May 29, 2004

May 29th - Jamestown, KS
CHASERS: Bobby Eddins, Edward Cohen NOWCASTING: None
SUMMARY: Starting in Sioux City, IA made this a bit of a drive to our target of north central Kansas but a quick check before leaving just confirmed things so we headed south to Omaha, NE then west on I80. We took hwy 15 south into Kansas and continued south. Checking radar we noted the first storm firing NW of Salina, KS and plotted an intercept course. Hwy 24 seemed to lead us directly to our storm so we turned west on it at Clay Center and pushed on. As we crossed Hwy 81 we heard familiar voices on the Ham Radio. It was Sam Barricklow, and Al Moller and they were also on Hwy 24 a few miles ahead of us. Soon we all joined up and were joined by Gary Woodall. It's always nice to run into friends from DFW when far from home and we caravanned the rest of the day. This was a treat to itself! After joining up near Glasco we all moved further west and soon were treated to a great view of the storms base and a lowering that quickly produced a brief tornado. After this dissipated we moved even further west for a spot and watched the storm try to get it's act together. It tried several times and radar showed shear markers to our west but no more hoses for the time being, though we did see a nice funnel aloft right overhead. As an LP storm appeared ready to merge with our storm we move back east just as small hail began. We re-located to south of Jamestown, KS and watched the storm for a while among the chaser hoards and finally a wall-cloud formed to our WNW within maybe 30 seconds. This prompted us to move a bit further north to a dirt road that now took us directly to a large wall-cloud. As we drove up and parked next to Al Moller and Gary Woodall a satellite tornado formed to the south of the wall-cloud, stirring up a bit of dirt. The larger and rapidly rotating wall-cloud then produced a brief tornado just to the right of the road. Things were getting interesting for sure! Just as I mounted my camera on it's tripod to the right of the road very rapid rotation commenced and a multi-vortex tornado began just beyond the nearest line of trees. As I zoomed in a bit a dance of vortices began, each moving right to left, then evaporating before another round began. This action was incredible but only lasted a few moments. As the wall-cloud took on a broad funnel shape the inflow increased to 50 mph+ and as I left my camcorder tripoded to get my second tripod to shoot stills I heard a crash. It was the tripod blowing over with my camcorder. Luckily it landed on rather soft ground and only got mud and bits of grass on the lens. Whew!! After resetting things and cleaning the crap off the lens I continued to shoot as the wall-cloud moved a bit farther off to the NNW. Soon an RFD collar wrapped around the wall-cloud and it looked ready to produce something big. Then in the center a tornado appeared and grew large. Before long this tornado disappeared as rain wrapped around it and the storm became HP. As we moved back to the main road and drove south a bit we spotted an anti-cyclonic tornado to our west kicking up the dirt. We parked and watched as it moved rapidly east toward other chasers parked to our north. This tornado lifted just west of the road and all were safe. As we moved back north and then east of a dirt road we saw another rope tornado to our north but got no video. After moving east through Concordia, KS and north to near Cuba, KS we finally stopped to watch this now HP beast as it formed lowerings near Belleville, KS. We were treated to a nice view of Mammatus as the chase neared it's end. Mike Cohen and T.J. Sivley, who left from DFW earlier in the day joined us at the end to mull things over.
	From near Glasco the storms RFB developes a bit of a lowering.
	Very quickly this lowering produces a brief tornado that touched down just before this image.
	Primary of 3 bolts right in front of us.
	The return stroke.
	As we sit west of Asherville, the storm get's the look near Beloit.
	After re-locating to south of Jamestown, banding and a wall-cloud quickly form to our WNW.
	We move a bit north and turn west down a dirt road with a view.
	A satellite tornado forms to the south of the wall-cloud as Al Moller sets up.
	A brief tornado appears beneath the now large, rapidly rotating wall-cloud.
	As the wall-cloud moves NE and is at it's closest point very rapid rotation comenses just beyond the nearest tree-line.
	Multi-vortex action begins!. See Video of this Tornado
	Condensation vortices quickly develop and dance right to left!
	Cloud motions are incredible.
	More condensation forms.
	These move right to left.
	Then evaporate.
	One more time.
	The multi-vortex action ceases and the wall-cloud takes on a broad funnel shape as the inflow increases to 50mph+.
	An RFD collar wraps in.
	Rotation strengthens as the wall-cloud looks ready to produce something big!
	A nice bolt as things get ready to go.
	A hint of a tornado in the center of this large wall-cloud!
	Seconds later, a large tornado grows.
	Now getting very large and already starting to wrap in rain :(
	A wider view shows the RFD slot (dark area) wrapping around the tornadic circulation.
	The tornado, still growing, wraps up in rain for good.
	We move a bit south and spot an anti-cyclonic satellite tornado to our west.
	This bonus tornado moves rapidly east toward other chasers to our north as we watch.
	Side lighting increases giving us a nice view.
	It move faster.
	Still kicking up debre!
	Approaching the road.
	It dies just west of the road.
	From near Cuba the storm has now gone HP with nice structure.
	Impressive Mammatus!
	Mike and TJ Sivley finally catch up to us west of Cuba.
CONCLUSION: Great chase day!! Even on high-risk days it pays to know when the first storm fires. Live radar updates are great! Thanks Threatnet!