Walker's Travels

6/12/2017 - Tri-state (CO/NE/WY) Supercell and Tornadoes

2017-06-12T23:30:00.000-05:00

Lots of anticipation for the moderate risk with 15% hatched tornado in the High Plains. We began the day in Laramie with a jump over the range to Cheyenne for a target. Storms formed south of Wheatland initially, and then further south near Fort Collins. After entertaining the thought of going toward Wheatland, we pushed south to a developing supercell north of Fort Collins. While this looked good initially, it seemed to be ingesting a bit of stable air due to the laminar appearance in the lowest levels. We wrapped around to supercells dancing north of Nunn, CO. We watched the two bases from just north of Hereford. While they looked good, I was more interested in the CG barrage we were taking, as well as mammatus display off to the east. We moved east to the northwest part of the Pawnee National Grassland where we had a great view of the structure to the west. The supercell tightened its low-level circulation and produced intermittent funnels before tornado'ing for a good 25 minutes or so. We then followed the newer, east mesocyclone north into the far southeast corner of Wyoming where we captured a ground circulation grow. Somewhat shocked initially as we never saw a condensation funnel, but it finally appeared on the left flank of the meso, arching eastward and then down to the ground circulation. Though a quick tornado, it had the appearance more of a ropeout stage rather than initial stage of a traditional tornado lifecycle. We then followed the meso northeast through Pine Bluffs, Bushnell, then north of Kimball. The supercell(s) had three prominent mesocyclones at this point, with the westward mesocyclones producing a nice trunk and cone. Surprisingly, the east meso had violent rotation at its base, but only produced intermittent ropes and narrow tubes. The most dramatic part of this scene was not the intermittent funnels and tornadoes, but the violent motion under the meso and intense RFD in the clear slot, which we were hugging. We finally called it quits east of Harrisburg and pressed onto Denver, CO for a brief overnight stay before a red-eye in the morning.

Initial storm comes off Front Range near Fort Collins. Stuck with this for a while, before bailing to south to wrap to tail-end charlie.

This "Fort Collins to Cheyenne" storm did eventually produce a tornado northeast of Cheyenne, but it was clearly not the winner this day.

Now stationed well east of tail-end storm. This is view to east toward Panoramic Point, NE. Behind me is the next picture's view.

The tail-end charlie begins to wrap up after what seemed like an hour of just spinning with no fruit.

No doubt I love structure, so I wasn't going anywhere, despite a good road west and north. Figure everybody and there mama was getting the good, close shots.

At the conclusion of the Carpenter, WY tornado, we race north into Wyoming -- this, what I believe is, anticyclonic tornado pops out of the bottom of the right-flank meso (this storm had three distinct mesos oriented west-to-east).

The "right" meso (number one) churns, with meso number two producing tornado off to the left, and meso number three along the left ridge line.

Meso number two tornado.

Contrast enhanced a bit to bring it out of the haze along the horizon.

One of a number of tornadoes north of Kimball on sr-71. Still not sure why this particular (right of the three) meso didn't plant a big one.

Scene lapses and dashcam video.

Path of the day's chase.

This concluded my trip with my brother, Ken, and his son, Noah. The pattern wasn't conducive for sustained severe, but we made the best of it ... culminating with the grand finale documented in this post. We even had to let this storm go a bit early as we needed to be back to Denver to fly out early, early the next morning. This trip featured a lot of driving -- up and down the High Plains -- but had at least three good chase days in a week, which isn't that bad.

6/9/2017 - ND Supercell

2017-06-09T23:30:00.000-05:00

Far Northern Plains play on this day, with a slight risk and 5% tor threat across north and central ND. Target was pretty straightforward -- Minot, ND. Waited in Granville, ND for a while, waiting for storms to form. Eventually a supercell matured east of Minot along U.S. 2. Played with the storm for quite a while, before letting it roll over us near Devil's Lake as the cold pool surged. Storm had a chance to tornado east of Towner, but became undercut thanks to a microburst that dropped immediately northeast of the updraft in a relatively high base environment. Storm featured a sharp FFD southern edge and lots of CGs. After leaving the storm watched a beautiful sunset near James River Church, with convection spanning 180º along the horizon to the east. Likely killed well over a million bugs with the car on drive to Jamestown after dark.

Storm becomes surface based east of Minot -- tail cloud forming.

Stitched phone camera shot illustrating relatively high base.

Microburst dump

Very rural James River Church at sunset. Behind me the sky was full of convection.

Lapse scenes.

Travels for the day.

6/7/2017 - Northeast NM/Southeast CO Storms

2017-06-07T23:30:00.000-05:00

A weak upslope play in a broad SPC marginal risk greeted the first of a few days chasing with my brother, Ken, and his son, Noah. We made a quick trip to Philmont, before watching a supercell form near the Tooth of Time and move southeast over the High Plains. Followed this and another storm down I-25, before rolling back north to intercept a nondescript storm that was overly proud of its lightning generation. Then took a drive north and east over Johnson Mesa into Colorado to watch some elevated storms gust out as sunset neared.

Supercell wraps up near I-25 in NM.

