Leftovers from the April 26 Chase

This posting contains "leftover" Nikon Z6ii camera images and Go Pro Hero 4 Silver video frame captures from our tornado outbreak chase on Friday, April 26, 2024. Above, storm chaser Ryan Alliss displays a hockey puck-shaped hail stone from the front of our vehicle in this video frame capture at 3:33 pm CDT, while we were stationary and looking north on County Road 14 (background) at County Road A, 4 miles east of Ceresco, Nebraska. We did not encounter these stones while they were falling (fortunately so), and were unsure when the event had occurred.

3:34 pm. Video frame capture with Ryan holding a 3.5 inch hailstone (left). There were stones here up to 4 inches in width--the largest I have personally ever seen!

4:42 pm. Video frame capture. Northbound on Interstate 29 in western Iowa, about a half-mile south of the US Highway 30 exit. Tornado in the distance has crossed the Missouri River into Iowa after having exited the town of Blair in eastern Nebraska.

 

5:04 pm. Video frame capture. Tornado seen while northbound on Laredo Avenue (L23) in the Loess Hills, 4.2 miles southeast of Pisgah, Iowa.

5:07 pm. Video frame capture. Momentarily stopped on Laredo Avenue at Easton Trail (F20L), about 2.8 miles southeast of Pisgah, Iowa. Spotters/chasers converse in the foreground. We would soon continue the chase east (southeast, right).

5:47 pm. "Playing chicken" with the oncoming EF3 wedge tornado that had just impacted the town of Minden, Iowa while southbound on County Road M16, about .6-mile south of the town of Tennant, Iowa. Nikon Z6ii camera.

5:47 pm. (Wide angle) video frame capture of the tornado, moments before we decided to turn around on M16 and find a safer road option!

5:54 pm. Nikon Z6ii camera image. Wall cloud looking southwest while escaping this location southbound (then eastbound) on Street F58, about 1.2-mile southeast of the town of Tennant in Shelby County. This wall cloud had been a wedge tornado about four minutes before, and would recycle into another one about two minutes later. 

 

5:54 pm. Similar image. Areas of the wall cloud have begun to contact the ground again (center), and would soon reform into a full-fledged wedge tornado that would track west and north of Harlan, Iowa.