tornado examiner
Member
Can we just point out that iowa continues to be absurd this decade?
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Severe Weather Threat 5/19-5/22/2024
- Thread starter Taylor Campbell
- Start date
cg9450
Member
I'm still baffled at how violent the damage was, and the extreme damage/wind gradient of the tornado. The core was basically the whole tornado, and the whole tornado was pretty narrow. Combined with 50-60mph forward speed makes the damage it did an unbelievable feat. The fact that we're already seeing such damage so early on, and we haven't even seen the damage before Greenfield, other than wind turbines, is mental.
I hope the people of Greenfield can recover. This was seriously a tornado of historic intensity, regardless of rating, and an absolutely devastating one too.
I hope the people of Greenfield can recover. This was seriously a tornado of historic intensity, regardless of rating, and an absolutely devastating one too.
CheeselandSkies
Member
Well, yesterday for me was another fairly frustrating chase with a lot of driving and not much "storm time" or images to show for it. As I mentioned, I started out in Iowa Falls hoping to play what looked like slightly better parameters on the CAMs in the northeast quadrant of Iowa east of I-35 and north of I-80 (as SPC later alluded to in MD 879, although as was noted in here and as I noted by the lack of tornado warnings in that area on RadarScope, something went a bit awry with that as storms seemed to struggle in the tornadic department upon reaching that area). I didn't want to go all the way to southwest Iowa due to having to be back for work at 3:00AM today; that and having chased twice recently in that general area (April 26th this year and May 7 of last year) I'm not a fan of how hilly it is along the IA-92 and US-34 corridors west of Des Moines/I-35.
It didn't matter for me anyway as I lost patience and dropped down in front of the onrushing band of supercells, along I-35 and US-65. I reached Indianola roughly downstream of the cell south of the former Greenfield monster, both were still tornado-warned but starting to look rather disorganized and outflow-dominant on radar. I still wasn't interested in getting cored by any of them, so I continued south on 65 and then east on 34. There were some storms firing in northern Missouri and racing northeast, and I figured these were my last chance at a play. Sure enough, when one went tornado-warned over Lineville/Corydon I was passing through Chariton due north of its core. It was a bit of a race to get far enough east to make sure that the core would be to my west when it crossed 34 and give me a view of the inflow region/updraft base. I made it to Albia just in time and turned south on IA-5 toward Moravia for the intercept.
Finding a gap in the trees on the west side of the road, where numerous other chasers/spotters were already pulled off, I could see hints of RFD gust front/wall cloud structure, but it was rain-wrapped and not very photogenic. With the storm speed being what it was, I only watched for a couple of minutes before turning around and racing the storm north through Albia. IA-137 went a bit north out of town and then jogged right, perfectly paralleling the storm's northeastward motion toward Eddyville. Unfortunately, multiple red lights and the 30 MPH town speed limit wasn't going to cut it and the storm was already getting ahead of me. Finally clearing the town and putting the pedal to the metal, I plunged into the RFD core with heavy rain and bursts of small leaf/twig debris flying off the stands of trees along the road. However, Radarscope showed the couplet was already off to my northeast, with me basically pacing just behind it. However, even after breaking free of the precip I was again unable to see any structure except a fairly nondescript RFD "horsehoe" base, but no apparent wall cloud or strong rotation. Once I reached Eddyville, there was pretty much no way to keep up with the storm and it was starting to weaken anyway, with the tornado warning soon allowed to expire.
The drive home was initially uneventful, with most of the storms racing east and north, allowing me to stay in the clear behind them. I took IA-92 east from Oskaloosa, noting the spot where a stand of broken, shredded trees marks where the Keota tornado crossed, the spot just west of W-15 where I watched it, and the turn I SHOULD have taken on W-38 to Wellman. I even got mostly sunshine on the drive up US-218/I-380 to join US-30/151 at Cedar Rapids. However, things got a little more interesting than I bargained for just as I was almost home...