This storm was throwing out bolts, even though it looked like crap.

Nice scene near Branson, CO

Lapse sequences (first set from prior non-severe day).

Map of the travels on this day.

5/27/2017 - Northeast NM to TX Panhandle Supercells

2017-05-27T23:30:00.000-05:00

While a lot of chaser scurried over to the enhanced/moderate risk area of eastern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, I was reluctant due to the likelihood of having to play in the jungles full of haze and the inability of CAMs to lock onto a formidable daytime supercell threat. For a couple days, I had been watching the marginal conditions along the southeast CO into northwest TX corridor and that seemed to grow more robust the day of. So, we targeted this area for a pure structure play. This area had relatively solid upslope flow as the winds were forecast to veer from northerly to southeasterly. With relatively nice NWFL aloft, this would provide enough shear for some robust supercells. Indeed, the only nice looking supercells on radar that day were across this region. We hopped on a supercell north of Clayton, staying ahead of it until we finally had to let it go north of Cactus, TX. The storm was beautiful, but hard to chase due to the fast southeastern movement in a relatively lackluster dirt road network. I learned – again! – that I should try to stay well ahead of these type events for the structure play, rather than trying to get up underneath them to see the dangly clouds. I should’ve given the storm more room early on, as that would’ve provided a better angle to shoot structure later. Alas, I was at the mercy of storm motion and road network, so we did the best we could in trying to remain ahead of the beauty. Overall, not a bad chase, just wish I could’ve been about 10-15 miles out ahead of the beast.

Lapses from this day

Map of my travels during this first chase trip of 2017. The trip was with my good friends Laura Hedien and Paul Cross. Though not a trip full of good storm environments, we made the best of it. During off days, we visited Santa Fe, Taos, Sandia Peak, Rio Grande Gorge, Wolf Creek Pass, Great Sand Dunes, NP, Black Mesa, Palo Duro Canyon SP, and even a Omaha Storm Chasers ballgame.

5/26/2017 - Eastern CO/western KS Supercell

2017-05-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

Began the day in Ellis, KS with two targets in mind: 1) I-70/US-36 corridor east of Denver or 2) southeast Colorado. After sliding west a bit, we decided on the northern play due to consistency in the CAMs. We made it to Deer Trail as a set of three cells moved near and across the Denver International Airport. Slowly, the storm got its act together north of Last Chance. Once it took on that supercell look, it turned hard right. Though it was close a couple of times to producing tornadoes, it seemed to miss the low-level lapse rates and just a hint of juice to give it that low-level jump. Eventually, the storm became an HP beast as it traversed the east-central Colorado Plains. We followed it to Goodland, KS where we finally let it go in the waning light. Overall, a beautiful storm.

Time-lapse of scenes.

Map of chase.

5/25/2017 - KS Supercells

2017-05-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

Began the day in Alamosa, CO after the previous evening’s sunset at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Target was for far eastern Colorado into western Kansas, where a slight risk was in place due to bulk shear in the 35-45 kt range and about 1000-1500 J/kg of CAPE. Storms formed early-on between I-70 and I-76, yet I was reluctant to go after those as I wanted to be on the most southeast storm of the day (if it were to materialize). Eventually convection did form just to our west in Burlington, CO. We held tight with this storm as it slowly matured. Once it matured – right on the KS/CO border – it became a race to stay ahead of the relatively fast mover as it traversed the not so pleasant road network south of Oakley within the Smoky Hill River Valley. We did manage to navigate the dirt road, staying ahead of the cell as it continually surged with little RFD punches. It was a real beauty, especially near Winona and Gove City. We continued with the cell as it grew upscale into a meaty MCS, eventually calling it a day near Brownell, KS. We overnighted in Ellis.

Stitched panoramic

DSLR and dashcam lapses

5/22/2017 - NM Supercells

2017-05-22T23:30:00.000-05:00

Another marginal day in terms of ingredients on the southern High Plains that turned into a crowd pleaser. Began the day in Dumas, with an east-central NM target in mind. West-northwesterly flow aloft and relatively weak upslope flow below provided an environment conducive to some marginal supercells. We jumped on storms near Melrose, NM, but the environment was far more supportive of left-splits early on. We patiently waited as new storms continued to form south of Fort Sumner. Eventually, one of the right splits held its own and marched southeast toward the TX/NM border. We remained ahead of this till northeast of Tatum, finally letting the transient supercell structure go, as new storms fired further west with far more deviant/southerly motions permitting more supercellular structure. We got ahead of these pair of supercells near Caprock, just a they began a slow weakening trend. Before the left most supercell died, though, we could take in a magical show off the westward flank of the caprock that stretches along sr-172. This beautiful setting made for quite the land and cloudscape as the supercell shriveled in the sunset light off the edge of the ridge. A few minutes later, as the supercell died, a magnificent mammatus display lit up the sky to the east. Definitely one of those scenes where it’s hard for your brain to comprehend the display – seemed almost Disney-like. Ended the day in Artesia at the nice new Hampton Inn there.

An early right-mover that sustained for an hour or so.

