THE TORNADO MACHINE - #1 Ranked Storm Chase (May 29, 2004)

May 29, 2004: Harper County, Kansas Tornado Machine

This is my #1 ranked chase day after 25 years of chasing beating out the likes of May 3, 1999, Dodge City, and Mulvane.

(Eric Nguyen's) Discussion: Scott and I had one of the best chases of our lives. We targeted southern Kansas in the vicinity of the dryline bulge and a weak W-E boundary. We waited in Medicine Lodge, KS, and had a storm develop to our SW near Hardtner, KS. We followed this for a little over an hour before it gave any signs of becoming a supercell. We observed a horizontal funnel pointing south near Attica, KS. This quickly developed into a gorgeous tornado! This tornado lasted 24 minutes and had an incredible rope out. During the rope out of the Attica tornado, another tornado developed to our SE in the shape of a large cone. We blasted east and once again, found ourselves in Harper, Kansas observing a wedge to our immediate south. We successfully flank the tornado and watched as it slowly moved north just west of Argonia, KS. This became a large wedge tornado moving due north. We had a sudden wind shift and noticed that a wallcloud had passed overhead and was quickly about to produce another tornado. So we blasted east to flank this tornado. It produced a large stove pipe orange in color from the setting sun. This tornado also morphed into a wedge as it moved northward. We ended the day with two tornadoes on the ground again.

https://www.mesoscale.ws/04-documents...

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archiv...

https://www.weather.gov/ict/event_200...

Wichita NWS Discussion:
May 29th 2004 Harper & Sumner county tornadoes...

Unlike the tornadoes of May 12th that affected mainly Harper county, these storms continued to move east, saving the strongest tornado of the night for Sumner county. Based on the damage survey, at least 9 tornadoes occurred, including two F3's and one F2.

The first tornado warning was issued for Harper county at 704 PM and was extended at 753 PM. The first reported touchdown was around 718 PM, west of Anthony. Three more tornadoes would touch down in Harper county before the night was over. The second brief touchdown occurred just northwest of Harper. The third one started just northeast of Anthony and was on the ground for 6 miles. It lifted northwest of Freeport, but another tornado developed northeast of Freeport, and crossed into Sumner County west of Argonia. Radar showed an impressive "hook echo" at this time.

The first Sumner County warning went out at 800 PM, and it was extended at 853 PM. Tornadoes sometimes develop in cycles as the supercell undergoes periods of strengthening and weakening. This storm was no exception. The next tornado occurred 6 miles later, and was the first of three to that touched down near Conway Springs. The first two of these were rated F3, but were only on the ground for 2.5 and 1.5 miles respectively. The last tornado which occurred east of Conway Springs was an F1. In addition to the tornadoes, the storm produced 80 mph winds at Belle Plaine and 2.5 inch hail near Conway Springs and Viola.

The large supercell thunderstorm which produced these tornadoes then drifted toward the northern Sumner county border, prompting a tornado warning for Sedgwick county at 936 PM. The storm weakened, but continued to drop golf ball sized hail near Mulvane around 930 PM.