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Fremont Nebraska May 1999

     This semi-chase took place sometime in mid May 1999 after 10:00 p.m., sorry no exact date. I say semi because it wasn't an actual chase effort to begin with, even though it ended up being one.
     On this particular night we had decided to test a feature of our new digital video camera, night vision, on a line of "seemingly" average thunderstorms to the west of Fremont. We had no idea how handy it would come in!
     We traveled southwest of Fremont to take up position on a hill, so that we could see for miles around. We observed some spectacular lightning when we first arrived, however, after a short time I felt a change in the atmospheric and wind conditions causing me to become suspicous. Before I could inform my partners of my observations, one of them wanted me to watch an area of activity to our south-southwest. Upon doing so, I was amazed to see a wall cloud forming, backlit by lightning. We observed the maturation of the wall cloud for a couple more minutes before deciding to head towards it. While we were trying to get into a better position, it produced a brief tornado! Unfortunately for us it was brief, because a grove of trees prevented us from getting any impressive shots. The tornado disappeared as quickly as it appeared. We followed the wall cloud for about 10 more minutes before it also fell apart returning the thunderstorm to its average state once again.