{"id":10985,"date":"2014-06-16T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=10985"},"modified":"2015-12-21T13:40:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T21:40:07","slug":"june-16-2014-stanton-and-pilger-ne-tornadoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2014\/06\/16\/june-16-2014-stanton-and-pilger-ne-tornadoes\/","title":{"rendered":"June 16, 2014 Stanton and Pilger, NE tornadoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"140616_1910_Pilger_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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On Monday, June 16, our two-van group (with drivers Rob Petitt and Bob Conzemius) awoke in Loup City, NE.\u00a0 We had driven here from northwest Kansas on the day prior in order to be well-positioned for Monday’s chase.\u00a0 The prospects for tornadoes appeared to be quite good as we perused the weather maps on the ceiling of the Frederick Hotel in Loup City.\u00a0 Forecast instability and shear values were very high for much of eastern NE, and SPC had a moderate risk and a 10-percent “hatched” tornado graphic.\u00a0 However, it was not entirely clear when and where storms might initiate this day.\u00a0 Should we head farther west to the dry line, around Custer County?\u00a0 Or should we play along I-80, where instability was even higher and convergence was tremendous?\u00a0 Or should we hang out around Loup City and see how things evolved into the early afternoon?\u00a0 I had a very tenuous grasp on how the day might play out and on where I should be.\u00a0 One thing that I DID know is that I had no strong inclination and no solid reason to drive off in any particular direction late this morning.\u00a0 The skies over Loup City and much of central and eastern NE were cloudy to mostly cloudy, and winds were very juicy and from the southeast.\u00a0\u00a0 There was an outflow boundary from nighttime convection in the area, but it wasn’t easy to detect on the surface charts and satellite images.<\/p>\n

I felt safe heading north a little to Ord for lunch, and on the way we spent some time at an abandoned house along Highway 70, just south of the “Blizzard of 1888<\/a>” historical marker…<\/p>\n

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\"140616_8867_Ord_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8874_Ord_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8877_Ord_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8882_Ord_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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On potentially big days like this I usually do a quick fast-food lunch, but it was only 12:15 p.m., so the entire group sat down at Calamity Janes restaurant in Ord.\u00a0 The service was fairly fast, fortunately, and we were there for only an hour.\u00a0 From Ord I decided to head east.\u00a0 The skies were clearing and it was getting warm and really humid.\u00a0 Dew points were close to 74F.\u00a0 And handful of cumulus clouds were getting that perky look…did storms want to form already in central Nebraska?\u00a0 It was WAY too early, not even 2 p.m.\u00a0 If storms went up nearby, they might start moving to the northeast quickly given the strong southwesterly winds aloft.\u00a0 It seemed like a good idea to hedge eastward to lessen the chances of getting behind any early, strong activity.<\/p>\n

As we headed east from Ord to Scotia and Greeley, we observed impressive storm tower development to our east, about 20-25 miles distant.\u00a0 At the time I wasn’t sure if these towers would ultimately be the storms that we wanted to be on.\u00a0 They were booking along to the northeast at about 35-40 mph, and I doubted that we would even be able to catch them.\u00a0 Darn —- we were a little out of position and playing catch-up, exactly what I did NOT want to have happen!\u00a0 If these were able to become big supercells, though, I knew that they would likely be tornadic.\u00a0 The environment just ahead of them in the Norfolk area was sickeningly ripe for tornado development.\u00a0 So, we pressed on, and hoped that the cells would slow down and that we could get into position.<\/p>\n

I had Rob and Bob take our group east on 56 from Greeley to Cedar Rapids and St. Edward.\u00a0 A big, new updraft went up to our east as we headed east from St. Edward, and this one was catch-able.\u00a0 Still, it was moving northeast at about 30 mph, and our road network was not particularly cooperative.<\/p>\n

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\"140616_8893_St-Edward_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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After a brief and aborted attempt to continue east on a wet dirt road to Platte Center, we headed north to Lindsay and east to Highway 81.\u00a0 By now the storm was severe-warned and was above Madison, some ten miles to our north.\u00a0 The RFD cut was massive, and the low base was getting that “pregnant, I want to produce a big tornado RIGHT NOW” look to it.\u00a0 From the intersection of 81 and 91 I could have headed north towards Madison and the updraft base, and I probably should have, but the action area was really close to Madison and I didn’t want to get involved with that just yet near a town.\u00a0 So, we continued east on 91 some 12 miles to Route 57 north.\u00a0 On our way east, we could see what looked like a tornado developing back to our north-northwest, about ten miles away.\u00a0 The base was very low and the developing tornado was significant.<\/p>\n

The storm continued tornadic and was moving northeast at about 35 mph as we came up on its SSE and S side, in the Stanton area.\u00a0 We had occasional glimpses of the tornado as we crested hills, and then we would go for a minute or two in the low spots without a view.\u00a0 This was quite aggravating!\u00a0 Fortunately, the tornado was going to miss Stanton on its north side by several miles.\u00a0 We made it through Stanton (at 3:56 p.m. CDT), crested a hill north of town, and had a massive and wildly rotating barrel updraft filling our windshields.\u00a0\u00a0 These are looking north from south of Stanton and while in Stanton:<\/p>\n

