6/21/2008 - Day Trip to Chicago

On Saturday, we took off via Metra to downtown Chicago to show Sharon's mother some of the sights and sounds that the great city has to offer. Here are a few pics (with my cheapo, compact Canon) of our whirlwind trip to Chicago.

The "Bean" (aka Cloud Gate) at Millennium Park.

The Crown Fountain at Millennium Park.

View from atop the Hancock Building. You can see the tallest buildings -- Aon, new Trump tower (under construction), and Sears (l-to-r) -- as well as a storm over Midway producing 1/4" hail at the time from this southward facing view.

Looking down from the top of the Hancock.

Sharon and her mother, BJ, at Oak Street Beach.

View east toward Chicago from the back (tinted) window of the Elburn-bound Metra.

6/12/2008 - East Central Kansas HPs

On Thursday, we targeted the Wichita area, where a stalled front, high cape, and some quality deep layer sheer were collocated. After quickly showing my brother my old stomping grounds at the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln, we took off for York and then south on U.S. 81. Four hours later we found ourselves south of the quasi-stationary front with 90+ temps and ~70 dewpoints. We meandered from Park City up Newton, KS, where we hung out for a while. While we were watching the storms slowly develop to our immediate northeast, a car caught on fire at the Burger King across the road from us. That provided about a minute of excitement. Storms finally unzipped the cap from Florence back to Newton. We finally latched onto a developing supercell just east of Newton and followed it toward Burns, where we saw a brief cone tornado about 5-10 miles to our northeast. We tried to get a better view of the tornado – as it was obscured by trees and the rolling landscape -- but we quickly lost our view as it became wrapped in rain (this tornado was approximately 6:25 pm central; 10 ne of Burns).

A CG bolt between Burns and Cassoday, KS.

We watched the storm’s outflow for a while just south of Burns; a bit later, another kink formed to our immediate west. This kink went onto produce another robust wall cloud just north of Burns. In fact, I thought for sure it was going to drop a tornado … but, alas, it didn’t. We scooted east along an unnamed road toward Cassoday, KS, where we watched yet another kink form along the line to our west and wrap up tight. This “wrap” produced a lot of low-level rotation surrounded by CG lightning. This was truly an amazing sight as the meso crossed the Kansas Turnpike just north of our location. We watched as the storm progressed to the east, eventually breaking off from the chase in order to get back to Colby, KS … a rather long drive necessitated by Ken’s plane flight out of Denver on Friday.

Pics of the storm as it crosses the Kansas Turnpike near Cassoday.

Looking west.

Another west view.

Looking north toward "kink" with trailing hail core.

View west.

Chasers blast south out of the core.

Lightning illuminated hail core.

CG and hail core as the storm moves to the northeast.

Thursday's chase closes the chapter on this year’s chase season for me; albeit, I’ll take advantage of any local chases in the Iowa and Illinois areas that crop up this summer.

6/11/2008 - East Nebraska HPs and Louisville Tornado

A number of ingredients came together on Wednesday to produce a rather significant severe weather outbreak in the Kansas-Nebraska-Iowa region. A strong upper-level trough, surface cold front, moderate to extreme instability, and rather nice bulk shear produced a line of supercells with a number of rain-wrapped tornadoes, including the tornado that produced the tragedy at the Little Sioux Boy Scout camp in Iowa.

We awoke in Oacama, SD that morning to a forecast target of the Fremont, NE area (just northwest of Omaha). Upon arrival to our target, I enjoyed the developing cu with a nice chocolate milkshake from Sonic. Eventually, a number of cells developed from Sioux City, IA, to Seward, NE. We watched as the cells appeared to struggle against a stout cap in the Fremont area. Eventually a cell just north of Fremont got its act together. However, it quickly moved to the northeast and became shrouded in precip … we let it go and focused our attention on a cell that was gathering strength between Seward and Wahoo. Little did we know, that initial cell that we let go northeast of Fremont went on to produce the rain-wrapped Little Sioux tornado that killed the four scouts. Tragic.

