We went into New Mexico because it was there, and then came out again. Storms fired late off the high terrain and a small storm arrived at Amarillo after our visit to The Big Texan for dinner. Not much else to report other than another 400 miles added to the tally. The pattern has become messy and looks even worse next week so it looks like we timed our trip fairly well.
Monthly Archives: May 2016
Chase Day 8 – Shifting South
With the end of the tour in mind and a few days of risk in TX before a cold front scours the Plains mid week, we shifted south clipping Colorado and on down into the OK Panhandle where we are now in dodgy Guymon. On the way we caught a few storms and this lovely mammatus:
Chase Day 7 – Mount Rushmore
Took a 500 mile detour to visit Mt Rushmore. On the way dropped in to Carhenge – a model of Stonehenge recreated with old cars. Only in America!
Chase Day 6 – Snakes and roads
Down day so a visit to the Rolling Hills Zoo near Salina, KS then a road trip up to Nebraska for a trip to Mount Rushmore in SE South Dakota Saturday.
May head back to W KS for an emerging storm risk Sunday. Hope you all enjoy the Bank Holiday back in Blighty.
Chase Day 5 – Report
Blow out today. All turned into a high ppn mess with early storms wiping out the instability in our target area. Followed tail ends back up to McPherson where we are now spending the night.
Chase Day 5 – Hays stack
Potential big day again with all parameters in place for long track super cells. Sticking to my preferred option of just N of the dry intrusion and shuffling to Hays, KS on the I70.
I wish I could share the feel of the morning – it’s like being in a butterfly house and it’s only 11am
Chase Day 4 -Report: Kansas Chaos
Started the day in Dodge City, KS. Didn’t expect much today but targeted the E/W DL draped across C KS – warm humid airmass above, and an OFB N/S intersecting it around Hays/Salina on the I70. Sat in McPherson waiting for something for an hour in stupidly rich and hot conditions. Cells fired to our south and east around 4pm. Decided to target the west cells and caught up with the lead cell near Bennington, already dropping a wall cloud. Watched this spin and drop funnels as it passed to our North. Shortly after moving to follow it dropped a tornado and continued to track just north of the I70 towards Abilene and Solomon. Now a mile wide wedge we entered Solomon just as the sirens went off then moved up to the I70 intersection and filmed crazy motion in the hook as the main tornado slowly crossed the I70 a few miles east. A Tornado Emergency was issued for Chapman but fortunately it passed half a mile to the South. A lot of damage but no casualties reported so far. Moved back West to take in the strobe lightning and overnight in Salina, KS.
Chase Day 4 – Considering Kansas
In Great Bend KS predicting initiation at 3pm along an east/west drapped DL as dryer air has pushed east under moisture which still resides across N KS. Low risk tornados but hope to catch structure and lightning.
Chase Day 3 – Report
At last – we’ve achieved what was becoming an impossible dream and bagged ourselves a tornado. Several in fact. Started the day in Childress and targeted the OFB/DL intersection in the OK Panhandle. Checking data persuaded us to shift North to Minneola and we were on a rapidly developing supercell, along with hundreds of other assorted chasers and science teams including Reed Timmer in Dominator3 and the mobile DOW (Doppler on wheels). The first tornado developed near Minneola and as it tracked North several others formed and at one point three tornados were on the ground at the same time. An amazing and emotional day and once again well done Zoe for providing the technical know how and directions!
Chase Day 3 – Steak and Outflow
It really is all about identifying the outflow from last night’s MCS which is now trundling away into Missouri. Where this extends West across OK and intersects the dryline will be the place to be (along with 1000 other chase vehicles LOL). So target as of 8am local time is Higgins, TX on the OK line. HRRR composite drops a lone cell at 21Z.
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