May 5, 2002 - Smith County, KS  - Tornado
 

 
Chase Account by: Jonathan Garner
 
Brian Thalken and I decided to target an area around Red Cloud, Nebraska. We left Lincoln, NE at 12:40 pm, headed west to Grand Island, and then south down highway 281 towards Red Cloud. As we entered Hastings, I decided to get some lunch, and we called our friend Steve Peterson (who was chasing the same general area). We met up with him, and learned of a tornado watch being issued for Central Kansas. We decided to continue heading south toward Red Cloud and catch convective initiation in North Central Kansas. As we were approaching Red Cloud, we could see a large thunderstorm with a great anvil to our southwest. By 4 pm, severe thunderstorm warnings were being issued for numerous cells in North Central Kansas. So we headed south a bit more, and parked a few miles south of the KS/NE border. 

At ~4:15-4:30 pm, we were about 5 miles to the northeast of an intensifying cell in Smith County Kansas. The forward flank downdraft was effectively blocking our view of the base. In addition, intense CG action was occurring all around us, which meant we had to spend more time in our vehicles than outside. At 4:50 pm, a tornado warning was issued for our cell, but the base was still being obscured by the FFD rain core (this cell was not moving in a typical fashion). So Steve and his wife headed a bit south to get out of the rain. Brian and I eventually did the same, and by ~5 pm, we parked on top of a hill and observed a very intense mid and low-level mesocyclone to our west/northwest. By 5:20, a decent funnel formed, followed by an eventual tornado. This tornado was initially shaped like a small elephant trunk, but soon took on an assortment of contorted shapes. This tornado lasted about 5 minutes. After it dissipated, a new low-level mesocyclone developed to the north of the old one, and a giant wall cloud soon followed. This wall cloud was below a great rotating updraft with a decent inflow tail entering the eastern flank of the storm. The wall cloud began to occlude as the storm slowly moved east over highway 281. Brain and I then felt cold outflow, which was obviously a negative factor to additional tornadogenesis. However, we were pretty satisfied with the events preceding the demise of this supercell, and decided to head back to Lincoln at 6 pm.