Initial storm northeast of Fremont, NE ... this storm went on to produce the tornado that killed the four Boy Scouts in Iowa.

Storm-relative velocity (left) and base reflectivity (right) at the approximate time the storm moved across the Boy Scout camp. Circulation was clearly evident in the velocity product, but rain-wrapped. I remember telling my brother at this point (while we were chasing in the Omaha area) that there has to be a tornado embedded in the precip. Unfortunately, I was correct.

We arrived to our cell of interest near Mead, NE where we watched a rather large wall cloud with moderate rotation slowly meander toward the northeast. We followed this storm toward the north Omaha area, but we didn't witness the confirmed touchdown 6 n of Elkhorn, NE

Storm near Mead, NE.

My brother taking some pics.

HP supercell wraps up and heads toward northwest Omaha (shot 2 miles sw of Elkhorn, looking north). A few minutes later this produced a tornado, though we couldn't confirm anything from our vantage point.

We eventually broke off from that storm and wrapped around north Omaha, through Council Bluffs, back through the south side of Omaha, toward a new mesocylclone forming along the line over I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha. We got to the storm as it was closing in on us near I-80 and sr-50, where we quickly blasted south to stay ahead of it. We stopped on a hill crest south of Louisville, NE, where we overlooked a quickly forming kink near Ashland. This kink produced a brief dust whirl – and confirmed tornado – as it wrapped up just to the west of us.

Confirmed tornado to the left of the lightning strike (this would be the tornado that was confirmed by the NWS 3 mi sw of Louisville, NE). Click here for an animation of this setting illustrating the large amount of rotation, and dusty tornado. Also, check out Blake Naftel's youtube video of this tornado here. This was yet another tornado caught along a "kink" in a line -- unfortunately, these types of tornadoes often lack a nice condensation funnel.

Typical view along the flank of these supercellular lines.

Eventually that kink wrapped up and we headed south … quickly! … as the wet RFD surged toward us. We finally broke out of the heavy precip at Manley, where we blasted east. This surge followed us all the way to Plattsmouth, where we saw yet another kink – with supposed tornado – wrap up just north of town. As the sun set, we headed back into the storm toward Lincoln, where we nighted at a Holiday Inn Express on the southeast side of town.

Tough day as we had to deal with fast moving storms, rain-wrapped circulations, chasing in a major metropolitan area at rush hour, and closed roads.

6/10/2008 - Dakota Bust

We targeted the area near Rapid City, SD on Tuesday; unfortunately, the atmosphere did not provide us with any favors. On our way up to Rapid City, we traversed the Badlands of SD where we able to snap a few pics of the beautiful landscape.

Badlands of SD.

We then migrated to Rapid City in anticipation of storms firing off the Black Hills later that afternoon. After sitting ... and sitting ... and sitting ... I thought we needed to cut our losses by ~6 pm and head toward eastern SD in anticipation of the next day's events. Sure enough, as soon as we got about 1.5 hours east of Rapid City, storms fired back to our west. We then backtracked to Rapid City. Unfortunately, the severe storm (a "hailer") just north of Rapid City was shrouded in low-level stratus, making it very difficult to see any features. After taking in this rather weak atmospheric spectacle we drove toward the Missouri River on I-90 where we overnighted.

The storm near Ellsworth AFB (just east of Rapid City), shrouded in stratus ... ugh!

6/8/98 - Texhoma HPs

I woke late in Colby … Sunday was to be my brother’s first chase day this year, but we were extremely tired due to our late arrival the night before. After a bit of late morning forecasting, we targeted the eastern Texas panhandle for some HP supercell “blobs” later that afternoon. Sure enough, as we arrived in Canadian, TX around 3-4 pm, storms had initiated to our immediate east.

Initial convection near Canadian, TX.

We trailed the initial convection northeast along U.S. 60 toward Arnette, OK where we had to stop our progression as it started to hail (about hen egg sized, although likely much, much larger just to our east).