I was getting low on gas, having not filled up since my last pre-storm-intercept top-off at Bondurant, but I had calculated I should have just enough to make it home. I exited the main highway onto the back road that is the most direct route to my apartment when coming from Iowa; noting a lot of leaves and small twig debris littering the road (not unlike that which I saw getting lofted in the RFD near Albia), but after driving for a few miles I found the road blocked by a Dane County sheriff's deputy. He said there was a powerline down across the road. Fortunately, there was a detour road available just a short distance back. Turning onto this, I crested a hill and slammed on the brakes as a downed tree loomed in the road! Fortunately I had my brights on, otherwise I might not have seen it in time to avoid hitting it.
Among other damage I noted from there (as well as a few additional small trees downed into the roads):
One of those illuminated message boards on mobile trailers they post at construction zones that say things like "LANE SHIFT AHEAD," the support was twisted and broken so the board was laying in the road, but still lit up.
A long stretch of streetlights, and the traffic lights at one intersection were out (not failed-safe to all-way blinking red, completely dark!).
Then, just a quarter-mile from my apartment, this broken tree:
I made it into my building's parking lot with my Toyota Corolla (my wife needed the Hyundai yesterday) on fumes; I *think* it has just enough to make it to the gas station two blocks away, running over more small debris in the process.
Speaking of my wife, I had warned her to stay weather-aware yesterday afternoon and evening as there was a chance severe storms would threaten the Madison area. She apparently took that to mean take a leisurely shopping trip
, as she arrived home with the groceries while a tornado warning was in effect, joining several of our neighbors who were wisely sheltering in our building's underground parking garage.
On the way to work this morning, I encountered yet another traffic light completely out (also notice how pitch-black it is with the total lack of power in this neighborhood):
I think this is the most widespread wind damage I've ever seen in the Madison area. A lot of broken branches and small trees, and a couple large trees down just in the areas I've driven through last night and today. Fortunately, it's all relatively minor in the scheme of things compared to an apocalypse like Greenfield. Although that tornado and its predecessors were more visible and photogenic than I expected given the radar presentation, I'm not too sorry I missed it for that reason.
It didn't matter for me anyway as I lost patience and dropped down in front of the onrushing band of supercells, along I-35 and US-65. I reached Indianola roughly downstream of the cell south of the former Greenfield monster, both were still tornado-warned but starting to look rather disorganized and outflow-dominant on radar. I still wasn't interested in getting cored by any of them, so I continued south on 65 and then east on 34. There were some storms firing in northern Missouri and racing northeast, and I figured these were my last chance at a play. Sure enough, when one went tornado-warned over Lineville/Corydon I was passing through Chariton due north of its core. It was a bit of a race to get far enough east to make sure that the core would be to my west when it crossed 34 and give me a view of the inflow region/updraft base. I made it to Albia just in time and turned south on IA-5 toward Moravia for the intercept.
Finding a gap in the trees on the west side of the road, where numerous other chasers/spotters were already pulled off, I could see hints of RFD gust front/wall cloud structure, but it was rain-wrapped and not very photogenic. With the storm speed being what it was, I only watched for a couple of minutes before turning around and racing the storm north through Albia. IA-137 went a bit north out of town and then jogged right, perfectly paralleling the storm's northeastward motion toward Eddyville. Unfortunately, multiple red lights and the 30 MPH town speed limit wasn't going to cut it and the storm was already getting ahead of me. Finally clearing the town and putting the pedal to the metal, I plunged into the RFD core with heavy rain and bursts of small leaf/twig debris flying off the stands of trees along the road. However, Radarscope showed the couplet was already off to my northeast, with me basically pacing just behind it. However, even after breaking free of the precip I was again unable to see any structure except a fairly nondescript RFD "horsehoe" base, but no apparent wall cloud or strong rotation. Once I reached Eddyville, there was pretty much no way to keep up with the storm and it was starting to weaken anyway, with the tornado warning soon allowed to expire.
