| CHASE 2004 [ 2003 ] [ 2004 ] [ 2005 ] [ 2008 ] |
|
MAY 12 2004 |
Severe weather was forecast today for Southern Kansas, and we believed that storms today could have the potential for producing Tornadoes. Our target area was along the Oklahoma / Kansas border in the vicinity just south of Dodge City, so we headed east on 160 to where two storms were developing. The northern storm initially looked the stronger but the southern storm looked to be strengthening and had the better road options so we decided that this would be our better target. As we viewed the skies 12 miles east of Coldwater, we began to witness 2” hail, so we continued east as the storm continued to develop. |
As we continued our chase, Charles Edwards spotted a tornado just south of MEDICINE LODGE. The funnel had an elephant trunk appearance and was really photogenic. It was on the ground for a good few minutes which enabled us to find an ideal location to pull off and photograph it.. |  |
|
 | As it roped out we decided to continue east and we witnessed a second tornado just SW of ATTICA. It was small and only lasted for a few seconds. We headed towards Attica as the storm intensified and we began to get pounded by golf ball and tennis ball sized hail.
We knew we would soon lose the windscreen so we decided to find shelter in the town. As we came into town the tornado sirens were wailing, and we managed to find shelter under a car port. We got out to watch the hail as George Kourounis and Charles looked for some samples, As he headed across the street Charles spotted a funnel coming down to the south of town which we soon realized was heading our way!. |
|
| We had to scramble west to get out of its path, and John Guyton and the rest of the tour which had also found shelter two blocks to our east soon followed. As we got to safety the tornado was now fully on the ground. It was a violent white funnel which was kicking up red dust. We jumped out to watch it until it dissipated. |  |
|
|
| We continued the chase as the storms continued until well after dark where we witnessed a spectacular cloud to cloud lightning show just south of ANTHONY then to our surprise we noticed the fourth tornado of the day off to our north that was illuminated by lightning that lasted for about 10 minutes.. It was now quite late, so once the tornado had roped out we decided to call it a night. |  |
|
| Four tornadoes, large hail and spectacular lightning, another great chase day! |
