May 22, 2008 Collyer, KS

Observed 4 tornadoes across portions of NW Kansas. Scott Blair, Katie Burtis, Al Pietrycha, and I began the day in GLD with an initial target of Scott City, KS. Chased several storms from Scott City to I-70 as they moved north-northeast. Observed the first tornado at 5:28pm, an elephant trunk tornado near Grainfield which persisted for 17 minutes, becoming a long rope as as it dissipation. We observed the next storm south of Collyer. This tornado produced two tornadoes simultaneously at times; a skinny cone with a debris whirl and another tornadic region that evolved from a dust bowl into several condensed tubes. We headed eastbound on I-70 to keep ahead of the storm and stopped to allow a new region of violent rotation pass to the west. The fourth tornado developed just south of I-70 with a near continuous debris whirl underneath intense rotation, occasionally producing a cone beneath the central axis of the wall cloud.