2004 STORM CHASE ACCOUNTS

APRIL 30, 2004: SOUTHCENTRAL OKLAHOMA/NORTHCENTRAL TEXAS (Supercell)

...First off, thanks to Jared Guyer for the great nowcasting he provided during this chase...

Brian Thalken, Jim Kaiser and myself left Lincoln at 6am.  Our target was an area from Wichita Falls, TX south to Abilene, TX.  We arrived in Oklahoma City by 12:30pm, and then made our way southwest toward Wichita Falls on I-44.  At 1:45pm, we spotted a large cell developing to our south (we had just passed through Lawton, OK).  This cell was moving east along the Red River...it had a huge back sheared anvil, and the updraft tower on the flank of the storm was rock hard.  In addition, this developing storm was moving along an outflow boundary, which could be a potentially significant ingredient for tornadogenesis later in the day.  At 2:05pm, we exited I-44 and went east on highway 70, which follows the north side of the Red River.  The NWS had just issued a tornado warning for our cell, with spotter reports of funnels and a possible touchdown on the Texas side of the border.  We were on the north side of the cell, so we would have to punch through the core in order to reach the tornado warned part of the storm...so, we turned south on highway 81, heading for the town of Ryan, OK.  The heavy rain and small hail we occasionally encountered soon cleared off as we blasted south through the forward flank downdraft, and soon, we could spot a rain free base with an incredible shelf/wall cloud type feature towering above it.

This storm was strongly rotating, with large amounts of scud getting sucked into the wall cloud from the forward flank outflow boundary.  We parked and observed this cell as it moved east toward the town of Ryan, OK, but we soon realized that we needed to retreate eastward ourselves as the rotating wall cloud was about to overtake our position.  By 2:50-3pm, we had repositioned ourselves about 5 miles further east, just in time to observed the low-level mesocyclone really get its act together.  It appeared that an RFD was beginning to descend around the area of low-level rotation, which caused that area of rotation to rapidly intensify.  The wall cloud was being fed by a strong tail cloud/inflow band as it began to take on a circular appearance.  The RFD expanded eastward and northward, and then wrapped around the center of strongest rotation back to our northwest.  This storm was so close to producing a tornado, but then, as our nowcaster Jared Guyer soon informed us, another cell back to the west was beginning to merge with ours...effectively dumping its precipitation into our updraft and most likely killing the tornadic potential of our storm.  After this cell became outflow dominant, we decided to target other storms further to the south, but by this time, too much lift in the presence of too little capping resulted in multiple updrafts in every direction and a low to mid-level cloud deck which decreased instability as well as visibility.  The fist cell of the day was our window of opportunity, but it failed to produce...but the storm was still very exciting to watch and made the chase worth-while.

MAY 8, 2004: CENTRAL IOWA (HP SUPERCELL)

Today's target was around the Atlantic, IA region.  Since Brian and I departed for our chase today at 4:30pm, we were able to monitor initiation via internet as we drove north to Omaha and then east along I-80 toward central IA.  One cell, which briefly looked supercellular developed just west of Des Moines and then weakened as it moved northeast.  However, a second cell developed near Atlantic at around 5:30pm along a stationary frontal boundary.  This cell rapidly strengthened, and by 6pm, we were in position to intercept.  By 6:30-7pm, we were just south of the updraft, and the storm appeared to be pushing outflow hard from the north.  Then, the NWS issued a tornado warning for an area of the storm that was just to our northeast.  We raced east along highway 44 and observed alot of dust being kicked up underneath the base.  As we went further east, we eventually spotted a developing wall cloud to our north, with lots of scud getting sucked into this feature horizontally.  Rotation within this wall cloud began to increase, and the base of the cloud began to lower.  It appeared it was ready to produce a tornado, but the mid-level mesocyclone appeared to wrap rain around from the southeast, which then obscured our view.  We continued east, observing CG's in every direction.  The structure this storm was beginning to take on rapidly improved as well...it appeared to be evolving into a classic, text-book perfect HP supercell, with a large, rounded updraft which rotated back around to the northeast flank, and surrounded a large, circular rain core on the rear flank.  The back lighting was terrific for photography, and we followed the storm east all the way to Des Moines.  The storm had a continuous tornado warning issued for it from ~6:30 to 8:30pm.  We called it a day at sunset, with a great lightning display present to our north to keep us entertained all the way back to Nebraska. 

