2004 Chase Logs

March 26, 2004:   A short chase in the West Texas panhandle.

A weak dryline produces isolated storms along the Texas / New Mexico border.

Nothing exciting, but the kickoff to the 2004 storm chase season.

Scroll down for more photos and chase accounts...

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March 27, 2004:  Early tornadoes in western Oklahoma.

A strong upper level storm system kicks off a local outbreak of severe storms and few tornadoes in western Oklahoma near the towns of Vici, Watonga, Geary, Thomas and Weatherford.

Storm clouds brew early during the day looking east along the dryline.

As a storm near Elk City, Oklahoma intensifies, a wall cloud forms and shows signs of rotation.  A tornado warning is issued!

Just west of the town of Thomas, OK, a funnel cloud quickly appears in the now, rapidly-rotating wall cloud.  A tornado appears likely!

Although poor contrast in this photo, a tornado touches down just on the north side of the city of Thomas, Oklahoma.

Fortunately, this tornado remains small in size and mostly over open country.

Amazingly, as I was videotaping this tornado and sirens roared throughout the city, some residents carried on as if nothing were happening.  I observed some residents out washing their cars at the local car wash without a worry in the world.  And these are the same people who always claim, "we had no warning." when something finally does happen.  And unfortunately, this behavior is why some are injured or killed in severe weather.

A beautiful shot of the departing storm as sunset approaches.

This photo depicts the unique beauty in one of Mother Nature's most violent storms, and a pleasing end to the storm chasing trip in Oklahoma.

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May 10, 2005:  A short chase and non-severe event near Dumas, Texas.

Although ominous looking, note the relatively high base, or high "bottom" of the storm in relation to the ground level.  This is often due to a lack of sufficient moisture for the storm to really "get going" and become severe.  In addition, modest wind shear, at best, didn't offer much hope for significant severe storms on this day.

Still, I managed to capture some beautiful storm structure photos.  Nothing like storms close by!

Dark clouds worry some of the locals in Dumas, Texas.  Pea-sized hail was reported just north of town, but still not severe criteria.

Some local residents were worried by this feature, which is actually called "Virga," or simply, rainfall evaporating before it reaches the ground.

Although it does have an ominous appearance, virga is typically only a hazard to aircraft.

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May 12, 2004:

Finally, what storm chasers had been waiting for all season.

All the parameters came together on May 12th for a local severe weather outbreak in south-central Kansas.

I began my chase near Mooreland, OK and then began to move east along the dryline until storms finally fired near Alva, Oklahoma to Medicine Lodge, Kansas.  In this photo, chasers gather and wait for the storms to fire.

The first storm I caught up with produced a small tornado northwest of Medicine Lodge, Kansas.