LOVE 2004 Storm Chase Adventures by Shane Adams DVD * 2004 * 103min * R for language * $20.00 S&H Included Tornado lovers rejoice!!! This video is tailor-made just for you!!! No messing around, this one is wall-to-wall action from start to finish. Ride along with me on my most incredible season to date, as I observe and document over twenty tornadoes. Includes ten tornadoes from the May 29 tornadofest in southern Kansas, as well as the infamous "glowing" white tornado near Mulvane, KS. My all-time best-seller!!!

March 27, 2004 A fast-paced segment featuring four brief tornadoes. We chase our first supercell early in the day across west-central Oklahoma, observing three brief tornadoes over the course of an hour. When the storm weakens, we drop southwest and pick up a second storm. However this storm doesn't produce a tornado and begins to weaken, so we assume our day is done, and stop for food. After being off the chase for a half hour, happy with our three-tornado day, the second storm suddenly re-intensifies. We quickly jump back into chase mode, and run the storm down. We witness a beautiful sunset (which became the cover of this DVD) that lights the storm a brilliant orange, on our way to intercept the storm. The storm produces twin funnels just before dusk, one of which briefly touches down becoming our fourth tornado of the day. A nice warm-up for the insanity yet to come.

 

May 12, 2004 This segment features some real treats, as a slight risk day in southern Kansas yields one of the best days of my career. A figure-8 vortex develops from a high-based supercell, with both cyclonic and anticyclonic rotational couplets. The anticyclonic side decides to go first, as it produces a weak tornado (an extremely rare event in North America) that lasts a minute or so. After this tornado dissipates, the cyclonic half of the figure-8 wraps up and produces a classic 14-minute tornado, which appears as a slender white funnel with a churning orange dust cloud, as it slowly moves across open country. The entire lifecycle of this beautiful tornado is included, on tripod, from start-to-finish. This piece is my personal favorite of my entire video library. After this tornado ends, we continue on with the storm, and later on catch up to the Attica, KS tornado as it ropes out.

 

May 22, 2004  After abandoning my target, we head west and intercept a storm near Macon, NE. Though we missed the main show further east in our original target area, we were able to compensate with a single brief tornado from this storm, which formed just north of us.

 

May 24, 2004 Not wanting to repeat our mistake two days earlier, we carefully plan our target, but are thwarted by the Mississippi river. This forces us to abandon our original target and go to Plan B, which is the dryline. We spend the day racing west, missing almost everything. However, this storm had one tornado left in its bag of tricks, and we arrived just in time to observe it. A carbon copy of our May 22 chase, except bad luck (not bad decisions) robbed us of the main show.

 

May 29, 2004 An incredible segment, featuring one of the most insane chases of my career. We intercept the "Tornado Machine" storm in southern Kansas, and follow it through the evening as it goes crazy. After a brief snakey tornado, we're treated to a 20-minute classic, which slowly churns away across open country, like a painting in motion. Over half the lifecycle is included, on tripod. After this tornado moves away, we scramble to catch back up to the storm as it cycles again, producing multiple tornadoes that we catch glimpses of as we run the storm down. Just before dusk, we finally catch back up to the storm, as it puts on the single-most incredible display I've ever seen: a merry-go-round mesocyclone which produces tornadoes that move so erratically, they seem almost alive; tornadoes that zig zag, criss cross each other, and one that does a complete circle. Some of the most amazing tornado behavior ever witnessed. The scene culminates as the crazy rotation finally concentrates all its energy into one point, and produces a large wedge tornado, nearly a half mile wide. Later on near dark, we observe one final tornado, a ghostly white funnel moving through the darkness. An absolutely incredible event.

 

June 12, 2004 As amazing as May 29 was, this event topped it. Featuring the best video day of my chasing career, this segment steals the show. We intercept four tornadoes, all of which lend themselves to the video camera, creating delicious hues, shapes, and scenes, as all four are captured from excellent angles. The first is a classic backlit tornado, that churns a mile or so west of us and lasts a few minutes. What happens next however, would be the show of the day. The second tornado develops about a mile down the road, and quickly intensifies as it moves in an arch around our position. During the process, the tornado changes from backlit brown, to gray, and eventually white. As it nears the end of its lifecycle, the sun pops out in full and completely drenches the tornado, turning it bright glowing white, like a neon sign. As this happens, the tornado rolls over a farmstead, a pond, and a plowed field in rapid succession, creating an amazing debris metamorphosis from structural material to white mist to orange dust in just seconds. Later in the chase we witness the beautiful sunset tornado near Rock, which spins itself out gracefully to nothing. The finale is a serpentine tornado at dusk.