CHASE LOG

DATE: June 11, 2004�� TIME: 19:15 to 21:45�� STATE(S): Iowa

COUNTIES: Boone, Hamilton, Webster

CHASE CREW: Travis Stevenson, Loren Karr (partial), Fenner Stevenson (partial)

BASE CREW:� Evie Stevenson, Fenner Stevenson�� CHASE # 7

�� Day began with warm temps, highs in upper 80�s, and dew points in upper 60�s.�

�� Chase started by heading North on Boone county road R27, planning to head towards the Webster City area.� While driving north, I kept an eye on a narrow rain shaft that was to the west approximately 10 miles.� At the intersection of Boone county roads E18 and R27, the shaft had widened some but was still a small area.� About 12 miles north of Boone on R27, at approximately 19:30 (7:30pm), I noticed the rain shaft was beginning to produce a funnel.� I pulled of at the cemetery along R27 and watched and video taped as an almost perfect V shaped funnel dropped down from the cloud extending halfway to the ground.� Soon there was a thin line connecting the funnel to the ground, confirming it as a tornado.� I continued to watch for two or three minutes until the tornado dissipated.� I was at least 10 miles away from the tornado, but due to minimal precipitation the view was great.

�� I continued north, changing my plans and heading towards Lehigh.� After I crossed the Boone River on Hamilton county road R21, I came across Loren, who had also caught the tornado on tape.� We compared info we had, and decided to head south, towards the west side of Stratford.

�� Apparently everyone else had decided to head for Stratford, as there must have been 25 storm chasers parked along the west edge of town.� Included in the group were chasers Bryan Karrick of KCCI TV-8, Ryan Pfannkuch, and oddities such as the Tornado Intercept Vehicle.� There was also a vehicle from project rotate, although we did not see the Doppler On Wheels.� I talked to Ryan briefly, and while he was staying put for a minute, Loren and I decided to head southeast.� We stopped in the southwest corner of Hamilton County to take a look at the clouds.� There was an unbelievable amount of rotation in at least three different locations along the cloud line.� As the rotation came close, we decided to head further east.� We zig-zagged down gravel and paved county roads, finally ending up on Iowa highway 17, at the Hamilton-Boone county line.� Once again there was a herd of other storm chasers, all watching and waiting for another tornado to appear.� We never did see another tornado, just a lot of rotation in the clouds.� We headed southeast, but eventually the rain and darkness caught up to us, and the storms lost their tornadic traits, so we headed for Boone.�

�� On the way into town, we met up with Fenner, who had been watching the storms from northwestern Boone, and was now watching from the east side of Boone.� During the lightning flashes, we watched a storm that was about 10 miles northeast of us producing some large hail, but decided to head for home before the mosquitoes carried us away.

��

SPC Convective Outlook showing a portion of Iowa as a slight risk for severe storms.

Map of yesterday's severe weather reports

SPC map showing many severe weather reports in northern Iowa.

Photos from June 11, 2004 Chase (#7)

Photo of rainshaft, looking west, about ten miles from my location.

Photo of funnel cloud beginning to form.

Funnel cloud getting larger, notice rain area had widened.

Tornado on the ground, the video shows the connection to the ground much better.

Tornado lifting back up into cloud.

A few of the many Storm Chasers that gathered in Stratford.� The red truck in the center of the photo near the highway marker is Bryan Karrick from KCCI.

Map of Chase Route.