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\"140616_8896_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8898_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8899_Stanton_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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This thing was maybe 2-3 miles wide and was, for all practical purposes, on the ground!\u00a0 We stopped a mile or two north of Stanton for several minutes, shot stills and video, and watched it drift off to our north along Highway 57.\u00a0 The motion in this tornado cyclone was absolutely insane, and on occasion there were smaller, slender, slinky tornado funnels sticking out of it horizontally.\u00a0 Apparently at least one farm house was destroyed by this tornado north of Stanton.\u00a0 Visually, the lighting and contrast beneath the low storm base was very poor, and it was difficult to really see what was going on near ground level a couple of miles to our north.\u00a0 Was there a massive and violent wedge tornado in there?\u00a0 Apparently there was, and I kind of assumed that there was, but it was not obvious.\u00a0 The contrast is enhanced a little in some of the images below to bring out the Stanton tornado.\u00a0 These are views to the north along Highway 57:<\/p>\n

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\"140616_8904_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8905_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8907_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8909_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8911_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8913_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8915_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8917_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8920_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8921_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8922_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8925_Stanton_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8926_Stanton_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The images above are wide-angle views with the “full-frame” camera and 21mm lens.\u00a0 My camera time stamp shows 3:58 to 4:03 p.m. CDT for these, and that should be good to within a minute or two.<\/p>\n

So, the obvious move next would be to continue north to stay with the “Stanton” tornado, right?!\u00a0 Well, maybe, but as this tornado moved off to our north, beyond U.S. 275, another funnel and area of rotation quickly materialized to our east a few miles.\u00a0 A new meso was quickly developing, and I knew that another tornado was imminent.\u00a0 We backtracked southward to Stanton, and then headed east-northeast on a gravel road.\u00a0 This road was wet, but drive-able, and it headed directly to Pilger.\u00a0 A large, black tornado was now in progress to our east as we moved east-northeast.\u00a0 It was perhaps about five miles away, and I wanted to get a lot closer, but we could only safely go about 45-50 mph on this wet, mushy gravel road.\u00a0 This thing was big and bad and VERY visible, with no rain wrapping around it!\u00a0 We made a brief stop to allow the guests to get out for some photos, and continued another mile or so.\u00a0 During this time, a second tornado was developing behind the first one, and it soon became just as large and dangerous as the “lead” tornado!\u00a0 I managed to get a little video and a still or two of both tornadoes in progress at the same time.\u00a0 We stopped again, and watched the tornadoes continue to move away from us to our east-northeast.\u00a0 The small town of Pilger, about 5 miles away, was hit while we were along this gravel road, but we did not know that at the time.<\/p>\n

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\"140616_1888_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1891_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1894_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1895_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1902_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1904_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1906_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1908_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1909_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1910_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1914_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8931_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_8935_Pilger_NE\"<\/a> \"140616_1917_Pilger_NE\"<\/a>\"140616_1919_Pilger_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The images above were from about 4:07 to 4:23 p.m. CDT.<\/p>\n

We had to keep moving in order to stay relatively close, but we were stopped a few miles short of Pilger due to water flowing off of a field and across our gravel road.\u00a0 (The final two images in the series above were from this location.)\u00a0 We backtracked a little, scooted up to 275 eastbound, and neared Pilger.\u00a0 Someone on the ham radio said that there was a propane leak in Pilger, and we realized that the town had just been struck by one of the two large tornadoes.\u00a0 Pilger is a half mile south of 275, and as we passed northeast of the town, we looked back to the southwest to see the swath of destruction right through the middle of it.\u00a0 Debris was in the fields and sheet metal was wrapped around the utility poles that were still standing along 275.\u00a0 A cattle yard just to the north of 275 was heavily damaged and the cattle were scattered about.\u00a0 I didn’t think that we would be able to catch up to the tornado again, but we managed to.\u00a0 East of Wisner we could see one large tornado to our north, about 8 to 10 miles away.<\/p>\n

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\"140616_1921_Pilger_NE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Highway 9 northbound led us to Pender and Emerson.\u00a0 Along this stretch, the tornado became heavily rain-wrapped and disappeared from our view.<\/p>\n

After a quick pit-stop at a park in Emerson (the convenience store was closed due to the nearby tornado!), we continued northeast on 35 to Hubbard.\u00a0 The storm was much smaller now, and surface winds were more from the south instead of the southeast.\u00a0 Nevertheless, a small and brief tornado developed just a mile or so to our north as we cleared Hubbard.\u00a0 The spin-up dissipated as we piled out of the vehicles.\u00a0 This action area wrapped in rain a bit, and was unable to produce again.\u00a0 Fortunately for Sioux City, just up the road, the supercell weakened quickly and considerably.\u00a0 Our tornado chase for this day was over…but it was only 6 p.m.!\u00a0 We headed west to some undercut but ominous-looking stuff between Yankton and Vermillion, and then caught a rainy mess moving northeast through Cedar County, Nebraska.\u00a0 This led us back to our motel in Vermillion.<\/p>\n

The cell outside of Vermillion looked ominous, but this large lowered area was not rotating:<\/p>\n

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\"140616_1922_Vermillion_SD\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Wow — the action got going very quickly for us right after lunch on this chase day!\u00a0 We were somewhat fortunate to be relatively close to the updraft base when the tornadic supercell started to produce between Madison and Stanton.\u00a0 If lunch had lasted a little too long, or if I had dawdled in Ord too long, then we might not have made it to Stanton County in time.\u00a0 There was a nice storm on the dry line near Custer County late in the day, but it was not a big tornado-maker.\u00a0 The Stanton, Pilger, and Wakefield, NE, tornadoes were rated EF4.\u00a0 Two perished in Pilger.<\/p>\n

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Victor Gensini’s chase account
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Tornado tracks and ratings, northeastern Nebraska, June 16, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  On Monday, June 16, our two-van group (with drivers Rob Petitt and Bob Conzemius) awoke in Loup City, NE.\u00a0 We had driven here from… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-60","7":"category-supercells","8":"category-tornadoes","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10985"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11035,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985\/revisions\/11035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}