A Major HP (High Precip) Experience: 5/29/04 Tornadic
Supercell in North Central Kansas
Video captures by Jon Davies (storm chase by Jon Davies, Jim Reed and Kyle Gerstner)
Photos by Kyle Gerstner
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Jim and Jon document wall cloud just before Jamestown tornado (Photo by Kyle Gerstner)
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wall cloud produces large F2 Jamestown tornado (Photo by Kyle Gerstner)
click on thumbnails above for larger images (see Kyle's web site http://www.lightshooter.net/ for more of Kyle's
images)
 View of storm looking WNW off hwy 9 near the Cloud-Mitchell Co. line about 5 pm (we missed a brief rope tornado that had occurred earlier W of Beloit from a very high cloud base) |
 Striated supercell shapes up nicely with lowering and cloud bases getting closer to the ground, looking WNW from about 6 mi S of Jamestown |
 Well-defined wall cloud, looking W from 2 mi S of Jamestown at 5:55 pm |
 A tornado (not from the wall cloud) forms for 1-2 minutes near Scottsville to our WSW |
 Close up of tornado located near Scottsville, faint dust cloud visible at ground... but the main show will come from the wall cloud further right... |
 Tornado ground contact is verified by multiple vortices (one is visible here just to the right of the funnel point)... inflow winds from the east at this time were sustained at an estimated 35 to 40 mph (time roughly 6 pm) |
 Wedge tornado begins to form to the NW |
 Tornado widens rapidly |
 The visible wedge formation takes place in about half a minute or so... (Topeka NWS surveyed F2 damage with this tornado) |
 Then roughly a minute later, the wedge (at least a half mile wide) is lost in wrapping rain as tornado moves northwest of Jamestown |
 We move east a couple miles to explore road options to our northeast, and see yet another tornado back to our west from a higher base well to the south of the wedge tornado now hidden by rain |
 A faint debris cloud is visible, located roughly 2 mi S of Jamestown shortly before 6:15 pm (we are 2 mi SE of Jamestown looking WSW) |
 After driving east through Concordia and north on hwy 81 to cross the Republican River, we see a new mesocyclone "core" and what may be a rain-wrapped tornado 2-3 mi to our WNW, viewed from just N of the 81-148 intersection (time 6:45-6:50 pm) |
 Now nothing is visible but rain and hail, looking west from about 5 mi S of Belleville... that's hen-egg size hail exploding off my hood, leaving fresh dents... we saw a few hailstones tennis to baseball size |
 Looking up at the north edge of the updraft and into a wet electrified visual vault... we're in the HP "notch" filled with occasional rain and hail
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 We have now moved to 2 mi E of Belleville on hwy 36 looking SW... this is a new wet updraft core and mesocyclone that has formed to the E and SE of the one we were viewing between Concordia and Belleville... could this be a new tornado? (time approx. 7:20-7:25 pm) |
 This sure looks like a tornado (located just S or SE of Belleville), viewed through our windshield as we are pelted with rain and occasional hail |
 What's going on here? Is this a tornado or a wet downburst? |
 Maybe this was a developing tornado undercut by a rain and hail-filled downburst... regardless, we don't want to be inside that mess |
 Moving slightly east, the dark column at right center again begins to look like a tornado located just SE of Belleville (view WSW) |
 In the rain just to the left and SE of the area viewed in the previous panel, I suddenly see a verifiable tornado stirring up debris over an open field less than a mile to our SW |
  A shaky zoom with my video camera reveals snaky suction vortices spinning around, low contrast and wrapped in rain... this tornado soon dissipates |
 We move a mile further east on hwy 36 for safety, and watch the rain area to our west develop rotating curtains about 7:35 pm... is this another large weak tornado between us and Belleville? (view WNW) |
 Firing north up a county road to get back into the notch, we see this rotating dark area to our SW from about 1 mi S of Munden... is this a large weak tornado located between Belleville and Munden? |
 We suddenly notice rapid rotation of rain curtains in the field just to our east... small dust vortices (see arrow) are also spinning up |
 This is way too close for comfort(!)... so we blast north through Munden as sirens sound about 8 pm |
 A view back to the SW at about 8:05 pm from 1 mi NE of Munden... rotating rain curtains are visible... I don't know if this is a tornado, but I don't want to be under it |
 In the notch, stepping out of the car with 40 mph+ inflow from the northeast, this is a quick view straight up at the lightning-lit vault and smooth striated north side of the updraft... a truly awesome sight |
 Heading east on a muddy dirt road, then south on a paved one, we get east and southeast of the possible tornadic circulation, but a wrapping wall of wind, rain and hail will catch us from the south (view to the SE)... there is no escape, but at least we are on a paved road (between Narka and Cuba) |
 White out conditions prevail as we park next to a vertical column water tower... this is very much like being in a hurricane! The roar of the winds is loud as wind driven hail knocks out my right side rear view mirror and cracks my brake light covers |
 Winds estimated at 70-80 mph rock and buffet our vehicle as premature darkness descends (time 8:25 pm) |
By 8:45 pm the storm had passed and we proceded south back to Wichita. Missing the much more photogenic tornadoes SW of Wichita that day stung a bit, but this experience with an HP supercell was highly educational. You can see that spotting and trying to view tornadoes with HP storms is dangerous and very difficult, with poor visibility due to rain and hail. One often has to be in rather close on the northeast side of the updraft to see properly, and it is definitely not for amateurs.
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