9/05/04 REPORTS: Plains/Midwest

[JHadorn]

This thread is for first-hand chase reports.

Hopefully somebody got something today. I myself witnessed what looked like a nice cell spring up to the south-southwest of Beatrice, headed northeast like it was late for a funeral. Had some interesting cloudbase features begin to form, but was quickly whisked away and out of view from my viewpoint.

 

[Robbie Cox]

this is first hand. :lol:
DES MOINES, Iowa Cleanup is underway today after at least seven tornadoes touched down in Iowa last night.

The National Weather Service says tornadoes touched down in Green, Warren, Hamilton, Story and Woodbury counties.

Officials say the most significant damage was in the small Greene County town of Cooper where garages and porches were damaged.

The storms also topped power poles and trees in many areas and caused street flooding. As much as three inches of rain fell in some areas.

The National Weather Service says the tornadoes likely broke a record for the most tornadoes in Iowa in a year.

The weather service says as many as 115 tornadoes touched down in Iowa this year. The old record was about 105, although officials with the weather service weren't able to confirm the year the record was set.

 

[rdale]

<moved>

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Rdale points out in a post:

Robbie -- recheck the rules:

* REPORT (chase report) is for your chaser reports and photos ONLY, and for discussing such reports.

What about....

"Hearsay and secondhand reports are not allowed -- they belong in Nowcast unless they address specific posted chaser reports."

Sorry, but I'd think what Robbie posted is much more fitting in a reports thread then a now thread. Maybe the rules should be changed? That or we could be less anal about them, especially one where there have been 2 whole posts? Doubtful though as some love to be anal. Thanks for the post/report/INFO Robbie.

Anyway, here is my sorry a.. report from the chase day. This is copied from an e-mail I sent to a friend.

At least you didn't have my day. I bet throughout the day 20 inches of rain fell on my car. I have 3 bawlding tires and one good one that I had to replace cause of a flat. The car LOVES to hydroplane in any little ruts full of water at anything over 50mph. I left to go east not long after that line moved through Blair. I caught it around Walnut IA I think. I knew what to expect, RAIN. Not sure why I even bothered chasing that crap. Man the interstate was just full of traffic for the holiday weekend or something. Blinding rain, bawlding tires, lots of cars, and no storm structure....woooohoooo. I turned back around after hearing no warnings and stopped back near Walnut I think. I found high ground as it was freaking coming down and just waited for it to pass. About the time I go to get back on the interstate a warning is issued and they mentioned this storm was showing weak rotation. So, off I go but east again....grrrr. And all this time my laptop refuses to connect to the internet so I have no data. The storm was se of the interstate, se of Atlantic. I go east, basically in it's core on the damn interstate with crap tires and about lose it twice...my car that is. All the while Des Moines is giving out some rather conflicting warnings. The one said it was 6 south of Stuart IA and then added that Greenfield was in it's path....as it first moved ne at 40....but now was east at 45......but Greenfield was well sw of Stuart...how the heck can it move east at 45 be s of Stuart and have a town sw of Stuart 16 or so miles be in it's path? I don't know and was freaking clueless at the time but kept going east. Problem was it would rain soooo freaking hard and moved fast enough you could never break free of it, even using the interstate. Then the warning was dropped and I gave up for the second time and headed west. I was now fairly close to Des Moines. I finally break free of the precip going west and the second I do they issue a damn tornado warning to my north northeast.....well out of reach at those speeds, but do I care? No, I give it a shot, in high speed fashion. A warning was coming out that had broken up before and I missed the location so I needed to hear this warning. The second they go to say the location....BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP. I was like you #$#@$@$s!!!!!! A new warning came out ontop of it and was yet another torando warning. I think there ended up being 3 of them at once in the area I had just left. I got pissed and gave up as they were clearly not going to be caught from where I was at that point. Days like that you clearly can't get away with not having some sort of info. I never saw a damn bit of structure, but imagine there was some towards the end. I could of been east of the action early on but gave up that one time and that put me back behind the action.

 

[rdale]

<moved>

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

ANAL

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

I made a good call on this system as I chased it from my riding lawn mower as I went around in circles in my yard. I even wore my helmet!! We got some rain from it, but not so much as a rumble of thunder until it was off to my east. Glad I stayed home for this one.

Tim

[Broken External Image]:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/timmyho/SpeedDemon.jpg

 

[Robbie Cox]

Sorry if i placed in wrong topic,but since i live in the target area ( 2blk away) thought it was fitting to post. :shock:

The tornado touched down at E-26 and hwy 4 moved in a NW direction. i was on hwy 4 going north to my home in COPPER IOWA. my pager went off about a 911 call for a tonado on the ground. it was raining so hard could not see it,but could see the damage it left behind. My back will vouch for that from all the tree cutting on monday. it did damage to a few neighbors homes and left a 30 yards path thru the fields for 3miles. now back to helping to neighbors. 8)