Multiple tornadoes in Thayer Co. Nebraska on 5/24/04
Storm chase and still photos by Jon Davies
It's not often one gets to see multiple tornadoes on the ground at one time. Such a time was between 4:00 and 4:30 pm CDT on 5/24/04 with a supercell in southern Nebraska near the Kansas border looking west from about 3 miles NW of Chester:
The environment featured steep low-level lapse rates that may have facilitated rapid stretching along the storm's base and flanking gust front. That possibly helped make this supercell a prolific tornado producer, with some earler tornadoes appearing as "landspouts" before the above photo was taken.
The following photos were all taken from the same location looking west and focus on tornado 2 and tornado 3 above. These 2 tornadoes appeared more "supercell" in nature and were stronger, particularly tornado 3. Unfortunately, some farms were damaged, including a home with severe damage.
  Tornado 2 at touchdown Tornado 2 (later) and newly formed tornado 3 (at right) on the ground at once |
 Tornado 3 grows in size |
 A wider view of tornado 3 with tail cloud |
 A closer view of tornado 3 as dust obscures condensation funnel |
 Tornado 3 accelerates southeastward |
 Tornado 3 narrows |
 Tornado 3 begins to rope out as outflow pushes it southeast |
| Other tornadoes occurred with another cell that formed in Republic Co. KS further south, including a widely seen tornado NW of Belleville KS |
 Later on, the Republic Co. supercell looked quite striated and pretty as it moved southeast in KS (view to WNW from south of Waterville KS) |