JULY 11, 2017 NORTH DAKOTA & MINNESOTA: TORNADO & INTENSE SUPERCELL

August 11, 2017 by Brad in 2017

Chased a beast of a tornadic supercell out of eastern North Dakota into northwest Minnesota. Witnessed a multiple vortex tornado between Hatton and Buxton, North Dakota before it wrapped back into the core and was not in view. Thereafter, I stayed in or near the notch and thankfully had a good road network to do so as I stayed with the storm southeast into Minnesota, ending the chase near Ada. The storm exhibited terrific supercell structure throughout its entire life cycle! A textbook mothership.

Tornado! Multiple vortex tornado between Hatton and Buxton, North Dakota. Had to be right in the notch to view this as the tornado formed on the north side of the core as the wall cloud was wrapping back in. This photo is out of sequence with the others below. Wanted to show this first.

Storm starting to get organized with a lowering already forming near Northwood, North Dakota.

Supercell forming with wall cloud and inflow tail right to left into the base near Northwood, North Dakota.

Wall cloud tightening up with structure taking mothership appearance north of Hatton, North Dakota.

Beautiful supercell with tornado in progress on the right side of the core and terrific structure west of Buxton, North Dakota.

Multiple vortex tornado tucked away in there! Roughly 1.5 miles west of my location between Hatton and Buxton, North Dakota.

Intense core approaching me from this mothership supercell. Inflow tail present as moisture is being focused and drawn into the storm.

Another shot of the intense supercell approaching me near Buxton, North Dakota. Tornado is occurring at this time but cannot see it due to being shielded by the rain and hail core.

Textbook supercell here with big wall cloud on the right side of the core underneath the updraft vault.

All you can say is WOW!

Multiple inflow bands as rich moisture in the low and mid levels is being drawn into this storm near Shelly, Minnesota.

Looks like the mothership is coming in for a landing!

Awesome storm near Shelly, Minnesota as I got 5 miles out ahead to get a better shot of the structure.

Intense mothership supercell after producing a tornado near Buxton, North Dakota. This was as the storm was nearing the river crossing into Minnesota near Shelly.

A mean looking storm, still tornado warned near Ada, Minnesota.

Storm starting to become more outflow dominant with wicked shelf cloud near Ada, Minnesota at the end of the chase. Chased this storm for 5 hours!

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued at 3:48 PM showing favored areas for initiation of thunderstorms between 21-23Z (4-6 PM).

Tornado watch issued at 4:40 PM for eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Valid until 11:00 PM.

New mesoscale discussion issued at 7:09 PM showing the area of greatest tornado risk along the warm front and old stationary boundary near Grand Forks and areas south to Fargo, North Dakota, right where the supercell I was one was tracking and producing tornadoes.

Severe thunderstorm watch issued at 10:00 PM for all of central Minnesota as the thunderstorms formed an intense cluster moving southeast and producing damaging winds.

Mesoscale discussion issued at 1:49 AM as the thunderstorms continued to progress southeast and produce damaging winds, eventually reaching my house near the Twin Cities and moving east.

STORM REPORTS

JUNE 29, 2017 NEBRASKA & IOWA SUPERCELL: GOOD STORM STRUCTURE

August 03, 2017 by Brad in 2017

Chased a supercell thunderstorm out of northeast Nebraska through Sioux City, Iowa where it produced baseball size hail, and into northwest portions of Iowa. This storm was tornado warned near Sioux City before becoming outflow dominant and producing a spectacular shelf cloud near Mapleton, Iowa. The storm had some really good structure for a while (see photos below). The video is primarily a time-lapse from two different segments of the storm.

Terrific storm structure near Mapleton, Iowa at the end of the chase. This photo is out of sequence with the others below.

Storm was tornado warned at this point, directly over Sioux City, Iowa. This area in the center of the image was the action area where there was notable rotation and a ragged, somewhat high-based wall cloud.

Another shot of the wall cloud only a few miles south of Sioux City, Iowa. This was taken looking northeast. I quickly had to drive back into the core on the left side of this image to get across the Missouri River to get ahead of the storm into Iowa. I encountered quarter-size hail and thankfully missed the baseball hail that was reported in Sioux City.

Wall cloud on the tornado warned storm near Owego, Iowa. This was as close as this storm came to producing from my vantage point.

Storm now becoming outflow dominant and forming a shelf cloud near Smithland, Iowa. Lots of mid-level inflow bands still occurring into this storm here.

Another shot of the storm east of Smithland, Iowa as the shelf cloud became more prounounced.

Short time later as the shelf cloud approached.

Was interesting how a part of this shelf started to take on a different shape here. There was solid inflow occurring on the right side into this base...almost looked like a wall cloud attempting to form. Indicated storm may not be true outflow dominant here and was trying to focus an area of rotation with this lowering.

Southern end of the shelf cloud, but still can see a few locations where inflow may be occurring in the notches.

Shelf cloud approaching. Like that wavy appearance to the striations above the shelf.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued at 2:26 PM CT highlighting a likely severe thunderstorm watch upcoming. Storm I chased was on the warm front ahead of the triple point.

