May 12, 2004 Southern Kansas Tornadic Supercells

A quick summary: the Silver Lining Tours group intercepted two separate tornadic supercells during the evening of May 12 in southern Kansas. The first storm produced a slender but pretty truncated elephant's trunk tornado near Sawyer, KS and the second (tail-end) produced several. The group got south to Harper in time to see a large tornado partially wrapped in translucent precipitation curtains with this storm. Photos are below

Figures and Pictures:

Supercell updraft drifts eastward along the Pratt/Barber County line (Kansas).	Same updraft from a closer vantage point. Note the inflow tail to the right.	Small tornado produced by this storm; a small ridge obscures the debris cloud (verified to exist by other storm chasers to the west of the funnel cloud).	Same tornado.
Eventually, the group blows off the original storm and drops south onto the tail end just in time to catch a view of the strongest tornado produced by the monster supercell: a large tornado (rated F-4) about 3 miles southeast of Harper, KS as viewed looking south along Hwy 14.