Roger Hill's Storm Chasing Blog

Update

2008-06-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have been remiss this spring on updating my blog here. It has been a wild beyond belief spring! We have intercepted 31 tornadoes thus far, including 2 wedge torndoes on May 23nd near Quinter, Kansas; more tornadoes May 25, 26 and culminating with 9 on May 29th which included a large multivortex tornado that damaged Kearney, Nebraska and a mile wide wedge tornado that damaged Jewell, Kansas. June has seen plenty of chasing, but not many good quality visible tornadoes. For instance here is a complete write up of this past two days:

June 12. Started in Chamberlain, SD, blasted south and spent the afternoon near Council Bluffs, Iowa. First DECENT cell went up and moved across the river near Onawa, IA. We had a large rotating wall cloud (which if you watched our streaming video you would have seen), but it couldn't focus enough to tube. Then the fun begins. Many storms, seeding each other and becoming very messy, developed along the boundary. We drifted north to just southeast of Sioux City as a large RAPIDLY rotating wall cloud formed, producing MANY MANY funnels in a merry-go-round fashion and moved northeast. We stayed with it, TOR warned of course, until it went into the hills. Then attention turned to the storm 5-10 miles to our south, the Little Sioux storm. We headed into Blencoe, IA dodging intense CGs, high winds and wrapping rain curtains and made our way east towards Moorhead. The tornado passed about 2-3 miles from us! We continued to intercept storm after TOR warned storm, in a very messy line until we got tired and blew it all off to head to St Joe, MO, where we were greeted with the remains of the Manhattan, KS storm. Crazy day, intense, but pretty frustrating.

June 13: Left St Joe headed to Wichita to play the southern end of the boundary. Drifted north to where the dryline and boundary intersected and was THE hot spot for initiation. Hoping for nonsupercell tornadoes. We followed storms as they would develop there and move northeast intensifying. First such storm went racing off towards Topeka. We couldn't catch it nor did we really want to. The next one developed and QUICKLY became supercellular as it approached Strong City, KS. It developed a nice hook, large wall cloud and was spinning like a top. You could see the blob fall out the back of the supercell as rotation increased tremendously. A couple of brief funnels would form, spin and disippate in a shot time. We then stair stepped back southwest towards the next storm. As we approached the updraft a HUGE round low level mesocyclone came into view with one of the WILDEST merry-go-rounds I have ever seen! We couldn't see the ground under it, but there was a reported multivortex tornado with it. We had to blast to Cottonwood Falls and head south to get out of the core. As we did, the now HP storm approached. A tail cloud was being drawn in from the east as the rear flank core surged towards us. MAJOR LEAGUE rotation was occuring as we stopped about 5 miles south of Cottonwood Falls. All of a sudden VERY fast rotating rain curtains approached from the west as chunks of debris fell from them. TORNADO! rain wrapped. We BLASTED south out of its way and let it go, now targeting the southern storm. As we approached Wichita on the turnpike, CG activity became extreme. When we punched through the core, the storm became tornado warned and FOR GOOD REASON!!!!! A LARGE circular mothership base came into view as rain curtains wrapped from west to east across the turnpike. We were greeted with golfball sized hail as the vault passed overhead. We headed to Mulvane and blew east to get in front of the monsterous mothership, stack of plates supercell. The view was PHENOMENAL!!!!!! Circular base, FF updrafts, clear slot, and one of my clients said "Roger, there's a funnel". I couldn't see it and kept taking pictures. Well, there WAS a funnel, right where you would expect, and my pictures show a slender grey TORNADO under the wall cloud!!!! Too bad it was so close to dark to be able to see it clearer. We stayed with this storm till dark and then blasted west to chase an undercut supercell that was also amazingly electrified. Never have I had a tour that has had SO MANY close CG strikes!! Several times, a CG would occur within a few hundred yards of us as we watched the ground GLOW ORANGE where it would hit. It also did that in the trees a couple times!!! Crazy stuff! All in all a wild day, fun day and a great end to the tour.

Roger Hill

A new chase season!

