6/27/2009 - Northern Illinois Shelf Cloud

A short chase today to intercept an eastward-moving MCS straddling I-88 and I -74 corridor. Sharon and I left late in the afternoon -- well after initiation in eastern Iowa -- intercepting the shelf cloud south of Dixon, IL. We tried to stay ahead of the system as it "gusted out" near Waterman, eventually driving back to DeKalb as the northern end of the line decayed.

Shelf cloud south of Dixon, looking north.

South of Dixon, looking west.

Mendota "Hills" windfarm, near Paw Paw.

Another view of the shelf at the wind farm.

A small bit of time lapse from the short chase.

Animated gif illustrating the MCS -- we were chased by the northern surge across Lee County.

6/25/2009 - NIU Mammatus

Severe thunderstorms over Stephenson and Winnebago Counties threw a delightful anvil atop NIU Thursday afternoon. Mammatus routinely punched downward from the anvil making for a spooky skyscape on campus. Below are a few images of Davis Hall -- home of NIU Geography and Meteorology -- silhouetted with mammatus. As an extra bonus, I've thrown in a short time lapse of towering cu and orphaned anvil/virga shower over the Kane County region, as viewed from NIU.

6/21/2009 - Dike, IA Tornado

Sunday was an interesting day – Sharon and I woke in Kettle Moraine State Park campground after enjoying a Phish show the night before at Alpine Valley. Though we had the campsite reserved for another day, we decided to pack up and head toward Iowa for the chance of storms and an air conditioned hotel room with a shower (hey, we are getting old!). After checking out Lake Geneva, we ventured west through Beloit, Dubuque, and over to Independence, IA, where we checked in at a motel early in the afternoon. After check-in, we tidied up and got back in the car and raced westward toward storms that had formed an hour or so earlier near Williams, IA. We intercepted the storms along US-20 near Cleves, IA – in fact, we drove up on a nice wall cloud producing intermittent funnels with wisps of clouds/circulations touching the ground (aka weak-ass tornadoes) as we exited the 4-lane at Cleves. This primary circulation became rain-wrapped and we scooted east and southeast along county roads through the towns of Wellsburg and Holland, where we witnessed intermittent funnel activity and strong low-level rotation. We failed to see the rain-wrapped tornado near Holland, but we did see a big mass of precip rotating feverishly. We pushed east and then south along a dirt road east of Holland where we went under a new, small updraft. We kept our primary “eye” out to the west toward the more “severe” storm, which was had the rain-wrapped circulation near Holland. However, my attention quickly turned to this small storm we had just gone under during its development stage since it was acquiring a unique “kink” feature and, soon, a funnel. We scooted east to stay ahead of the eastbound storm to our immediate west, keeping an eye on this small storm to our north. Soon, a funnel reformed, lengthened, and produced a nice elephant trunk tornado near Dike. Admittedly, our position for viewing the tornado was not great since we were a good 8-12 miles from this tornado. But, hey, I’ll take it. [For a closer view, check out this pic here!] The tornado quickly became engulfed (from our perspective) with rain from the west as the west storm wrapped around the Dike storm. We then ventured south and east to intercept a new storm that put on an outflow dominant display at sunset between Dysart and Vinton, IA. Ended the night with a short drive to our hotel where we enjoyed the air conditioning!

You’ll have to excuse the photography below. I did not anticipate chasing this weekend, so I only had my cheap point-and-shoot, as well as my small video camera.

Funnel near Cleves, IA.

Small storm south of Dike wraps up quickly -- producing a funnel -- as it crosses the warm front. The more "severe" storm (pictured above in 1st pic) was off to my left at this point.

Tornado. Contrasted to bring out the tor a bit better. Hog farm was damaged. [For a closer view, check out this pic here!]

Wider view of the tornado ... a good 8-12 (?) miles away.

Storm near Dysart, IA -- soon became outflow dominant.

A bit of time-lapse for the day. Nothing great; but, hey, it's something.

