Tornadic Supercell - Ness City, KS - May 23, 2008

After driving south on highway 283 towards Ness City, storm chasers Michael Laca, Jim Leonard, Ray Walker, Eric Baker, Max Hagen and Mike Ratliff turned west on highway 96 with an ominous supercell thunderstorm approaching from the southwest. After passing the DOW (Doppler On Wheels), we got to a position on the west-end of a long chaser lineup (closest to the storm), but after seeing violent rotation about to overtake us, we retreated a bit eastward as the meso edged closer to Ness City.

During this time we also observed some incredibly close and intense staccato lightning strikes. As the cell approached we moved farther east, back into Ness City (with tornado sirens blaring), and decided to head back north along 283 as the meso moved off to the north-northeast, in the direction of Brownell, Kansas.

As we caught up to the meso, we observed a large area of strong rotation directly in front of us, with several satellite vorticies developing along the periphery, to the right of the road. One of these satellite vorticies quickly evolved into a full tube.

Towards the end of this clip the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle), from the Discovery Channel's television series 'Storm Chasers', makes a cameo appearance.

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[superjoe87]

You guys realize you passed the Doppler on Wheels from Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel at 0:12, right?

[vmax135]

@superjoe87 Yep. I mention the DOW, along with the TIV (which is right in front of me) at 3:15 in the description of this video. I also filmed Texas Tech setting up a StickNet at 0:20. The DOW and its entourage also make another appearance at the beginning of my Lane & Graham County, KS tornadic supercell clip, from May 22, 2008... check it out.

[AeroStorm911]

Very awesome video of this amazing supercell.

From about 1:00 to 1:20 what did you make of that dark area...I debated for some time if it was a brief, multi vortex tornado or just a very ominous rainshaft...i posted my video as a response.

[vmax135]

Thanks so much Adam! This cell was incredible and the meso's rotation was amazing. That lowered feature was definitely suspicious, but from all accounts I've heard it was just a wall cloud at that point. After it passed Ness City, the cell apparently did produce a fairly large tornado (that I didn't see), as well as three satellite tornadoes (two of which are at the end of this clip), all near Brownell, Kansas.

[ChaseSevereWeather]

That lightning is phenomenal!

[hackbuggerXD]

1:10 close to death :D wabam!!

[hackbuggerXD]

1:10 close..

[stlchevy95]

TIV!

[superjoe87]

@vmax135 Crud. I didn't look. Kinda neat though that you were among the professionals of storm chasing.

[lincolnweather]

I did not see the tornado in this storm I was heding south towerd the storm headed for Greensburg.

[FunkyFiveable]

Oh my gosh. Thank you for posting this vid. Ever since i saw a video of a tornado forming in my city and we NEVER got a tornado and stil havent ive been interested in weather and studying storm cells.I could never storm chase i dont think im terrified of tornados :P

[davidcisneros8]

Hey at 1:58 Look Close At The Middle Up You Can Almost see a tornado!