depart Bells, TN: 1:45 a.m.
Arrive Bells, TN: a.m.
580 miles, solo chase
Return trip on 5/2
Depart Bells, TN: 10:30 a.m..
Arrive Austin, TX: 10:15 p.m.
765 miles
3 day total – 2015 miles, solo chase
May 1 was a High Risk day for much of AR. Left Malvern, AR pre-noon and leisurely worked my way down to Fordyce, AR, where I picked up more supplies. From there, went down to Camden, where I found Tabor ave:
Spent the rest of the aternoon waiting on initiation. When towers first started going up, realized with a panic that my AllisonHouse feed was not actually working, and that I was relying on NWS servers for radar. They have been completely unreliable lately, largely because of the sheer demand of the thousands of new chasers.
Posted my problem to Stormtrack, and almost right away, got the fix (Many Thanks to ST'er Toni Scholz!!). Was able to get my data going just in time to get the radar update of numerous mature supercells in progress just to my S. Picked the closest cell and intercepted, somewhere west of Thornton. Couldn't see much for terrain, but it didn't look that good visually.
Charged back east to pick up a cell coming up from El Dorado. Caught that cell west of Star City, where I punched the hook area and had some white knuckle wind-shift moments. The circulation reformed SE of where I was (I think), and almost immediately, I was in catchup mode.
Followed storm from Gould to Gillette as complete darkness fell. Saw a couple of ominous funnels east of Gould. From there to De Witt to St. Charles to Marvell to Marianna to Brickeys to Hughes to West Memphis, occasionally catching the updraft region again. Each time, there were wall clouds, funnels, and one likely tornado NE of De Witt, AR. Here are a few of the better shots:
East of Gould, AR looking N/NE ~8:20 p.m. CDT
Likely tornado between De Witt and St. Charles, AR ~9:00 CDT
Wall Cloud/funnel/lightning near Marianna, AR ~9:40 CDT
West Memphis, AR ~ 10:30 CDT, along I-40 looking East:
Continued around Memphis to 40 NE, where I was several miles behind the cell. I got close, but was running out of gas. Fastest gas stop ever off the interstate, added ~ 4 gallons, ~ 90 seconds from exit ramp to entrance ramp. Got off I-40 at Brownsville to make one last desperate shot at catching the updraft. Storm still had T-warnings. Got blocked by sheriff's patrol and floodwaters in Alamo, TN. Drove south to Bells, TN and stopped at the Rama Inn. I was on this supercell from 7:45 - 12:15, 4.5 hours, and ~255 miles. The cell was moving NE at 45+ mph, so there was little time to stop and take pictures, get gas, etc. Here is the GPS log from that portion of the chase:
Shortly thereafter (check times), another cell with rotation moved towards the hotel from the SW. I took the vid camera and intercepted it at the top of the hill the hotel sits on. Lots of nice CG's, and then scary white-out as precip hit and lights of town disappeared (not because of power outage, as I thought at the time, but because precip was so dense). After core passed, followed cell east out of Alamo. Caught gnarly low funnel with storm exhibiting nice low-level rotation, ~2:20 a.m. CDT:
Continued towards Humboldt, TN, but was finally thwarted by closed/flooded roads. White knuckle desperation attempt to find open road failed. And I was probably fortunate not to drive into one of the numerous lakes of water that had formed from all the flooding.
Managed to find a back way back to the hotel that was not completely washed out. Definitely one of the tenser post-dark chases I have experienced.
Depart Malvern, AR: 10:30 p.m.
Arrive Bells, TN: 12:45 a.m.
Depart Bells, TN: 1:45 a.m.
Arrive Bells, TN: a.m.
580 miles, solo chase
Return trip on 5/2
Depart Bells, TN: 10:30 a.m..
Arrive Austin, TX: 10:15 p.m.
765 miles
3 day total – 2015 miles, solo chase
posted by Tony C at
12:34 PM
1 Comments:
That's good stuff right there!
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