Severe thunderstorm watch issued at 3:40 PM CT until 11:00 PM CT across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

STORM REPORTS

JUNE 22, 2017 NORTHERN IOWA: TERRIFIC SUPERCELL STORM STRUCTURE

August 01, 2017 by Brad in 2017

Took a trip down to Iowa with my wife, MaryLynn, to see the Bridges of Madison County, see other sites, and then chase some storms. There was not a lot of expectations on this day with limited deep layer shear and instability, but storms were likely to form on and ahead of the cold front in an environment that had been worked over some by rain and storms early in the day. A storm that did form in northern Iowa somewhat surprisingly became a supercell and took on terrific structure during the early to middle part of its life cycle. This was the one good storm of the whole event and one of the few that became severe thunderstorm warned, as it formed and tracked along a remnant outflow boundary and cold front intersection. There was never a severe thunderstorm or tornado watch issued for the area as any severe storms were limited in coverage.

My favorite shot of the day of the incredible storm structure and striations with fully established shelf cloud near Hansell, Iowa. Photo out of sequence from the others below.

Multiple inflow tails to the base as we approached from the north near Meservey, Iowa.

Got a little closer and I was surprised at the well developed wall cloud that had formed on the southeast side! Clearly can see the multiple inflow bands and I think the band of clouds right in front of us in this image is the actual outflow boundary the storm was rooted on.

Extremely low cloud base on this storm. Looking west from near I-35 southeast of Meservey, Iowa. The storm lost the wall cloud here but was still showing signs of strong inflow and rotation in a few spots.

Intense rain and hail core between Meservey and Chapin, Iowa. Storm is severe thunderstorm warned at this point.

Awesome shelf cloud on the storm near Chapin, Iowa.

Looking the other direction from the previous image, to the north as the core of the storm was approaching. Still some inflow into this storm as you can see from the bands on the left side.

Shot of the storm between Chapin and Hansell, Iowa with grain bins in the foreground and shelf cloud about to overtake.

Unreal structure near Hansell, Iowa!

Looking northeast at the vault region of the storm and shelf cloud at the base.

Storm looking mean as it gets near.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued by SPC at 9:09 PM CDT as isolated severe thunderstorms were ongoing along the front. They did not analyze the outflow boundary through north-central and northeast Iowa, but there appeared to be one there. Never did issue a severe thunderstorm watch since the storm coverage was low.

STORM REPORTS

JUNE 15, 2017 KANSAS SUPERCELL & CORE PUNCH

July 31, 2017 by Brad in 2017

Chased as a guide with Silver Lining Tours (http://www.silverliningtours.com/) on this trip. Got on a developing storm from the first updraft and followed it throughout its maturation cycle from near Hays, Kansas southeast to near Newton. The storm was tornado warned much of the time and exhibited terrific structure initially, producing baseball size hail in Hays, and morphed into a dangerous squall line producing damaging winds near 70 mph later in its life cycle. The video shows a few time lapse segments from this storm, followed by our core punch through the squall line at the end of the chase.

Focused gustnado on the leading edge of the outflow and shelf cloud. This was called in as a tornado by other chasers but appeared to be a gustnado over a tornado from our vantage point. Gustnadoes are much weaker and produced differently than tornadoes, but can still kick up a lot of dirt! This photo is out of sequence with the others below.

Supercell in early stages south of Hays, Kansas. Lowering and brief funnel cloud in this image formed on the left side of the core.

Zoomed out view of the previous image, showing the brief funnel left of the core and supercell taking on very good structure.

Awesome structure with intense core/microburst occurring, and storm starting to go outflow dominant in central Kansas.

Right side of the core as supercell is going outflow dominant. We are positioned southeast of the storm with storm motion being to the southeast towards us.

Group of Silver Lining Tours guests enjoying the view of an intense supercell storm near Hoisington, Kansas.

Still some inflow occurring on the northeast side of the intense rain & hail core over the open prairie of central Kansas.

Just another shot of the previous gustnado image a few moments later.

Gustnado washing out here but can still see the debris plume on the leading edge of the outflow winds on the left side where the gustnado was focused.

Severe thunderstorm moving towards us. Stopped to get a shot of the storm as a backdrop to the limestone fence posts. As you can imagine, there were not a lot of trees on the prairies of Kansas so, when these fences were built, they used limestone rock for posts since this was more readily available. Cool to see these scattered about the countryside.

Mammatus clouds ahead of the storm to the east of Great Bend, Kansas.

Looking northwest at the approaching storm over a Kansas wheat field.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued by the Storm Prediction Center at 12:49 PM CDT, outlying the risk area for an upcoming Severe Thunderstorm Watch.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch issued for central and eastern Kansas at 1:25 PM CDT. This is the area highlighted for expected wind gusts of 60-80 mph. You can see our storm just getting going southwest of Hays, Kansas.

Another Mesoscale Discussion issued at 3:29 PM CDT, highlighting the environment our storm was moving into and the possibility of 60-80 mph winds as the storm started to bow out into an intense line.

Another Mesoscale Discussion is issued at 5:58 PM CDT as the threat of damaging winds continues with the storms forming a bowing line.

A new Severe Thunderstorm Watch issued at 7:05 PM CDT ahead of the bowing line forming a severe MCS (mesoscale convective system).