Remarkable scene as the FFD of the LP keeps us wet -- edge of the Caprock. Horseshoe vortex in there if you look closely.

Soon after the prior shot, the sky to the north and east lights up with unreal mammatus display at sunset.

Scene lapses for the day.

Map of travels for the day.

5/21/2017 - Storms in OK/TX Panhandles

2017-05-21T23:30:00.000-05:00

Fairly marginal day, with only about 500-1000 J/kg CAPE and moderate westerlies atop southwesterlies. This led to the potential for high-based, multicell structures. We left Amarillo, targeting the area northwest of Boise City in the beautiful Cimmaron Valley at the NM/OK Panhandle interface. Convection fired as we neared the valley floor. We watched the multicells strengthen and become warned for marginaly severe hail. Enjoyed the view in a stationary spot near an ol’ Santa Fe RR boxcar for what seemed like a couple hours. Eventually the cold pool strengthened and the storms began to shift south. The structure got very cool just northwest of Dalhart just as the light got “right”. Ended the day in Dumas. Overall a relaxing a pleasing chase with some nice structure.

Timelapse of various scenes -- includes DSLR stills and a few DSLR "movie" tests thrown in.

2/28/2017 - Washburn, IL Tornadoes

2017-02-28T23:30:00.000-06:00

An enhanced -- later upgraded to a moderate -- risk of severe thunderstorms was forecast with a late February system that rolled across the Midwest and Ohio Valley. After concluding lecture, I ran home to grab my gear and push south on I-39. Initial target was the Peru region. I arrived just in time for some messy tornado warned storms, but overshot them south and west as I hoped for further southwest development in "cleaner" air. I did get a brief glimpse while driving north on sr-29 near Henry of an EF1 tornado in eastern Stark County ("Castleton tornado") ... by the time I made it up to the bluff west of the Illinois River, I was left taking pictures of nothing more than a fast moving, rotating wall cloud. With this moving into the Illinois River Valley (not an easy place to chase), I frustratingly booked it south back to Henry, deciding to go after an isolated cell near Brimfield (west of Chillicothe). I made the decision to head east of the river here, due to lack of bridges south of this location. This meant there was a chance I'd miss any tornado west of Chillicothe, but I wasn't about to be trapped by the river. I nervously waited near La Rose and Washburn as the updraft headed in my direction. After talking briefly with Skip Talbot, I maneuvered east down the road and watched the barrel come closer. It eventually dropped a wispy tornado that grew into a very large dusty (18-mi, 600 yard wide, EF3) monster. With storm direction and storm mode acting disciplined, I let the thing approach me directly before scurrying south to re-position a bit. After having fun kissing the dusty tornado for a bit, I paralleled it east through the backroads between Washburn and I-39. It eventually roped out in dusty fashion near 39, before the parent supercell went on to produce a couple more tornadoes in twilight near Dana, IL. Unfortunately, my dashcam video was bad ... some sort of internal residue in the lens made the video cloudy. Then, in addition to that, not having a charge on my best camera for the event ... I was in full-on technological failure mode on this chase. Grrrrr.

Barrel updraft rolls toward me just north of Washburn.

Tornado forms and quickly becomes dusty.

Stitch of about 6 images, illustrating structure.

Tremendous (relatively high-pitch) waterfall sound coming from tornado at this point.

After Washburn EF3 ropes out, this forms shortly after.

Another, separate tornado forms in twilight ... the NWS considers the previous two images the same tornado in the LSR, when, in fact, they were two separate events.

Short time-lapse and video from dashcam. Dashcam malfunctioned, as you can see. Thankfully, manufacturer has replaced unit even though well after warranty.

Will Wight captured video of me re-positioning near the tornado (not as close as you may think due to the perspective).

5/26/2016 - West Kansas LP Supercell

2016-05-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

Though a moderate risk w/ 15% hatched tornado probability was forecast this day, not much materialized in terms of tornadoes or even high-end severe. We targeted the western KS region, and latched onto a pretty, LPish-type storm near Tribune, KS. The storm was relatively slow moving, and had a nice dual-corkscrew updraft complete with numerous anticyclonic funnels. It seemed to run into cold air near Lake Scott, which ended the chase.

Back side of updraft south of Tribune, KS

Early afternoon convection in southern KS muddied the atmosphere, but did produce this bolt.

One of numerous anticyclonic funnels on the west side of the LP storm.

Just as things were getting very pretty, the storm hit cold air and rapidly decayed after this ...

Time-lapse sequences.

Began in Junction City and ended in Garden City.

5/25/2016 - Chapman, KS EF4 Tornado

2016-05-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

This was an unusual day in that a slight risk with a 2% tornado risk went on to produce a long-track violent tornado, of which I witnessed the latter half of its life-cycle. Spent most of the day thinking the area from McPherson to Wichita would be the hot spot, getting suckered south and east of El Dorado to a long-lasting LP with a base that could've fit within a high school gym. Meanwhile, a long-lived supercell -- and storm of the day -- had formed near Salina. Keeping a radar eye on that storm, while holding firm on this southern LP thinking it was going to eventually take-off, was a mistake. Finally, we blasted north toward the I-70 storm, taking in the Flint Hills about as quick as one can with a mediocre internal combustion engine. It was a long slog up, but we eventually caught eye of the tornado near Enterprise, KS. We positioned north of Detroit, KS and took in the classic tornadic supercell for a bit, before having to scurry east and south as the bear came munching. Stopped a few times -- once northwest of Chapman, another east of Chapman, and then south of Junction City -- to view the beast, which would alternate from rain-wrapped to visible. Watched the tornado dissipate south of Junction City from a perch on US-77.