We then rerouted back to Higgins, TX, where we tried to outflank developing convection to our west. As we reentered into Oklahoma on a rural farm gravel road, we came across a lightning-initiated grass fire (approximately 10 mi southwest of Arnett, OK). We watched as rural fire crews put out the fire. The fire and smoke provide an amazing foreground to the stormy background; unfortunately, this “shot” was not captured well with my amateur photography skills.

Lightning-sparked fire (foreground) and the culprit (background).

Despite a bit of overhead rotation in a few spots, all of the storms in this area were undercut by the cold front – meaning there was really no chance for tornado production.

Undercut convection ... we actually had strong northerly winds at this location.

We finally hit pavement again on U.S. 283 just south of Arnette, OK. At this point, I was able to gather some radar data and make a decision to blast south toward Cheyenne, OK in order to intercept some rather “meaty” supercells heading east out of the Texas panhandle. We eventually ran into a rather large supercell, with attendant wall cloud and wet RFD, between New Liberty and Grimes, OK (along SR 6, west of U.S. 283). At this point, there was quite a bit of rotation along the RFD and wall cloud. In fact, we saw a number of gustnado like spinups along the eddies produced by the RFD.

View looking west (on OK-6) toward the HP blob with wall cloud to the right-center and wet RFD to the center.

A closer view as the storm marches toward us.

"Big & meaty" storm!

No hunting for tornadoes? Why?

Looking northwest toward the "kink" near the meso.

Strong rotation at this point as a new meso forms.

We allowed the beautiful, tor-warned HP follow us all the way back to Elk City, where we continued to view some rather robust rotation in the low-levels. Eventually we called it a night at the Comfort Inn in Elk City, OK … where Ken worked his magic and got us a 3 bed suite. Monday was a travel day ... we ferried to Ogallala, NE in preparation for Tuesday's Dakota play.

Sunset at Kinglsey Dam, Lake McConaughy, which is near Ogallala, NE.

"Big Mac" at sunset.

6/7/2008 - Visiting Family ... and a Few Storms

With a down “chase” day on Friday, I had the chance to visit my brother and his family in Olathe, KS. I arrived at Mike’s beautiful house on Friday about 5 pm. He already had plans with his father-in-law, Zip, and brother-in-law, Steve, to head up to “Old Shawnee Days” to see the Marshall Tucker Band. Steve showed up in his in ol’ style, top-down jeep wrangler, which made for a fun ride to the show. The only problem … the vocalist for the classic “southern” rock outfit was drunk out of his mind. After a few songs … interspersed with discussion about Michael Vick, a dog name brownie, a fan club “fan” who may or may not have had kids with the guitarist, etc – we took off and headed toward a bar with about 100 microbrews on tap.

I spent the next morning enjoying the company of Stella … my niece I hadn’t seen for over three years.


After a great visit with the fam, I headed north toward Omaha in order to intercept the day’s convection. After spending a bit of time north of Council Bluffs, I migrated toward initiating convection along NE-IA border. As I arrived at the convection, it was clear it was having trouble. I then took off to York, NE (again!) where I intercepted a severe storm (a “hailer”) along I-80.

Severe storm near York, NE.

Thereafter, I blasted south toward a nighttime intercept of a large supercell that was slowly traversing the north-central Kansas area. Along the way, I was able to stop and photographically sample this beautiful sunset with the bottom of the supercell's anvil.



Arrived at the tornado-warned supercell and hung out for just a bit to watch it move across the countryside. I then drove all the way to Colby, KS, where I met my brother -- who was driving from Denver -- at the Holiday Inn Express after 1 am.

6/5/2008 - High Risk Bust

Another high risk bust. Boy, these high risk days are always frustrating! I targeted the I-80 area in south-central Nebraska since the model progs -- as well as mesoanalysis data -- suggested the potential for strong tornadoes in this region. Short story: a complete bust for tornadoes. Based on my eyeballs, it appears the storms lacked good juice -- CAPE, which was upwards of 4,500 on the SPC mesoanalysis progs, was either missing or somehow untapped.

