Tough day for forecasting as an overnight MCS had turned over the atmosphere across large parts of Kansas and Nebraska. Still, it appeared as though moisture and instability would stream northward into Nebraska in time for a few severe evening storms. We targeted this area, as did a number of others. Unfortunately, a “mesoscale accident” happened down in Oklahoma that ended up producing over a dozen tornadoes. This was one of those days that hits you in the gut like a ton of bricks. I can’t recall anyone forecasting – including the SPC – a huge threat for tornadoes in north-central Oklahoma the morning of the 24th. That quickly changed by early afternoon as a storm formed along an old outflow boundary in a high CAPE, low shear environment. It appears as though a number of chasers “happened upon” on the storm to watch the tube fest. We were stuck in Nebraska, where our storms struggled due to weak CAPE. It hurts a lot since we started the morning in Wichita, roughly 2 hours north of the tubefest that afternoon. We did a good job of driving away from one of the most prolific tornado producing supercells since the Manchester, SD tubefest a handful of years back.
We ended the day at The Cornhusker Hotel (pricelined for cheap) in Lincoln, NE. After we checked in, we met up with friend and colleague Brian Fuches for some beers on “O” Street.
A few pics of our struggling convection (too much shear, not enough CAPE).
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