6/15/2009 - Assumption, NE Tornado

Monday, June 15th, was one of the most rewarding chases of my career. I began the day in Goodland, heading east toward Oakley, KS in the early afternoon. I had two choices -- go south toward the Dodge City region to intercept supercells (high-based?) that would fire early (safe bet) or keep my eye to the north where convergence was focused, shear was maximized, but a strong cap could possibly leave one with nothing more than a sunburn. I decided on the second option for a few reasons: 1) the north option put me a bit closer to home (my wife was beginning to wonder if I existed; I needed to be home Tuesday), 2) the massive chaser convergence in southwest Kansas (per spotter network and all the talk on the boards) was persuading me to stay away from there, and 3) the boundary along the KS-NE border just had that "come get me" appearance on satellite. So, I meandered over to Wakeeney and then north to Norton. At this point, I gassed up and kept an eye on a few cus nearby, none of which were screaming "I'm gonna do it!". Despite a fairly good connection, my data was rather slow to arrive on the laptop. In a way, this was a blessing -- I didn't have to stare at the storms on radar down in southern Kansas that were surely doing something magical. Instead, I just looked in awe at the backsheared anvils to my south and pressed northward hoping that something -- anything! -- would go up in my target area. As I slid east toward Phillipsburg, I noticed some nice towering cumulus to my southeast, and eventually to my east. These towering cus appeared to go up in full sunshine and then immediately die once the anvils from the central and southern Kansas storms spread over top. I gulped and thought this was going to kill any convective initiation up in my area. Ugh. Still, I pressed on eastward. Near Anthol, KS, I was able to download a few images from the Blue Hill radar on GRLevel3, which, when animated, told me that convergence was rather focused just west of the Hastings area. I then jumped north on a state route toward the Minden, NE area. Near the Nebraska border I could begin to view some towering cu in a mass of clouds to my north. I then noticed a "blip" on the radar. Okay! Heck, just a few minutes prior, I thought I was going to bust hard (it was getting quite late at this point!).

I drove up on the developing supercell near Norman, NE. Basically the next hour was just supercell magic. I slid east on SR-74, making frequent stops to bathe in supercell delight. Just south of Assumption, I pulled over and watched one of the more dramatic occlusion processes I've ever witnessed. When my storm chasing brain told me to go east (to jump in front of the new meso off to my immediate east), I stayed -- not sure why I did. Perhaps it was to talk to the locals/farmers who had joined me in viewing this rather amazing supercell as it neared their own homes just to the north. The decision to stay was rather fortuitous -- as the occlusion took place in front my eyes about 1-3 miles up the dirt road from where I sat. I was a bit shocked at how "late" the meso tornado'd in the occlusion life cycle. The meso funneled a few times and then laid down a cone/barrel-type tornado, which then morphed into one of those stretched-occluded-type (not a rope, per se) tornadoes. After the tornado, I played catch up the remainder of the short evening. I finally got ahead of the storm near Lawrence, NE, but visibility was starting to wane in the evening light. I enjoyed a nighttime lightning display as the shelf cloud overtook me near the town of Hebron, NE. I then threaded the needle between storms and drove to York, where I overnighted. Overall, patience paid off today. Thanks to Matt Powers for nowcasting (and moral!) support.

Also, a special note to the locals that I spoke with that evening -- thanks for the emails and the pics you've sent. I'm thankful that the tornado did only minor damage and largely moved over open farmland. All the best to you all.

Clear slot wraps in.

Second funnel ... first one (and possible tornado) seconds earlier blocked by the only tree in my view -- chainsaw anyone?

Tornado!

This pic was sent to my be Helen Parr -- I met her brother-in-law that evening just south of the tornado. Her view is about a mile or so south of where I was. Thanks for the pic Helen!

Wide-angle view -- showing the jaw dropping clear slot and occlusion process.

Base reflectivity illustrating the interesting occlusion occurring. Note the hook, with appendage, to the south of the forward flank downdraft -- yet this is not where the tornado occurred. See the velocity product below for where the strong rotation was.

Storm-relative velocity product at the time of the tornado. I've made animated gifs of the bref and srv, which show the pretty cool meso spin off.

Time-lapse of the day's action. Includes views from two cams (one regular, the other HD); thus the repetition in some clips. Also, I had to move to get out of the way of emergency vehicles as they approached from behind at one point. Thus the movement and unstraight horizon lines at times. Sorry. A higher resolution video is available for download here .. please right click>download; don't stream from the server. Thanks!

Geography of my Trip 3, with overnight stays in red. This successful chase concluded my formal trips into the Plains for this season. For the remainder of the warm season, I'll chase local or in nearby states (e.g., Iowa).