Stitched panoramic north of Detroit, KS

Tornado becoming wrapped and nearing I-70, northwest of Chapman, KS.

Stitched pano with Chapman, KS in valley ahead of tornado.

Dashcam and DSLR lapses.

Began in Pratt; ended day in Junction City.

5/24/2016 - Dodge City, KS Supercell and Tornadoes

2016-05-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

May 24th was just one of those days where that atmosphere decided it was going to throw some nice ingredients together and make a nice, long-lived, slow-moving tornadic supercell. This enhanced day featured a surface low, dryline, and outflow boundary with steep lapse rates, healthy CAPE, and strongly curved hodos. I began the day in Woodward, OK and slid slowly to Buffalo, then Sitka, KS. West of Sitka, I did get a little antsy due to the ongoing tornadic storm well to the north, up near Scott City. Satellite showed nice cu and convergence occurring near Meade, so I kept (impatiently) holding along the US 160-283 corridor. Eventually, as I was sitting north of Minneola, cells began to form to my south. I double-backed and took up shop southwest of Minneola, watching as the storms slowly gathered strength, with three distinct bases consolidating into what would become the storm of the day. The rest is well documented by the hundreds of chasers on the event, so I won't belabor the discussion. I purposely stayed in spots a long time to take in the evolution and structure, trying not to rush after the mesos. When I did take off to the north a couple times, I nearly smacked a deer once, and "enjoyed" a little bit of Kansas mud on another jaunt. At Dodge, I wrapped around town, not wanting to go through populated areas after my El Reno lesson. I witnessed a couple more tornadoes as I drove up to Spearville. I tried to intercept another tornadic storm near Kinsley, but the persistent core ahead didn't permit. Ended the day in Pratt.

Initial tornado sequence northwest of Minneola, KS. See movie below for tornadogenesis.

Second large tornado now southwest of Dodge City, with meso to east producing two squirrelly tubes.

Occlusion in process with rope to left, and new tornado in meso to east.

While the chaser traffic was significant this day, must folks were well behaved (from my perspective). Though I did have chasers roll up on me during the early stages of the event and, literally, block my view -- with no consideration of someone who was there long before they hopped on the scene. Naturally, these were the my-chase-vehicle-is-compensating-for-a-lack-of-something types. Otherwise, I was baffled by the ultra-wide loads and truck traffic that continued in the midst of all of the tornadoes.

Tornado on west side of Dodge City, with another, eventual tornadic, meso to the east.

Downtown Dodge City to the right...

Taken while driving around the southeast Dodge bypass, near the airport entrance. That's a stationary aircraft that's non operational and signifies the airport entrance.

KDDC radar with tornado.

Tornadoes continued to form/track well to the north, but now losing some visibility due to reluctance to take lonely US 283 north due to the hail cores in multiple quadrants.

Last tornado, as seen north of Spearville.

Evening scenes following second, tornadic storm near Kinsley, KS

Time-lapses of dashcam, go-pro clip, and DSLR sequences.

Map of the day's drive ... starting in Woodward and ending in Pratt.

5/23/2016 - Woodward, OK tornado

2016-05-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

Targeted the sw KS, panhandle/nw OK, and ne TX panhandle region on an enhanced risk play. Latched onto a couple of LPish supercells between Buffalo, OK and Coldwater, KS in the early evening. While these were nice, they never seemed to get that look due to what appeared to be entrainment/weak convergence issues. As those decayed, I quickly turned my eye to new development near Woodward, OK. I raced south and east around the nearly stationary supercell while dodging a hail-throwing left split. I eventually made it to a nice perch northeast of Woodward, but had to retreat south to US 412 due to hail. I hit a few spots between Woodward and Mooreland, before finally settling on a location along US 412 where I watched a tornado form and dance up and down for roughly 15 minutes or so. This occurred at sunset, which made for a beautiful scene. Unfortunately, the Canadian River and lack of roads that cross the river east of Woodward prevented me from getting a closer look; I was reluctant to drive into Woodward then north while the tornado was occurring.

5/22/2016 - western Nebraska supercells

2016-05-22T22:00:00.000-05:00

Began the day in Scottsbluff, NE after busting on an Wyoming upslope play the day before (~1100 mile bust ... and, even worse, I missed the 5/21 Leoti, KS long-lived supercell due to by stubbornness about not chasing around gobs of people). This particular day was a slight risk play that really never could sustain good storms for longer than about an hour or so. Storms fired near LBF, and I latched onto the initial cell north of Maxwell. This supercell looked good for a bit, but eventually fell apart. Another supercell formed along the east flank of the initial storm; however, once again, this storm looked good for a bit, but eventually quickly died north of Arnold before sunset.