STORM REPORTS

JUNE 13, 2017 SOUTH DAKOTA: SUPERCELLS & GUSTNADOES

July 20, 2017 by Brad in 2017

This was the third day of chasing as a guide for Silver Lining Tours (http://www.silverliningtours.com/). The day before, we caught 3 brief tornadoes and a beast of a storm in Wyoming and Nebraska. We got ahead of this same system near the South Dakota/Nebraska border area on this day. The thought was storms would form off the cold front/dryline and be rotating supercells with a decent chance to produce a tornado, although temperature/dewpoints spreads were fairly large. A second target existed on the warm front across northeast South Dakota into west-central Minnesota but we thought the storms here would be too messy and congeal too quickly to stray from our closer target. There did end up being a nice tornado in that second target area across west-central Minnesota. We managed to catch a few severe and tornado warned supercells, as well as several gustnadoes on our storms. There were a few tornado reports from the storms we were on, but we could not confirm that these were tornadoes over gustnadoes.

First arriving on the supercell with a wall cloud near Bonesteel, South Dakota. Storm had some decent structure at this point.

Looking at the northern side of the base and updraft with the core of the storm on the right and wall cloud on the left.

Cool shot of the approaching storm and a grain silo in the foreground.

Looking west towards the approaching supercell near Pickstown, South Dakota. This is the spot where I shot the time-lapse video above.

Gustnado occurring down the road from our location on the bottom right of the image. Storm core coming in from right to left along with the shelf cloud.

Another shot of the storm and gustnado that is was producing near Wagner, South Dakota. This was called in as a tornado by multiple sources but appeared to be a gustnado to me due to outflow of the storm and no condensation funnel above.

Looking at a tornado warned storm to the west, while the tour group enjoys the spectacle.

Rainbow on the backside of a different storm as we were getting close to sunset. A few of the guests caught lightning and this rainbow in their shots.

At sunset on the back of the storm, looking southwest. Cool looking sky with good color, mammatus clouds and the shot of an anvil from another storm in the distance.

Terrific looking sky at sunset looking west in northeast Nebraska.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued by SPC at 2:32 PM CDT, highlighting the threat for storms to develop by 21Z with primary threats being wind damage and hail, along with some tornado threat.

Tornado Watch issued at 3:15 PM CDT for the area, valid until 10:00 PM CDT.

Another Mesoscale Discussion issued at 3:46 PM CDT from eastern Nebraska into southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa. Additional storms expected to form ahead of the initial storms that we were chasing along the South Dakota/Nebraska border.

A Mesoscale Discussion issued at 5:43 PM CDT as intense storms were maturing and new storms started to fire on the warm front and ahead of the low on the triple point.

Mesoscale Discussion issued at 8:34 PM CDT for the storms that were congealing and becoming less discrete across the eastern Dakotas into eastern Nebraska and western Minnesota.

STORM REPORTS

JUNE 12, 2017 WYOMING & NEBRASKA CHASE: 3 TORNADOES & BEASTLY SUPERCELL AT DUSK

July 09, 2017 by Brad in 2017

I was chasing as a guide for Silver Lining Tours (http://www.silverliningtours.com/) for this one. We had high hopes that this would be the best chase of the tour as conditions were ripe for rotating supercells and tornadoes. A trough was ejecting out of the Rockies and into the northern High Plains, with more than sufficient low and deep layer wind shear. Bulk shear as in the area of 65 knots. A nose of 3,000-4,000 J/KG of MLCAPE developed into western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, allowing for a very unstable airmass. Shear, lift, instability and moisture appeared sufficient for a tornado outbreak to occur. We ended up seeing 3 brief tornadoes on the day, only one shown below and in the video from a distance. I was driving during the other 2 tornadoes. The first supercell that we chased was from near Chugwater, Wyoming to Torrington, Wyoming. The second supercell became large, photogenic and very intense. We chased this storm from near Bayard to Alliance, Nebraska.

Storm looking even more amazing as it approached our location. Love those stack of plates! This photo is out of sequence with the others.

First storm of the day exploding on the mountains to the west of Chugwater, Wyoming. Wall cloud already developing on the left side of the core.

Wall cloud trying to organize to the east of Slater, Wyoming. Moderately fast inflow occurring from right to left into this base.

Another wall cloud in the foreground trying to organize. Large, low-hanging rising scud bomb in the distance being pulled into the base and around the wall cloud. This was near Rockeagle, Wyoming.

Wall cloud tightening up and spinning near Rockeagle, Wyoming, shortly after the previous image.

Had a bad road network here, so only could capture this tornado from a distance as we looked west from near Lingle, Wyoming.

Multiple low inflow bands pulling in rich moisture with the second supercell we chased near Bayard, Nebraska. A short time before, this the storm developed two brief tornadoes. I was driving the van at that point and not able to capture a photo.

Awesome mothership structure, stacked plates, and shelf cloud on the storm as it became high precipitation (HP) near Angora, Nebraska.

Mothership about to engulf a train between Angora and Alliance, Nebraska.

Storm spitting out lightning left and right as it was about to overtake us. Had to get out of the way shortly after this as the storm had huge hail within the core.

