5/30/2010 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Sunday was a "down" day so we jumped into the Rockies. We ventured from North Platte, to Greeley (Jimmy Johns for lunch), to Estes Park, to Rocky Mountain National Park, to Boulder (Thunderbird Burgers), and then out to Limon. It is always fun to show folks the Rockies for the first time -- the mountains never disappoint. We finished the night in Limon with a few beers with my brother and chase contingent at a local watering hole across the road from the hotel. Good times ...

We hope to reconvene the "storm" chasing tomorrow ... keep your fingers crossed that things will come together for a storm or two.

5/29/2010 - Southwest Nebraska High-based Storms

On Friday morning, COD's 2010 Trip 3 left for the Great Plains. We ferried all the way to North Platte to put us in position for Saturday's play. Unfortunately, Saturday's convection formed in an area that didn't have the correct overlap of severe thunderstorm ingredients. Instability was simply out of place with the shear axis, making storms unorganized and multicellular at best. We decided to play the southwest Nebraska area, where we hoped winds would back a bit ahead of a northeast Colorado low; albeit, the air in the McCook to Ogallala area was well mixed with temps soaring into the 90s and dewpoints in the low 50s. Ugh. That is a recipe for high-based storms and that is what we got. Mix this with a lack of shear -- and we got unorganized, high-based storms. We did get to watch the storms form and produce some picturesque cloudscapes and landscapes north of the Imperial, NE region, but we eventually called it a day and headed to North Platte. Sunday appears to be a down day and we will head into the Colorado Rockies. The hope is that Monday and Tuesday will feature a better juxtaposition of ingredients.

We enjoyed lunch at Ole's Big Game in Paxton, NE.

Ole's is adorned with hundreds of animals, including this friendly kitty.

Our view east of Imperial, NE.

Still good to be out and enjoy High Plains storms ... despite the lack of organization.

Time lapse of the day.

5/23/2010 - Kansas Supercells and Tornado

Another long drive on Sunday ... from Mitchell, SD to the Scott City, KS area. The day had a bit of potential, but it wasn't nearly as "perfect" a setup as the previous day. Essentially, a warm front would be surging through the western Kansas area and would provide the focus for storm initiation. I targeted the area between Tribune and Scott City. I waited north of Scott City for about an hour ... finally storms to the south began to ramp up in intensity as they approached my area. I went east along KS-4, hoping to move north on KS-23 toward the Gove region. Got to the turn ... only to find that the road was closed 6 miles ahead. Ugh! So, I then had to move well east and take a horrible dirt road for about 30 miles up to I-70. What a long, long drive. Of course, I did have a nice perspective of the storm off to the west ... though, it was a bit further than I was hoping. Once I got to the interstate, I moved westbound toward the Oakley area as the initial storms I was on were looking less and less impressive.  As I slid west, I kept my eye on a developing supecell to the west of Oakley. However, it was another storm even further south and west that eventually went on to produce a wall cloud and tornado near the Brewster area. I was a bit far away, but did have a nice back lit view of the tornado as I neared the Winona area. Again, I need to get a zoom lens ... a wide angle and 17-40 mm don't cut it on these long distance things. Anyway, tried to move northbound on a county road only to have my path -- once again -- cut off. This time by some guy who (somehow, someway) ended up straddling his truck across the road. Argh! Ended up going west and the north, but failed to ever catch back up to the nice lookin' supercells north of Goodland after twilight. I did get to watch a beautiful intracloud lightning display though to close the night. The next day I drove home to DeKalb ... COD Trip 3 starts Friday. So, more storms and photos in the offing, I hope.

Storm north of Scott City ... ahh, would have been closer ... but that damn closed road!

Interesting cloud formations west of Oakley.

Somewhat surprisingly, a wall cloud quickly forms in this previously innocuous storm south of Brewster.

Well, this is about the best pic I have of the tornado ... I was driving and only had my 17-40 mm lens at this time. That won't cut it when the tornado is this far away. I can confirm that it was indeed on the ground. A few folks were closer, so I'll have to search for their pics. 

A minute or two later ... this ends my chase.

While stuck trying to figure out how to route around this road closure, the storm off to the northwest appears to tornado again; however, I can't confirm if the obvious funnel under the base here touched down.

 Pair of supercells north of Goodland after sunset. 

 Amazing lightning-illuminated bell updraft. This storm was apparently producing at this time in rural areas northeast of Goodland.

5/22/2010 -- South Dakota Supercells and EF4 Bowdle Tornado

Saturday was an almost perfect storm chasing day ... it featured a plain-as-day target, multiple tornadoes, and simply amazing storm structure. The day began (early) in Alliance, NE, which meant I needed to cross the Nebraska Sandhills and half of South Dakota to reach my target region of north-central South Dakota -- an area that was forecast to experience huge CAPE and nice backed winds ahead of a surface low. I was a bit fearful I had to travel too far and may be late to the show, but the timing was (luckily!) perfect. As I neared by target region north of Pierre, SD, I witnessed the initial cu bubbling northeast of the Lake Oahe area. The cu continued to grow and, after a bit, exploded in the rural Lowry, SD region. As I approached from the south, the first tornado warning was issued.