6/16/2015 - Eastern Wyoming Storms

2015-06-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

Once again, I'll lift the text from Victor Gensini's blog as I'm posting this nearly a year after the event. "Tuesday featured another slight risk along the Laramie Range and we decided to hug this play due to the rather marginal ingredients elsewhere, and the slightly better upper level wind shear over the northern target (plus, we awoke in the target area!). We ventured out of Laramie toward Glendo State Park. We found a perch in the state park that overlooked a reservoir and captured some stunning images of a developing LP type supercell to our immediate north. We repositioned south a few times to take in more views of the gorgeous updraft. A longer stop transpired west of Guernsey, WY, to take in the sky for a bit before ping-ponging back and forth between Chugwater and Dwyer. This turned out to be rather fortuitous though, as we found a majestic bald eagle to photograph!

New storms were developing west of the Laramie Range, so we bolted back north toward Guernsey to a gravel road where we had previously shot some nice time lapse photos. We allowed the core of this last (and beefy!) storm to pass just to our west before driving back toward I-25 to look for large hailstones. The largest stones we could find were near 2.5” at the rest stop just west of Dwyer. Rather large hail for this area of the country!"

LP storm over Glendo Reservoir.

Anticyclonic funnel on back side of storm.

A bird.

Ice balls

6/15/2015 - Elk Mountain, WY Tornadoes

2015-06-15T23:30:00.000-05:00

Lifting the text from Victor Gensini's blog, as I'm posting this blog a year after the fact, forgetting the details: "We awoke in Cheyenne to an 'interesting' risk for severe storms in the interior of WY. Moisture was pooling on the west side of the Laramie Range, along with clearing skies and a fairly strong northeasterly surface wind. To kill time prior to convective initiation, we visited the Snowy Range Pass (~11,000 ft. elevation) where plenty of snow was still to be found. After stopping for some neat shots near Lake Marie in the Snowy Range Pass, we completed the circuit and watched developing convection near Rawlins, WY from the Elk Mountain, WY area.

The convection was ‘pretty’, but never really had a tornadic appearance. However, when driving east away from these storms on HWY 72 near Rock River, the storm suddenly pulsed up an started to feature a cone shape lowering now 15-20 miles to our west near Elk Mountain. We stopped at a nice vista east of Rock River to watch the developing tornado. The tornado started around 3:47 local time and was nearly continuous until 4:03 PM. A second, smaller, rope tornado also formed around 3:53 PM just to the northeast of this first tornado.

We repositioned just south of Rock River to get a better view of this tornado and were treated with a great view (next to a fox that called a drainage pipe along the road his/her home!)

These tornadoes were rather unexpected, and after further analysis, likely formed due to a local vorticity maximum associated with strong northeasterly winds into the area. A storm-scale boundary may have also played a role in tornadogenesis, as these storms were a ‘one and done’. A fun and rather unexpected high-plains surprise!"

Early iteration of the storm was pretty, but certainly didn't have that tornadic look.

Tornadic storm with Elk Mountain in the distance.

Late evening setting as we headed to Laramie.

Thanks to Laura Hedien for the video of the tornadoes.

6/14/2015 - Southeast Wyoming Storms

2015-06-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

Lifting text from Victor Gensini's blog, as I've posted this blog over a year after the event, forgetting the details on this marginal/slight risk play: "We departed west out of Omaha on Sunday with an eye on (a) cold front / pseudo surging outflow that was stalling around the I-80 corridor in western NE. These sort of features have been notorious for producing non-mesocyclonic (or landspout) type tornadoes, especially when large amounts of instability are present in the atmosphere. While we did not find a 'needle in the haystack', we continued west toward our morning target north of Cheyenne, WY. Convection was beginning to mature in the Wheatland, WY area, with one dominant cell pushing out ahead with a deviant southeast (and at sometimes southwest!) storm motion. We latched on to this cell near Meriden, WY and stuck with it for the rest of the day. The cell looked really good for about 15 min., where it featured a clear slot and attendant funnel cloud for nearly 5 min. We eventually re-positioned south before sampling the hail core and calling it quits for the day."

Cow, clear slot, and funnel.

6/5/2015 - COD Day 8 - Vona, CO Tornadoes

2015-06-05T22:32:00.000-05:00

We woke in Colby, KS and targeted the Palmer Divide. As we drove toward Limon near lunch time, tornado warnings were already flying to our west south of Watkins, CO. Forgoing lunch (for the time), we raced west to intercept the storms moving northeast off the Palmer. We finally caught a relatively strong cell south of Bennett. Though the cell wrapped up nicely, we were lacking strong inflow. Things got messy very quickly after this, so we pushed east along the interstate where we caught a quick gas station-lunch and fill-up. Matt and I decided to blow off the Palmer stuff, hoping that new storms east along I-70 near Hugo would tap into the better environment east toward the KS border. We did stop at Genoa for a quick lecture on hail, which spotted the ground from a prior core. Blasting east, we set our sights on a new cell forming along the interstate to our east that would clearly ingest the best air in the region. Despite hitting construction, we finally made it to Stratton and raced north eventually getting a glimpse of the wall cloud and a very nice cut. As we drove north and approached a ridge, it began to tornado. We pulled immediately and let the group take in the setting. It was a beautiful scene, with a tornado that grew to a quick wedge, complete with a collar cloud. A new meso formed to the east of the tornado and, as we drove north, provided an excellent example of meso hand-off. We stopped a couple more times, witnessing two more quick tornadoes in a rapidly rotating wall cloud sheath affiliated with the newer meso. We eventually called it as storm interaction and (muddy) road network made for difficult chasing. We grabbed steaks at Montana Mikes before a late night talking about our experience in the Sleep Inn lobby. A good day!

