Mayhem in May, How Baron Tools Saved the Day:
21 & 22 May 2004

John McLaughlin, KCCI-TV

Daryl Herzmann, Iowa State University

KCCI's Umbrella of Protection

60+ SchoolNet based real-time weather sensors

13 Live WebCameras

4 Stormchase vehicles

Instant Messaging with NWS

Storm Spotter Hotline

Baron Fastrac/VIPIR

21 May 2004 Talking Points

Severe convection the previous night produced an extremely strong outflow boundary over Northern Iowa.

The warm sector cleared out and warmed nicely during the day

The instability axis was lined up with the outflow boundary by 18z.

2 PM

2 PM view from Webster City

Looking NNW

Note the LCL

3 PM: Points to Ponder

Will our current convective cluster NE of DSM weaken as it moves to the SE?

Situational awareness: Where is the tornado threat?

4 PM : Convection fires in NW Iowa.

5 PM: View from Rockwell City

5-6 PM: Reports

Numerous tornadoes in Jones, Linn, and Benton County. These tornadoes are with the cluster to the east of Des Moines.

5:19PM Softball hail 5 S Spencer (Clay County)

Begin Case Study at 5:47 PM

6 PM: Looks to be wall2wall weather!

6:10 PM: Tornado reported near Rolfe (Pocahontas County)

6:20 PM: Lights ripped off of sheriff's car (Pocahontas County)

6:22 PM: Tornado reported 2 E of Rolfe (Pocahontas County)

6:23 PM: Tornado reported in Bradgate (Humboldt County)

Damage at Bradgate

21 May Summary

22 May: talking points

Massive amounts of convection blow up the evening of the 21rst and work SE over night.

The combined warm front / outflow boundary was extremely strong.

Onset of convection would probably be a bit later due to strengthening CAP and vort max still in Western NE

12z OAX (Omaha) Sounding

0z OAX: Danger, Danger

Instant Messaging with the NWS

(18:37:46) kcciwhite: we are still west of fontanelle

(18:38:11) kcciwhite: check out our cam

(18:38:37) nwsdmx2: rotating wall cloud near woodward

(18:40:08) kcciwhite: in fontanelle

(18:45:19) kcciwhite: we are heading north on IA 25 out of Greenfield.... see a nice lowering that way

(18:51:43) nwsdmx2: plenty of rotation in the wall cloud, moving se toward madrid

Live Reports from the field

(18:55:15) kcciwx: rapid hook forming sw of stuart on lsd

(18:55:15) kcciwhite: that's a 10-4. we are seeing lowering

(18:55:15) kcciwhite: we are south of that on hwy. 5 about 5 mi. north of greenfield

(18:55:37) kcciwhite: cam pointed right at it

(18:55:39) kcciwx: Seeing anything??

(18:56:15) kcciwhite: just lowerings, just some upward motion

(18:57:33) kcciwhite: some good scud

(18:57:53) kcciwhite: we are on 180th street in adair county going east

(18:58:00) kcciwhite: turning north on orange road

(18:58:21) nwsdmx2: baseball hail 2 n madrid

The Photogenic Stuart Tornado

(19:06:52) kcciwx: tornado south of menlo on the ground

(19:06:56) nwsdmx2: tornado reported just sw of stuart

(19:07:00) nwsdmx2: ham report

Another Shot of Stuart Tornado

Chaos Ensues

(19:44:27) kcciwx: tornado by maxwell..public

(19:44:33) kcciwx: public report

(19:45:03) nwsdmx2: 4ne dexter, tornado ham radio report

(19:46:51) nwsdmx2: tornado just w of maxwell now!

(19:47:38) kcciwx: 2 inch hail in camberage

(19:50:43) nwsdmx2: tornado 3w of adel now!

NEXRAD + Warnings @ 8 PM

Still storm chasing at 2 AM !!!

(01:36 AM) john_mcweather: just got stopped by ankeny pd so they could look at the radar! young kid though it was cool

Event Tornado Warnings

Summary Stats

Tornadoes by day for Iowa:

15 (May 21rst)

19 (May 22nd)

110 Tornadoes so far for 2004 (Record)

2004-09-13T09:25:22