2008-05-11T15:19:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well, the 2008 storm chasing season is well underway. Been a strange one, but I have managed to catch at least one tornado on each of my first three tours thus far. A beautiful supercell with a nice tapered cone tornado graced the landscape on April 23rd near Patricia, Texas. The structure of the supercell was as classic as it gets. The storm also produced baseball sized hail that shattered my windshield. No big loss there as the windshield was in need of replacement. Later that tour we encountered significant supercells and large hail on 4 of the next 5 days.

During Tour 2, the May 2nd Arkansas tornado outbreak occured. We were very fortunate to catch 4 tornadoes from the system, including two long lived and strong tornadoes, one in Arkansas near the town of Gilmore, and the other in Mississippi, near the town of New Albany. Unfortunately, significant damage and a few fatalites occured with these tornadoes that day. Which just reemphazises the need to follow tornado safety rules and to listen to the warning instructions from the National Weather Service. Also on this tour we would capture a magnificant rotating supercell producing softball sized hail near Roswell, New Mexico. This storm looked like a "mothership", pardon the pun.

Now we are into the Great Plains Lecture tour, a tour where I teach folks how to forecast and chase on their own. On day 2, May 10th we caught a tornado in the mountains of southeast Oklahoma. Very tought chase and very, very close tornado!

You can see all the 2008 chase accounts, videos, and photos by going to my website at www.stormchase.net.

I will be in southwest Nebraska Monday, and back into Oklahoma on Tuesday, then Texas on Wednesday for several days of severe storms!

Roger Hill

Update! New TV Shows!

2007-11-02T14:07:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone!

Well, as would be expected, the 2007 storm chasing season is over. We had a successful season with 48 tornadoes witnessed, with several days producing multiple tornadoes. Now the fun stuff!

We have a NEW tv show on The Travel Channel, called TORNADO ALLEY. It premiered Oct 14, was on again Oct 30 and will be on several more times. This is the first in a 4-6 part series that should take place over the next year. Check it out! It was a lot of fun making it!

Also, my new book, HUNTING WIND, is in the making and will hit the shelves in the fall of 2008. It is 15 chapters of action packed storm chasing adventures, and has a companion DVD with footage from many chases and an educational look at severe storms.

Finally, I STILL have one more hurricane/typhoon/cyclone to intercept for a world wide production company. It looks like now we will be forced to travel "down under" to the northern coastline of Australia! Their hurricane (cyclone) season runs Nov 1 through Apr 30. Their forecast this season is for 5 cyclones to develop with two being significant storms. We'll be there chasing the kangaroos around in the 150 mph winds should one impact the coast!

Roger Hill

International Typhoon Chasing and Weekend Severe Weather

2007-10-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

I experienced a first for me from October 5-8. I actually flew to Taiwan to intercept Super Typhoon Krosa as she made landfall on the eastern side of Taiwan. Logistics were certainly a challeng with no internet, no phone and tough roads to travel on. However, I was successful, as my friend Stuart Robinson from the UK joined me. We experienced winds over 120 MPH destroying crops, trees, small structures, structures on the sea and even watched as water was flowing UPHILL as winds blew up the coastal mountains. It was a grueling journey with a 21 hour flight each direction and major issues with jet lag (Taiwan is 14 hours ahead of us). Would I do it again? YOU BETCHA!

Oct 13-14 Severe Weather Potential!!! I will be storm chasing this weekend! The set up looks pretty good as a deep low develops in western Kansas, pulling moist air up from the gulf. Extremely good wind shear and modest instability will set the stage for supercell thunderstorms, most likely on Sun, in Kansas and possibly southern Nebraska. Saturday could be a sleeper day in northwest Kansas as a triple point sets up providing the potential for severe storms and tornadoes there is the cap can break! Stay tuned! I'll update as this situation develops!

Roger

Typhoon Krosa Projected Path

2007-10-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

Hey son!

