Plainview, TX Supercell

First wall cloud

Funnel cloud

Yesterday, we began our morning in Guymon, OK.  During the weather briefing, we saw two possible chase areas.  One was in the TX Panhandle, and the other was near Roswell, NM.  Because we needed to get the group back to OKC by 1 PM today, we chose the TX Panhandle target.  Models were popping very good storms in each area, so we knew something would happen.  We drove south to Dalhart, TX, where we enjoyed lunch at Hodie's BBQ.  That was some very good food, and the prices were reasonable!  After lunch, we continued south towards Hereford, TX, where we took a pit/fuel stop.  We drove west out of the Hereford for a couple miles and then stopped to monitor the data.  A storm was beginning to go up, but the shear was too much for it to overcome.  Finally, a cell was looking very good just east of Plainview.  We blasted east towards this new cell, and it quickly became a monster.  Outside of Plainview, it developed a very nice base and had a rotating wall cloud.  We knew it wanted to produce a tornado, but winds from the NE were bringing in cooler air from other storms.  However, the structure remained very good.  As we got close to Matador, TX, we briefly stopped for a photo opportunity, as the structure looked phenomenal.  This would turn out to be our storm for the day, and we tracked it all the way to Dumont, TX.  We found a spot to pull off and just observe this storm as it began lighting up the sky.  It continued to be a nice site to look at, and it was a nice way to end this week.  We drove 499 miles and ended up in Clarendon, TX for the night.

Very nice structure

Ooops, we killed storms again

We began yesterday in Lamar, CO, and we were not in any big hurry to leave.  The other driver (Woody), Bill, and I took the vans to get washed, while the rest of the group had the chance to listen to one of Chuck Doswell's presentations.  This is the Chuck Doswell tour, so we get to pick his brain for the duration of this week.  Anyway, Bill picked his inital target area to be Boise City, OK, and we had a leisurely lunch in Lamar at a Mexican grille.  After lunch, we drove south to Springfield, CO, where we had a quick fuel/pit stop.  A tornado warned storm was occurring near Trinidad, CO, so we blasted west on US 160 to try and catch it.  It did produce a tornado, and live video was posted.  After getting within 25 miles of this storm, it decided to shrivel up into nothing.  So, we turned around and started chasing another storm that was about 10 miles north of Kim, CO.  This one had a very nice base, and it looked promising.  Alas, this newer storm became an HP monster, and we were caught in the outflow.  As we continued east, we saw a quasi-stationary storm just east of Lamar, and there was something suspicious happening under its wall cloud.  Granted, we were 50 miles away, but it looked like a tornado was on the ground.  There were not any chasers who had great position on it, so no one was able to confirm a tornado.  However, the Pueblo NWS office issued a tornado warning for rotation indicated by radar, so it is possible that we did see a tornado.  We blasted north out of Springfield to investigate this matter further, and once again, we killed another storm as we got to within 25 miles of it.  It looked like it wanted to try again, so we headed east out of Lamar, but it shriveled up into nothing.  At this point, we were out of position for the storms going up near Spearman, TX, so we hoped for a miracle.  Needless to say, we struck out.  To end the chase day, we enjoyed a nice sunset south of Hugoton, KS.  The moral of the story is to be patient and stick with your guns.  Don't get suckered by storms that look good and are far away!  We ended up in Guymon, OK after driving 410 miles.

