Favorite Moment of 2004

[Jason_Politte]

The moment I consider the most important from this year definitely occurred June 12 with the second Mulvane, KS tornado the second I exposed a frame of transparency film and forever captured the most surreal spectacle of nature I'd ever witnessed.

http://www.onthefront.ws/images/612043.jpg

That wonderment and fascination quickly turned into a moment that turned my stomach as the most gorgeous tornado I'd ever seen obliterated a house.

The rest of my images from that day can be found at:
http://www.onthefront.ws/jun1204.htm

Jason

 

[Gabe Garfield]

It's really hard to say which moment from the 2004 chase season was my favorite. But if I had to pick one, I'd say the moment the Red Cloud, Nebraska tornado touched down on June 10.

Having chased the parent supercell for hours with no tornado (and amusing ourselves by getting inside gustnadoes), the storm finally got down to business just after dark. The base of the storm lowered (courtesy of the deeper moisture and smaller dewpoint depressions) and soon a wall cloud formed. It develped very slowly, but it surely worked its way toward the ground. Finally, a perfectly shaped cone funnel developed out of the center of the wall cloud (the storm was low precipitation) and was perfectly backlit by almost constant cloud-to-ground lightning. This tornado lasted a fairly long time (~15 min) and grew from elephant's trunk almost to a stovepipe near the end of its life. We had an incredible view of the A-bomb updraft with a tornado firmly planted beneath it.

The only bad part was that it wasn't during the day. I'm telling you, this storm was far more impressive structure-wise than anything else I have seen this year (Hallam, Mulvane, Attica).

Gabe

 

[Melissa Moon]

Shane knows exactly what I am talking about...

On May 29th, Blake Naftel and I were chasing and we were watching the Conway Springs tornado outside of the car. Blake wanted to get farther east and I was packing my video camera and tripod into the car, but the wind was blowing so strong that I was having trouble getting the car door closed. Blake was yelling at me to hurry up, and it got on my nerves because I was already mad about not getting the door shut. Anyway, it erupted into a fight and Blake got the whole thing on video. It wasn't really all that funny at the time, but going back to the video later and watching us fight "like an old married couple" (his words; not mine!) was insanely funny! Maybe you guys will get lucky (hah!) and he'll put it in his highlights video, or show it to the whole world in Denver while I'm chilling with the kangaroos.

A close 2nd for something I can look back and laugh about was the "tour" I gave at work (don't ask! but for those of you who know what I am talking about, yeah...)

Tornadically speaking, the best moment was the Argonia wedge that we saw on May 29th. Spectacular tornado! I'll never forget it!

I also enjoyed JR's and Rocky's parties! Those were a lot of fun!!!

Least favorite moment was probably the day that I sat at home on June 12th and told myself that I would do my ODE homework, when I wound up not doing it and also missing the Mulvane event.

 

[Chris Gullikson]

I think my favorite moment of 2004 was the night tornado north of Anthony KS on May 12th.
I was driving for TT and we had just witnessed an amazing series of storms and tornados. We pulled off onto a gravel road north of Anthony after watching the Harper wedge to look at the next storm in line and let the guests take a much needed break. We were all estatic to what we had just witnessed over the past few hours and would have been quite content to just sit there and watch a nice lightning show to cap off the night. Well, the next storm to the west decided to get it's act together and we were treated to the entire life cycle of a beautifull night time tornado that lasted almost 20 minutes. We were in a perfect postion to just sit there in the warm inflow and watch as the tornado slowly tracked from north west to north where it gracefully roped out in front of us. It was one of those times where you wish you had a lawn chair so you could just sit back and enjoy the show.

The Red Cloud night time tornado of June 10th was also quite memorable, but it was a very frustrating day leading up to that point.

Chris.

 

[Blake Naftel]

It's been ages (so it seems) since I've posted anything to this board;
or anything related to the topic of storm chasing. I haven't displayed
the hundreds of photos taken, written online blogs of accounts as I've
done in years past; rather I somehow drifted away from the very
subject matter that's peaked my interest since early childhood as of
late... so what a great topic to sink my tripod into and explore.

Every event; success or bust; from the spring of 2004 is special to me
for a multitude of reasons; but the peak certainly would be the
amazing supercellular and tornadic specticals which unfolded across
Sumner county Kansas during the evening of May 29, 2004. Not only did
the atmosphere provide picturesque awe; but I was accompanied by
wonderful personalities that fueled the surreal surroundings.
I'llnever forget turning the off HW160, pushing southbound on S. Milan Rd
(dirt); and hearing my friend and chase partner Melissa Moon exclaim
"I see a tornado... tornado... tornado!" while looking west towards
Harper (this being the first of eleven this day). From that point on
the event became a memorizing blur of disbelief, amazement; compleatly
flabbergasted as to what was being witnessed. Even looking back to this
day on video; the sense how unique and personal of a chase day this
was is highly evident. However it wasn't simply that this was a great
tornado day photogenicaly, or by number; rather all the events leading
up to it were just as special and memorable as well.

To those whom were with me this day in some way/shape/or form; Melissa
Moon, Tony Laubach, Chris Nuttal, and Kyle Mosely.. your company,
humor, frustration, and enchantment with nature combined to make this
one unforgettable day in my life; and for those reasons I'm thankful to
have experienced such a rare event with great company... reasons that
make May 29, 2004 "the" favorite moment personally this season.

..Blake..

 

[mark humpage]

Originally posted by 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

As I was one of the other 2 chasers this has to be mine too. It was my first 'real' tornado. Complete tornado life cycle captured from wall cloud to roping out. It was the most moving moment in my life , well up there with the wedding day and birth of my 2 daughters. What made the event more fantastic was the 5000 mile chase trip in one weekend. I had some real payback with the missus after this one :wink:

Mark

 

[Eric Flescher]

may 29 no doubt was my best of 2004

may 29 no doubt was my best of 2004. Seeing those two tornadoes near St. Joseph were my highlights indeed. I shot video of lightning, big hail, wallclouds. The big one I caught on tape and on my website was the Dearborn tornado south of ST. Joseph as it bore along Eastward. Then caught another to the West that kept going up and down and changing shapes. Also watching other wallclouds at the same time kept me busy.

Pics are on my website

Dr.Eric Flescher ([email protected]),Olathe, KS -Storm Satori-http://members.aol.com/kcstormguy/stormsatori/stormsatori.htm

 

[Chris Sokol]

Mine changed in the last few days. On a day that I didn't even have chasing remotely on my mind, I pull a hat trick...11/10/04. This marks the first November tornadoes for me since 1989.

 

[Craig Maire II]

My favorite moment in 2004 was when I was heading into grundy County, Iowa which was just placed under a tornado warning (5/21/04) I knew this was going to be a special day and was getting into a perfect position to capture any wallclouds/tornados that would develop from this storm, less than 30 minutes later I was shooting footage of 1 inch hail sporadically hitting the ground with a beautiful wall cloud in the back ground, then in a few more minutes I saw a number of tornados! 5/21/04 was awsome!!