5/27/2011 - COD Day 1 - sw MO elevated storm and nw OK bust

We left COD at 6 am and targeted the area of central Oklahoma for the slight chance a supercell would develop in the very unstable environment across Oklahoma. The short story is that the cap held, despite some towering cumulus about 7 pm northwest of Oklahoma City. However, on the way down to Oklahoma, we ran into a beautiful elevated hailer between Joplin and Springfield. It was a fun, quick stop along the very bland drive of I-44. The animated gifs of the shelf and convection developing were worth the quick stop along the interstate. A few pics of the view follow ...

5/22/2011 - Eastern Iowa Supercells and DeKalb Storms

Summary: yet another Iowa disappointment with a late night redemption of run-of-the-mill convection over the NIU campus. Sunday appeared to have all the makings for isolated tornadic supercells across eastern Iowa; however, "wet" supercells with complicated storm interactions, as well as a plethora of multicells, provided a lackluster display of stormscapes. I latched onto a supercell or two between Des Moines and Iowa City, and was "treated" to a hazy view of a couple wall clouds that would quickly turn "shelfy".  Seeding was occurring on the northern storm, which made me target the southern of the two supercells. The storms, at least when I was viewing them, never had a good appearance. I followed the dominant of the supercells to the northeast of Iowa City, but had a hard time navigating into an area where I could get good, close visual. Once I did, it was dominated by outflow. Called it quits early and headed home for DeKalb to see my wife and child before his bedtime. I then ventured back out later that night to capture a few, largely unorganized, storms as they neared the NIU campus. I viewed a rather amazing display of shelfs and undulations under the backside of the shelf that made for an eerie evening sight. 


I've made a few animated gifs of the late evening show over DeKalb -- these include: shelf approaching, turbulent atmosphere I, turbulent atmosphere II.

 Wall cloud  transitioning into a shelf near Millersburg.

Back side of RFD shelf northeast of Iowa City.

Apocalyptic view of Davis Hall on the NIU campus. Animated gif of setting.

5/21/2011 - Topeka Tornadic Supercell

Saturday appeared, at least initially, marginal for tornadic supercells across eastern Kansas.  I targeted the Emporia area and spent a couple hours sitting in a park waiting for convective initiation. Luckily, I had a view of initiation as I sat under the tree enjoying the nice southerly breezes. Once it was clear things had broken, I trailed the initial storms to the north of Emporia. At this point, the two storms that had formed appeared to be struggling a bit -- nothing impressive. However, northwest of Osage City, the southern cell became dominant and a lot more menacing.  I ran into several closed road well south of the Topeka area, but eventually routed up that way to intercept the beautiful supercell along US-75 immediately south of Topeka's southern burbs. I watched as the supercell put on quite the upside down wedding cake show. It produced a number of funnels, and apparent touchdown, at this time just west of Pauline. I snapped pics for what seemed like 30 minutes at this location before routing around the southeast side of Topeka. It reminded me -- once again -- to never chase in a city or its suburbs. I was met with slow drivers going 15 in 55 mph zones, red lights, local yahoos in the beds of pick up trucks with beers watching the storm, road closures, and, naturally, trees everywhere. I would continue to get glimpses of the two wall clouds with attendant funnels and possible tornadoes (it was difficult to see the horizon) as I traversed this area. Eventually the southeast meso took over and produced a confirmed tornado southeast of Topeka. I followed the storm using a number of back roads (paved and, let's just say, not so paved) well north of the Lawrence area. This area reminded me of chasing in north Georgia -- hills, trees, curvy roads. It was tough and a bit frustrating. However, I'd eventually get to a good clearing that would permit views of this amazing beast. Called it a night north of Kansas City and was thoroughly satisfied -- after all, I'm a structure freak! Make sure you check out the gif lapses.

Check back later for a time lapse movie.

South of Topeka: Animated gif 1 - Animated gif 2 - Animated gif 3 - Animated gif 4 - Animated gif 5  

Somewhere north of Lawrence: Animated gif 6 - Animated gif 7

 Incipient tcu of the Topeka storm -- just northwest of Emporia.

 Mammatus formed quite quickly as the storm matured.

Starts to get a lot more organized northwest of Osage City.

