Favorite Moment of 2004

[Shane Adams]

Continuing the "favorite" or "most..." of 2004, I thought I'd poll ST members for their favorite moment of 2004, basically what thing gave you the most satisfaction?

There were several, but if I had to pick one, it'd be the 20-minute trunk tornado near Attica on May 29. My friend and chase partner Eric Collins has been coming out to the Plains to chase with me every year since 1999. He uses up his one week of vacation, and over the past six years we have traditionally had horrible luck. Our only decent day in that time was May 16, 2000 in Wyoming, but even those were only brief tornadoes. He was supposed to be leaving the morning of May 29 to return home, and up to that point we'd seen a couple of tornadoes, but nothing spectacular. I begged him to stay one more day, and he did. When that trunk tornado developed, the look on his face was all I needed. He was as happy as he's ever been out here, and you could read his thoughts: "This is worth the last six years of trying."

I kinda went off into my own little tornadic bliss/LA LA land world as well, as on the video you can hear me speaking softly to myself about how wonderful the experience is.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Mine best moment came on May 12... but it was the day's first tornado near Medicine Lodge.. what made that the best moment for me was because I had targeted an area around Pratt, Kansas and this tornado was the first tornado of the day less than 30 miles from my target. Why was this so great? Because this was the first day I truely forecasted on my own, traveling solo and going off my own intuition and forecasting. I had nailed my target within 30 miles based upon my own forecasting and was rewarded wonderfully!

I also need to give credit to Scott and his weather data, for had it not been for that, I likely would've continued on the northern storm and missed out on everything else that day. May 12 was entirely awesome, but to forecast for the first time and nail your own target area is quiet rewarding!

 

[Laura Duchesne]

I have a friend who caught the Attica tornado as well, he seemed pretty happy about his catch.

It's no tornado chase, but my favorite chase of 2004 (and perhaps of all my chases) was June 14 because of the incredible structure I saw (which is incredible for here in Ontario). We orginally headed out because SDS was driving us mad, and a line of storms were intensifying not too far from home, which made for a very convenient chase. I look to the west, and shout wall cloud! The storm looked classic, almost like those motherships you guys get in the plains, but not quite as dramatic... but for Ontario it was awesome. It came close to dropping a tornado, but didn't. I didn't care though, we got great footage and I finally got to see a classic supercell and crankin' wall cloud. (<--see my avatar, it shows part of the storm)

I think the reason I was really satisfied with this storm is becuse I went out not expecting to see this, especially close to home and it being in Ontario... it just goes to show you that anything can happen, and that storm chasing is so unpredictable, even if you go expecting to see something different. Never have really high hopes for when you go out, because anything you see will be very satisfying.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

This is an easy one for me: May 20th in Washington County, Colorado. We'd suffered a couple bust days in a row, and though we knew about the big shows forecasted on the plains in a few days, we decided to blast west from our overnight spot in DeSoto, Iowa (20m west of Des Moines), all the way through Nebraska to Hoyt, Colorado---a 600 mile, wing-and-a-prayer setup marathon to initiation which, for most of the trip, we doubted we would catch in time. I had never driven so far so fast for only the targeting portion of a chase.

A beautiful supercell fired over Morgan County within moments of our arrival at Last Chance, huffed and puffed enough RFD near Wiggins to earn a false tornado warning, then finally dropped one for us around 10:00 PM MT after we had zig-zagged a Bob's Road pursuit north and east almost to the Wyoming border. This was a hardcore chase from 7:00 AM that morning until the storm produced more than fourteen hours later. We never considered abandoning the storm and our irrational tenacity paid huge dividends.

 

[Graham Butler]

This one is a no brainer. Hands down favorite was the June 12th experience. On the storm from its birth, witnessed all of its tornadoes, got to meet the family where we were invited to photograph the damage, and survey the path.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

http://www.darkskyproductions.com/2004/june12/

http://www.darkskyproductions.com/2004/june13/

Graham Butler

 

[Joe Nield]

Not really my "favorite" moment, per se...that came earlier in the day several times over...but the most personally satisfying feeling I had this year was on the evening of May 24th. We broke off the SC Nebraska storm after about three hours and somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 tornadoes and blasted south to the new line going up west of Topeka. Daylight issues and approach direction would prevent us from making a safe approach to where we needed to be, so we decided, having already seen more than we ever hoped or dreamed to see, to stop on a gravel road about 15-20 miles north of Emporia and watch this line evolve.

