5/12/04 Reports: KS,CO

[Matthew Hatton]

Sorry to hear about your bad times there - I was lucky enough to see the after dark tornado South of Harper but since we are talking about missing out - I was after the cyclic supercell near Limon, CO the other day but veered W to watch a more northerly storm. I could have made it before the southern most storm produced the 7 tornadoes but instead I had to make do with a few brief funnels in poor lighting conditions and then a two hour drive around the Pawnshee Grasslands on dirt tracks!

 

[Jared Mysko]

What a day!

I was just watching the CTV news in Canada and saw that a chaser caught a house lifting up off the ground on video! The news story was only approximately 5 seconds (maybe more but it should have been much longer IMO). All that I caught was that it was in Kansas and it showed a large building go straight up and then disappear!

Does anyone know who or what I am talking about or was it a dream, lol.

Jared

 

[Lance Maxwell]

Yes Jared, I saw the exact same video on the 10pm news tonight here in OKC on KOCO. That was some really great video and rivals the Manchester, SD video from last year for showing how a tornado affects the structure of a home.

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by Ryan Pfannkuch
Well, if you want to read an account of spectacular tornadoes and a perfect chase, you might as well skip to the next post....here I present a look at this event from the perspective of chasers who made a key decision or two that led to missing the Big Show...

This event was a big-time reminder of how storm chasing all boils down to a key decision here or there that can lead to a dramatic (or not-so-dramatic) domino-effect of emotion. And that my friends is what makes this little hobby of ours so fulfilling, no matter which side of an event you end up on.

I know exactly what you mean, because truth be told, we were targeting the NW storm as well, but were approaching from the south, so we had to drive through the south storm to reach it. Fortunately for us, the south storm decided to go crazy as we were approaching, so we chose to stick with it.

Chasing is effected by real-time, intense decision-making, which, as you say, makes it all the more appealing!!!! Though we started off in a Super 8 parking lot using wifi, once we decided to move east (before initiation), we were going pure visual (as my nowcaster was my chase partner). Tornadoes are great however you get them, but nailing them when going pure visual is the sweetest taste in chasing, IMO.

 

[Jason_Politte]

Originally posted by Jared Mysko
What a day!

I was just watching the CTV news in Canada and saw that a chaser caught a house lifting up off the ground on video! The news story was only approximately 5 seconds (maybe more but it should have been much longer IMO). All that I caught was that it was in Kansas and it showed a large building go straight up and then disappear!

Does anyone know who or what I am talking about or was it a dream, lol.

The video that's making the rounds of the house near Attica being lifted was shot by Scott McPartland, who was chasing with Dave Lewison and Chris Kridler. You can find their images of the same event along with their other catches that day at:

http://www.facethewind.com/WX2004/may12.html (Dave's page)
http://skydiary.com/gallery/chase2004/chase2004c.html (Chris' page)

Jason

 

[Brian Brubaker]

My story

This is another account that ended in disappointment.

I'm just getting into chasing. I don't have a meteorological background and I have much to learn. My family and I set out from Buhler (NE of Hutchinson) about 6:30, heading for the Kingman/Pratt area, armed with a hand-held scanner, mini-DV, and digital camera. We reached Kingman about 7:15 and had heard about the Medicine Lodge tornado. We were north of all the storms and once we got about 10 miles west of Kingman, started hearing about the Sharon tornado on KFDI radio. (KFDI-FM is a great station to listen to when severe weather is in the Wichita area. They also simulcast with KWCH-12, the local CBS affiliate)

We went south toward Zenda. Part way there we noticed a lowering to the SW, which must have been the one S of Pratt. We pulled over and I got some video. The rotation wasn't very intense and it disapated rather quickly so we continued heading south. When we reached Zenda, reports were coming in about the Attica tornado, so we plotted our course for Attica and would be approaching from the NW. Part way there, we hit heavy rain and small hail. We pulled off at an intersection on a curve to decide where to go. When we decided to continue on to Attica, a line of chasers, including a LE vehicle followed us. (This felt a little weird, being such an amateur.)

Once we were due north of Attica, we all turned south and after a few miles began to see several chasers on the side of the road. We stopped too and observed the cloud movement going on around us. After a few minutes we continued south and after a couple of miles we topped a hill and came across numerous vehicles, including what appeared to be a storm-tour group (3 white vans). We got out, did some more filming then continued south again. We hit the north edge of Attica when quarter-size hail began to fall. We followed the lead of others who headed back north. We let about 10 minutes pass and attempted to go south again to catch 160 east. Again, we got pelted with large hail. It was getting dark about this time, and not being comfortable chasing after dark, decided to head back home.

