Supercells and Tornadoes near Stuart and O'Neill, Nebraska 6/9/03       Images by Jon Davies (with 4 captures from video by Matt Crowther)

The month of May 2003 was a dark hole for me after surgery and car problems kept me on the sidelines during a very active storm period.  Finally, on June 9, I caravaned with TWC's Matt Crowther for my first storm chase in over a month.   Matt is my good luck charm, as the last time we chased together was the the day of the Ford/Kiowa/Pratt tornadoes in Kansas (May 7 2002).  Along with many other chasers, we targeted O'Neill in northern Nebraska near the surface low and moisture convergence, an area that appeared to have good tornado potential with excellent wind shear if the moisture return on strong south winds could happen fast enough.  Driving N from Wichita, Matt and I hooked up with Mike Umscheid, Jim Reed and Katie Bay in Grand Island around 2:30 pm..

We continued to O'Neill, then WNW on Hwy 20 with news of a developing storm N of Bassett.  We picked up the developing supercell N of Newport between 5:30 pm and 6 pm CDT.  The ensuing two hours brought us a fascinating viewing experience that involved two supercells and 2 main tornadoes.  Thankfully, the tornadoes hit mainly in open country with no injuries; damage was mostly limited to trees and irrigation systems.   The following photo and video images with captions show the evolution of what occurred (click on an image for a larger version).  Thanks to Matt Crowther for letting me use a few captures from his video of the large dusty tornado NW of O'Neill.    

Katie Bay, Matt Crowther, and Mike Umscheid watch developing supercell from N of Newport (view WNW)	Weak dust whirl tornado forms when clear slot "notch" appears, shortly after 6 pm CDT	Closer view of brief weak vortex
Soon the base becomes more rounded, and a visual vault appears just right of the updraft	A bowl shaped lowering appears as storm passes N of Newport	After several wall cloud "cycles", a tornado finally begins to develop NW of Stuart just after 7 pm (view N)
A closer view of developing tornado and RFD "clear slot" in front of funnel and to left	The condensation funnel decends	A classic laminar tornado funnel
Tornado with Nebraska countryside NW of Stuart (view to N)	Vertical view showing tilted updraft tower above tornado	Condensation funnel makes it all the way to the ground as an "elephant trunk"
White tornado against somewhat darker background	Here is a wide view of the storm structure above the tornado, with new lowering to the east	Tornado abruptly lifts and dissipates around 7:15 pm.... the new lowering develops rotation, but there are no further tornadoes before this structure dissipates
Several minutes before the Stuart tornado, this impressive rotating structure further south passed over Hwy 20 W of  Stuart (view WSW)	The new structure and other bases combined into a new supercell further E.  Matt Crowther then videotaped this new "dust column" tornado E of Atkinson (view NE)	Around 7:35 pm, Matt took great video of this dusty new tornado with rapidly rotating cloud elements above it (view to the NE, thanks for the video, Matt!)
Matt's video shows large wide dusty tornado not far to his northeast.	Matt approaches within 1/2 mile of this wide dusty vortex with strong outflow winds at right (from Matt's video)	This is my view of the same diffuse tornado looking N from Hwy 20 W of O'Neill, a more distant location than Matt's vantage point (from my video)
Strong gust front winds and dirt surge out to the S and W of the tornado (view NW, from video)	An ominous wall of dirt surges southward (from video)	On the east side of O'Neill around 7:50 pm, the dusty tornadic circulation is visible to the N (from video)
Rotating curtains of dirt and rain mark location of large diffuse tornado (from video)	The supercell morphs into an elongated HP storm east of O'Neill after 8 pm	Pretty sunset marks the end of a remarkable storm viewing experience

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