As we neared Omaha in the early afternoon, it was clear the northern target would have to contend with reduced instability due to a large area of thunderstorms moving north out of Kansas. While these initial messy storms contained transient mesos, and even a few weak tornadoes, we pushed westward in hopes of more isolated convection later that afternoon. It was a tough decision made more difficult b/c of significant delays on I-80 due to water over the road. We eventually made it to Lexington, NE, where we gassed up, grabbed a bite to eat, and, thereafter, headed southeast toward a developing storm along the KS/NE border. We scooted around an icy left split near Beartrand, NE and caught up with the our target storm southwest of Atlanta, NE. Here we watched the supercell string out, produce an elongated clear slot complete with persistent slant funnel. Eventually, the low-level meso cycled, producing another slanted funnel that eventually tilted vertically producing a photogenic tornado. This tornado had more in common visually with a landspout, but was unequivocally due to low-level mesocyclone processes in a relatively weak supercell. This "Harlan County" tornado only lasted 3-4 minutes, but was a visual treat considering how cold the inflow was into the storm. After tornadolysis, the supercell continued northeast into an increasingly less buoyant atmosphere thanks to the rain-cooled air from the eastward progressing MCS now in Iowa. If the environment had even just a touch more instability, I suspect we would have had a handful of potentially strong tornadoes in this vorticity rich environment. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, which was a positive for the folks of central Nebraska. We made it to our Omaha destination by late evening to enjoy a few beers and some horrible pizza. We had planned to chase the next day, but the environment in eastern Iowa and northern Illinois fell apart due to a lack of instability. I arrived home in time to put Chase to bed, which was a nice treat after the lengthy drive.
A few time-lapse gif animations are available here and here, with a zoom of the latter here. A cropped zoom is available below, as well.
Cropped gif animation from a wide-angle (10 mm) perspective found here.
Base reflectivity (left) and storm-relative velocity (right) at the time of the tornado. A loop of the storm during maturity is available here.
