Arthur Tornado Road

Members of our storm chase vehicle yell, "Let's go!" to the occupants of our accompanying chase car while standing alongside County Highway M31 and looking north near the intersection of County Road D54 (330th Street) around 8:19 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011 (top image). The chasers are from left: Bryce Link, Ryan Alliss and Ethan Milius. Both groups would resume their chase toward the tornado seen in the background, at this point about 8 miles from our position. The town of Arthur, Iowa in the western part of the state was about 7.5 miles toward the small light at right center. The tornado has touched down a couple minutes later in the bottom image and formed into a wedge. Ryan Alliss drives the chase vehicle at left. The tornado would later be rated an EF2. Several minutes after this image was taken the tornado further morphed into a stovepipe shape before quickly dissipating. This was a strong cyclic storm system producing several tornadoes on this night. These are video frame captures made possible by flashes of lightning.