Initial supercell south of Bennett.

Tornado north of Vona, CO ... lasted about 15 minutes.

My shots were wide angle; Laura was able to zoom in a bit.

Wedges out briefly.

Second tornado ...

What a great group of folks!

Lapses ...

6/4/2015 - COD Day 7 - Atwood and Selden, KS Supercells

2015-06-04T23:56:00.000-05:00

We had planned to target the area near Limon, but were very concerned about the lack of flow progged by the models across the Front Range. Despite having reservations in Limon, we cancelled, and targeted the north-central KS region with high hopes that the big CAPE and relatively good shear could make for a great day. We met up with Victor in Phillipsburg, KS to do another balloon launch. The sounding revealed our problem---a pretty stout cap in an environment with modest convergence. While we had attempts at CI, nothing could sustain. We eventually moved west to intercept storms developing in northwest Kansas in a relatively good environment. We latched onto a supercell near Atwood, KS. It, initially, had wonderful structure, but soon transitioned to an outflowish piece of crap. We pushed south, thinking we were done. Alas, a new storm northwest of Selden caught our attention. We got to watch the storm do a textbooks split as we drove south across the outer reaches of the FFD. Eventually we got south of the precip, pulling off to take in an amazing supercell in the twilight north of Selden. The storm wrapped like a flying saucer, spitting out lightning like few had witnessed. We shifted south only once or twice, as the slow moving storm put on a sky fire show. A close lightning strike finally pushed the group back in the vans. With a hotel in Colby, we moved west in hopes of a nice lightning show on the backside of the convection. The storm did not disappoint. We enjoyed about an hour of late evening fireworks before finally calling it and heading to the hotel and Montana Mikes for dinner.

Launching weather balloon near Phillipsburg, KS

Resulting sounding.

Initial supercell near Atwood, KS

Driving south to intercept splitting supercell between Oberlin and Selden, KS.

Steve's great shot of group taking it all in ...

Leon grabbed this amazing shot!

After twilight, we shifted south and watched the amazing "sky fire" light show!

Three stills stacked.

Five stills stacked.

Four stills stacked.

Lapses from stills, gopro, and dashcam ...

6/3/2015 - COD Day 6 - Hartville, WY Supercell

2015-06-03T23:30:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, the 3rd, the forecast was for a heightened potential for supercells and tornadoes along the Front Range in CO/WY. In the end, the day left a lot to be desired. We initially targeted Colorado, but soon made the decision to shoot north and west to Wyoming. We joined up with Victor to launch a weather balloon near Wheatland and, thereafter, latched onto a storm north of Fort Laramie in east-central Wyoming. We had a nice perch, watching the storm evolve and intensify. However, the storm really never got that look and we decided to call it a day as it shifted into the rural area north of Lake Guernsey. Of course, as we headed to Fort Laramie, the storm intensified just a bit, pulling us north and west through the beautiful (hilly) landscape near the tiny town of Hartville, WY. We cleared the hills, arriving at a spot with a wonderful perspective of the storm at twilight. With decaying light, lack of roads, and storm merger occurring, we finally called it a night and made the long drive to Ogallala, NE.

Quick lapse of the scenes.

6/2/2015 - COD Day 5 - Western Nebraska Supercells

2015-06-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

Started the day in Spearfish with a series of choices: play central North Dakota, east-central South Dakota, or hedge south toward the Nebraska Panhandle. After much hand-wringing, we picked the latter target. After the scenic drive through the eastern Black Hills/Plains interface, we lunched at a park with take-out from at tasty BBQ restaurant in Chadron. After lunch, we shifted south toward Hemingford, where we hung out for a bit and watched explosive convection to our northwest. We moved west of Hemingfird and perched on a stunning ridgeline overlooking a beautiful valley amidst the Sand Hills in the foreground, and nearly stationary convection in the background. The severe storms produced a number of circulations, but the low-level flow was lacking. After watching the storm from the same spot for nearly an hour, we moved east as it became outflow dominant. We stopped west of Hemingford and took in a wonderful skyscape, keeping an eye on a nice circulation to our northwest … alas, outflow was well ahead of the rotation. The storm then became a big, dusty guster. We moved southeast, snagging some pics of Carhenge and the storm. We let this first complex go, and turned our attention to new convection developing north of I-80 in the far southern Panhandle. As we waited for a pilot car on a one-lane road, we got a wonderful view of a beautiful vault from a maturing supercell. This eventually died, and we moved south again to intercept another supercell. The last supercell of the day was a stunning LP bathed in oranges as the sun set. It was a beautiful and grand end for a somewhat marginal ingredient day. Overnighted in Ogallala.