Another shot of the lightning and mothership supercell south of Alliance, Nebraska towards sunset.

Plenty of cloud-to-ground lightning to go around! Was popping lightning all over the place and the storm was very intense at this point. Tornado warned with a considerable couplet on radar embedded in the high precipitation monster.

Another shot of the lightning at dark. Had to get out of the way shortly after this photo as it was a very dangerous, intense supercell.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale Discussion issued at 11:29 AM MDT, already talking about issuing a tornado watch as thunderstorms develop over the next few hours.

Tornado Watch issued at 1:10 PM MDT, valid until 8:00 PM MDT.

New mesoscale discussion issued at 5:05 PM MDT for the area with greatest risk for strong tornadoes and all severe weather hazards.

Mesoscale discussion issued at 8:02 PM MDT as dangerous supercell thunderstorms continued to move northeast through Nebraska, western South Dakota and northeast Wyoming.

STORM REPORTS

MAY 16, 2017 TEXAS & OKLAHOMA STORM CHASE: TORNADOES & INCREDIBLE LIGHTNING

July 06, 2017 by Brad in 2017

This was the day we had been waiting for and the reason for the whole trip. An upper trough was ejecting out into the Plains with strong 55-65 knot winds at 500 mb, amble moisture, instability and strong wind shear to allow for rotating supercells and tornadoes. Wes Hyduke and I left Garden City, Kansas late morning and made our way down to west of McLean, Texas off I-40 to get in position. We encountered 3 separate supercell storms, starting near McLean, Texas and ending near Sentinel, Oklahoma. The McLean storm produced a photogenic tornado, while the storm near Sayre, Oklahoma had a tornado debris spin-up underneath the bowl lowering and mesocyclone. This second storm is the one that brought the big rain-wrapped tornado that led to extensive damage in Elk City, Oklahoma. This was followed by a spectacular cloud-to-ground lightning show near Gotebo, Oklahoma. A great chase day!

Awesome elephant trunk tornado near McLean, Texas. We stopped next to a Doppler on Wheels truck to view the tornado in the distance as it was churning away. This photo is out of sequence with the others below.

Wall cloud on the first tornado warned storm of the day near the Gray County Rest Area, to the west of Alanreed, Texas.

Wall cloud on a second tornado warned storm east of Howardwick and south of Alanreed. Taking on terrific structure at this point with inflow tail on the right into the base and condensating wall cloud. This was the storm that produced the tornado near McLean a short while later.

WE'VE GOT COWS! Had to evade a herd of cattle on dirt road 20 south of Alanreed and northeast of Clarendon, Texas. Was a funny moment when we were trying to get in position to intercept a tornado warned storm heading towards McLean.

Approaching the tornado warned storm southwest of McLean, Texas on highway 273. Wall cloud with large inflow tail right to left into the storm.

Radar grab showing our location close to the time the previous photo was taken.

TORNADO! Beautiful elephant trunk to rope tornado south of McLean, Texas as we were driving north on highway 273.

We drove up highway 273 towards McLean and looked off to the left to see the tornado still going strong! I am still not sure if this was a second tornado or in the roping out stage of the first tornado. Could have rotated around the mesocyclone and back west. Appeared to me to be a 2nd tornado on a new updraft off the dryline well to the west of the first tornado, but cannot be sure.

A zoomed in view at the base of the tornado south of McLean, Texas. There was decent rotation at the base of the tornado towards the end of its life cycle but it did not appear to be violent.

Tornado in roping out stage towards the end of its life-cycle.

Rainbow below and exploding supercell updraft as we approached a new storm northeast of Vinson, Oklahoma.

One of the best inflow tails that I have ever seen. This thing was like a conveyor belt of warm, moist air into the storm base and shooting directly into the updraft. Near Sayre, Oklahoma.

Another tornado spinning up dirt directly underneath a fast spinning mesocyclone near Sayre, Oklahoma. A beautiful storm at this point! Thought this was going to drop a big multiple vortex tornado right in front of us, but it never grew beyond this.

Awesome storm structure with beaver tail, wall cloud, quickly rotating mesocyclone and dusty tornado underneath near Sayre, Oklahoma.

Had to get a photo in front of this storm! It had everything.

A short while later as the mesocyclone was approaching. Still a fast rotating wall cloud, somewhat rain-wrapped, and producing funnel after funnel.

Meso really getting close at this point. Strong rotation and funnel very close to the ground. May have touched down again here but not for certain. Still southeast of Sayre and west of Carter, Oklahoma.

Very close to producing a tornado here. Strongly rotating wall cloud and funnel. This is looking directly into the notch from the northeast side near the forward flank core. Had to get out of here shortly after this photo was taken. The storm later went on to produce a large tornado that hit Elk City, Oklahoma.

Ended the day with a terrific cloud to ground lightning show near Gotebo, Oklahoma.

UNREAL lightning strike that occurred directly in front of our car and right in the middle of my camera frame! Probably will never get a lightning shot even comparable again in my lifetime. Fortunately, I was in the car and had a remote trigger for my camera, which was outside on a tripod. Camera settings were ISO 100, f/22, and 20 second exposure.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

Mesoscale discussion issued at 1:19 PM making note of the tornado watch that will be issued shortly.

Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) tornado watch issues at 1:50 PM until 10:00 PM CDT. Note the high likelihoods for tornadoes, wind and hail.

New mesoscale discussion issued at 4:56 PM, highlighting the small area where tornado risk would be greatest as well as extremely large hail. This area highlighted was where the 2 storms in which we saw tornadoes were located.

Another mesoscale discussion issued at 7:29 PM, highlighting a continued tornado risk east of where the current tornado watch was in place.

STORM REPORTS

MAY 15, 2017 KANSAS STORM CHASE

May 27, 2017 by Brad in 2017

Wes Hyduke and I left Minnesota on this morning and drove to northwest Kansas where we intercepted a couple of photogenic supercell thunderstorms. This chase was primarily by chance as we were on our way to chase in the Texas Panhandle the next day. We decided to take a detour to view the storms in northwest Kansas and glad that we did.

Captured a cloud-to-ground lightning strike out of the storm as we watched from the southeast side. This photo is out of sequence with the others below.

Terrific mammatus display on the storm as we approached near Hill City, Kansas.

Looking directly upwards at the mammatus clouds under the anvil on the storm west of Hill City, Kansas.

The storm started to get some decent structure near Hoxie, Kansas. I love chasing in the wide open Plains!

Looking at the storm updraft and inflow bands feeding into it near Hoxie, Kansas. Severe thunderstorm at this point.

Great structure on the storm at this point but storm starting to congeal and become more of a cluster.

A left-moving low precipitation supercell north of Garden City, Kansas at the end of the day.

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION ISSUED FOR THE AREA AT 3 P.M. CT.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch Issued at 3:40 PM

STORM REPORTS

JULY 5TH MINNESOTA: SHELF CLOUD TIME-LAPSE

July 14, 2016 by Brad in 2016

The shelf cloud approaching me, looking west near Jordan, Minnesota.

Shelf cloud nearing, overlooking the Minnesota River Valley near Jordan. Northern end of shelf is wrapping back into the core and bowing out just west and southwest of my location here.

The shelf looking more ominous as it comes in! Wind has not started to pick up quite yet.

Looking northwest towards the southwest metro overlooking the river valley. You can see the northern end of the shelf wrapping back into the core with the possibility of some rotation here.

The shelf just about to overtake me with rain just starting. Winds were really starting to kick up here and gust 30 mph as the shelf moved over.

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 19TH MINNESOTA: TORNADO WARNED SUPERCELL

June 30, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Intercepting a tornado warned supercell west of Lake Shore at the intersection of Cty Rd 1 and 88th St. Nicely structured storm with inflow streamers, large base and wall cloud. The lowering/wall cloud was tough to make out until the storm got closer due to being shielded by rain.

Looking a bit to the right of the base and updraft at the intense core that went on to produce baseball size hail near Nisswa.

A closer view of the wall cloud west of Lake Shore, Minnesota. There was clear rotation at this point and fairly fast condensation into the base.

Wall cloud started to become more ragged as it approached my location but still evident tucked in right by the core and underneath the base.

Wall cloud forming over North Long Lake to my east. This is where I came across a vehicle that was down in the ditch and backwards, close to the lake. I checked on him and the guy was ok and had already called for help.

Wall cloud becoming better organized east of North Long Lake as I watched to the west. Attempted to catch up with the storm right after this but got slowed going through Brainerd.

View of the strong and still tornado warned high precipitation (HP) supercell moving north of Mille Lacs Lake. This was taken in Garrison looking northeast.

Double rainbow north of Ogilvie, Minnesota. WHOA, A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!

Base of the former tornado warned storm, and lightning, near Big Lake, Minnesota at the end of the day.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH:

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 14TH MINNESOTA: NUMEROUS FUNNEL CLOUDS & 2 TORNADOES

June 30, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Longer version featuring highlights from the entire chase:

Wall cloud lowering on the first storm near Arco, Minnesota. This cell did not look like much on radar but was spinning like mad and had solid inflow!

First funnel cloud of the day on the storm near Arco, Minnesota. This storm produced several more funnels.

Another funnel that was rapidly rotating and condensing near Porter, Minnesota. This funnel was 3/4 of the way to the ground but we cannot confirm there was any touchdown in the field right in front of us. I believe we were on Highway 7 to the south of Porter at this time.

Another view as the storm moved just to our north and the wall cloud was really tightening up with a continuous funnel cloud. The wall cloud occluded soon after this as the funnel dissipated.

Took a little while but we eventually got on the next storm after the first one died. This wall cloud was forming with apparent inflow scud fingers near Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota/South Dakota border.

Another wall cloud quickly forming on the storm southeast of Beardsley, Minnesota.

Another funnel cloud quickly formed and dissipated on the storm. Very high sheared air feeding these storms at this point but not a lot of instability.

The most pronounced and lowest funnel cloud of the day that did not produce a tornado. Never could see if this touched down but it had to be close.

Hard spinning storm updraft and developing funnel cloud southeast of Beardsley and southwest of Barry, Minnesota. Strong inflow occurring at this point.