The storms, while not tornadic at that time, were still intense with heavy rain and hail. When we hit Kingman, it really poured and saw some localized flooding at a few intersection on 54 in the town.

While it was the most exciting chase I've been on in my young chasing career, it was disappointing to be so close, but arrive too late to get a good, southerly view of the storms.

 

[Verne Carlson]

Here's a link to video of the house being carried away in Attica, KS

http://www.local6.com/weather/3303817/detail.html

 

[Jared Mysko]

I'm still rubbing my eyes, but that looks a hell of a video! :shock: Congratulations to Scott McPhartand for surviving with a video that close. I wonder how close he actually was and how come he is not on this stormtrack forum. Someone invite him. He's a celebrity now! But of course congratulations to everyone that had a fun day on Wednesday. Cheers! Here's to another safe and successful chase day. The year is still young!


Jared Mysko
Famous Tornado Video Critic

8)

Originally posted by Jason_Politte+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jason_Politte)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Jared Mysko

What a day!

I was just watching the CTV news in Canada and saw that a chaser caught a house lifting up off the ground on video! The news story was only approximately 5 seconds (maybe more but it should have been much longer IMO). All that I caught was that it was in Kansas and it showed a large building go straight up and then disappear!

Does anyone know who or what I am talking about or was it a dream, lol.

The video that's making the rounds of the house near Attica being lifted was shot by Scott McPartland, who was chasing with Dave Lewison and Chris Kridler. You can find their images of the same event along with their other catches that day at:

http://www.facethewind.com/WX2004/may12.html (Dave's page)
http://skydiary.com/gallery/chase2004/chase2004c.html (Chris' page)

Jason[/b]

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I have posted some video of our close-up action in Attica, KS. I've cut the beginning part of the tornado, as I wanted to limit the size of the file. You can download it at http://www.tornadocentral.com/chasing/2004...aTornadoWMV.wmv

The software I use for compression seems to either let me make a 5mb WMV file, a pretty poor REAL file, or a larger 50mb mpeg file... Hmm... Oh well...

Jeff

 

[Sheila_Ward]

After a 1,013 mile, 20+ hour, round trip Wednesday, put me on the list of those who missed the big show :sad1: I made the decision to stay on the northern storms. I don't really have any more to add than what's already been reported.

I did get some video where you can see the night tornado during lightning flashes. It was a spooky sight.

I'm disappointed to have been that close and miss the action, but that's how it goes. I also realized the down side to chasing alone. With so many things happening so fast, it's hard to keep up with the radio reports, watch the sky, take still pictures and take video....all at the same time!! But man it was fun :lol:

I hope to get some pics and maybe the night video posted on my website this weekend.

Congrats to those who saw the show. My thoughts are also with those who were victims of the destruction.

 

[George Flickinger]

Jeff,

I saw your pictures of Attica. Dave and I were on the county road which dropped south out of town about .5 miles south of the RR tracks. The tornado passed in front of us, as we shot pictures of it from the west side.

We then ran down a dirt road which led into a field to videotape it destroying a barn.

We could hear the sound of metal bending and ripping away.

My batteries died in my camera after taking that picture which is posted a few pages back on this site. Dave videoed the barn being ripped apart, and we were about 200 yards from the barn. The top of the funnel was nearly straight overhead.

We showed the video on my TV station in Tulsa.

We then got debris consisting of hay and insulation falling from the sky....pretty cool day. I'll now always keep an extra set of batteries in my pocket...

 

[Jeff Snyder]

George....

We saw very similar things. Right after I cut that video, debris was starting to fall on us too -- hay, insulation, etc. We crossed the damage path probably 30-45 seconds after it crossed, before I heard that they closed it down.

 

[Jason Montano]

I have my photos and chase account up on my website.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I looked at Scott's video and his was much closer than I was. The CNN video was the one I thought was Scott's. That was very close, I don't know how you didn't make a deuce when that thing passed right in front of you, it scared the hell out of me and I was back quite aways when it got that big. Congradulations!

 

[Eric Edgar]

I'd like to second Shane's comments about low-rent, low-tech chasing. There have been many times that I would have been more successful had I had on-board data or even a good nowcaster (various family members have proven woefully inadequate at identifying even the most basic satellite and radar signatures). But man does it feel great when I make a forecast, make it to my target, make a few crucial game-time decisions, and bag a storm.

I've considered tricking out my car, and nearly called a few of the phone numbers posted on StormTrack as nowcasters-for-hire. And I might still do it someday. But for now I'm happy where I'm at. It's kind of like in math class when they wouldn't let you use calculators--you've got to learn how to do it the hard way to appreciate the technology.