Well, North One wants to give it a go! However, we are trying to figure out where to chase her at :) The official path looks to be around Hirara, Japan, a small island east of Taiwan. However, any north turn and we miss it as it would go towards Okinawa. If you could check and see what you locals are thinking, that would be VERY appreciated! I would have to fly out tomorrow EARLY AM and not arrive in Taipei till 8 PM Thurs, then would have to jump a plane QUICKLY on Fri morning to Hirara.

Dad

Upcoming Hurricanes!!!!

2007-09-12T13:57:00.001-07:00

With the hurricane season in full swing, I keep my eye on the tropics. I am under a contract with a worldwide media company to take them into the eye of two landfalling hurricanes anywhere in the world this fall! Tropical Depression 8, east of the Lessor Antillies, will most likely intensify into a significant hurricane over the coming next week to 10 days. I will be heading out with the film crew should this continue to become a reality. Whether it makes landfall in Puerto Rico, Jamaica or the US, I will be there.

Hurricane chasing is quite different than tornado chasing, as you put yourself INTO the path of the eye and eye wall. It is quite an experience getting pummeled with 125-200 MPH winds for hours at a time. You can literally watch the world coming apart. The sounds in a major hurricane are quite interesting with the constant roar of the winds, sounds of trees cracking and falling, glass breaking and metal getting ripped to pieces.

Keep tuned into KMGH for my upcoming adventures should this hurricane become a large one!

Roger Hill

Update, Sept 12

2007-09-12T13:52:00.001-07:00

Things got pretty wild for me last week, on September 6th. I chased in south central Nebraska and intercepted 3 supercell storms. The first one had a nice wall cloud, but became outflow dominant quickly.

The second storm was quite explosive. It developed respectable mid level rotation, and also had a rather large, but elongated wall cloud. It did produce ping pong ball sized hail near Wilcox, Nebraska.

The third cell was the storm of the day. I was a tornado warned classic supercell with a 40 mile long inflow band, massive, rotating wall cloud and a cone funnel that extended halfway to the ground. This storm, structure wise, was probably the prettiest all year long! The electrification was second to none with constant intercloud and cloud to ground lightning strikes every half to one second! It also produced baseball sized hail northwest of Franklin, Nebraska.

Quite a fun chase!

Roger Hill

August 29th

2007-08-29T10:51:00.001-07:00

I headed to central Nebraska August 28th to chase a somewhat marginal set up. I arrived near York mid afternoon and waited for storms to form. I recently purchased a Canon 10-22 MM lens to try out for wide angle photography. I wasn't dissapointed! Stunning quality and clarity from this lens!

Storms formed late afternoon and quickly became linear and outflow dominant. I encountered high winds, hail to quarter size and respectable lightning.

It looks like we will be going through a period of calm weather before a potential large system effects us by Sept 6-9 period.

We could also see a few storms today, but due to lack of wind shear and instability, no severe weather should occur. But, this IS Colorado and anything is possible!

Roger

Update, August 24

2007-08-24T13:48:00.001-07:00

After two days of wild weather in Colorado and Wyoming, things are settling down for a couple of days.

August 22nd took me first north of Cheyenne, then east of Cheyenne for two pretty supercells. Both storms produced hail to golfball size. The storm east of Cheyenne gave me quite a scare. As I was standing outside the van under power lines, a bolt of lightning hit a power pole about 50 feet away from me. The shock wave from this almost knocked me down and I certainly could feel the electric discharge.

August 23rd took me south of the Palmer Divide, initially near Simla, then farther south to north of Ordway. Both supercells were classic Colorado hailers, producing golfball sized hail. The storm north of Ordway produced hail up to 6" or more deep! Quite a sight!

Roger

Week of July 21st

2007-07-24T22:55:00.001-07:00

Been an interesting past few days for me. I have been in Tucson, Arizona filming monsoon storms. We are starting a new tour in 2008 called Desert Thunder and my goodness, our exploration this year has fit the name to a T! Daily storms developing off the mountains east of Tucson and migrating to the low deserts by early evening producing flash floods, INTENSE photogenic lightning, pretty backdrop for the cactus, and one haboob (dirt storm) that caused a MASSIVE pile up on I-10 that I came with 100 yards of being a part of. A semi barreled through as cars slammed on their brakes as the haboob dropped visibility to zero. The semi smashed into the rear ends of several vehicles causing a huge fire storm that was quite extreme! The video has been on every major network in the US and even landed me a couple live interviews by news agencies! Pretty wild!

