5/24/04: REPORTS: NE/KS/IA/MO tornadofest

[Chris C Sanner]

All the pics are at:

http://www.maddenmania.com/images/chase/05...52404/my24.html

 

[Shane Adams]

Nice pics Chris - cool tornado!!!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Left Tulsa late Sunday night, stayed in Joplin overnight then headed for Nebraska City in the morning. Met up with Fabian Guerra, Pete McConnell, and Damon Shaw north of St. Joseph. Originally started for Beatrice, but by 3PM there was already a large messy tornado-warned storm between our location on I-29 and the road to Beatrice. We drove west a short distance toward the NE/KS/MO tri-state point near Falls City to look for structure, but could see none. Started getting rain and hail, so headed back to I-29. This storm would go on to produce the Albany MO tornado after we left it. No other good road options around the storm, so we just dropped back south and decided to target the I-70 corridor around Topeka. Saw the cell near Hastings but made the HUGE mistake of blowing it off - because the nearby Falls City storm looked so bad, we were concerned the Hastings/Hebron storm would be similar. Found out later that was the biggest mistake of the season - ouch. Was concerned about metro area chasing around Topeka and KC but it looked like the best area, and we thought there would be nice discrete cells along or south of I-70.

When the Topeka cells went up, we jumped on them and were set up watching the rain-free base of the southern-most cell near Lyndon within 20 minutes:

http://wvlightning.com/2004/may24a.jpg

Great inflow and moderate rising scud motion under the base. Wall clouds tried to form and dissipate but just could not get going. Rotation was never very rapid but was distinct. Nice hook showed up on radar for a moment as we watched the storm. We repositioned several times to get closer, but everything fell apart as we got within a half-mile or so of the meso near Burlingame. A tornado warning was issued for Burlingame and the sirens sounded, but we never saw anything interesting. Dropped back south to get to a new cell forming on the southern flank near Osage City, under a constant barrage of intense CGs. Lightning was so intense and frequent that when we got to the base of the new storm at Melvern Lake, I stayed in the truck! If you know me that says a lot- I'm a lightning fanatic, but this stuff was rediculous:

http://wvlightning.com/2004/may24d.jpg
http://wvlightning.com/2004/may24c.jpg
http://wvlightning.com/2004/may24b.jpg

We could make out a new, large lowering to the northwest near Lyndon. Never could get a good look at it due to the hills, by the time we closed in on it it became disorganized and invisible anyway in the fading daylight. Stopped again at Lebo to shoot lightning photos on the backside of the storms, then headed to Emporia for the night.

It really hurt to see the awesome tornadoes that the Hebron storm produced, because we could have easily caught it had we decided to go for it. Oh well, you can't get them all! Still been an awesome season.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Had *THE* best chase day of my life to date on Monday, May 24; witnessing seven (possibly eight) tornadoes; all tripoded/well documented on video and 35mm slides across Theyer (sp?) Co. NE and points south towards Belleville, KS (sp?). Following that event; shot SE towards the Topeka/I-35/335 cooridor SUPs which contained explosive photogenic goodness thru sunset; concluding with a lightshow and chaser ho down at a Lyndon, KS gas station. I am still humbled by the entire experience.

..Blake..

 

[Ryan Pfannkuch]

Fellow IA chaser Kirk Garwood and myself had the chase of our lives Monday playing the "let it get close and then go NOW" game with the NE/KS storm. More details to come but vid captures courtesy of Kirk can be viewed at:

http://homepage.mac.com/kgar/

Interesting sidenote to the day was that at one point early on we were within 25 miles or so of the eventual Albany HP monster as it initiated near Falls City but decided to let it go and take our chances further west. And yes, that gamble paid off. It was entertaining listening to other chasers on ham radio simplex frequencies near Beatrice agonizing over whether to blast east or drift west. What a day...

 

[Scott Blair]

May 24, 2004
Conception / Stanberry / Albany, MO Tornadoes



May 24, 2004. Marcie Martin and I caught the beginnings of a long-lived tornadic cyclic supercell near Mound City, MO by mid afternoon. Our first observed tornado condensed down southeast of Conception at 4:57pm. The rope tornado quickly lifted and resulted in no damage. Following the meso eastward, another tornado touched down at 5:01pm about three miles east of Stanberry, MO. The tornado was a brief, high contrast rope and dissipated within a minute. The next tornado developed at 5:06pm four miles east of Stanberry, MO. We observed the multi-vortex tornado at a close proximity of fifty yards while 100mph wind gusts blasted the chase vehicle. The tornado maximum circulation was about 1/10 mile wide and sent debris into the air. After about fifteen minutes, the tornado moved into Albany, MO resulting in power flashes and F2 damage.

The account and photos can be found at:
http://www.targetarea.net/may2404.html

I hope to soon post photos from the many other chase days during the past two weeks. Take care!

Scott Blair
http://www.targetarea.net

 

[Mike Umscheid]

I intercepted the Belleville, KS supercell right around 5:00pm, so I missed much of the incredible tornado activity that occurred prior to this time, but did manage to observe the Belleville tornado at 5pm.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.underthemeso.com/chase2004/may24/belleville_distant7.jpg
Driving west on US36 toward the prolific tornadic supercell as it was near Chester

[Broken External Image]:http://www.underthemeso.com/chase2004/may24/belleville_tor4.jpg
Looking west from US36 toward Belleville around 5:00pm or shortly thereafter

[Broken External Image]:http://www.underthemeso.com/chase2004/may24/belleville_tor9.jpg
wide angle view of supercell updraft and tornado with debris cloud

[Broken External Image]:http://www.underthemeso.com/chase2004/may24/linn_structure5.jpg
Incredible striated supercell updraft in its post-tornado phase near Linn, KS

Mike U

 

[Scott Currens]

Wow! What a day! From 4:00 to 4:10pm Eric Nguyen and I observed eight tornadoes including five landspouts on the SC-NE supercell.

Eric's pix of the event
http://www.mesoscale.ws/

Scott Currens

 

[Dan Robinson]

Completed final log from May 24:

http://wvlightning.com/may242004.html

Dan

 

[Scott Nicholson]

This is long overdue... I've (finally) converted and made available tornado/storm chasing videos from years past and posted them on the Videos page on my website at www.springwx.com. There are several videos available for viewing...and I'm adding more as I find archived storm chase videos in my collection.

The video available for this date is titled South Central NE Tornado Part 1:
May 24, 2004 was a phenomenal storm chasing day! We caught somewhere between 14 and 16 tornadoes this day in south central NE and north central KS. This video contains only one of the tornadoes. Other tornadoes from this day will be available for viewing sometime in the near future...including clips where 2 or 3 tornadoes were on the ground at the same time. Stay tuned!

 

[Scott Nicholson]

Part 2 is now available on the Videos page on my website at www.springwx.com.

The video is titled South Central NE Tornado Part 2:
May 24, 2004: Here is Part 2 of the tornado-fest. In this video, you will see 3 tornadoes on the ground at the same time. The main tornado becomes very photogenic as it heads straight for us...a beautiful black tornado against a blue and white backdrop. This tornado was near Deshler, NE. The final video for this day will consist of short clips of each of the tornadoes we saw this day...although it might be quite some time before I am able to piece that video together. In the meantime...enjoy this video!