June 10, 2004 - Big Springs, NE Tornado

Best guess from our observations:

2:41 p.m. MDT - 3:20 p.m. MDT - 39 minutes

8 miles east southeast of Chappell, NE to 6 miles north northwest of Big Springs, NE - Deuel county - 13 miles long - up to 200 yards wide

This trip involved some long miles... but was well worth it. My initial target the night before was Brady, NE. While changing this farther to the west several times... I figured that the I-80 corridor was the place to be. A balance between the strong forcing to the north and the strong capping in Kansas. We were passing North Platte when the first storms formed in far northeast Colorado. The target storm was severe when it came into sight and it had a tornado warning on it just a few minutes before we pulled up next to the updraft.

The tornado formed in typical high-plains fashion. Little in the way of condensation... with a bowl of rotating dirt at the ground marking the start at 2:41 p.m. The debris cloud is getting larger here as we look just a few hundred yards to our southwest. We got a little bit of a scare when a fairly strong gustnado passed about 50 yards to our west.

There is still fairly strong rotation on the ground here as the tornado passes just to our southeast. It was crossing I-80 at this point and overturned a vehicle. The tornado continued to organize and was very pretty despite not having condensation to the ground. Another view. Motion in the small debris cloud here was impressive.

It was time to change positions and I was just basically playing around with my camera while we were on the move. Another view. When we were heading north out of Big Springs... it became clear that the tornado was tired of being a “small high-plains thing” and the tornado had become very large. It was time to find a good view and stop. Here was my first shot after stopping of this beautiful tornado! Closer view. Another. Another. Toward the end of it’s life, the tornado started taking on different sizes and shapes. Another view. Getting weaker. Another view. The tornado in it’s rope stage. Another view of the rope stage with a “banana” look. Final.

After this tornado weakened... the storm became outflow unbalanced and trended toward HP. We never saw any of the other reported tornadoes... but after the show we had... it didn’t really matter. I threw my chase partner, Tracey (her first chase, first tornado) my video camera and I was able to focus on still photography. These were some of my better still photos that I have shot in years.

Heading home... we stopped to view the lightning associated with a tornado warned supercell east of Alma, NE. This was a great way to end a wonderful chase day. ONE TWO THREE and of course the “cheese” shot of myself and the storm. I know it’s been done before....