Exploding convection west of Hemingford.

Storm wraps up, but undercut by outflow.

Stitch of 7-8 images west of Hemingford.

Nice view of vault on second supercell after getting through the construction/pilot car south of Alliance.

Group takes in the LP north of Sidney.

Series of lapses from stills.

5/29-6/1/2015 - COD Day 1-4 - Sturgis-Rapid City, SD Supercell

2015-06-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

COD Trip 3 2015 commenced at 8 am on Friday, the 29th. With a lack of severe threat---at least initially---we moseyed west, venturing to Sioux Falls, the Badlands, Wall Drug, and Devil's Tower. Our first chase potential was on the Sunday, the 31st, but nothing materialized until twilight. That evening, we watched a few storms along the Laramie Range from the area immediately west of Scotts Bluff National Monument as the swallows swarmed.

Group picture at the Badlands.

On Monday, the 1st, we woke in Scottsbluff and, after a morning discussion, targeted the far northwest part of South Dakota. We made the beautiful drive from Scottsbluff to Lusk to Newcastle to Spearfish, holding up in Belle Forche after lunch. Eventually, some towers went up to our west in the deeply mixed air and we went after them to take a look. The towers all suffered quick deaths as they were moisture starved. A persistent area of convection hugging the northern lip of the Black Hills seemed to be the only game in town to play as nothing was forming to our north or northwest. So, we took off after the cell east of Sturgis. We punched through it and experienced a bright rainbow, as well as nickel size hail. After a brief stop to snap pics of the rainbow, we pushed east, jumping ahead of the maturing supercell. We pulled off the interstate between Sturgis and Rapid City and were amazed at the supercell staring back at us. We sat in a field and watched the nearly stationary supercell for well over 30 minutes before shifting east as the FFD rain started to fall on us. We stair-stepped down the interstate, each time stopping to take in the beautiful supercell. Following the storm into the western edges of Rapid City, we finally called it a night as it started to lose organization in the waning light. We had to wait a bit to hit the road back to Spearfish as the interstate was shut due to flooding caused by the slow-moving cells. Overnighted at Spearfish Holiday Inn.

Double rainbow on backside of slowly maturing supercell near Sturgis, SD.

Our initial view of the front side of the supercell.

Takes on a sombrero appearance.

Lightning as supercell begins to decay west of Rapid City.

Series of still lapses, as well as gopro sequences.

5/15/2015 - Nebraska Panhandle Storms

2015-05-15T23:30:00.000-05:00

A quick solo trip to the Plains for the weekend brought a few picturesque storms, but certainly did not live up to forecast expectations. I left very early Friday, targeting western Nebraska. I intercepted a number of supercells in the Sidney-Ogallala region -- one of the storms wrapped up very nicely to my south, but never could connect. Tethered to DeKalb for a Sunday evening party meant I had to let the Red River threat go on Saturday and play the washed out, low-risk Kansas region. Another early morning MCS killed the potential for supercells across my target area, which meant a long ride home Saturday/Sunday.

Initial storm north of Sidney, NE.

Wall cloud on second storm north of Sidney, NE.

Third storm intercept matures along I-80 west of Ogallala at twilight.

Lapses for the day.

5/9/2015 - Grinnell, KS tornadoes

2015-05-14T21:19:00.001-05:00

With a couple storm chase opportunities slated for the weekend, we left DeKalb Friday afternoon and overnighted in Topeka. Saturday was progged as a moderate risk 3 days out, but thanks to overnight and morning convection across the risk region, the overall threat for severe was reduced. On Saturday, we targeted the area around Garden City, but had to keep pushing west due to cool easterlies flowing out of the decaying MCS across Kansas. We held up in Syracuse for convection to mature to our south. We eyed a storm in Colorado, but were too patient for the stuff to our south. The storm in Colorado, naturally, went on to produce a number of photogenic tornadoes while our convection slowly weakened as it moved up the CO/KS border. Disappointed, we raced north and then east toward Oakley. Not expecting much, we were suddenly intrigued by the convective towers going up along the warm front stretching along I-70. The bases to all these showers had distinct rotation, revealing the tremendous shear in the low-level environment. We then turned our attention to a storm that was maturing south of the warm front near Gove City. We thought that if this storm could continue to mature and interact with the front, we'd maybe see something. We shifted east from Oakley over to Grinnell, where we hoped to dive south to intercept. Alas, the road was a muddy mess so we had to be patient and let the storm slide up toward us. This was extremely frustrating as tornado reports started to trickle in, but we couldn't see a damn thing since we were smack in the middle of the forward flank downdraft (FFD). Eventually the rain free base and bowl revealed itself behind the cloak of FFD rain. Sure enough, within a couple minutes an elephant trunk drill bit formed and slowly meandered north-northwest for what seemed like 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, the rain had picked back up and twilight was upon us, which made for difficult photography. Alas, we snapped photos best we could and then skedaddled west along the interstate to get a closer look and split the two different mesos evident on radar velocity. As we stopped along the interstate west of Grinnell, we had a tornado in our west quadrant associated with the primary/occluding meso, a funnel and likely translucent tornado to our south along a shear zone, and a new bowl with funnel to our east associated with the rapidly maturing meso. This was quite the site, but will have to remain in only our memories as light was fading and the scene was chaotic. We saw two more subsequent tornadoes to our northwest associated with the "old" meso and then a number of touchdowns with the meso that moved to our distant northeast. We decided not to follow it north due to darkness and the hotel reservation waiting a few hours away in Salina, KS.

