June 20th Account, More June 17th Photos/Video, June 15th Photos

On June 20th, a warm front extended over parts of Central Kansas during the day with a lot of cloud cover and convection still ongoing from the warm air advection regime the night before, so I held little hope in chasing this day due to extensive cloud cover limiting instability, but the shear looked great for C/E. Kansas. With yet another cap bust in Iowa 2 days prior, and still high off of the June 17th Grand Island/Aurora supercell and tornado, I blew the day off for the most part. Darin, on the other hand, didn't and intercepted a storm that trekked from Wichita to where he intercepted it near Emporia. He called me telling me the structure was amazing, then called back again to say he saw a brief tornado...which I relayed to the NWS in Topeka. I then flew out the door and intercepted it near Princeton. I could see a funnel cloud off to my SW, so I again called the NWS in Topeka and gave them the play-by-play as it unfolded. At one point, the funnel extended 7/8ths of the way down and I was sure there was ground circulation somewhere and it warranted a brief touchdown report. As I was on the phone, I told the gentleman to hold on, so I could get some proof and by that time, it had began to rope out and formed a new area of rotation just to the east. That's where this video starts.



A couple of pictures of it shortly after the video:





And then as it weakens towards sunset:



A few pics of a wall cloud that I was 99 percent sure was heading towards being outflow dominant on June 15th (video is in my previous blog entry below). Taken west of Kinsley, Kansas.







And finally, more June 17th Aurora Video and another photo, below. Next year, I plan on owning the Canon 5D Mark II with an assortment of "L" quality lenses so I can get around the noise factor and shoot higher quality photos. Darin is planning on purchasing the Sony FX1000 for better low light and higher quality video. More blog entries coming and additional photos I've yet to process sometime this summer.

This is a timelapse (and damage footage) of the Aurora Tornado shortly after the first video I posted in my previous blog entry.

June 17th Aurora, Nebraska Tornadoes

The supercell (below) as the new updraft formed and strengthened dramatically right before our eyes just a few miles west of Grand Island. We hung back a little ways at this point to get some structure shots as it wasn't close to producing a tornado.

Quick Note: These photos/videos are copyrighted by myself and any unauthorized use will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of the party or parties involved.

Sorry I have to do this, but there has already been at least one company using photos without my permission and are in the beginning stages of getting themselves into deep shit.



Reed Timmer (below) as he looks on, still in shock, from taking a direct hit from the tornado (and can be seen in the video driving by, then tail lights as it forms in front of us). His bulletproof windows were broken out, spraying glass into his face and others riding in the SRV (Storm Research Vehicle).



Another of the tornado later on:



More later, I've been extremely busy lately. I also intercepted on Saturday two brief tornadoes near Princeton, Kansas and was on the phone with the TOP NWS most of the time, but did manage to snap a lot of photos and video.