Tour 4, 2004 Summary
Tour 4 vital statistics:
Tour leader: David Gold
Driver: Alister Chapman
Accompanying storm chasers: Co-owner Bill Gargan (June 9 - 12) and photographer Jim Lea.
Day 1 - June 3; Day 10 - June 12
Tour 4 was a magical tour - one of those trips that none of us will ever forget. We are now in the process of updating this page, beginning with the best day - June 11.
Day 1 - June 3: Very high-based outflow-dominant storms near Las Animas, Colorado. This was mainly a set-up event for the following day in northeastern Colorado.
Day 2 - June 4: We intercepted a multicellular blob of high-based, albeit colorful, storms southwest of Sterling, Colorado. An updraft within a line of new convective towers apparently "feeding" this severe thunderstorm complex from the east eventually spawned a "landspout" tornado. We watched this highly-contrasted tornado for its 5-minute duration about 8 miles SW of Holyoke, Colorado.
Day 3 - June 5: Driving day - drove to Pierre, South Dakota to be in position for North Dakota the next day.
Day 4 - June 6: Chased a gigantic tornadic supercell through western and central North Dakota for about 4.5 hours. The tornadoes were brief and weak but the storm structure itself was very impressive (at times resembling an amphitheater in the sky) and the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) winds and large hail were quite damaging at times.
Day 5 - June 7: Intercepted a westward-moving (well, actually back-building) severe thunderstorm in central Nebraska, eventually stopping on a hill to watch the fabulous lightning display.
Day 6 - June 8: Intercepted a briefly photogenic high-based severe thunderstorm northwest of Trenton and then ran from it as strong straight-line winds chased us to McCook, Nebraska.
Day 7 - June 9: Chased a scary high-precipitation (HP) supercell from Denver International Airport to east of Woodrow, Colorado, twice looking into the inflow notch before having to flee from intense low-level (possibly tornadic) circulations. The day culminated in one more close encounter with a rain-wrapped tornadic mesocyclone in Sterling, Colorado.
Day 8 - June 10: Witnessed two tornadoes near Big Spring, Nebraska, including one classic "stovepipe" tornado - got a good close look at that one.
Day 9 - June 11: Witnessed several tornadoes in Iowa, including one long-lived classic tapered cone/stovepipe tornado that received an F3 rating in Clay County. The first tornado is a real beauty.
Upcoming: look for accounts/pictures from this Memorial Day weekend's predicted major tornado episodes over the Plains and Midwest.
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