Massive HP Monster

[David Brookshier]

Did anyone see the May 29 2004 Supercell in Geary, I have shots of this storm and in all of my nine years of chasing this one had the most powerful inflow I have ever seen it was ripping dirt right out of the ground from 10 miles out and had hail to 5", Thier were reports of a dbz of 72,000ft is this true? If you look at the radar on this thing it was although an HP cell it had a classic structure with the hook echo aparent the entire time. At one point it even had two hook echos as one disolved another formed. The striations in the meso were incredible and this cell reportedly dropped 11 tornados and it even managed to destroy my expensive 28X200mm lens! (never leave your tripod unattended even for a second)
I have pictures of this beast on our site what a memorable day!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by David Brookshier
Did anyone see the May 29 2004 Supercell in Geary, I have shots of this storm and in all of my nine years of chasing this one had the most powerful inflow I have ever seen it was ripping dirt right out of the ground from 10 miles out and had hail to 5\"

I think there were a large number of Stormtrack members who were on that storm -- myself included. Here's my chase log: http://www.tornadocentral.com/chasing/2004...04/052904.shtml

Thier were reports of a dbz of 72,000ft is this true?

I'm not sure what that means... Are you referring to the max ECHO TOP being 72kft, or the max reflectivity being 72 dBz?

If you look at the radar on this thing it was although an HP cell it had a classic structure with the hook echo aparent the entire time. At one point it even had two hook echos as one disolved another formed. The striations in the meso were incredible and this cell reportedly dropped 11 tornados and it even managed to destroy my expensive 28X200mm lens! (never leave your tripod unattended even for a second)
I have pictures of this beast on our site what a memorable day!

That was a remarkable storm indeed. Oddly enough, despite it being one of the strongest supercells in Oklahoma over the past few years (IMO), given it's longevity (it essentially traversed the entire state) and tornado production (>10 tornadoes), I consider it a disappointment. Yes, it was an impressive storm (the DOWs measured ~170mph winds in the RFD a little off the surface north of Geary :shock: ), but it was far from "chaser-friendly". The cyclonic meso was pretty much wrapped in rain the entire time (save for relatively early-life time near Thomas, where we bea the softball-sized hail by about 1 minute)... It did have a couple of nice anticylonic tornadoes, which were neat. I'd take a 5-12-04 or 6-12-04 day over May 29th, however. This was especially painful after seeing the beautiful cyclic supercell in southcentral Kansas! I'm still a little stumped about why the central OK storm was so HP for most of its day-light life... The mid-level jet streak axis cut right across central Oklahoma, so the mid and upper level SR winds should have been stronger in central OK than in southern Kansas, which would not favor HP development typically. There was quite a cap on the 00z OUN sounding, so the lack of near-surface instability (CAPE in the lowest few km's) may have had something to do with it...

 

[David Brookshier]

I'm refering to the max reflectivity, I missed the anticyclonic tornado :cry: This storm destroyed my 28X200mm lens during this event. Even still it was a great chase and one I won't soon forget. The supercell actually produced two anticyclonic tornados, a very rare occurance indeed.

 

[Jason McKittrick]

Hey Dave, great pictures. I do not know about the Dbz observations on the Geary storm. I was on the Beloit/Norway storm. We also saw some 4"+ sized hail and experienced inflow that was sucking in massive amounts of cut hay. I estimated inflow at 55 to 60 mph. It was the most impressive storm I have ever chased.

 

[cdcollura]

Yup - Me too on that monster.

Inflow blacked out power, even collapsed a quonset shed 5-10 miles outside of the storm - a "severe thunderstorm" that you didn't have to be "in" to see winds ovef 58 MPH!

Picture 01: Impressive structure looking north into this storm.

Picture 02: Many wall clouds, funnels, possible tornadoes under new meso.

Picture 03: Inflow over 60 MPH collapses metal quonset shed.

Picture 04: Never in my life did I see mammatus like this.

My 2 cents on this one - Scott Blair saw a mile wide wedge inside the notch of the storm ... I held back because I did not wanna get destroyed by coconut-sized hail ;-(

Chris C - KG4PJN

 

[David Brookshier]

Impressive stuff great shots Jason thanks for sending these!! I put this storms meso into my avatar because I have never in all my 9 years of chasing seen an HP this intense look at the entrails of debris on www.chasedout.com I devoted an entire gallery to this storm taking shots of the thing before it managed to anhiolate my lens. Agin thanks for sending this I really like the foward angle on the meso I have it from the west but I havn't yet seen these angles on it What direction did you get these shots from and what time?