Stormchase 03-27/192 - June 24, 2003
"The South Dakota Tornadoes"
As a stormchaser, you never expect a day to produce this many supercells/tornadoes. Sure, there are days that come along that you know might be "different"... but not this different. Pretty much everything worked out for me this Tuesday. By days end... I would end up seeing a total of 15 tornadoes from three different supercells. All shapes and sizes, many doing things that I have never witnessed before.
It was also a day that I was able to see upclose the type of destruction a violent tornado can cause. Not something I wish for... and I feel for all the folks who sustained loss. Especially the residents of the tiny town of Manchester who had their town completely removed by the largest tornado of the day.
Many thanks go to Dave Dowell who helped get me started in the right direction and to Doug Speheger who not only finished off a long day of nowcasting for me... but also helped guide me after dark to the hotel around several very severe storms. Doug also relayed many of my reports to the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, SD. I hope they helped in the warning process and I am very happy that nobody was seriously injured or killed in this event.
Leading up to June 24th...
The potential for significant severe weather was evident for many days before the event. I felt strongly about the chances of tornadoes in the June 21 to 24 window as strong mid-level flow, low surface pressures and extreme instability were forecast to persist across the central and northern plains. I decided to leave the morning of the 21st and was prepared to spend several days roaming around the area.
Severe storms were seen in Nebraska each of the three days from June 21 to 23. I was generally caught out of position each of the days and didn't have much to show for my work. A few photos and a couple minutes of video... but nothing really dynamic. I still had the feeling that I should hang around and give it one more day... so I spent the night in O'Neill, NE on the 23rd.
The morning of...
After a quick look at some morning data and a walk around the hotel parking lot... this was my first entry to my chase-log on the 24th.:
First of all... it just looks like a severe day. The sky looks better and good southeast winds are pulling up tons of moisture into northeast Nebraska. Starting the day in O'Neill, NE... with a couple of areas to keep an eye on. One is in central and eastern Nebraska where the atmosphere will become extremely unstable today. The region should remain well capped... but there are once again model signals that would lead one to believe that a few thunderstorms are possible. It does appear that despite the extreme instability... deep layer shear will not be that great.
Other area is near the South Dakota/Nebraska border and northward where there will also be very high instability. In this region there is less potential of strong capping... while there is also a great deal of 0-6 km. shear. While it does continue to drag me further from home... the initial plan is to drift toward Yankton, SD and see what trends are occurring there. I find it hard to believe that there won't be supercells in southeast South Dakota today.
Tape Recorder chase-log...
This is what I managed to get down on tape. The remainder of the data on individual tornadoes came from review of the video tape.
1526 cdt - 654 mile - 8 miles south southwest of Kaylor, SD... first view of cb's has been distant to the n and ne...recently...there has been closer tcu to the nw...would appear to be tcu to the w as well
1540 cdt - 665 mile - just north of Kaylor...contd tcu to the nw that are making good runs...currently explosion of new tcu/cb has occrd. just checked sfc map which shows nicely backed low lvl winds...80/74 at Mitchell...shear profiles look great
1558 cdt - 679 mile - 6 miles e of Parkston...cb to the w has an anvil...doesnt look extremely wide but has good shape
1603 cdt - 684 mile - 1 e of Parkston...storm to the southeast of Corsica has 35 dbz...about 15 to 20 miles west
1614 cdt - 688 mile - 1 n of Parkston...target storm is looking good visually...on radar now 50 dbz is about 5 to 10 w of Hillsdale...apprs to be moving almost straight n
1622 cdt - 696 mile - wb on the road to Metzgerville...storm to the west is looking extremely impressive with more volume with time and is showing intense convection on the s side
1632 cdt - 702 mile - storm to the w is looking better and better and has taken on very distinct supercell look with very good convection and base apprs to be lowering and has good structure...almost cont thunder but have not seen lightning
1639 cdt - 709 mile - nb on the road out of Metzgerville...updraft is just wnw
1644 cdt - 711 mile - 2 n of turnoff...close to the updraft but can tell excellent structure and updraft conts to lower with time. evidence of tail cloud trying to form to the ene...just measured 82/74 in southeast winds blowing into storm
1656 cdt - 715 mile - 7 south of Mt. Vernon...updraft is just to the nnw and they have put a severe tstm warn on storm...showing signs of broad scale rotation
1707 cdt - 717 mile - 4 s of Mt. Vernon...looking ne at dvlpg wall cloud with increasing rotation
1711 cdt - 719 mile - 2 s of Mt. Vernon...dvlpg tornado
1715 cdt - 719 mile - prev location...looks like tornado may have dsptd...strong rotation conts
1722 cdt - 719 mile - now nb...tornado looks like it may have been on the ground from it's start...it is still on the ground tho it looks like it may be occldd...can't tell further e but there is a lowered area
1738 cdt - 733 mile - 3 w Loomis - shifting e on county road that heads toward Loomis...storm apprs to be getting it's act together on radar once again...visually don't see an immediate indication of another tornado dvlpg
1743 cdt - 738 mile - 6 n Mitchell...nb on 37...updraft is slightly nw...no signs that it will produce near-term...but nowcast support does not indic reason to leave the storm
1746 cdt - 740 mile - 8 n Mitchell...storm is taking on a shape the way it looked about 20 min prior to first tornado
1752 cdt - 743 mile - crossing Sanborn county line...well developed lowering and area of slow rotation again the way the first dvlpd just immediately ovhd and w
1811 cdt - 752 mile - storm is starting to look worse and re-directing to storm to the wnw that is about 15 miles away and convection is looking impressive
1822 cdt - 760 mile - 3 miles nw of Forestburg...tornado is on the ground to the wsw and has been on the ground since 1816
1836 cdt - 763 mile - tornado dsptd...tornado may be dvlpg straight n...current location is 2 e of 37n/34 jctn.
1848 cdt - 776 mile - 3 e of hi 37 on e/w county road in nrn Sanborn county...baseball hail on the ground
1859 cdt - 3 s of Cavour (location does not match up and likely wrong - prob about 14 s of Cavour) - looking ese at two brief tornadoes from same wall cloud...still strong rotation...wall cloud to the wnw is remaining intact but does not look near-term producing
1916 cdt - 790 mile - 3 s of Cavour (again...location does not match up and likely about 6 miles south of Cavour). Just finished filming long skinny tornado to the ese
1927 cdt - 799 mile - 4 w of Esmond and tornado is dvlpg to the ne of Esmond with satellite tornado
1936 cdt - 804 mile - just e of Esmond looking n 4 to 5 miles at wedge tornado
1953 cdt - 814 mile - tornado dsptd 2 n of Manchester...new tornado dvlpg to the e
2013 cdt - 3 nnw of Desmet...new tornado is dvlpg...old tornado roping out
2018 cdt - Spirit Lake...tornado dvlpg with new wall cloud
2022 cdt - 830 mile - 2 e of Spirit Lake...new tornado with old circln...strongly rotatg wall cloud with new meso
2032 cdt - new tornado on the ground...near the county line n of Spirit Lake
2040 cdt - prev location...no tornado seen
Weather data and links...
SPC Storm-Event page
Satellite - 2045z (from UCAR)
Satellite - 2145z (from UCAR)
Satellite - 2332z (from UCAR)
Satellite - 0015z (from UCAR)
Surface Analysis (from UCAR)
Temperature/Dewpoint - 21z (from SPC)
Moisture Convergence - 21z (from SPC)
CAPE - 21z (from SPC)
SRH - 21z (from SPC)
Supercell Composite - 21z (from SPC)
Significant Tornado - 21z (from SPC)
The Tornadoes...