MAY 11, 2004: WESTERN NEBRASKA (NON-SEVERE LP STORM)

A rather uneventful chase today...Jason Ehmke and myself made great time to our target today, which was North Platte, NE.  The weather pattern appeared to be evolving favorably for supercells across the region.  A large thunderstorm developed 60 miles to our southwest at 3:50pm, and appeared to be rapidly strengthening, with a long anvil streaming toward the northeast.  However, this cell rapidly dissipated as we drove south to get in position to intercept it.  So, we decided to drive back north to North Platte and hope other towers to our west would develop further.  As we drove north, an LP updraft developed just to our west, so we pulled over and got about 10 minutes of video.  This cell's updraft had great mid-level rotation, and appeared it might be able to continue strengthening.  But then, almost suddenly its updraft glaciated and the cell vaporized.  After that brief moment of excitement, nothing else happened for the rest of the day...overall, this chase was a bust.

MAY 12, 2004: SOUTHWEST KANSAS (SUPERCELL OUTBREAK)

Brian Thalken, Jim Kaiser, Adam Schlautman, and myself observed supercell after supercell in southwest Kansas today.  We targeted Pratt, KS, arriving by 4:30pm to find an agitated Cu field developing ahead of a dryline to the south, and along a southwest-northeast oriented stationary front.  By 5:55pm, an incredibly strong tower erupted to our southwest along the dryline, and quickly developed into a supercell.  The knuckles underneath the anvil were incredible, and the tower was rock hard.  As we drove south down highway 281, the base came into view, which had a developing flange shaped appearance.  We then positioned ourselves directly east of the storm at 6:25pm (it was about 5-10 miles due west), and enjoyed one of the most breath-taking storms I have ever seen.  The circular anvil diverged away from the top of the cylindrical updraft, with a brilliant blue sky for a background and an expansive valley of rangeland as a foreground.  The supercell then went through a split, with the left member moving north, and the southern split heading southeast.  Meanwhile, another small supercell had developed south of our location, and it also went through a split, sending its left split going due north, which eventually merged with our right turner.  This was an incredible site to witness as well, because our right turner began to ingest cloud material from the southern storm at its base.  The storm then went through a new updraft cycle and began to cork-screw, with lightning spitting out of the anvil every few minutes.

We eventually had to reposition due to rain and possible hail, and at the same time, a storm to our northwest was issued a tornado warning.  We didn't want to risk a broken wind shield in order to intercept this storm, besides, we had a rapidly strengthening storm to our southwest, which we decided to intercept instead.  This supercell was a classic LP, with a tilted mid-level "plate" wrapping around the updraft, which took on the appearance of a barber poll.  At the base, a low wall cloud hung, with rapid rotation being observed as scud ascended into the storm.  Several funnels dropped out of this base, and a tornado seemed to be a sure thing, but then the RFD wrapped hard around the wall cloud, which caused it to dissipate.  We allowed this storm to pass over us and then to our east (the mid-level rotation was incredible).  We then followed from behind as the base began to reorganize and take on a circular appearance.  Again, it seemed like it was going to produce, but this time, rotation never really tightened up at the base.  We then let this cell go and went south to attempt to intercept another tornado warned supercell.  We couldn't intercept due to heavy rain and potential hail, but 30 minutes later, we witnessed one of the best CG displays I have ever seen.  They were everywhere!!  We pulled over into a drive way at about 9pm in order to gain a better perspective on the tornadic potential for a cell that was moving over us, and then, out of no where, a brilliant flash of light occurs in front of us...a telephone poll was struck, only 30 feet from our vehicle.  That was the closest I have ever been to a lightning bolt.  What a way to end one of the best chases I have ever experienced.

MAY 16, 2004: CENTRAL NEBRASKA (SUPERCELL)

Brian and myself targeted an area between Kearney and McCook today.  After reaching Lexington, NE, we decided to head southwest down highway 283 toward the McCook area.  At 3:30pm, we soon spotted a rapidly developing thunderstorm which had a solid forward flank precip core.  We passed through the core, which was putting out small hail, and almost immediately after we reached the base, a tornado warning was issued for this cell by the NWS.  We observed a large rain free base which appeared to be very agitated, however, it was also slightly elevated, and didn't appear to pose any tornado threat.  Still, we decided to follow the cell northeast, as the base went through a bit of re-organization.  After reaching Lexington once again, we headed east down I-80 in order to reposition with respect to the RFB.  The storm was given a third tornado warning as we did this.  We then went north from Overton, NE and entered the Sandhills.  After parking on top of a hill, we got excellent video of a new wall cloud 3 miles to our southwest which was rapidly ingesting scud from the rain core.  This wall cloud moved almost over us, with the base of wall cloud literally boiling with agitation.  Rotation was also observed, but tornadogenesis was still not immanent.  

