Omigod! I can’t even begin to describe which will likely become a historical storm. Starting shortly after 7 and going well passed dark, I ended up wrapping up the day with at least seven different tornadoes. The South-End Charlie served us well as it developed meso after meso, cycling through about every 15 minutes and dropping a tornado not long after that. The first two tornadoes were the most photogenic; the forth and fifth were smaller tornadoes with a decent bit of dust swirling beneath their funnels; the sixth tornado dropped and had Amos and I racing south to get out of its way, it passed within 500 yards of my vehicle when it crossed the road. Number seven came after I called it a night and was heading back to the Interstate. I ended up meeting Storm Chaser Warren Faidley for this night-time tornado, lit up only by lightning. A world of things made this the best chase to date, and what will likely be a day like none I will ever see again! Whistling hail almost as big as softballs crashed down during tornado #2 sounding like meteors hitting the ground. RFDs and inflow tossed us about most of the evening. Nearly 3 hours of non-stop tornatic action made this one for the record books. I have nearly doubled my life count of tornadoes in less than 3 hours!!!

Tornado #2 – West of Attica, Kansas on Hwy 160; Brief dust swirl on the ground beneath rotating base. No images.

This tornado was definitely one of the more notable tornadoes of 2004. While filming, several very large hailstones fell in the area around us which could be heard at several points in the video. While I personally only witnessed baseball sized stones, there were a few stones that were as big in diameter as a dollar-bill.

This tornado was the event of the day as Amos and I had stopped in our respective vehicles at the intersection of Hwy 160 and K-2 (3 miles south of Harper) to film the tornado at this stage…

With the tornado nearly stationary at this point, Amos and I elected to jump south on K-2 to get ahead of it. What I think was an RFD from another storm pushed this tornado into warp speed as it quickly began to race east at us. With us committed to our southern route, Amos and I made a run for our lives as this tornado closed to within a couple hundred yards of us. Within moments, what we thought would be an easy drive turned into the highway from hell as the tornado moved in on us making driving very difficult. I was following as closely to Amos’s truck as one wants to do at the speeds we were driving. Debris was being pulled into the tornado across the highway in front of us. I managed to maintain control of my sedan while filming behind me as the tornado hit a part of the high school only 30 seconds after we passed. When we finally emerged from the inflow, we found a spot about a mile south of the tornado to catch our breaths and film as the tornado again stalled its forward speed and eventually dissipate right at K-2. This tornado was eventually rated an F-2.

Darkness began to fall, and while I had opted to call the chase, I was heading in the direction of other storms as I worked my way back over toward Wichita.  One of the cells was producing amazing lightning, and while enroute to I-35, I observed a large tornado.  Shortly thereafter, I pulled into an area to watch the tornado.  I ended up stopped with Warren Faidley, who was also documenting this tornado.

Warren was the OG for me, seeing him on the 1992 Weather Channel special, “The Enemy Wind”, he was the first chaser I saw and he was the one who introduced me to the idea of storm chasing through that special.  To say I was a bit nervous to be sitting here with him, meeting him for the first time while we were both watching a tornado, was an understatement.  I was trying to play it cool, while not completely annoying him.  But he was totally chill, we talked about the day, each looking at this tornado through each other’s cameras.  It was a very pleasant experience to be sharing a tornado with the chaser who basically set me on this path.  Appreciate ya, Warren!