6/14/2009 - Denver Airport Storm

Sunday featured a couple of areas of interest -- an upslope play similar to previous days and a more substantial severe threat across far southwest Kansas. I chose to play the first option since I was in the Denver area already. Things looked promising early on as a storm fired (as usual) along the Palmer Divide, but it dissipated as it moved toward Limon. I spent some time along I-70, between Bennett and Deer Trail, trying to figure out whether to head east and south in order to intercept new stuff coming off the Palmer or head back west toward Denver where new storms were firing. I waffled, but eventually shot west as a storm near Denver was tor warned. I intercepted the storm as it approached Denver International Airport. I followed it north to Prospect Valley, before cutting east after it appeared to struggle in a meager CAPE environment. I then tried to wrap around a slow moving squall line along and north of I-70, but by the time I got ahead of it, the thing kind of crapped out. In addition, visibility was poor due to a pesky low-to-mid level stratus deck. All-in-all, I should of probably pressed south of Limon after the Denver storm since there appeared to be a couple of small supercells that developed near Punkin Center toward late evening. Oh well. The storm near Denver did provide some interesting views -- it was very cool watching planes navigate/land/take-off as the storm approached. Below are a few pics and a time lapse video.

Storm over Denver International Airport.

Another view, with a couple mid-level banding features.

Click on the image and you will see a plane taking off in the center-right.

Time-lapse video of the storm of Denver Airport. A higher resolution video is available for download here.

6/13/2009 - East Colorado Supercell and Funnel Clouds

Saturday was another upslope play for my brother and I -- we couldn't play the more severe looking threat to the southeast over Texas since he would need to be at DIA at 6 am Sunday. Luckily, this "forced" decision to stay near the Denver region played in our favor -- we were treated with a nice supercell that had rapid low-level rotation throughout its life. We began the day in Colorado Springs, getting a car rental issue figured out and hitting up my favorite fast food - Chick fil a.

Moo!

After a couple chicken sandwiches bathed in Polynesian, we headed northbound to Denver. As we approached Denver, a storm south of Boulder began to look somewhat impressive on radar -- we shot around the outskirts of Denver since I-25 was clogged according to Google traffic. We intercepted the high-based storm just northeast of Denver and followed it east to Prospect Valley. Near this region, a new set of convection formed to the south and appeared to "kill" any structure to the original storm to the northeast. We sat east of Prospect Valley for a bit as we let what was left of the storm slide to the northeast. I finally decided to head south to I-70 to see if anything could form off the Palmer Divide and move into the uncontaminated air west of Limon. As we moved south, a small cell to our north did redevelop -- however, I stuck to my guns and went south. We grabbed a bite to eat at Bennet and waited a bit for storms to reform. Eventually, I decided to head west toward Denver with the choice -- if no storms form soon, go to our Pricelined hotel; or if storms formed nearby, go after them. I thought for sure we were going to be checking into the hotel early. Nope. As we neared DIA, a small storm began to look more impressive to our immediate north. We turned around on I-70 and headed back east in order to intercept the newly tornado warned storm. Unfortunately, the storm moved right of the radar, making radar assessment tough due to cone of silence issues. We headed east to Strasburg and then north where we waited for the supercell to approach.

Supercell north of Strasburg.

RFD-clear slot wraps in -- violent rotation at this point. On the road north out of Strasburg.

Comes close to producing.

New meso formation, with an apparent needle.