At 5:50pm, the storm was now moving through Miller, NE.  The tornado warning was dropped for the storm, and it appeared as if it were weakening.  We then made the fateful choice of letting the storm move off to the northeast while we drove southeast toward Kearney.  We decided to take a chance and move east down I-80 in order to reassess the severe potential of this storm to our north, or else drive on home.  A new tornado warning was issued for the storm as we were driving east from Kearney, and the storm produced a few brief tornadoes during the next 45 minutes.  We decided to drive north from Grand Island and intercept the storm once again as it moved east through Howard County.  The structure had rapidly improved as we were doing this...it was obvious that this cell had evolved into a strong supercell.  At 7:15pm, we were close enough to see the base, with rapid, broad scale rotation observed.  It was very dark underneath the wall cloud, so it was impossible to tell exactly what was happening.  We followed the supercell northeast into Merrick and Nance Counties as the storm went through an occlusion, but the tornado window had once again closed on us...it was just bad luck that we let the storm go at the wrong time.

MAY 21, 2004: NORTHWEST IOWA (SUPERCELL)

I intercepted a supercell south of Sioux City, IA just after sunset.  This storm put on an awesome lightning display, and also contained a vigorous mesocyclone and clear slot, which I followed for several hours through northwest IA.

MAY 22, 2004: SOUTHERN NEBRASKA (SUPERCELL)

A slightly frustrating chase today.  I intercepted a supercell east of McCook, NE.  After waiting thirty minutes near Saronville, NE, I could see a large anvil originating in southwest NE.  I thought at the time that this would be the main show, and thus gave up on initiation south/southwest of my location.  As luck would have it, I intercepted the McCook storm, and could see another storm violently erupting back east where I had been sitting just an hour before...that would be the Hallam, NE tornadic supercell (I wish the best for the communities affected by that storm).  I followed this supercell all the way back into southeastern NE...it produced multiple tornadoes before I arrived, but refused to produce again the second I intercepted it...that's the way it goes sometimes.

MAY 24, 2004: NORTHERN MISSOURI (TORNADIC SUPERCELL/TWO TORNADOES)

I got off of work at 3:15 today, and raced down I-29 to St. Joe.  Surface winds at this location had veered to the southwest, and I heard reports of a tornado warned storm 30-40 miles to my east, so I decided quickly that this was the storm I needed to intercept.  At 6:30, I approached Chillicothe, right on the heels of a tornado to my east.  The back side of the updraft was the most helical thing I have ever seen.  I soon observed several different debris paths as I moved east through the town, with a grain bin in the middle of the road, a semi flipped over, minor damage to houses, and trees in the middle of the road.  After I passed through Chillicothe, I spotted a hybrid cylinder/cone tornado about 5 miles due east at ~6:45, which was barely visible in normal lighting, but was spectacular when back-lit by lightning.  This tornado dissipated soon after I spotted it, and I raced east in order to get ahead of the base of the updraft.

Soon after I got out in front of the storm, inflow winds rapidly increased...I would estimate between 30-50 mph.  The storm was really beginning to rotate hard at this time as well.  A distinct area of low-level rotation became visible off to my northwest, and I decided to pull over at a truck wash and let the storm approach me.  Violent rotation could now be observed, and a large tornado became faintly visible underneath the dark base at around 7:35 (location was near Brookfield on highway 36).  After 5-10 minutes of video, I then raced east again.  The structure this storm was displaying was amazing.  The updraft was a huge cylinder, wrapping around toward the north-northwest.  I used a wide angle lens to capture this, and have been very impressed with the results.  I continued to follow the storm east on 36 all the way to Monroe City, MO.  The storm put on a great lightning display, with bolts dancing around and lighting up the huge mesocyclone as night-time set in.

