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May 25, 2016 - Solomon/Abilene/Chapman, KS Tornado

This tornado broke the record for longest I've chased a single tornado in all my years. We saw 2 brief tornadoes west of Bennington, KS somewhat early in the storm's life. Then northwest of Solomon, it dropped a violent and long lived high end EF-4 tornado that was on the ground for almost an hour. We eventually lost the tornado in the rain south of Chapman.
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8:19pm | Tornado is probably crossing I-70 at this point as a heavily rain wrapped tornado. We lost visual around this point due to light fading and the HP nature of the storm. We had chased this tornado for a little over an hour, which is the longest single track tornado I've witnessed.
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8:19pm | Tornado is probably crossing I-70 at this point as a heavily rain wrapped tornado. We lost visual around this point due to light fading and the HP nature of the storm. We had chased this tornado for a little over an hour, which is the longest single track tornado I've witnessed.

  • 6:21pm | We're stopped about 4 miles west of Bennington, KS looking west at the base. It's unorganized but big and rain free.
  • 6:26pm | Base gets a bit organized. We watched as a very weak and brief tornado roped around at close range almost right above a few minutes afterwards.
  • 7:06pm | On 250th Avenue, somewhere between Bennington and Solomon. The updraft begins to get rounded and sculpted to our west. Note the small inflow tail forming.
  • 7:09pm | Same spot as before. The mesocyclone begins to really take shape. And the inflow tail begins to grow. A bit of a bowl funnel forms in the middle.
  • 7:16pm | The long track tornado touches down underneath a breathtaking mesocyclone/wall cloud. We were still on 250th Avenue, looking south.
  • 7:19pm | Driving south, looking to the southeast. Somehow we weren't demolished by the giant hail. You can see 2 large stones falling on the bottom left of the picture. The tornado appeared to be stationary at this point.
  • 7:21pm | Looking due east as the tornado begins to wedge out. We were pelted with lots of precip including small hail.
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  • 7:25pm | Now only about 4 miles NW of Solomon, looking ENE. The tornado is almost fully engulfed in rain. But the structure at this point was just unreal. The meso was fully carved out, and the deep blues on the edge of the RFD is unforgettable.
  • 7:45pm | On I-70 between Solomon and Abilene, looking north at the violent tornado. The picture obviously doesn't do it justice but the vertical motion is the strongest I've ever witnessed.
  • 7:45pm | Still on I-70 right before the KHP told us to leave. Interesting to note the wall cloud on the right. I think everyone was expecting a new tornado to pop out of there soon, and the original tornado to begin breaking down. But instead, the tornado kept churning.
  • 8:01pm | For fear of the tornado taking a right turn, we got off I-70 and went east in Abilene. The tornado looked to have shrunk but instead it kept churning and grew larger again.
  • 8:14pm | Highly contrasted picture to bring out the details of what's going on. We're a mile north of Enterprise looking due north. Big RFD cut with the shelf pushing over our heads.
  • 8:19pm | Tornado is probably crossing I-70 at this point as a heavily rain wrapped tornado. We lost visual around this point due to light fading and the HP nature of the storm. We had chased this tornado for a little over an hour, which is the longest single track tornado I've witnessed.
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