Standing on that gravel road, stereo pumping out Blues Traveler, with a forming MCS filling half the sky with ridiculously rock-hard convection and incredible lightning...well, I've never felt more complete in my entire life. For that time and in that place, life was perfect, if only for a fleeting moment.

Wow. I can still feel it.

 

[Skip Talbot]

My first tornado, on April 20! That one sure caught me for surprise, and the chase itself was mostly luck. I caught the low topped LP-esque supercell just in time to watch an F1 touchdown near Kankakee. I watched from a couple miles and it lasted no more than a few minutes before becoming rain wrapped. It wasn't a great tornado compared to the pictures I have seen you guys posting this year, but the experience was one of the most awe inspiring ones I have ever had. I will never forget that day.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Right there with ya Skip...April 20th. The first time I'd seen a tornado while on a storm chase. hearing over the radio that there was a tornado on the ground 5 miles to our NE...flying north...and then seeing the tornado ahead of us, what a great feeling.

 

[John Gnuechtel]

May 12 near Medicine Lodge was it for me. Everything totally came together that day, and I learned more in those 4 short hours than I could ever have hoped for.

 

[Verne Carlson]

For me personally it was the May 10, 2004 Tornado-fest an hour from my house near Limon, CO

I think the best/most photogenic award has to go to the June 12th Mulvane, KS tornado. I've seen many excellent DVDs document this sunlit wonder and I'm blown away everytime I see them!

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Standing in front of that magical carousel that produced the Jamestown wedge on 5/29 is probably the highlight for me ... it was easily the most incredible storm motion I've ever witnessed and it was on a colossal scale. Was like some kind of enormous ornament suspended in front of us - almost felt like the entire earth was rotating around this thing.

The most satisfying was probably catching up to the Bethany, MO tornado on 5/24 after fighting our way over the Missouri River - then through I-29 traffic with cars that had been blown off the road by the tornado - then through the damage paths, Missouri hills, RFD wind and rain-wrapping so that we FINALLY caught a glimpse of this HP-spawned tornado ... it was a brief 10 seconds before it started to lift and occlude, but it was SO relieving to just catch up to the thing after all that work getting there.

 

[Jeff Wear]

Wow...too many to list......

Top of the list has to be on 6/12 the moment the second Mulvane tornado moved out of the shadows and into the sunlight.

A couple of others were 4/21 near Marietta OK and 7/5 near Covington OK. Both days I watched supercells churn away in the late afternoon/early evening for quite some time with absolutely nobody else around.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Well for me it just has to be May 29th. Looking back I still don’t know how I managed to swing this – I returned back to the UK on May 25th after nearly 4 weeks chasing, having a great chase vacation and content with my 2004 season. On my very first morning back at work in the UK my jaw dropped when I saw the forecast for the 29th and a sort of red mist descended over me (we have all been there) some 2 hours later I had secured some more time off work and somehow booked a flight back to the US, my girlfriend was not chuffed to say the least “but it is just a weekend dear and I have to be there – see you back home on Mondayâ€￾

So I arrived back in Oklahoma on the 28th with two other die hard UK chasers and were fortunate to witness close up the Attica stove pipe from start to finish along with some other tubes that day – fantastic.

Oh yes I enjoyed the chaser picnic as well

 

[Marc Grant]

I'd have to say May 22nd with multiple large tornados including the Hallam NE tornado.

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by Skip Talbot
My first tornado, on April 20! That one sure caught me for surprise, and the chase itself was mostly luck. I caught the low topped LP-esque supercell just in time to watch an F1 touchdown near Kankakee. I watched from a couple miles and it lasted no more than a few minutes before becoming rain wrapped. It wasn't a great tornado compared to the pictures I have seen you guys posting this year, but the experience was one of the most awe inspiring ones I have ever had. I will never forget that day.

Hey bro, the first one is always great!!!!