Tornadic Supercell - Ness City, KS - May 23, 2008

After driving south on highway 283 towards Ness City, storm chasers Michael Laca, Jim Leonard, Ray Walker, Eric Baker, Max Hagen and Mike Ratliff turned west on highway 96 with an ominous supercell thunderstorm approaching from the southwest. After passing the DOW (Doppler On Wheels), we got to a position on the west-end of a long chaser lineup (closest to the storm), but after seeing violent rotation about to overtake us, we retreated a bit eastward as the meso edged closer to Ness City.

During this time we also observed some incredibly close and intense staccato lightning strikes. As the cell approached we moved farther east, back into Ness City (with tornado sirens blaring), and decided to head back north along 283 as the meso moved off to the north-northeast, in the direction of Brownell, Kansas.

As we caught up to the meso, we observed a large area of strong rotation directly in front of us, with several satellite vorticies developing along the periphery, to the right of the road. One of these satellite vorticies quickly evolved into a full tube.

Towards the end of this clip the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle), from the Discovery Channel's television series 'Storm Chasers', makes a cameo appearance.

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