Sunset near Hugoton, KS

Just messing around with my camera

Close but no tornado

We began the day in Alliance, NE, and we needed to blast south towards eastern CO.  When we made it to Sterling, CO, we enjoyed a fairly leisurely lunch at a small diner called J & L's Diner.  It would turn out to be our last real meal for the day, as a healthy storm was going up just east of Denver.  This storm was moving east at a very slow pace of 20 mph, so we knew we would be able to intercept it near Limon, CO.  After a

very quick fuel/pit stop in Limon, the chase was officially on.  The storm took its time getting organized, but that was good, because it gave all chasers a chance to make a game plan.  Bill's plan was simple: continue driving south and hope for more organization.  As the storm began to make a right turn, it was also moving into better air, so we knew it would become a beast.  Many times, the storm showed signs of rotation, but nothing really happened of it due to the fairly high base.  As we got closer to Haswell, CO, the storm began doing what Bill calls, "The Big Suck."  This term simply refers to the process of ingesting strong inflow and usually occurs before tornadogenesis.  In this case, it was incredibly dusty.  We drove through the inflow, and it was insane!!  Unfortunately, it did not produce, but we continued to track this storm, as it had a very nice wall cloud.  Later, it did "The Big Suck" again, but it could not produce.  As the sun went down, the wall cloud continued to persist well into the evening.  Close to Lamar, CO, we were hit with 1.5" hail stones on the drive, but we did not lose any windows.  After driving 415 miles, we ended up in Lamar for the night.

Near Limon, CO

First "Big Suck"

Wall cloud in the evening

Supercells in the Nebraska Panhandle

We began today in Lexington, NE.  During the morning weather briefing, we found two potential areas of storm development.  One of them was near the NE/CO border, and the other was along the NE/SD border.  That being said, we began to head west towards Ogallala, where we stopped for lunch at Valentino's, a pizza and pasta buffet.

Lake McConaughy

 Shortly after lunch, we were admiring the beauty of Lake McConaughy, which is about 8 miles northeast of Ogallala.  We knew storms were not going to initiate any time soon, so we spent some time at the lake.  After we continued heading west, a storm was going up close to the WY/NE border, but we didn't think we would be able to catch it, until it started moving more to the southeast.  Even though it was about 180 miles away, we managed to intercept in Crawford, NE a couple hours later.  We followed this storm for a while, and then new towers started going up to the southwest of it.  Those towers turned into healthy looking storms, so we had our sights set on those.  Wall clouds were present, but they never produced tornadoes due to being undercut by outflow.  On our way to Alliance, NE, we were treated to a

First wall cloud of the day

nice sunset with a spectacular light show.  As we were heading west on Highway 2, we were tracking a very large supercell that looked like it wanted to produce.  Alas, outflow won again.  Along the way, we were trying to find shelter from the large hail embedded in this storm, but we were unable to do so.  As a result, we drove through it (aka: a core punch) and made it to Alliance, NE for the night.  We drove 465 miles today.

Second wall cloud

Supercells and a pesky outflow boundary

Yesterday was supposed to be a major tornado day.  All parameters were in place for a big event, but one thing was not predicted: how the morning storms in South Dakota would affect severe weather chances.  They belched out a large outflow boundary, and it continued to surge south throughout the day.  As storms initiated and became interesting, the outflow would come by and undercut the storms, choking off the available energy.  In return, they would die very quickly.

Anyway, we began the day in Ogallala, NE, which put us in very good position for the day.  After driving to North Platte, NE for a quick lunch, we headed north towards Stapleton, NE where we hung out for a couple hours.  We found an old school house to photograph and then headed to a park.  Basically, we were in "hurry up and wait" mode.  Towers started going up, and we drove south a bit to investigate them.  After

Supercell near Eddyville, NE

finding what appeared to be a good east-west option, we quickly picked another road that did not have road construction.  Again, we sat and waited for something to happen, but the atmosphere wasn't really sure what it wanted to do.  Finally, a beefy tower looked like it would do something, so we blasted south towards Eddyville, NE, and found a desolate road to sit and wait.  The storm was looking organized on radar, and we were hoping that our patience would pay off.  We let the storm come to us, so that we could keep other options open in case it did not pan out.  After a while, the storm began to rotate, and it had decent structure for a while.  And then, it happened.  Cold outflow from the other storms decided to crash the party and kill our cell!!!  Such is the life of our chaser.  Luckily, our day wasn't over, yet.  A cell was going strong in Garden County, NE, west of Ogallala.  It was moving east at 35 mph, so we knew we had a very good chance at intercepting it.  At this point, it was dropping baseballs, and it even tried to produce a tornado a couple of times.  Alas, as we got closer, outflow won again.  We killed another storm!!  After this, we decided to head back east to our hotel for the night and stopped to photograph the

clouds and lightning along the way.  We wound up in Lexington, NE after driving 385 miles.

