Chase Log: May 12th, 2004


Click on any of the SPC products below (Convective Outlooks, Watches, or MCDs) to see the SPC's "Severe Thunderstorm Events" page pertaining to this event.


MAP

Total Distance: 475 miles
Target Area: Alva, OK, to Medicine Lodge, KS
Chase Area: Medicine Lodge to Anthony, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight
Watches: Tornado Watches 193 and 196, Severe Watches 194 and 195
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs): 670, 672, 674, 675, 677, 678, 679, 680, and 681

The chase of my career so far...

This day looked looked to be the best we've had for some time. However, as the day neared, the models continue to indicate a slowing of the upper wave in the west. This meant that the best mid and upper level flow would remain north and west of Oklahoma. Shear profiles, therefore, looked pretty meager for much tornadic action.

The first tornado of the day started as a classic-looking, western plains, high-based tornado. Initially, a small funnel extended just below cloud base, with a small dust swirl on the ground. The dust eventually rose to meet the funnel, which slowly filled in towards the ground. This tornado last some time (perhaps 20 minutes), but moved very little. Quite a beautiful western Kansas tornado. Pictures below were taken looking southwest through west.

We moved east on Highway 160 towards the town of Attica, at which time we dropped a little south. A lot of dust and dirt was being kicked up by the impressive RFD winds at this time. Cloud-base rotation was also increasing quite dramatically. Our second tornado of the day formed as a dust/dirt swirl at the surface, and lasted for about one minute.

After this tornado dissapated, there was a rapid and very intense increase in cloud-base rotation. We scooted north to get back on Hwy 160 and moved to the east side of Attica. At this time, there were two very nice areas of rotation, one being directly in front of us, and the other being to our south. Oh yeah, there was also tennis-ball sized hail falling.

Suddenly, the third tornado formed to the south of us, beneath of very large bowl-shaped funnel. This tornado gradually intensified as the funnel lowered. Seeing that the tornado was both getting larger and not moving left or right, we realized it was heading straight towards us! We drove west on Highway 160 a few thousand feet and dropped south on a road on the very east side of Attica. By now, the tornado was quite large and very dusty! We shift positions one more time, at which time we were able to capture some incredible rotation of the tornado at the ground! Unfortunately, we did get video of a house, which was to our southeast when we were previously on Hwy 160, being hit by the tornado. In fact, the roof was lifted in one piece from this house. As the tornado continue northward, we remained in our position, which was about 1000 feet west of the tornado.

We got back on Hwy 160, where we were able to see the tornado roping out. As the tornado disappated and the dust settled (literally), we were able to make it through the damage path on Hwy 160 before it was shut down. The house we had seen earlier was now missing a roof and several outside walls. As we were driving out of Attica, we saw another dusty tornado form on the new mesocyclone, which was southeast of the occluding meso that had just produced the Attica tornado.

To ensure that we stayed out of the path of this now-monster supercell, we opted to drop south on backroads to get a position south of the storm. We headed back east on a dirt road after dropping south of Highway 160 a few miles, when we saw the fourth (this time, large and dusty) tornado to our northeast.

As that tornado disappated, and we continued east on the backroads, the storm took on an very ominous appearance. The overall structure of the meso at this point was absolutely incredible. We stopped to film the intense, wrapped-up meso to our north-northeast, and recorded (unbeknownest to us at the time) the fifth tornado of the night, visible courtesy of a good lightning stike on the right side of the image.

After this, we dropped south, thinking that, since it was already dark, it would be a little too dangerous to navigate the backroads with an very intense tornado supercell just to our north. As we headed south and west to get back on a main road, we stopped to take some video and pictures of the incredible lightning show this storm was putting on. Despite the most intense mid-level and anvil lightning I have ever seen, I did not see a SINGLE cloud-to-ground lightning strike. Hmm...

By somewhat luck, we stopped by a KFOR satellite truck we saw parked south of Anthony to see if they would be interested in our Attica video. When we pulled over, however, we saw a very nicely back-lit tornado to the north. The lightning with this storm (which was a different supercell than the previous one which produced the other tornadoes, although it tracked a very similar path) was very intense, which made it quite easy to see the tornado. We found a good stop on the very northern fringes of Anthony to set up shop and watch this tornado. Pictures are at the bottom of the page.