Funnel cloud forming out of the hard spinning and tightening wall cloud shortly after the previous photo. A textbook scenario of fast inflow to the right wrapping into the notch and rear flank downdraft winds cutting around the backside of wall cloud/updraft to eventually produce a beautiful tornado.

Rope funnel cloud starting to condense to the ground as the storm was moving north of our location.

Video still of tornado and white debris cloud.

Another video still showing stretching vorticity in action! Long, white rope tornado.

Another video still of the long tube.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION:

TORNADO WATCH:

STORM REPORTS:

SPC Outlooks

MAY 8TH OKLAHOMA: TORNADO WARNED SUPERCELL & ROTATING WALL CLOUDS

May 29, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Developing storm in the foreground with beautiful crepuscular rays coming through the clouds.

First developing storm north of Woodward, Oklahoma.

Wall cloud/lowering on the storm as it was starting to get its act together near Freedom, Oklahoma.

Rotating wall cloud underneath the updraft of the storm west of Alva, Oklahoma.

Another view of the condensing, rotating wall cloud.

Strong updraft as the storm reaches its strongest point.

New wall cloud forming after the old one weakened and occluded.

iPhone shot of the wall cloud west of Alva, Oklahoma.

Doppler on Wheels (DOW) heading down the road to re position as the wall cloud we were watching weakened and dissipated.

Strongest rotation of the day on this wall cloud that was tightening up near Alva, Oklahoma. This likely would have produced a tornado at this point if the dewpoints were higher than the lower to middle 60s.

Condensing lowering on the wall cloud, possibly funnel. Very tilted updraft from left to right on this storm.

My position (blue crosshairs) relative to the hook echo north of Alva, Oklahoma.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSIONS:

TORNADO WATCH:

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

MAY 7TH COLORADO: SUPERCELL & FUNNEL

May 29, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Supercell storm intensifying and still south of the warm front near Abarr, Colorado.

Wall cloud developing on the storm. Notice clear slot behind the wall cloud where the rear flank downdraft cut was occurring.

Another shot of the storm as it was getting closer. Sharp, flat base to the supercell at this point. Dissipating wall cloud on the far right.

Silver Lining Tour guests and crew enjoying the show underneath the mammatus clouds.

Large storm base really taking on a C shape as the RFD cut became larger.

The storm near Vernon, Colorado as we began departing for Oklahoma City. This storm went on to produce several tornadoes that we missed due to having to be back in Oklahoma City that night.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION:

TORNADO WATCH:

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

May 6TH WYOMING: SUPERCELL TIME LAPSE

May 28, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Supercell storm rolling off the Laramie Range near Chugwater, Wyoming. You can see the feeder bands from all directions into this storm. Pulling in all the moisture that it can, considering dewpoints were only in the middle 40s.

Nicely structured mothership supercell over the foothills of the Laramie Range in Wyoming. You can see how this storm is rotating with the clouds twisting into the updraft.

Another shot of the supercell as it was starting to move out over the flatter Plains near and east of Chugwater. Storm starting to weaken some at this point.

Storm weakening but holding onto some good structure with well defined high-based inflow bands and storm base.

View of the storm as another core was starting to open up right in front of us. Was popping some cg lightning with this new core but could not capture any of the lightning in a photo.

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

April 26TH KANSAS: SUPERCELL & ROTATING, TIGHT WALL CLOUD

May 27, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Initial wall cloud on the first tornado warned storm near Caldwell, Kansas.

Funnel on the first tornado warned storm just to the north of Caldwell, Kansas near the Oklahoma border. This funnel persisted for a few minutes before dissipating.

Rotating wall cloud tightening up into a funnel near Mayfield, Kansas. Nearly produced a tornado at this point!

Zoomed out view of the tightened up rotating wall cloud and funnel near Mayfield, Kansas. This area of focused rotation dissipated after the occlusion.

This scared dog jumped in the through the passenger door and into the driver's seat when we weren't looking, ha ha!! Poor guy...felt bad kicking him out in the rain but couldn't take him with.

Severe thunderstorm over the wheat fields of southern Kansas. Storm starting to become outflow dominant and form a shelf cloud at this point.

Shelf cloud and storm about to overtake us and a train near Wellington, Kansas.

Looking at the underside of the shelf cloud, whale's mouth, as it passed over near Wellington, Kansas. Visually striking blue/green/aqua colors under this shelf.

Wes Hyduke's panorama of the underside of the shelf cloud at the end of the day near Wellington, Kansas.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSIONS:

TORNADO WATCHES:

STORM REPORTS:

SPC OUTLOOKS:

MARCH 23RD MISSOURI & IOWA: SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS

April 04, 2016 by Brad in 2016

Inflow tail into the storm near Westboro, MO.

Caught a lightning strike in the intensifying storms near Westboro, MO.

Storm from above, now severe warned, dumping a hail core.

Ragged lowering at the base of the storm at the Hwy C and 59 intersection.

Rain/hail cores on severe warned storms east of Westboro, MO.

Storms becoming more organized and showing several feeder bands near Blanchard, IA.

Another shot of the severe warned storms just south of Blanchard, IA.

The southern storm in the line coming up at me with high base forming on the southeast side.

