April 30-- I chased a storm that was tornado warned near
Ryan , OK and again west of Marietta, OK.
The first still was taken as the storm was tornado warned near Rubottom, OK.
The lowered area did show some very weak rotation at the time of this shot.

The next shot was taken just west of Marietta, OK.

At the time of this shot the rotation was wrapped in the rain.
The video shows a dust /scud cloud.
The main motion was out and away from the rain wrapped circulation .
The dust/scud cloud was drawn up to the cloud base in the foreground in the shot .
Shortly afer this shot the storm became totally outflow dominant
and basically the chase--as far as tornadic potential-- was over.
It is interesting to imagine seeing this cloud feature at night illuminated by lightning.
This would probably look like a tornado
with a debris cloud on the ground.

The storm "went nuts" west of Marietta, OK .
The cloud to ground (CG) lightning frequency was amazing--and scary!
The following 2 stills show just one of these lightning barrages.
I had the window down as the thunder EXPLODED right above my vehicle.
The sound actually hurt my ears.
The thunder was still ongoing as 2 more bolts hit at the same time in the field to my SW.

April 24 -- I left Ardmore , OK for todays target of extreme NE KS.
There was a chance of Low Topped Supercells today
if there was enough heating in the area .
The rotaion was very impressive in these cells .
If there had been just a bit more heating ,
I think tornadoes would have been very likely .
These shots were taken west of Tarkio, MO
just NE of my target area. I have traveled over 4,000
miles chasing storms between April 16 and April 24.

April 23 - I chased Tornado warned Supercell from Grainfield to Cookietown, OK area.
Stayed with the now severe warned cell until after dark ending up in Ardmore , OK.
Several reports of tornadoes were heard from listening to scanner traffic.
The following shot was taken at the time of one of these reports .
There was very slow rotation with the dust
in the following shot but I would not call it a tornado .
The movement of the dust was out and away from the storm.

April 22 - I like several other chasers had targeted the Ada, OK area.
I was not able to make it to the Tulsa area tornadoes.
Oh well , nobody gets em all right.
congrats to those who got the Tulsa area tornadoes.

April 21- I and --what seemed like--the entire population of OKC
chased the cell through town. What a mess that was with all the traffic.
I looked at radar and noticed other cells firing too close to this cell so is was a
VERY easy choice for me to let that cell go and target new cells coming SE in NW OK.
I broke off the OKC cell in time to get to an impressive Supercell
near Nash , OK before dark. What a GREAT change of pace from the insane
traffic of trying to chase in a Metro area to having
this beautiful storm--seemingly--all to myself.

The following 2 shots were of the same storm after dark
taken with a wide angle lens--awesome storm.

April 16-18 Chases IA/MN
April 18 - Chased near surface low /warm front in PDS Tornado box
NW of Minneapolis,MN. Squall line quickly formed.
April 17 - Exciting chase of 2 tornado warned Supercells that formed after dark in NC IA.
The following pic shows "an area of interest"
just above the light near the center of this still from video.
I only saw this for a few seconds before it became rain wrapped.

The next shot is of the 2nd Tornado warned Supercell near Mitchell, IA .
This large Supercell looked quite impressive as it was illuminated by the frequent lightning .

This next shot shows what could be a large lowered area.
Hard to tell from this still.
Perhaps I will be able to find a better still of this lowering when I have more time.
I need to finish this update since I am leaving very soon to chase today (April 20)

April 16 - Chased Severe Hailstorm to near Des Moines, IA.
Since I had my old chase vehicle , I decided to "experience" the storm from the inside.
Radar showed that I would not have to worry about getting into extremely large hail.
The next 3 shots were taken near Dallas Center, IA.
I did call in a couple hail reports to NWS for their LSR's.

March 27, 2004 My target was Woodward , OK.
I left Guymon in time to get to my target area before the first large Tornado formed.
I did not make it in time due to car problems but I was able to still have a fun "day at the office"- lol
Be sure to scroll down to see the beautiful LP Supercell I caught on March 26.

Mutual, OK - "Cool" White Funnel Cloud --POSSIBLE- Tornado -
Note the extension from the funnel cloud about midway between it and the ground in this shot.

Another shot of same Funnel Cloud

There was VERY strong rotation in the lowering in the following 4 shots .
I also saw several VERY brief touchdowns (spin-ups) under it.

I left the Woodward County Supercell in time to catch the Large Supercell just SW of Weatherford, OK.
A few golfball sized hailstones were falling
as I stopped briefly NE of the meso to take this shot with my wide angle lens.

This is the Okarche funnel/tornado? shot looking NE.
I had found a road with no traffic --hard to do that day--
I just felt like stopping and taking in the storm
as the sun was setting on another great chase day.

March 26, 2004 - LP Supercell - near Boise City, OK

I swear I could hear the sound of a Freight Train
coming from this storm in the following shot

sorry I could not resist typing that-lol

The next 2 shots are from the same LP Supercell
as it maintained rotation until the base was only a few YARDS wide.
A really beautiful LP lifecycle and peaceful chase day.

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