There was another tornado that formed to the east of this one, although it was short-lived, and did not show up on our video. All in all, an incredible way to end an incredible chase! Eight tornadoes on what was forecast to be an "okay" day, when we thought there'd be a decent chance at seeing an isolated, brief tornado. It turns out that the ETA model completely missed or underforecast some very significant elements (e.g. low-level shear), which was the reason for the missed-forecast. The RUC, however, did pick up on the increasing severity of the situation by the late morning hours. However, by that time, we were already on our way Alva...

05-12-2004 Chase Pictures

Click on any photo to see a larger version

The first view of the tornado southwest of Sharon as we drove east on Hwy 160. This was a very photogenic tornado, the first tornado produced by the supercell that we followed for the next several hours. We had watched this storm since it was a weak tower cumulus, and we were a bit surprised to see this tornado given the visually-high cloud base. Another video pic of the Sharon tornado. This weak tornado spun-up south of Attica about 10 minutes (I'm guessing) before "the" Attica tornado developed. We had a nice place to watch this storm, with the tornado to our south and the largest hail to our (immediate) north. Another view of the tornado south of Attica. There may be some hints of a multiple-vortex structure... I picked up this tennis-ball sized hailstone a couple of minutes before I showed it in this video frame, so it had melted a bit. There were a few stones that I saw that were larger than this one, which explains some of the rather large dents in the hood and roof of my car. Video freeze-frame of the early stage of the Attica tornado. Given that we were directly north of this tornado at this time, we figured we were in excellent position under the assumption that the tornado would move eastward or northeast. However, remember that thing about assuming... This tornado slowly becomes more visually-impressive as the condensation funnel descends from the cloud base. We realize, very near this time, that the tornado is NOT moving east -- it's moving due north, right at our location. Time to head out! The Attica tornado continues to become more threatening as the condensation funnel widens. The rotation immediately above the ground (which we could see) had increased, and the tornado looked quite nasty. Unfortunately, that IS a roof of a house being picked up by the tornado. There were a couple of people in the house at the time the tornado hit. Thankfully, however, the residents made it out okay. Another freeze-frame of the roof being lifted and moved around the base of the tornado. Pieces of debris swirled around the tornado as it neared Hwy 160. We find out about 5 minutes later that the tornado crossed the road right where we were when we watched the tornado develop. The Attica tornado in its rope stage. The dust was beginning to settle as the tornado sirens wailed in the background. This is a video-grab of the damage sustained to the house (which the roof seen in the previous pictures belonged to). It looks, from this picture, to be F2ish damage, with the roof gone and some outer walls down. The inner walls look fine, and some outer walls remain. The house was under construction at this time, as well. After the Attica tornado dissipated, what did we see to our southeast on the way out of town? Why yes, another tornado! This was a relatively large, yet weak, tornado that developed immediately after the Attica tornado dissipated. It remained in rural areas. After the Attica tornado, we dropped south of Hwy 160 for safety reasons. While this put us in bad positioning for getting high-contrast video and pictures, it did give us a good view of the awesome structure exhibited by this supercell. This tornado looked relatively substantial, but it was likely heavily dust/dirt-filled, which may have made it look a little bigger than the condensation cloud would indicate. Ugh, I wish I had a camera this day (didn't get my Canon 20D until about 8 months after this chase). The trip south of Hwy 160 allowed us to see the awesome structure exhibited by this supercell. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. A back-lit shot of the tornado north of Anthony. There was a lightnight strike off to the right of this frame as well, providing a little front-lighting. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. The tornado has a classic cone shape. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. We were a little closer to the tornado at this time, but the hill, unfortunately, blocks any hope of having a view of the tornado near/at ground-level. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. Lightning-lit video freeze of the tornado north of Anthony. The final rope stage of the after-dark tornado north of Anthony. To this date, I don't think this tornado is in Storm Data, the official tornado database. I've submitted video grabs to NWSFO OUN several times, and have been told by the WCM that this tornado has been accounted for. This isn't correct, at least not according to my video and watch. This graphic above is an overlay of our GPS track and NWS-assessed tornado tracks on road map. This map may not be entirely accurate, but all tornado tracks should be pretty close to what I've drawn in on the graphic.

05-12-2004 Chase Video

Click the photo or description to view the video

Attica, KS, tornado - 19.1MB
Tornado in Attica, KS - 19.1MB