Roger Hill

July 3rd

2007-07-06T09:21:00.001-07:00

Started the day contemplating a chase, but didn't know for sure if I would. By late morning, strong and rock hard towers were developing south of my house . Just finishing our tours, I was tired, and was headed into town to take care of some mailings. But, seeing the convection south of me, I couldn't resist. I blasted down I-70 headed for Limon around noon. Shortly after I got on 70, NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for the area southwest of Limon, CO in northeast El Paso county. Radar was pretty clear to see the boundary with various areas of interest along it. However before I even arrived in Limon, the developing cells dissipated.

I decided to go to the Post Office and mail my packages while I was there, and when I came out around 1:30 PM MDT I noticed a rather large area of towering cumulus off to my northeast, northwest of Flagler. More rapidly growing cumulus were developing along the boundary, which was as clear as day. What bothered me was my 91/44 ob at Limon, but noticed much better moisture farther northeast. So, off I went! I headed east bound of I-70 and watched as the towers developed into two young thunderstorms.

About 10 miles west of Flager, and about 5 miles north of I-70, a small tornado developed. This tornado quickly became visible to cloud base with a fairly transparent tube of dirt. It lasted only 4 minutes from 3:14 -3:18 PM MDT. The young thunderstorm farthest west developed a flared base, cork screwed updraft and even a clear slot, so I pushed east to get on it. At 3:21 PM, another debris cloud formed and by 3: 26 PM was completely to could base where a small funnel appeared. By 3:29 PM, the tornado had a rather large pear shaped debris cloud and was simply gorgeous to watch. At 3:31, the next tornado formed just west of it under a new tower. It persisted for 4 minutes before dissipating. Meanwhile the original tornado was continuing to strengthen. At 3:34 PM, a long slender grey funnel appeared just east of the clear slot and at 3:36 PM it touched down. At 3:38 PM two tornadoes criss crossed each other and made for a wild photo op!!! At 3:41 pm the one tornado lifted, while the supercell tornado continued. At 3:45 another tornado formed west of the supercell tornado, and another tornado formed southeast. Quite a wild shot with 3 on the ground at the same time! The farthest west tornado diminished and lifted at 3:49, while the supercell tornado persisted until 3:51. The farther east tornado lifted at 3:53.

Now is when the real fun begins! At 3:57 PM, I was near the junction of Kit Carson County Roads AA and 13, northwest of Siebert. A debris swirl formed about 100 yards to my north. Thinking it wasn't much of anything, I pulled over and got out of my van to watch. As I turned around, a coal black debris swirl formed about 300 yards to my south! I grabbed my cameras and them up. By 4:03 PM, the southern tornado became VERY strong with debris to cloud base and was the most photogenic nonsupercell tornado I have ever photographed! At 4:07 I turned around to grab another lens and saw a HUGE tornado just to my north. I couldn't believe my eyes! This was only about 200 yards away. It had a 300 yard debris cloud with a fat grey funnel directly overhead and extended from a very pronounced clear slot on the east side of a beautiful circular updraft! The wind speeds at the surface were QUITE strong around it as you could see multiple vortices rotating in it and inflow jets streaming into it. Gorgeous site! Meanwhile at 4:13 PM the tornado to my south diminished and lifted. I decided to head north on CR 13 and see how close I could get safely to the large tornado. I came within literally 50 yards of the debris cloud and stopped, filming every precious moment. The noise was horrendous!!!!!!! I saw pieces of tin flying around the base, along with fence posts and barbed wire. Soon, a telephone pole snapped off. I could see what looked like a couple dead animals in the field it had just crossed. This tornado moved northeast, then north and finally northwest, just missing the county sheriff's farmhouse, while his horses totally panicked trying to escape. At 4:22 PM, it dissipated, while yet another tornado formed to its west under a new tower. This fairly thin and snaking tornado lasted from 4:29 – 4:34 before giving in to developing cores.