MAY 29, 2004: NORTHCENTRAL KANSAS (TORNADIC SUPERCELL/FIVE TORNADOES)

My sister Melissa and myself reached the Concordia, KS area by 2:50 and waited for initiation, which didn't take too long.  At 3:15, towers began to erupt to our west, and by 4:15, we were approaching a developing supercell southwest of Concordia.  As we approached the RFB on highway 24, we immediately spotted a slinder, needle thin tornado at 4:38 near Asherville, KS.  It dissipated 20 seconds later, but then redeveloped after a minute or so.  Then, the RFB went through a period of reorganization during the next hour.  Inflow from the east picked up to 40 mph during this time, and at 5:50, a new wall cloud developed to our northwest.  We rapidly repositioned, heading north towards Jamestown, KS.  At 5:54, an elongated cone tornado developed on the south side of the wall cloud, but dissipated about a minute or so later.  However, the rotation within the wall cloud was becoming violent, and it was obvious that a large tornado was about to form any minute.  

We went north several more miles, and then parked just as the debris cloud developed underneath the wall cloud.  This debris cloud rapidly filled with dirt, and then expanded rapidly to about a mile in diameter.  Rain was also being pulled around the circulation, but was thin enough so that we could still see the tornado for about five minutes.  Then, rain completely wrapped around, and our viewing position was no longer favorable.  During this time, an anticyclonic tornado developed five miles to our west.  We drove north a bit to find a road option around the big tornado, but did not succeed, so we went back south, and then observed the anticyclonic tornado lofting a lot of debris, including pieces of man-made structures high into the air.  We decided to park, and got about 20 seconds of video (I was able to look almost straight up at the tornado at this time).  We then headed a bit further south, just in case the tornado overtook us, and then headed back north towards Jamestown.

At Jamestown, we spotted another very thin tornado west of town which was producing a vigorous debris cloud at the ground.  We decided to let this tornado go so that we could catch back up to the storm.  By 6:50, we passed through Concordia and then raced north on highway 81.  The edge of the supercell was just north of us, so we went east on highway 148, and managed to get about five miles east of the meso, which had evolved into a classic wedding cake by this time (at times, a stack of plates was present from the base all the way up to the anvil).  During the next 30 minutes or so, the supercell displayed strong rotation at the base, with cone shaped lowerings approaching the ground.  However, we could never confirm whether anything touched down during this time because it was too dark underneath, and rain wrapping was becoming a serious problem (the storm had quickly evolved into an HP monster).  At 8:07, we parked near Narka, KS and continued to observe very strong inflow and rotation.  My logistical senses went down the drain during this time because I was so focused on spotting a tornado back near the rain core, that I forgot to keep track of an escape route.  So...to make a long story short, the rain wrapped meso overtook us, with violent rain bands surrounding us (I was sure I felt the car being lifted off the ground several times) and golf ball size hail pounding my car.  I wasn't worried about dents, but I didn't want the windshield to be destroyed.  Luckily, we survived this ordeal (with just minor hail dents on the hood and top), and hopefully, I have learned from that mistake.

JUNE 10, 2004: SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA (TORNADO/SUPERCELL)

Arrived in Lexington, NEB by 6pm today, with several strong storms present to my west and southwest.  After heading west on highway 23, I approached the town of Farnam and parked at the intersection of highway 47 and 23.  At ~6:55pm, a well defined wall cloud to my northwest produced a brief tornado (~10-15 miles northwest of Farnam).  I decided to head north in order to gain better contrast/back lighting...during my jog north, a large, bowl shaped lowering emerged under the base, although hills were in my way, which prevented any observation of a second touchdown.  At 7:15, a supercell to my southwest rapidly strengthened, and developed a rounded base and some nice updraft structure.  I got video, and then followed the cell north to Gothenburg, where the storm intensified a bit more and developed an area of strong low-level rotation.  The storm then appeared to "gust" out, and rapidly weakened soon after.

