Close Call At Nemaha

At left is a sequential set of images captured from three video frame stills at

Nemaha, Iowa around 9:12 PM, Saturday,

April 9, 2011. Our lead storm chase vehicle is approaching the junction of County Highway D15, northbound on County Highway M50. The top left panel shows our approach with the reflection of a highway sign at right center; the middle panel shows chase navigator/spotter Ethan Milius (right) pointing left as he exclaims, "There's a wedge at 11:00 o'clock!"; the bottom panel shows a portion of the wedge tornado as seen through the back driver's side window. As golf ball size hail began to fall on us and high wind rocked our car, we made a hard right--almost on two wheels--onto County Highway D15. Our driver, Ryan Alliss (upper left, top panel) sped us east, escaping blinding rain and hail from the outer circulation of the tornado. The blue "X" on the map shows our location here. The wedge was part of several during a tornado outbreak in western Iowa on this day. A little too close for comfort this time!