With such a busy pattern during our time in the plains, I had no time to put together any entries into our life of the road during the trip. While the pattern was certainly stormy, in reality it was far from ideal in terms of chasing: too many storms (many days with multiple rounds of storms beginning early in the day), very poor visibility, and widespread flooding/road closures hampered our ability to net much in the way of structure or highly visible tornadoes. Many times we were positioned adjacent to tornado-warned storms and could not even see the base of the storm, let alone any tornado associated with it. We had a great crew and leadership this year whose company I thoroughly enjoyed, and most importantly, we are back home safe and sound.
Severe storm intensifies south of McCook, Nebraska.
Tornado west of McCook, Nebraska. (Drew Shearer photo)
Developing shelf cloud from a severe storm in Oklahoma.
Shelf cloud beginning to bow outward over Oklahoma.
Spectacular shelf cloud from a severe storm in Oklahoma.
Rotating wall cloud before a flat tire ended our chase for the day in Texas.
Our location adjacent to a supercell.
The poor visibility from the radar grab above.
Mammatus over Dimmit, Texas.
Dimmit, Texas pt. 2.
Photographic proof that the vanwich is indeed treasured among our crew in Springfield Colorado.
Hail pounded Springfield Colorado shortly after our lunch stop.
Rotating wall cloud over Kiowa County, Colorado.
We targeted northern Kansas today as we felt like the wind field would offer up the best chance for rotating storms. Patience was key, but late in the afternoon a storm fired in the area we were targeting. The storm exploded near Quinter KS, and we quickly raced under the developing mesocyclone in order to position ourselves just east of the storm (Peter Forister photos above and below).