Mesoscale discussion issued during the early afternoon. Hilarious they put a 'wedge-shaped area' in the discussion!

Tornado watch issued at 3 PM for the area.

SPC OUTLOOKS:

STORM REPORTS:

MARCH 23, 2016 CHASE LOG: MISSOURI & IOWA

I decided to chase this day, mainly to kick off the rust from my last chase on July 12, 2015 and to see some decent thunderstorms after the long winter season. The set-up included a strong upper level trough going positive to negative tilt by later in the day, a 100 kt 500mb jet streak from Kansas into Iowa, and effective shear of 40-50 kts. At the surface, a surface low moved from near north-central Kansas to southeast Nebraska with a trailing dryline to the south and a near stationary warm front through the southern tier of counties in Iowa. The plan was to target storms that were expected to develop near and just south of the triple point by 21Z (4pm). The main concerns for the day were the dewpoints only projected to get into the 52-55F range and be relatively confined to a shallow layer with dry air aloft, and the other concern having to drive back through a blizzard on the northern end of this system in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

I left that morning and headed south on I-35 to I-80 west, then south on Hwy 148 to Corning and eventually making my way down Hwy 71 to Clarinda. I stopped here to take a look at the data and grab a bite to eat. Realizing that storms were likely to first fire in southeast Nebraska and build to the southeast, I headed further west to Shenandoah to wait for initiation, as the town was right on the boundary and wobbling between temperatures from near 60F to lower 70s. A tornado watch was issued at 3pm for the area, valid until 10pm that evening. I was honestly a bit surprised with the tornado watch being issues as I had thought a severe thunderstorm watch would be issued instead due the moisture quality issues into the area.

Storms first fired to the west right on the north and east side of the low. I waited for additional storms to begin forming to my south and, sure enough, cumulus towers started building about 30 minutes after the initial storms to my west. I traveled south on Hwy 59 and intercepted storms near the intersection of this road and Hwy C, just across the border near Westboro, Missouri. The storm updrafts were fairly chunky/fluffy going up and did not have that classic, hard look to them, but each storm developed a flat, smooth base and opened up some intense rain and hail cores. I intercepted 4 separate storms in this area over the next few hours, 3 of which became severe thunderstorm warned for mainly large hail but also damaging winds. Some of the storms did form some ragged lowerings and had some inflow feeder tails into them with some decent structure but, overall, I did not witness any areas of organized rotation and none ever came close to having any tornado potential. One particular storm that I followed from east of Westboro north towards Blanchard, Iowa had the best structure of the day with a couple inflow tails and intense cores. These storms congealed and moved north of the front, so I traveled east to stay out ahead of other storms coming up from the south. I intercepted one of these storms in Hopkins, Missouri where small hail was coming down so heavy that it was running down the streets in rivers with intense rainfall as well. Thereafter, I tried to get back out ahead of the storms, traveling east to I-35 and north through Des Moines and home, but managed to stay in the intense rainfall much of the way. Near Dows, Iowa the heavy rain began transitioning to thundersleet and freezing rain where numerous vehicles were in the ditch, including big rigs. After 10 miles of treacherous/slow driving, precipitation transitioned to very heavy snow and near white-out conditions. I slowly made my way north to Mason City and the roads did get a little better to the north of town as the plows had been out. I ended up eventually making it back to my parents place in southern Minnesota after hours of white knuckle driving. What a crazy day going from severe thunderstorms to a blizzard, and lower 70s air to upper 20s air!

JULY 12TH MINNESOTA: FUNNELS & 2 BRIEF TORNADOES

July 18, 2015 by Brad in 2015

A turbulent sky as elevated storms form north of the warm front over corn fields near Wendell, Minnesota.

A shelf cloud forming on the storm near Foxhome, Minnesota. Severe warned for mainly hail at this point.

The first tornado touching down in the distance east of Doran, Minnesota as we watched on highway 19.

Cropped shot of the photo from above, showing the tornado. Other chasers confirmed this indeed touched down.

Tornado lifted and formed a bowl shaped funnel in the middle of the wall cloud.

A few minutes later, this rope funnel appeared closer to our location on the lead storm. This was a a few miles north-northeast of Campbell. Thanks Tony for noticing this! We were transfixed on the previous funnel as it was still present at this time to the right.

Elongated funnel cloud north of Campbell, Minnesota.

Beautiful funnel cloud on the storm a short while later!

Funnel wrapped up into a rope as the rear-flank-downdraft outflow started to undercut.

Around the time that this touched down as a tornado. You can see this ground truth in the video.

Good structure on the high precipitation storm.

Intense storm near Barrett, Minnesota.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION:

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JULY 12th, 2015 CHASE LOG: MINNESOTA

It’s not too often that a chase day turns out almost exactly like you thought it would…but this was one of those days! Our group consisting of myself, Wes Hyduke, and Tony Perkins left Burnsville, MN around 12:45pm, heading northwest on I-94 towards west-central Minnesota. My initial target for the day was Tenney.