I left Lincoln around 11 am under a newly issued PDS tornado watch (perhaps the earliest PDS tor watch I’ve been under?). I headed west toward York, where I met up with Dustin and Victor to look over data at the local Arby’s. Thereafter, I headed to Aurora to get a bit closer to the initiation region and to take a look at last week's EF2 tornado damage.

Tornado damage just south of Aurora, NE.

Convection began to form along the front in south-central Nebraska and I took after it around 2 pm. I intercepted this “stuff” west of Hastings and, after looking at the uninspired storms, was immediately concerned for the day’s tornado prospects. I followed the initial storm up into the Wood River and Cairo areas where I witnessed convection more like you would see in Florida in August than in a June high-risk in Nebraska … argh!

Storm near Wood River, NE.

Backside of undercut storm as it heads north out of Cairo, NE.

I gave up on this convection northwest of Grand Island since it was weakening and screaming off to the north. I then turned my attention to a couple of supercells that had formed in western Kansas (in a horrible environment) and were looking surprisingly good. These storms had already produced a few tornadoes (apparently) and were racing (50+ mph) to the northeast. I decided I could intercept the southern storm south along the KS-NE border near Red Cloud. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the storm, it had “lined out” and was producing nothing more than a picturesque shelf cloud.

Shelf cloud near Nelson, NE. To think this was once a supercell producing tornadoes!

Nebraska wheat and shelf cloud.

Victor taking in the best view of the day.

I stayed ahead of this “shower line” until I reached US 81 where I called it another “high risk” day bust. I took off toward Salina and, on the way south, was rewarded with a very peaceful and beautiful sunset in rural Cloud County Kansas.

Looking northwest toward the setting sun in rural Cloud County, KS.

Looking east from same location ... mammatus from storm northwest of Topeka.

6/4/2008 - Messy Nebraska Supercells

Wednesday was the first of two days of potential high-end severe weather on the Plains. Since I’m planning to meet my brother at Denver on Saturday, I thought this would be a nice opportunity to get a couple chases under my belt on the way to the Front Range. I left DeKalb by 8 am with an initial target west of Lincoln, NE. After 500+ miles I neared my target and things were looking good. In fact, a lone supercell had formed north of Lexington along I-80. I raced westward in order to intercept this supercell; unfortunately, by the time I got to the area near Kearney, more cells were developing along the Interstate. From this point onward, the storms (many of which were supercells) never got their acts together. I played the inflow notches of several of the supercells were I could tell the inflow juice was of the low octane variety … i.e., things felt a bit too cool for tornadogenesis. In addition, the storms were continually being undercut. I followed the supercells eastward along I-80, where several of the storms finally coalesced into a bow echo northwest of Lincoln and raced eastward. I made it to Lincoln as the bow struck, where it produced marginal severe wind gusts with heavy rain in my location.

Messy convection -- tornado warned at this time -- east of Grand Island

A wall cloud forms (center) along with a wet RFD (to the left).

I checked into a hotel room in Lincoln and met up with former NIU students, Victor and Dustin, who were out chasing as well. We noticed a beautiful lightning display was setting up just east of Lincoln so we headed eastward to try to get away from the city lights. Once we got on the outskirts of town, we were treated with on hell of a sight. This bow echo complex was producing some of the most vivid anvil “zit” lightning I’ve ever witnessed – this convection needed a trip to the storm dermatologist! I equate it to being stuck inside one of those plasma lamp glass balls that you used to see at the Spencer “gag and gift” store in the mall. This produced continuous lightning – never stopping for even a second! Truly an amazing spectacle … and, unfortunately, one that is not handled well by photography.

A couple pics of the anvil zit lightning just east of Lincoln.

Lesson of the day: arrive late to your chase destination. The best storm of the day actually formed in southwest Iowa and went on to produce a couple tornadoes. If I had left the house later, I probably would’ve intercepted this lone supercell. Oh well.

When we got back to the Holiday Inn Express, this fella was asleep in the stairwell. He had a phone up to his ear but was sawing logs. Must've been a very boring conversation with the wife or girlfriend! I do recall that he was downing a few silos as I was checking in. Hmmm ...