Got off work at 10pm and shot some lightning east of Ionia, MI. I then headed back west to Kentwood and caught several rounds of thunderstorms. Some degradation occurred when saving files. For purchase of a full quality frame please contact me.
Kurt
May 042012
Apr 232012
David Diehl, Paul Weaver, and I started our venture Friday afternoon (April 13) from the Michigan and Indiana border spending the night in Kearny, Missouri, north of Kansas City. For several days I had been targeting south central Kansas from Dodge City on east. We took I-70 all the way to Russel, Kansas and by then a PDS tornado watch had been issued. We met up with Tony Laubach, and Chris Calloura briefly. We dropped south out of town on 281 to view an on coming HP supercell, which we then decided to let it go as we noticed on Satellite some new towers developing near Dodge City with good heating behind it. We made it to Rush Center on K4 where we witnessed straight line wind damage to a grain bin and a home. Dropping further south on 183 we observed a track sprinkler system over turned. We continued to drop south stopping in Sanford, KS and watched two supercells one further south and one coming out of Dodge City heade straight for us. We then headed further west for the intercept near Burdett, Kansas. The view was hazy but we could make out a wedge tornado still south of Burdett turning into a multiple vortex. It appeared to have lifted as we continued to close in on the area of circulation. As it neared the south west end of Burdett, we observed another elephant trunk tornado through its life cycle.
Burdett Tornado
After it roped out we moved east back to 183 to head north. On 183 we observed a brief tornado that was now just north of Rozel. Continuing north we stopped and watched it produce a satellite tornado that danced 180 degrees around the main meso circulation and roped out. Then a cone tornado protruded and took its place.
Tornadoes north of Rozel: Mostly time lapsed video here.
We then repositioned back to 183 and watched the meso become RFD wrapped and occlude. We watched this cycle for a good duration and followed it north as it crossed 183 south of Rush Center. As it produced once more we were directly under the circulation and observed vorticies less than 100 yards to our east right off the highway. We felt safe the entire time.
Rush Center tornado crossing 183: Some time lapse transitions to normal speed.
We then rushed 
through Rush Center and emerged from the core, circulation was just to our south. This would eventually be the last tornado from this supercell near Timken, Kansas. The funnel was headed right for us and we reposition just south of Timken and watched the funnel touch down once more south west of Timken picking up debris.
Timken, Kansas, Tornado
We let this storm go as it appeared to be weakening and headed east on K4 for the next supercell which was now to our south. We headed toward Geneseo, Kansas, and dropped south to Lyons, Kansas on K14. When the base came into view it looked lined out and cold. The radar showed a new area of precipitation hooking into the cell and we headed east toward Mitchell. At Mitchell we headed north were we saw the first touch down with a strong wet RFD kick in. We repositioned again on paved roads and caught back up to it and saw a large violent wedge tornado already in progress.
Start of the Lyons/ Geneseo EF4 Tornado: Part 1
Part 2: Near Langley, Kansas.
Part 3: Rope out near Smolan, Kansas.
After this supercell that produced a massive EF4 wedge lifted, the supercell continued to track over the south side of Salina, Kansas. As it tracked north east of Salina it produced a short track tornado that crossed over I-70 and lifted shortly after. With strong rotation still evident, we continued to follow the storm and got off the highway after crossing the I-70 tornado damage path. Near Solomon, it was in process of producing a bowl shape cone, and with time produced another moderate track tornado that elegantly roped out near Manchester, KS. This is where we ended our chase and called it very successful.
Solomon Tornado:
With a complete total of 10 tornadoes for the day, with the first sighting being 130 miles to the south west in Burdett, Kansas, north of Dodge City.
This EF4 was the first tornado I have witnessed in person to have vorticity fingers. It was a sight to see. Glad to hear there were no deaths associated with this particular tornado.
These pictures follow the sequence of events from start of the day to the end of the Solomon/Manchester rope out.
After waiting all afternoon for the storms to develop this evening I was treated to some nice lightning off my porch here in Grand Rapids. I also went a little west toward 131 by the metro hospital missing several good shots but coming away with one really good one. I was blessed to capture the following sequence of images. I feel that these are some of the best lightning shots I have taken from this spot (the porch). Hope there will be more chances before win$%#@ gets here. I best not swear.
All images were shot in RAW format and edited to JPEG for internet viewing. If you would like to purchase a high quality image contact me via khulst at midwestchasers dot com
PHOTOG update: Great time at the beach in South Haven MI. Bob Hartig has a great write up of the evenings events.