JUNE 11, 2004: NORTHERN IOWA (TORNADO/SUPERCELL)

Brian Thalken and myself took the grand tour of northern IA and southern MN today.  We intercepted our first supercell just west of Mason City, IA at 4:15pm, and followed this cell north into southern MN.  During this time, a second supercell developed 20 miles to the east.  It had a strong updraft tower and was relatively isolated at the time, so we quickly repositioned toward its base.  However, by 5:30, the cell was overtaken by outflow from another storm, which resulted in a beautiful whales mouth.  At this time, we believed the chase might be over, so we ate at a subway, and then drove back south into IA.  As we approached Ft. Dodge, IA, tornado warnings were being issued for a supercell to our west.  This storm had great structure, so we blasted west and stopped at Blainsburg, IA to get some structure shots.  The storm then appeared to weaken during the next 30 minutes, so we began to head south toward I-80.  However, we could see a lowered base off to the west, backlit by the setting sun.  We decided to give the storm one more chance, and as we approached the base, a cone shaped lowering emerged, and tightened up into skinny funnel, which was reaching for the ground.  We drove through an area of precip, and then parked 1/4th-1/2 mile east of the tornado.  It was not a strong tornado, but since we were so close to it, we got great video and still-photos...not a bad way to save what was initially a rather frustrating chase.

JUNE 12, 2004: CENTRAL KANSAS

High based, skinny LP'ish type storms developed from McPherson, KS north toward Salina, while a tornadic supercell developed close to Wichita, KS.  Brian Thalken and myself intercepted the cells in central/northcentral KS, with nothing too eventful taking place (in hindsight, we should have kept heading south to Wichita).

JULY 12, 2004: CENTRAL NEBRASKA (SUPERCELL)

I managed to intercept the Wheeler County, NE supercell by 7:15pm.  However, it was dropping due south, with the meso likely back-building slightly to the southwest...so, it was difficult to get into position in order to observe the RFB and any tornadic activity.  I did manage to get a brief glimpse of the base as I was driving west on highway 91, west of Albion, NE at around 8:15-8:30pm...but, outflow/precip/hail soon pushed hard to the south, and my chase quickly ended.  Mike Hollingshead had much better luck, and has posted some great pics here.

JULY 15, 2004: NORTHCENTRAL NEBRASKA (SUPERCELL)

I was able to get off of work a little early today, and was heading west on highway 92 by 4-4:30.  My original target was near O'Neill, NE, but as I passed Wahoo, NE, I spotted a massive circular anvil directly to my west.  I decided to drive further west to investigate this storm, but quickly changed my mind when I noticed explosive development 100 miles to my north.  Storm motion would be southerly, so I raced north on highway 281.  By 7pm, I reached a location about 20 miles south of the updraft base and got some good video and stills of this supercell.  The storm stopped producing tornadoes just as I arrived, but the structure was well worth the trip.

AUGUST 26, 2004: SOUTHWEST IOWA (TORNADO/SUPERCELL)

Brian Thalken and myself left Omaha at about 5pm today (somewhat of a late start).  A thunderstorm had rapidly developed in southeastern Nebraska before we left, and was moving east into southwest Iowa, where a very unstable and highly sheared environment existed.  I was aware that the storm had gone through a split right before we left, and we encountered the northern split as we went south on I-29.  After entering the northern split, we exited off of the interstate and headed east.  As we got gas in Sidney, IA (~5:45pm), the Omaha NWS issued a tornado warning for the southern split.  We were "embedded" within the right-turners forward flank precip core.  During the next 30-minutes, we drove east down highway 2 battling the heavy rain, then went south toward the town of Coin, IA.  Just before reaching Coin, we exited the precip core and a massive mesocyclone towered above us.  The storm was highly sculpted and rotating hard.  We headed a mile or so west of Coin in order to observe the base...a strongly rotating wall cloud was present with an impressive clear slot wrapping toward it.  

We were soon forced to go east in order to stay ahead of the low-level mesocyclone.  As we approached College Springs, IA, the low-level rotation began to intensify even more, taking on a skewed horseshoe shape with an area of agitated cloud tags in the middle.  We soon found a place to park as the mesocyclone slowly moved east.  Soon, a long condensation tube reached for the ground (~6:35-6:45), followed by a 5-10 minute period of suction vortices dancing around an invisible origin.  An incredible weird twist of fate had suddenly developed.  Brians sister and brother-in-law's house was right in the path of this multiple vortex tornado.  Luckily, the tornado missed their house by a few hundred yards, but unfortunately, their neighbors house was hit.  We could easily see trees and debris getting sucked into the tornadoes inflow as it passed by their house.  After the mesocyclone passed by and slowly dissipated, we let the storm move on to the east and went back to check on Brians family.  Everyone was ok...what an intense chase!