As I headed south on 59 to Seibert hail to quarter size starting falling on me.

What a crazy day! You can watch the videos here at The Denver Channel!!!

Roger

June 21 Update Part 2

2007-06-21T22:13:00.001-07:00

Caught a beautiful striated, albeit fairly high based, tornado warned storm near Bassett, Nebraska tonight. It produce two funnels and also had hail to baseball size. Damaged the two vans from it. Then chased a line segment in Cherry county, Nebraska that was a spectacular lightning producer.

Back to Denver tomorrow to get ready for my North Land Lecture Tour.

Roger Hill

June 21

2007-06-21T13:54:00.001-07:00

Crazy morning thus far! Intercepted a supercell producing 4.5" diameter hail near White Lake, South Dakota. The storm was spectacular! Now I am waiting for later convection to fire off the Black Hills. Stay tuned!

Roger

June 19

2007-06-20T09:27:00.001-07:00

Well, June 19 was certainly an interesting day. I caught a classic supercell near Hoxie, Kansas that tried everything it could to produce a tornado, and failed. Another storm developed on its flank and that became our new target storm. We were in front of this beast as it morphed into one of the most incredible HP supercells I have ever seen, pummeling us with 4" diameter hail, high winds and a couple of funnel clouds. I even had a bolt of lightning that struck 100 feet from me. Quite intense.

Today, June 20, I am off to Valentine,Nebraska for what could be a wild afternoon of severe weather.

Roger Hill

Update, June 14

2007-06-14T07:01:00.001-07:00

After a quiet few days, this past two days have been pretty exciting. We caught a briefly tornadic supercell near Murdo, SD on Tuesday, June 12th. A truncated cone funnel developed south of I-90 and briefly touched down as it approached the interstate. June 13th had some promise in the southern plains, and after a VERY VERY long drive to north central Oklahoma, we intercepted a tornadic supercell in Major county. We had to drive through one of the most intense cores I have ever driven through! We caught one tornado and a couple funnel clouds.

Today, Thursday, we will chase in the Red River area before heading back to Denver tomorrow.

Roger

Update, May 30

2007-05-30T16:11:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to update here. I had an unscheduled surgery which put me behind the power curve BIG TIME.

May 22: I caught three BEAUTIFUL supercells in Kansas, one of which produced two tornadoes not far from Hill City. One was a truncated cone and the other a small elephant trunk shaped tornado. Great chase and the storm structure was incredible!

May 23: I caught four photogenic HP supercells in the Texas panhandle that produced three tornadoes, one of which was very strong and lasted about 15 minutes. Due to poor anvil level flow, storms became high precipitation which choked the updrafts as they became tornadic. Beautiful storm in Hutchinson county, TX as the sunset produced the best tornado of the day.

May 29: The Elbert/Lincoln county storm was pretty for a bit, but also became a typical Colorado Ice Machine. It became outflow dominant and despite tornado reports near Simla, there were NONE! I was right on the spot where the reports came in. As the storm started producing intense hail, scud developed and was lifted up to the gust front. It appeared to form little condensation fingers that could be mistaken for tornadoes. THERE WERE NONE!

I am in Amarillo, TX tonight and will chase the Oklahoma panhandle area Thurs. There should be beautiful storms and possibly tornadoes. The long range models continue to advertise a potential severe weather outbreak by mid week next week. Time will tell!

It has also been a pleasure chasing with my friends Tony Laubach and Verne Carlson. Now if we can catcha nice tube together!

We are also making a program for the Travel Channel which will air late fall. Stay tuned!!!

Roger

May 20th

2007-05-20T21:54:00.001-07:00

Caught a high based hailstorm east of Rapid City, SD today (May 20). Pounded us pretty well with hail to ping pong ball sized and even had nice rotation for awhile.