The drive home was initially uneventful, with most of the storms racing east and north, allowing me to stay in the clear behind them. I took IA-92 east from Oskaloosa, noting the spot where a stand of broken, shredded trees marks where the Keota tornado crossed, the spot just west of W-15 where I watched it, and the turn I SHOULD have taken on W-38 to Wellman. I even got mostly sunshine on the drive up US-218/I-380 to join US-30/151 at Cedar Rapids. However, things got a little more interesting than I bargained for just as I was almost home...
I was getting low on gas, having not filled up since my last pre-storm-intercept top-off at Bondurant, but I had calculated I should have just enough to make it home. I exited the main highway onto the back road that is the most direct route to my apartment when coming from Iowa; noting a lot of leaves and small twig debris littering the road (not unlike that which I saw getting lofted in the RFD near Albia), but after driving for a few miles I found the road blocked by a Dane County sheriff's deputy. He said there was a powerline down across the road. Fortunately, there was a detour road available just a short distance back. Turning onto this, I crested a hill and slammed on the brakes as a downed tree loomed in the road! Fortunately I had my brights on, otherwise I might not have seen it in time to avoid hitting it.
Among other damage I noted from there (as well as a few additional small trees downed into the roads):
One of those illuminated message boards on mobile trailers they post at construction zones that say things like "LANE SHIFT AHEAD," the support was twisted and broken so the board was laying in the road, but still lit up.
A long stretch of streetlights, and the traffic lights at one intersection were out (not failed-safe to all-way blinking red, completely dark!).
Then, just a quarter-mile from my apartment, this broken tree:
I made it into my building's parking lot with my Toyota Corolla (my wife needed the Hyundai yesterday) on fumes; I *think* it has just enough to make it to the gas station two blocks away, running over more small debris in the process.
Speaking of my wife, I had warned her to stay weather-aware yesterday afternoon and evening as there was a chance severe storms would threaten the Madison area. She apparently took that to mean take a leisurely shopping trip
, as she arrived home with the groceries while a tornado warning was in effect, joining several of our neighbors who were wisely sheltering in our building's underground parking garage.On the way to work this morning, I encountered yet another traffic light completely out (also notice how pitch-black it is with the total lack of power in this neighborhood):
I think this is the most widespread wind damage I've ever seen in the Madison area. A lot of broken branches and small trees, and a couple large trees down just in the areas I've driven through last night and today. Fortunately, it's all relatively minor in the scheme of things compared to an apocalypse like Greenfield. Although that tornado and its predecessors were more visible and photogenic than I expected given the radar presentation, I'm not too sorry I missed it for that reason.
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CheeselandSkies
Member
For sure going to be three straight years with a violent tornado (prior to Winterset, the last EF4 in the state was in 2013); and four with at least an EF3 (Lake City 7/14/21). This in the state chasers used to derisively refer to as "Lieowa."
The thing is, that 2013 EF4 really should have been rated EF3. You have to go back to 2011 for a genuinely violent Iowa tornado (Pocahontas).
Kds86z
Member
Any updates on surveying in Greenfield?
Has it even started???
I think so.
Not how it works. It’s not even noon there yet.
Wind Driven Coconut
Well-Known Member
It’s a small saving grace that this was fairly narrow once it hit town, but man, from this height it’s obvious that this was a violent tornado.
Don't even mention that EF-number!!!
Not exactly related to this specific aerial shot, but something I noticed from other aerial videos closer to the ground is that the debris from homes was sucked closer into the center of the tornado and then windrowed, making the path of windrowed debris much more narrow than the core of the tornado, which I find fascinating and extremely impressive.
You can see what I especially mean here. You can see how there's completely slabbed buildings on the left and right, but the debris is strewn in a much more narrow path in the center. I don't know what other tornado has done this but I'm very sure this is a sign of an extremely violent tornado.
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Let's pump the brakes on the EF5 speculation. Like buckeye said, it's not even noon over there yet. NWS Des Moines utilizes one of the best storm survey teams in the country, so if there's EF5 damage, they'll find it.
Normally I’d be skeptical of this claim, but I actually just heard the same thing from a NWS friend of mine. I wonder why this one in particular has them so impressed?
For the record I think this will be rated EF4, but we shall see.
Even if it is, it is by far the most violent tornado of the year.
