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Last Updated on Saturday, 09 January 2010 17:53 Written by Roger Hill

2004

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May 22 took me to Nebraska. All things were coming together for quite a severe weather episode. A strong dynamic low and associated trough were coming out of Colorado headed for southern Nebraska. All severe weather indices were pointing to the area southeast of McCook, eastward towards Fairbury. Enough shear, instability, moisture and lift were present for strong tornadic supercells, and the atmosphere did not disappoint. By early afternoon, severe thunderstorms erupted in Colorado and spread into southwest Nebraska. We blasted westbound out of Hastings towards the tail end supercell southeast of McCook. We arrived in Beaver City in time for the show of the day. A quick tornado developed as the storm ingested deeper moisture, however this would be just the beginning.

Soon, a strong tornado developed just south of town and stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes. This was a beautiful elephant trunk/stovepipe that did little damage. A second tornado formed after an occlusion near the town of Orleans. This tornado just missed the north side of town. We are parallel with the tornado its entire life cycle. Just east of town I got out of the van and video taped as the tornado churned about 200 yards north of the road. It hit s building and filled the air with debris. I jumped back in the car and we drove east as it dissipated. In the meantime another tornadic storm (near Hallam, NE) formed. As we tried in vain to catch it a another storm formed near Republic, Kansas. This storm would produce 3 tornadoes, one of which was fairly strong. The updraft structure was breathtaking!!!! Finally at dark the last tornado formed with this storm as we blew it off to get ready for Illinois the next day.

Storm develops and intensifies into beautiful supercell.	Quick tornado touches down briefly.
Storm continues to intensify.	Funnel forms southwest of Beaver City.
Tornado!!!	INTENSE tornado south of Beaver City.
Tornado turns into gorgeous stovepipe!	Check out the dirt at the base of the tornado.
Tornado ropes out.	Second funnel forms in occlusion.
Ghostly white tornado on the ground near Orleans.	Tornado narrowly misses town as we drive through it looking north.
Debris cloud north of the highway about 300 yards away.	Debris in the air as tornado gets close to me.
Large mesocyclone of the storm as we head east.	Republic, Kansas supercell forms a nice mothership.
Brief tornado touches down.	A second more intense multivortex tornado forms.
Another shot of the tornado enhanced to see the small rope tornado to the right of the main tornado.	The next tornado forms and touches down briefly.
Tornado gets smaller near dark.	Another funnel forms at dark.
An occlusion occurs and the meso forms east of Hebron, NE.