Yes, it rains in the FFD

Takes on a cigar shape.

Lightning illuminated FFD.

Rope stage.

One of a number of tornadoes that occurred to our northeast as new meso trucked north into the dark Kansas night ...

New tornado with occluded meso northwest of Grinnell.

A few time lapse clips from dashcam.

The next day was a bust (for us), with Ma' Nature laughing at us as we drove through Des Moines heading home while a long-track, multivortex danced about 70-90 miles to our northwest.

4/9/2015 - Flagg Center-Fairdale, IL EF4

2015-04-14T20:55:00.002-05:00

For about a 7-8 days prior to April 9th, the models suggested the potential for severe weather in the northern Illinois area. From a forecaster's perspective, the potential for supercells and tornadoes was very muddy up through the late morning -- even early afternoon! -- of the event as the models were all over the place with their handling of precipitation and severe weather fields. Simply, confidence was low that we would experience tornadic storms by evening. By early afternoon, visible satellite imagery did reveal a narrow window of clearing/surface heating would occur across the region as morning convection shifted east and, furthermore, that the warm front would remain anchored between I-88 and the IL/WI state line. This suggested that there would be a narrow window where instability would juxtapose with increasing shear due to the approaching trough, slow moving warm-front, and backing winds affiliated with the intensifying low. NWS LOT summarizes the severe weather setup nicely in this graphic, with a more technical forecast provided in the 1630 SPC outlook. The big question by afternoon was whether you could get an isolated storm ahead of the cold front, which itself was causing a HP-mess of severe convection in eastern Iowa. By mid-afternoon, I became confident enough to roll the dice west on I-88 from DeKalb ... heading to Dixon to hang out and work on some papers. As I sat in Dixon Aldi parking lot, I kept an eye on the radar; the first series of storms formed south of Dixon but never organized as they moved northeast. Then, another cell formed east of the Quad Cities, shifting north of Dixon and then south of Rockford. I actually followed this storm north of Dixon for a bit, but it was laminar and appeared to be sucking on cool outflow. I couldn't follow it northeast as I was cutoff by the Rock River and wanted to remain back west just in case there was new development, or if the Iowa stuff became the only game to play. Moreover, I had noticed that this previous storm, which eventually became tornado warned south of Rockford, had laid down a nice boundary along I-88. Hmmm ... I thought. Based on my observation, this was a critical feature (boundaries provide localized areas of enhanced low-level shear that can be critical for assisting with tornadogenesis) and was the reason why we ended up with a high-end event that evening. Soon, a new cell formed south of Dixon and appeared to split, producing a healthy right mover that got "that" shape just east of Dixon. The radar evolution is provided here. I watched a nice updraft base south of Dixon, waiting patiently for the hail core to pass to my east before I jumped on I-88. Once I was on I-88 and scurrying around the south side of the storm, things ramped up quickly ... the base produced a narrow but distinct lowering that eventually coalesced into a funnel and then tornado between Franklin Grove and Ashton. After calling 911 to report, I stopped a couple times along I-88 to snap a few pics (see Ashton area images below). I had to then push it east on I-88 to I-39, then north, never losing visibility of what had grown into a large wedge northwest of Rochelle. As I moved north on I-39, I got closer to the beast, eventually jumping off at sr-64. At that point, I watched it cross the interstate. Then I played catch-up for the next 20-30 minutes as the relatively fast-moving storm traversed rural areas. Unfortunately, as we all know, it did hit the very small community of Fairdale, IL -- I was several miles south as the town was hit. After witnessing a couple of satellites in the decaying light, I finally called it a chase north of Kirkland and drove home.

I participated in the storm survey the next day with the National Weather Service, assessing damage northwest of Rochelle and in the town of Fairdale. As always in these post mortem surveys, it is humbling to see the damage up close, but such perspective helps us assess the intensity of the tornado, as well as provide evidence of what works and doesn't work in mitigation. I won't post my damage pictures in this blog -- instead, visit Stephen Strader's (NIU Ph.D. student and my advisee) wonderful account here.

Below are my pics, as well as shaky video.

Just after formation, the tornado intensifies and strikes Crest Foods in Ashton, IL.

Tornado with Ashton in the Foreground.

New perspective as I head north on I-39.

Exit 104 on I-39, looking north.

Backlit wedge with satellite (between wedge and tree) north of Kirkland

My video of the event -- note, I'm not a big videographer and it shows. Taking pictures and video at the same time usually means both are of degraded quality, I've learned.