At least two tornadoes touched down on Tuesday.
The Crops Extension Specialist for the West Central region, John Ippolito says there doesn't appear to be any real damage to crops which are now at that vegetative stage.
"The one area that was impacted I drove through this morning and no evidence that the tornadoes actually really hurt the crop at all. So, that was kind of good news. The hail, they were relatively large stones, but not a lot of them. So not really seeing much in terms of (crop) damage."
Meantime, West Central Online received tons of reaction from people in and around the storm.
Hail and other conditions were seen around the area as well. The Strutt family farm near Brock saw a good amount of damage including a bin being toppled over. Dustin Rieger was the one who went out to check on the family friends farm; and it along with his stretch of farmland was hit hard as he explained.
“His parents farm is on the way home to our place. Actually the twister ended up finishing just across the road from our house.”
Rieger believes he saw the tornado touch down about halfway between two of the families farmhouses, and he described some of the damage the storm did to him and his neighbours field.
“From there it went through our horse pasture, across my brother in-laws lentil field. Sheared off the lentils in its path and ended up finishing right behind his bin yard, across the road from our place.”
Rieger confirmed one bin went over and two others were skidded. He estimates the twister took about a “mile long swipe” and that it looked like someone had taken a weed wacker to it. As mentioned for damage done to his land, it hit Rieger’s horse pasture, along with breaking one wire and one post. One power line did manage to stay up despite being in the heart of the storm.
“It was wicked,” explained Rieger, “It formed quick, but it moved really really slow. It was eery how slow it was moving.”
Some panic was in play when the twister was set on a path towards Rieger’s house. Thankfully everyone ended up safe and for Rieger, the storm was something he can’t compare anything to.
“You know I’ve seen funnel clouds come out and I mean they only get a little ways down from the cloud and usually dissipate. I’ve been around this area for 18 years now and this is the first one in close proximity I have seen touch down.”
No slouch to the weather system, Rieger himself has some experience in the real tornado alley back when he was hunting in Oklahoma. He made mention of the states impressive Doppler radar technology, and that while he saw a few small twisters, what he saw in his time down there was nothing compared to yesterday’s.
“Where it finished was probably only about 1000 yards from my front step.”
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