The storm slowly rolled toward us, becoming more visually impressive every minute. As it neared us, it really started to rotate in the low levels, prompting me to report a rotating wall cloud on Spotter Network. Despite this report -- and a formal "funnel cloud" report several minutes later -- the BOU NWSFO replaced the tornado warning with a severe t-storm warning. I'm not sure what was going on at the office, but I was quite surprised my reports fell of deaf ears. Oh well, perhaps the video below will reconvince the office that there was indeed strong rotation with the cell. Hmmm. To their credit, they did go on to issue a tornado warning a bit later. Anyway, as the wall cloud rotated to our immediate northeast, we took off, traversing dirt roads, trying to wrap around to the east of the circulation. We stair-stepped north and east along plenty of dirt roads northeast of Strasburg, all the while watching meso handoffs occur -- each meso would tighten up, produce intense rotation with attendant filaments and funnels, before dissipating and reforming a new meso to the northeast. We saw a nice cone funnel, as well as a rope funnel (and possible tornado) a bit later. We were driving at the time of the rope and could not tell if it made it to the surface; however, it was a long rope making me wonder if it briefly tornadoed. We then began to fight a bad, bad road network. In fact, near sunset, as we were trying to get to an "improved" road according to Delorme, we found ourselves on the back side of the hook on a road that had been turned to jello due to the rain. This basically stopped us dead in our tracks as we literally skied to a junction and then turned around and skied back to dry dirt. I thought for sure we were either going to be using AAA or our onboard OnStar system. My brother did a great job driving us out of that mess ... we ended up back at the hotel about 10 pm were we promptly went to sleep. Overall, a day that was somewhat surprising in that we were disappointed with early storms only to be wowed by a supercell with some of the best, long-lived, low-level rotation I've seen this year. I was quite surprised this thing never laid down a big cone -- it would have been an excellent storm for V2 to examine tornadogenesis failure modes.

Funnel cloud between Leader and Strasburg.

Funnel - so close to tornadoing!

Another view of the funnel -- soon after it turned horizontal and dissipated.

Time-lapse of the supercell, illustrating the amazing low-level rotation and funnel activity. A higher resolution video is available for download here.

6/12/2009 - Eastern Colorado High-based Supercells

Enjoyed yet another day in the eastern Colorado Plains viewing high-based supercells that developed off the Palmer Divide and, thereafter, rolled onto the Plains. Friday didn't have nearly the same level of instability as Thursday, but it still provided some very picturesque scenes. We left La Junta after lunch and targeted the area north of Yoder, CO. Heck, even by the time we left La Junta, we could see some "cu" begin to form along the Front Range. We ventured north on sr-71 to Punkin Center, and then northwest (via dirt road) to an area between Punkin Center and Simia. We intercepted a developing supercell just south of Simia and followed this storm all the way to Eads, CO, where we called it an evening and traversed a couple more storms (including some hail) on the way to Colorado Springs. One of the more interesting things today was the crazy amount of nats that inhabited our clothes, cars, food, etc along sr-94 east of Punkin Center as we stopped to take some time lapse video. I was videotaping and taking some pics while my brother was on the phone and eating a subway sandwich. I suddenly noticed that my arm was covered with tons of tiny bugs -- gnats! They were everywhere, including in the car -- I mean, the inside was covered by these nasty things. I began yelling "bugs! gnats!" and my brother promptly threw his subway into the Colorado grass! We jumped in the vehicle -- which didn't help considering the inside was now covered with the damn things. Ugh! Anyway, if anyone is hungry, there is a sandwich along sr-94 ... I'd go back and get it, but I don't like tomatoes. Also, we Pricelined the Marriott in Colorado Springs for $49 -- when we arrived, they only had one-bed-king rooms left. My brother worked his magic and we got an extra room for free! Two rooms at the Marriott for $49. Ha! Anyway, below are a few pics of the supercell(s) and a time lapse of the day's activities.

Supercell east of Punkin Center.

Another view from Aroya, CO.

Near Wild Horse, CO.

Wraps up briefly -- then outflow would always undercut it.

Another supercell we traversed on the way back to Colorado Springs. At one point, there were a set of 5 storms -- in string-of-pearls fashion -- from east to west across the Colorado Plains.

Time-lapse video of the day's action. A higher resolution video is available for download here.

6/11/2009 - East Colorado Supercells

Quick summary: enjoyed an evening full of supercell delight!!! We left Garden City about 11 am with a target near Limon, CO in mind. Sure enough, storms fired in the higher terrain and rolled off the Palmer Divide. We intercepted these storms near Deer Trail -- despite the tornado warnings, these storms were clearly undercut by cold outflow.

Initial storms ... forming a uneventful bow echo northeast of Deer Trail, CO.

