Tornado / Core Punch - WaKeeny, KS - May 22, 2008

After two prior intercepts during the afternoon, storm chasers Michael Laca, Jim Leonard, Linda Kitchen, Kathy Velasquez, Ray Walker, Eric Baker and Max Hagen moved south along Higway 283 in Trego County, Kansas to a position two miles south of WaKeeny. A strong rotational couplet was evident on radar as an intesifying supercell thunderstorm approached from the south-southwest after sunset. As the cell neared, a distinct wall cloud developed and as our chaser convoy turned west off of 283, a large, partially rain-wrapped, cone descended and headed rapidly north-northeast. The funnel briefly condensed all the way to the ground as it crossed the road about ¼ mile in front of us. Immediately after the funnel passed, the rain and hail core rapidly followed and trying to make a three point turn on a very narrow dirt road, lined with chase vehicles, delayed things just long enough for the core to overtake us. Blinding rain, quarter-sized hail and winds gusting to 60-65 mph made driving back north along 283, towards WaKeeny, extremely treacherous. As we found out later, the parent circulation that produced the tornado we had witnessed, approached highway 283 just south of I-70 and a new intermittent tornadic damage track began near there. A corrugated metal shed was completely destroyed (seen at the end of this clip). The new tornadic circulation moved northeastward through the eastern sections of WaKeeny with isolated damage.

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YouTube | June 24, 2008

Tags:. .supercell. .tornadic. .couplet. .velasquez. .hagen