Initial cu well north of Pierre, SD

Storm goes tor-warned as I approach from the south.

I was a bit unsure of storm motion early on, so I continued north and then scooted east on SR-20, and then north (on a dirt road) toward Lowry. I slipped under the dramatic wall cloud for a few, where I witnessed a funnel to my immediate north. I high-tailed it east along back roads north of Swan Lake where I witnessed one of the weirdest scenes ever -- huge, towering swarms of bugs that almost appeared as though little miniature tornadoes everywhere. My brain was confused for a second --are these lil' tornadoes starting up? -- it was like a scene out of Lost with smoke monsters coming out everywhere. Dead calm at this time under the rotating wall cloud. Weird! I only wish I had the time to stop and take a picture of this weirdness. I'm sure it will reappear in a nightmare in my future.

As I moved onto payment (thankfully!) on SR-47, it was quite evident that the wall cloud to my west-southwest was getting real mean, real quick. I goosed up into the notch -- north on SR-47 -- so as to get ahead of the imminent tornado by taking US-20 east. I was about three miles south of US-20 when the thing dropped -- a couple times. Hard to drive and take pics at the same time -- but I wasn't about to slow down, jump out, and take a few leisurely pics. This thing was looking nasty and heading for me. Cloud motion in the wall was extreme, which meant this thing was gonna go big. I made it up to US-20 and then east a few miles -- at this point, I was safe and was afforded the rather amazing perspective to watch the tornadoes dance and congeal into a large, EF4 wedge as it crossed 20 to my west. I sat for a bit, but eventually moved east down US-20 so as to stay ahead of the trail of chasers and to get some structure shots. This was a good decision as I was able to gather the entire storm structure -- as well as tornado -- into my viewfinder. For this structure freak, it was heaven.

One of the initial tors -- wide angle perspective. Not sure I have pics of the first tornado or two -- too busy trying to get to the north and east during that time.

Getting ready to drop the monster.

Wedge commences ...

Sorry for all those pics -- I just love storm structure!

Anyway, I stayed with the storm for a while, stopping intermittently along US-20 and then just a bit north of Roscoe. The wedge eventually dissipated north of Bowdle, but the storm went on to produce a couple more tornadoes to the northwest of Roscoe. Eventually, I could tell the thing was getting more and more HP, so I broke off and headed south to intercept new storms firing.

Storm cycles northwest of Roscoe.

A couple more tornadoes formed before it trended toward an HP beast.

Last tor from my perspective. Rain wrapped hereafter -- so I headed south for "new" storms.

Storm transitions to an HP bomb -- note the notch and inflow. I would have headed northbound at this time, but I didn't like my road options up there.

These (secondary) storms were visually spectacular! As the gif animation below illustrates, at one time, the storms appeared to be spitting out these little mesos. Truly phenomenal structure to witness.

How cool are those things!?

After sitting for a bit, I raced east as the storms tended to line out and was treated to a nice laminar banded, zit-filled show toward sunset. Despite having a pheasant splatter across my windshield and almost running into a bunch of loose black cows on a dark, dirt road ... the day was about as fulfilling as any storm chasing day I've experienced. I'm thankful no injuries occurred in this event. The towns of Bowdle and Roscoe were very lucky on this Saturday in May.

Remnants of the pheasant -- scared the sh*t out of me when it hit as I was looking off to my left at the time.

Time lapse of the day's video.

BTW, Andrew Pritchard (NIU Undergrad) has some excellent time lapse here.

5/21/2010 - Wyoming-Nebraska Supercells/Funnels

24 hrs and 1150 miles later I find myself in Alliance, NE. For Friday, I initially targeted the area along the WY/CO border -- I-80 to I-76 corridor -- but upon arriving in the target area, decided to scoot north. Fell behind a supercell east of I-25 in southeast Wyoming (no good road northeast), but did view several funnels and some nice structure once I caught up to it. Fought a nasty road network as the supercell moved northeast into a remote area along the WY-NE border. Caught back up to it well north of Scottsbluff, where I watched the wall cloud off in the distance. I let that storm go -- heck, there were no roads and it showed signs of dissipating -- and turned my eye to the west where another supercell got going at sundown. Despite the really, really cold surface air, it had the appearance that it may drop a tornado north of Agate Monument, but, alas, it never did. Always fun to see supercells in the Sandhills ... now, if they would just build some more damn roads out here! Ted Turner .. you hear that?!

Storm moving over the Laramie Range ... and moving into the High Plains.

Supercell ... oh, please, slow down, so I can catch you!

Had initial hope this trailing storm over the mountains would mature ... but, it never did.

Wall cloud with intermittent funnels.

Nice clear slot ... thing seemed to funnel quite a bit, but never dropped anything substantial.

Now in Nebraska ... this is the storm V2 sampled. Actually, same storm as above, just starting to dissipate. Yeah, a nice lowering ... but the surface temp was really cold here!

Time lapse gif image of secondary supercell that developed in twilight.

I was looking for my stocking cap at this time ... it was that cold!