"Hopefully I saved some lives": Storm chaser describes witnessing deadly tornado

AccuWeather

Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reflects on his severe weather coverage in Westmoreland, Kansas, on April 30 and describes the eerie sound and destruction of the powerful tornado he witnessed. He also shares why he chases tornadoes.

Transcript

00:00This line of Kansas where storm chaser Aaron Jay Jack is right now and Aaron, you were in Kansas

00:05on Tuesday. You captured some of that amazing but often terrifying footage of tornadoes that struck

00:10Westmoreland, Kansas. Before we go back in time, I want to talk about what's happening right now

00:14because earlier you said it's kind of cool out here right now. Yeah, in Salina, Kansas,

00:20central Kansas, you know, Kansas is in that threat today for severe weather and you guys were

00:25mentioning that warm front, so it is cold right now. It's cool weather right here in Salina. We

00:30just got a little bit of rain and thunder. Storms are moving through the area. Elevated storms,

00:34so no tornado risk with these storms, but that warm front is just a little bit to our south

00:38and as Bernie mentioned, that warm front will be lifting to the north during the day today as the

00:42storm system evolves into severe weather later this afternoon into the evening hours and we'll

00:48be targeting severe weather today just to the southwest of that warm front southwest of Salina,

00:52maybe down the Dodge City, Greensburg, Kansas area up through the Salina area, but we should

00:57see storms form off to the southwest today along that dry line, move to the northeast, east northeast

01:03through the afternoon and the evening hours tonight. Aaron, Bernie's saying yep, yep, yep to

01:07all those locations, so he thinks you're heading to some of the best spots, of course, worst spots

01:12when you're talking about the damage, but to see severe weather and the tornadoes that we saw from

01:16you yesterday, what really captured my eye is all the debris that you could see in there and not just,

01:22dust from maybe a field, but what were you seeing? What was that debris?

01:27Yeah, so a very significant, very incredible tornado. Unfortunately, it caused damage and

01:34there was a death there in Westmoreland, but it was one of those rare cases of tornadoes.

01:39Tornadoes take on many forms. You get those grungy tornadoes that are wrapped in rain,

01:44sometimes not much rain, but a classic tornado. This was a low precipitation supercell,

01:49very eye-based, so very photogenic tornado with blue skies all around and an incredible tornado

01:56formed out of that, started moving to the east. I was in Westmoreland, Kansas before the tornado

02:00even formed, before there was even a tornado warning. A big funnel cloud descended down. I

02:05was trying to get those warnings out to the National Weather Service, trying to alert them to

02:09put a tornado warning out. Fortunately, the tornado sirens did go off there in town and then as that

02:15tornado descended down to the ground, it moved into Westmoreland. I've seen a lot of tornadoes,

02:22I've been around a lot of tornadoes, and this was one of the more spooky tornadoes based on the sound

02:27that this thing was making. The pure suction power of that tornado was just so noisy, so spooky. In

02:34fact, it was so powerful that it sucked a man's little cover out of the road that I was parked at

02:39before I moved out of the way of the tornado. So, a remarkable tornado. Unfortunately, it caused

02:44damage and death in Westmoreland, Kansas yesterday. So scary. And Aaron, this both got me and Bernie

02:50thinking. When you said that you contacted the National Weather Service to give them a heads up,

02:54I mean, you're doing such important work out there. You're not just trying to get the best video,

02:58you're really trying to save people's lives. So, is that something you're doing often out in the

03:01field, kind of letting the National Weather Service know what you're seeing outside?

03:06Yeah, absolutely. That's my number one mission, actually, when I'm out there, is to get those

03:10alerts out first, inform the public, and then secondarily to capture those incredible images,

03:16document what's happening. But yeah, this storm, you know, I could see the couplet forming on radar.

03:22You know, one of the problems with why the National Weather Service needs storm chasers like me out

03:25there, is that radar is looking high up into the atmosphere, so you're not seeing what's happening

03:30down at the surface. So, that's the role of a storm chaser, is to see what's going on at the

03:35surface, get those reports out, and get those warnings to go off, and hopefully that's going

03:39to prompt people to take shelter. Hopefully, that saves some lives. You know, we can't stop the

03:44tornado. There's nothing I could do. It's coming right at me. I had to move out of the way, so I

03:48didn't get hit by the tornado, but at least try and get warnings out there and document what's

03:52happening. Aaron, incredible. I think that really let people know what your role is there outside,

03:57you said, as a storm chaser, to keep people safe. So, please do that again for people today,

04:01especially across Kansas. I know a lot of people are relying on you. Thank you so much. Thanks.

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Transcript

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