 South of Topeka along US 75.

Driving north along SW Topeka Blvd near Forbes Field -- looking north toward Topeka. Man, did Topeka get lucky!

 Somewhere well north of Lawrence, I think.

5/20/2011 - Pratt Supercells

Though Friday featured only marginal severe storm ingredients across the central Plains, it ended up being a very enjoyable and peaceful chase. I left Dodge City late in the morning and slowly migrated eastward with the front. It was a lot of fun to slowly drive, stop, observe, drive, stop, observe, etc., as the boundary slid east. With a bit of surface heating near the front, instability slowly increased. Storms eventually fired near Greensburg and wasted no time heading north. I followed them for a bit, but eventually let them go and slid back down to Greensburg to intercept a new, more intense storm. This storm had some brief wall-cloud structures, but was hardly impressive. Eventually, a new cell formed near Pratt, which formed one of the two distinct right-turning supercells of the day. I leisurely kept ahead of these supercells, simply enjoying the stormscapes within the Kansas wheatbelt. I hope that the animated gifs, as well as photos, illustrate some of the beauty.  The evening was capped off by a "cute" little mid-level funnel that formed over my head -- check out animated gif 5 below.

Time-lapse movie to be posted later, so check back.

Animated gif 1 - Animated gif 2 - Animated gif 3 - Animated gif 4 - Animated gif 5

Cloudscape of rural Kansas.

Pany of the pacific front as it passes just west of Greensburg.

Greensburg in foreground.

Panoramic somewhere near Pratt, I believe.

  Wall cloud would wrap sometimes, but nothing was screaming tornado potential.

 Fitting end to the chase ...

5/19/2011 - South-central Kansas storms

Thursday appeared to have a lot of potential; alas, it was another instance of Ma' Nature under-performing in the 2011 Plains chase season. Targeted the warm front area of south-central Kansas -- storms did fire, but were far from impressive. Storms along the dryline to the immediate west appeared multicellular, whereas storms off to the east in the warm sector were splitters dominated by left splits. The most impressive split formed north of Anthony, KS -- unfortunately, the storm failed to to turn and hug the warm front. Overall, the convection lacked good organization. Turned my attention to the west with convective resolving models suggesting the retreating dryline would fire before sunset. Moved west and intercepted a storm northeast of Dodge City. Enjoyed this rural Kansas storm in the evening light as it migrated northeast. After sunset, storms rapidly developed across southwest Kansas, producing an impressive miniature bow structure as it traversed Dodge. Below you'll see the shelf as the storm approached the northwest side of Dodge. As it moved atop my location, the poleward edge wrapped up and produced a cinnamon swirl feature complete with what appeared to be a brief funnel.  Stuff was moving fast so there was no way I could keep up -- not to mention it was likely a very transient feature.  Be sure to check out the two animated gifs available in the captions.

I'll add time lapse video when I return home ... check back in a few days.

Storm northeast of Dodge bathed in evening light. Animated gif of this setting.

 Scud producing a wannabe.

Shelf nearing Dodge City. Animated gif of this setting.

Cinnamon swirl -- aka mesovortex -- as it traverses northwest Dodge City.

5/13/2011 - DeKalb Area Storms

Thanks to an upper-level low, a couple of nearby boundaries, and a bit of instability, I kept an eye on the radar Friday as I was grading exams. Eventually, the eye candy on the radar drew my attention outside and away from the red ink. Initially, a storm formed over Sycamore and moved very slowly to the north. I caught up with this severe-warned storm between Sycamore and Genoa.  The storm featured a ragged base with transitory wall cloud features. It was most interesting in its earliest stages, before it began to backfill along the lake-induced pneumonia front.  I then turned my eyes (and car) toward  a new storm that formed over Mendota "Hills" south of DeKalb. This tor-warned storm, as with the prior storm, featured a ragged wall cloud and only brief signs of rotation. Eventually left the storm to finish grading when it was apparent it had become nothing more than an efficient spitter of precipitable water (~5" of rain southwest of DeKalb).  Fun lil' chase ...

 

 Sycamore-Genoa Storm

 South DeKalb Storm

 Lots of scud hangin' near the ground.

2011.5.13.lapse from Storm Forensics on Vimeo.