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This was the most spectacular supercell I've ever witnessed... I actually had to head south of Lincoln to visit with an indidual before I could do anything. Not expecting tornadoes but thinking some nice storms could fire, I grabbed my camera and wx radio. I left what remains of Hallam, NE toward U.S. 77 and proceeded north to I-80. A quick shot east before heading north on I-180/U.S.34 and I turned north on H79 toward Valpraiso. I parked on a hill to watch the storm which was now severe warned. It looked marginal at first with cool outflow from the precipitation core. I could see the green clouds and bands of rain moving toward me so I got back in the car and went south through Valpraiso and then went east on CR-A toward Ceresco. The wx radio stated Ceresco was in the path of this storm but I figured it would get clipped as I thought the storm was moving east. I didn't realize the storm was taking a very hard right turn (moving southeast) and moving right toward me. I figured just severe hail was the primary threat but then hear tornado warning on the radio... Hail began to fall heavily which told me it was time to ignore all posted speed limits and get the heck out of there. Even the fire and rescue storm spotter behind me was hauling and probably wishing I went even faster. I made it through Ceresco and gave the gas station a quick glance as a potential car shelter but decided with a possible tornado developing I was going to go south. After driving several miles ahead of the hail core I stopped to take few pics and quick chatted with a gal filming the storm (funny how I told her the storm looked like it wouldn't produce but she should beware of large hail. She just stood there ignoring my safety warning probably thinking, "shut-up, I'm filming") and then the quarters started falling again... back south to escape the hail. I found another hill that looked like it would escape the hail and started taking as many pictures as I could, noting that the clouds were the most green I've ever seen. Also, at this point there was very warm inflow. The clouds began rotating so violently I decided to try the one minute movie feature on my digital camera. As I filmed the massive rotating beast I noticed a cone descend toward the ground. The last ten seconds of the video captured this well. The tornado moved to the southeast and out of view. I drifted east slightly and caught another glimpse of the funnel but it rain wrapped too quickly for a worthwhile shot. Realizing this monster was moving toward Interstate 80 I phoned OAX to report large rain wrapped funnel that was moving toward the freeway. I also noted that the RFD was rocking the car. After reviewing my video, the tornado was certainly on the ground and a good quarter mile wide or larger. The cell continued to progress southeast and I called off the chase as I would have had to plow through Lincoln traffic to catch up. It is interesting to note how many people were out of their vehicles watching the storm. I ponder how many of them realized what was happening. I also wonder what the folks driving toward the storm on 77 were thinking.

Storm Chase Video Footage from 4 March 2004

Tornado develops near Waverly, NE