Sunshine, blue skies, and the little cell that couldn't

Old barn along US 385

US 385

Church in Monument, KS

Our objective for yesterday was quite simple.  We needed to be in position for today's severe weather events, and the SPC had two areas with a "SEE TEXT" outlined.  One area was near the KS/OK border, while the other area was close to northeast CO.  Neither spot looked too enticing, but we chose the CO option so we would at least be in good position for today.  After doing a Walmart stop in DDC, we headed north to Garden City, KS, for lunch and another look at the data.  We had a very leisurely lunch and then drove to Oakley, KS for a longer pit stop.  Bill found a small town called Monument, KS that was due west of Oakley.  While driving around that town, we found an old abandoned church from the 1930s to photograph.  Another look at the models/data had us driving towards the west to investigate a Cu field.  It didn't look too impressive, but a couple cells did try to form.  Alas, we ended up enjoying the beautiful scenery along U.S. 385 in CO.  Our overnight destination was in Ogallala, NE after driving around 390 miles.

Meade County, KS

Today was the first offical day of my storm chasing vacation, and our leader for the trip is Bill Reid.  We began the day in Oklahoma City (OKC), and we were on the road around 10:45 AM.  Our inital target was Dodge City (DDC), KS, as the models were showing storms to be in that area close to the time of our arrival.  In addition, they were also showing that the storms would quickly congeal into a big linear mess.  Therefore, we knew that targeting the tail-end storm would be key.  We drifted NW out of OKC towards Woodward, OK, where we stopped for a Braum's lunch.  After lunch, we continued heading N towards DDC.  As we were driving, a storm developed SE of Limon, CO, and it was moving at a very leisurely pace towards the ESE.  We saw it was looking nice on radar, so we continued heading towards it.  Even though it never really did a whole lot, we stayed on the storm for a while.  When we reached Meade County, there was another storm 25 miles to the east, and it was moving very slow.  Bill decided to go after this one, and that was a great call!!  We were treated to very nice laminar structure.  At this point, the storm had estimated wind gusts of ~80-90 mph, and it was dropping 4" hail stone.  Holy cow!!  We were glad this was moving very slow, as it gave us time to stay ahead of it and stop for pictures.  As the chase came to an end, we were treated to an amazing sunset, which backlit this cell.  In addition, we were treated to nature's own light show.  Not a bad way to start off a chase!  We ended up in DDC for the night after driving 483 miles.

The storm as it was impacting Meade, KS

Lightning

Beautiful sunset!

Chase-cation 2014

Good morning!  As I am sitting here in Central Illinois Regional Airport, I feel that I should finally update my blog.  It has been quite a while since I last posted, but life tends to get in the way.  A lot has been happening on my end.  I made the decision to return to school in Fall 2013 to pursue my degree in Elementary Education.  Thus far, that is going pretty well.  I will be in my final semester of pre-requisite classes this coming fall, and then I will be starting my first professional semester in Spring 2015.  If everything goes well, I should be done in Spring 2017!!!

Today marks the first day of my storm chasing trip for this year, and it begins/ends in Oklahoma City, OK.  I will be serving as a tour guide/driver for Tempest Tours again, and I am very excited about it.  As of this morning, it looks like we might be in a bit of a lull weather-wise starting Monday, but anything can happen.  Today also is the 1 year anniversary of the infamous El Reno, OK tornado that took the lives of 3 well-respected chasers last year.  It is a grim reminder that we cannot control the weather.

I will keep this blog updated throughout my trip whenever I can.  Let's hope for an exciting week!!