Monday looks better along the South Dakota and North Dakota border area. Could even be tornadoes. Tuesday is looking like a classic Kansas tornado day. The poor folks in southwest Kansas just don't need anymore tornadoes, and it looks like they will be under the gun again!

Roger Hill

Update

2007-05-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

After a pretty supercell near Castle Rock Wednesday, we will stay around Colorado and chase Thursday. Should be a few marginally severe storms along the Palmer Divide later today.

After today, northbound we go! Montana and the Dakotas look to be the hot spot for the next few days as a strong trough develops and moves across the northern tier of the US. Sufficient shear, and lift will eb in place. The only question is moisture.

Roger Hill

Web site update!

2007-05-12T09:05:00.001-07:00

If you would like to see photos and video from the May 5th Kansas tornadoes, please go to my web site at www.stormchase.net and click on the "2007" button on the left and then the May 5th link!

ENJOY!!

Roger

BLOG Update

2007-05-12T07:10:00.001-07:00

After an active pattern, things have settled down for awhile. It looks like a northern stream wave and associated front will provide enough focus for storms, some severe on Monday and possibly Tuesday. I am still in Oklahoma City, heading back to Denver for a day after my tour is up Saturday. I wish I could make it to Montana for Sunday as it strongly looks like the potential for rotating supercells in southeast Montana. But commitments won't allow it.

By the middle of Tour #2, things should start getting active again. In the meantime, enjoy the fine weather and a chance for a few storms in Colorado!

Roger

May 9th

2007-05-09T17:31:00.001-07:00

Whew, after a long past week filled with supercells and tornadoes, things are finally slowing down for awhile.

Thursday May 3rd - The so called "Colorado" tornado outbreak wasn't an outbreak at all. These storms were EXTREMELY high based and suffered from tremendous outflow problems. Many spin ups, or gustnadoes formed, but certainly were not connected to the cloud base. I have a very hard time believing the reports that these were tornadoes.

Friday, May 4 - Caught a rapidly rotating supercell east of Phillipsburg, Kansas. This storm was 60,000 ft tall and was tornado warned for nearly 2 hours. There were at times funnels, but nothing touched down. It appeared it moved onto the cool side of the boundary, thus sucking in cool, stable air. We saw the Greensburg storm but chose not to take the tours to it since it had a monster tornado and was after dark.

Saturday May 5th - Kansas tornado outbreak. We intercepted 6, and possibly 7 tornadoes this day, including three very strong tornadoes. The town of Mackville, Kansas came close to being obliterated from the map!! There were numerous tornadic supercells that raced northeast along the boundary and produced many tornadoes. Nearly 80 tornado reports came in this day from the Dakotas to Texas.

Sunday May 6th - We intercepted several severe storms in Oklahoma. Upper level flow was parallel to the dryline, causing storms to seed each other and become a huge squall line. Lightning was awesome, but the tornado threat quickly ended.

Tuesday May 8th - Very interesting day as we started in Lubbock and blasted south to Seminole as a tornado warned piece of a squall line/bow echo blasted through knocking down trees and power lines. It was quite an intense system! Later we approached Throckmorton, TX to find a RAPIDLY rotating supercell with a nice striated, bell shaped base. This storm had produced a tornado and tried to again several times!

Now time for a break!

Roger Hill

BLOG UPDATE

2007-05-04T06:57:00.001-07:00

After a very active early spring so far with nearly 25 tornadoes intercepted, Friday and Sat look wild! Unfortunately there is the potential for very damaging tornadoes in western/central Kansas Friday and then from south central Nebraska through western Oklahoma on Saturday. The SPC has upgraded to MODERATE RISK Friday and Saturday and I would suspect a HIGH RISK update for Saturday as the time gets closer. This could be a historic severe weather event with numerous large and destructive tornadoes!! I am already out with my tours which began yesterday. We were in Weld county when the tornado reports came in, which I don't feel were very valid. Cloud bases were too high and things looked like gustnadoes instead of tornadoes. More updates as the days wear on!! Off to Kansas!

Roger