REPORTS: 6/7/09 ~ NE and MO

Photo courtesy of Scott Tomlinson ~ http://www.stormchaselive.com/

Photo was taken from the Chillicothe Airport on June 7, 2009 at 10:15 p.m. CDT looking northwest toward a tornadic supercell.

Photo courtesy of Steve Polley

Andrew and Holt County, MO Supercell

Photo courtesy of Corey Sloan
Holt County, MO Supercell

Chase Summary: Headed west toward Seneca, KS around 11 a.m. with Steve, Chris and Marcus...moved south of Hiawatha to look at data, vis sat and radar trends...saw the cell fire south of Beatrice, NE and it looked good on radar...briefly hooked up with the Outlaw Chasers (Randy and Lisa) in Horton before moving north toward Falls City, NE....watched the cell in Nemaha County, KS intensify and decided this was our storm.....got to Falls City as nice sup was tor warned to our west...sirens blaring in Falls City..decided cells were going to root into the OFB from overnight convection and cross the river into northern MO....felt the need to get across the MO river as soon as we could before the chaser convergence tried to get across the Rulo, NE bridge...moved to 111 and 159 and got some decent structure thoughts as the sup moved across the river...the bluffs were a bit of a hindrance but we were across the river....the cell continued to intensify and we moved south to get away from the GORILLA hail that fell in Holt County, MO...no damage to the chasemobile by the way!!!! Got to Savannah as the storm passed to our north....rotation in this sup was tremendous, visibly and on radar...many reports of funnels and tornadoes....but we never saw them if they were there....moved south and east into Dekalb County....relaying info to EAX via NWS Chat......used our local home chase road networks to avoid the chaser convergence...it was one for the record books....only mistake we made was trying to get through the MO 6 and Hwy C intersection....but we had no choice...Dekalb County was reporting Weatherby's sirens were not sounding and FD was alerting residents...Steve (Osborn FD) responded mutual aid FD to alert residents....keep in mind Weatherby was devastated by the May 29, 2004 F-4 tornado...did our duties and continued following the cell into Daviess County...quick splash of gas in Altamont and eastbound we went....began relaying info to Glen on the Chillicothe amateur repeater and he forwarded them to EAX....large wall cloud but no visible tornado as the sup moved east into Chillicothe....hooked up with Scott Tomlinson, now that was a wise choice, as he was able to snap an AWESOME lightning shot near the Chillicothe airport...Randy Cooper and another chaser from KCMO hooked up with us here and we stayed on the cell until it became outflow dominant......cell near Cameron was gaining intensity and quickly became tor warned with a public report of a large wedge tor on the ground NW of Kidder.....shortly thereafter damage reports came in from Lake Viking (Grapefruit size hail) and wind damage in Gallatin.....never saw a tor and did not see a damage path today in the daylight.....damage at Lake Viking was significant to say the least....one of the most exhausting and fun chases Chris, Steve and I can remember.....what a day!!!!! Corey

Chase miles for the weekend: 2,020!!!!!