We followed the storms as they coalesced and bowed out north of Limon. I was not pleased with the structure and quickly made the decision to venture south in anticipation of more storms firing near Pueblo, which had good heating and a growing source of instability for any storms that rolled of the higher terrain. As we headed down south on SR-71, we kept our eye on developing convection near Pueblo. As we arrived in Ordway (where I was stung by a bee on the lip while pumping gas! How the hell does that happen? Argh!), we noted the storm to our immediate northwest was high based, yet appeared "nice" on radar reflectivity. A new cell formed to our southwest and we latched onto this baby for the remainder of the night. Long story short, we followed two mammoth supercells as they eventually coalesced and produced an absolutely stunning solo supercell at sunset. Mid-level rotation was truly mouthwatering ... as a storm structure nut, I was in heaven. We kept with the storm(s) from Ordway, to Manzanola, to La Junta, to Las Animas, to Lamar, where we rode out the core after sunset. Ahhhh ... I'm sure this storm will make an appearance or two in my dreams! What a joyful evening!

"Seedling" supercell southwest of Ordway, CO.

Northern supercell of the pair ... north of La Junta, CO.

Southern supercell flanked by the northern supercell.

Mammoth beast after the supercells joined.

Crawler, wall cloud, and bell ... man, I'll take this view any day!

The "bell" at sunset.

Time lapse video of the day's action. Includes video of early storms northwest of Limon followed by the amazing supercells near La Junta onward to Lamar. For a higher resolution video, please email me and I'll provide a link for download.

6/10/2009 - Southwest Kansas Tornadic Storm

Wednesday was a tough forecasting day ... 1) push east from Wichita to an area (not featuring the best chase terrain that) the models were highlighting, but observations were not supporting (milky cirrus from OK convection clouding things over) or 2) head west and "hope" for storms to fire ahead of a bowling ball vort max moving across far southeast Colorado into what would be a narrow instability axis. I made the initial decision to head east, but the veered winds in the low-levels, thickening cloud cover, and more and more trees the further east we went made me rethink my decision near Fall River, KS. We then double backed to Wichita, getting caught up in horrible traffic along US-400 as we traversed the city. We finally pushed westward along 400 and kept an eye (via radar) on some small thunderstorms that were forming near the juncture of OK/CO/NM/KS. We continued west, grabbing dinner in Greensburg (nasty gas station pizza). We finally intercepted the storms near the junction of US 83 and US 160 -- at this point, the storms moved into deeper moisture and a bit better instability (thanks to some brief, but good heating). The storms quickly transitioned into a big ol' HP monster and produced beautiful sunset structure opportunities. The storm produced a tornado at about 8:30 pm, though we had a low contrast vantage point to the east-southeast, looking northwest. Tony Laubach had a bit better perspective to the north, looking down the pipe. I suggest checking out his site for better pics. Anyway, we finally let the storm roll over us (as we took shelter in an abandoned car wash) just west of the town of Meade, KS. Overnighted in Garden City, KS. A rewarding day considering how I double backed and was thinking it was a real gamble to head west.

Storm morphing into a supercell southwest of Sublette, KS, looking west, northwest.

Storm wraps up along a dirt road off US 160, looking north.

Another view looking northwest; getting ready to produce a tornado at the kink in there.

Contrast enhanced to bring out (admittedly, ever so slightly) the tornado. Again, much better view on Tony's blog. He was to the northeast, looking southwest; providing better contrast.

One last view of the supercell before nightfall. Watch out trucker ... that storm looks hungry!

Time lapse video of the southwest Kansas supercell. High resolution video available here.

6/9/2009 - Northern Oklahoma Storms

My brother and I began the day in DeKalb, making the very long drive to Wichita with great anticipation of the day's potential. As we neared K.C., we drove through a rather large MCS -- this MCS would throw an outflow boundary southward across our target region later that day, which would screw up our target region's tornado potential. Winds veered ahead of the outflow boundary, which meant a lack of low-level shear needed for low-level mesocyclone generation. Storms fired -- and we latched onto one near Newkirk, OK -- but they never developed into the formidable supercells we had forecasted. All-in-all we were treated to some multicell-wanna-be-supercells across north-central Oklahoma. Despite the lack of tornadoes, Ma' Nature did please us with a few atmospheric treats, including: brief midlevel rotation in a high-based supercell, a beautiful rainbow, strong outflow near Kaw City, OK, and billowing convection at sunset off to our southeast.

Relatively high-based storm near Newkirk, OK -- mid-level rotation evident attm.

Rather dramatic rainbow and tornado siren in Kaw City, OK. [photo by my brother]

New storm fires off to our southeast, piercing the rays of the setting sun.

Zoomed in view of the billowing convection at sunset.

Time lapse of the day's activities.