Storm Setup: A surface low set up just west of the North Dakota/South Dakota/Minnesota border area by the early afternoon with a warm front draped to the east through central Minnesota, and a trough to the south of the low through eastern South Dakota. A mid-level trough was approaching the area from the west, while an extremely unstable environment was in place with dewpoints in the lower to middle 70s and 4,000-4,500 j/kg of MLCAPE. Bulk shear was on the order of 35-45 kts with lower bulk shear north and higher south. Ongoing, elevated convection reinforced the warm front ahead of the surface low into west-central Minnesota.

We traveled to Alexandria for gas and then northwest to Elbow Lake and parked at the intersection of Hwy 59 and Hwy 55 northwest of town. This was an excellent spot to go any direction with good roads. A mesoscale discussion (MD) was issued by the SPC from our location and areas north at 2:54 pm, while a more strongly worded MD was issued at 3:53pm from our location south through all of southwest MN and eastern SD. This new MD highlighted a supercell and tornado risk in this area. A Tornado Watch was issued a short while later.

Storms near Fergus Falls to our north quickly became tornado warned and we drifted towards them, all the while keeping in mind that new storms would likely form to the south of this initial cell. We caught up with a new southwest updraft near Foxhome. The storms to our northeast were tornado-warned but our storm was still developing and was severe-warned at the time. I wasn’t about to go running to the storms northeast of our area that appeared to be north of the warm front and in a more stable airmass, so we stayed put on our storm as new towers developed to the southwest. The storm we were on started to spew cold air and became very outflow dominant with a shelf cloud. We bailed this storm quickly and headed south towards another storm that was really starting to get its act together. Upon core punching a lead cell, we ended up south on Hwy 19 east of Doran. We still hadn’t got out of the rain before noticing a well-defined lowering in the distance that was starting to take on a bowl shape. Stopping to watch, a cone funnel appeared and condensed over halfway to the ground. We later heard that this did indeed touch down, to our watch at 5:05pm. As this funnel was starting to dissipate, Tony noticed a beautiful rope funnel just to our southwest on our lead cell! This was the highlight of the chase as the rope twisted and turned for several minutes, changing shapes and growing/shrinking throughout. As you can see in the video, this rope did touch down as it became undercut by the storm outflow as we watched northeast of Campbell. This was at 5:15pm.

The chase continued through Nashua, Wendell, and Elbow Lake to the east and then down towards Barrett and Hoffman. Upon the way, we saw some okay structure, well defined inflow bands, and some ragged lowerings that did not appear to be doing much. This was more of a monster hailer and wind-maker more than anything at this point. Upon chasing this storm east of Hoffman, we decided to call it a day as the storms were congealing into a line. Driving south on I-94, we stopped for dinner, barely making it out of Sauk Centre before getting cored by the severe line.

JUNE 24TH IOWA: TORNADO WARNED HIGH-PRECIPITATION SUPERCELLS

July 18, 2015 by Brad in 2015

Tornado warned supercell north of the warm front. A heavy bank of low clouds and fog underneath the updraft bases of these storms. An eerie scene driving into this to say the least, especially with it being tornado warned and all of the lightning/thunder this storm was producing.

This was the closest the storm came to producing a tornado from our vantage point. This was a large, rotating mesocyclone with a developing wall cloud. You can sense the scud being pulled around the backside of the meso and around to the left and then wrapping up into that white lowered area in the foreground. It was spinning hard!

View of the base south of Panora as we were trying to get out ahead with the storm dive-bombing southeast.

White wall cloud to the north of Stuart on the tornado warned storm. There was not much rotation here with this feature.

Further west on the tail end storm near Anita. Notice the dark lowering in the distance. This was the hook echo on radar and showed signs of lowered bowl before being undercut by outflow.

Panoramic shot from my iPhone of the entire storm near Anita, IA. Inflow tail to the right, lowering in the distance to the left. Large base in the middle.

A ragged lowering on the storm near Fontanelle.

Lightning!

Supercell slowing down on the tail end near Fontanelle. Has okay structure here and still rather intense. Popping lightning quite a bit.

Intense core on the storm at sunset and popping cg lightning like crazy.

Very intense core on this storm...so we decided to drive through it! Ended up with nickel size hail as the storm appeared to weaken when we core-punched.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSIONS:

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 24th, 2015 CHASE LOG: IOWA

I had been keeping an eye on this day for a while and knew there was going to be some tornado potential with the kind of set-up the models were showing days in advance. Myself, MaryLynn, and Allison Stupica left the Twin Cities early in the morning and took the kids down to my parents, then departed for Des Moines, Iowa.

Storm Setup: Convection (some severe) lingered along a stalled warm front through central Iowa much of the day. This pushed an outflow boundary into southwest Iowa where it was interacting with a stationary front right near the Iowa/Nebraska/Missouri border area. Dewpoints along this boundary were very high and in 70-74F range, while temperatures heated up into the upper 80s and low 90s, providing considerable buoyancy for storms if they could develop. Aloft, there was a speed max coming through Iowa late in the day with 40-45 kts of bulk shear, but some of this higher shear displaced just to the north.

The atmosphere sure took its time to destabilize and I believe the speed max moved in late. We waited around into the afternoon at a restaurant in southwest Des Moines and eventually moved west towards an area that had been highlighted for a conditional supercell and tornado risk in southwest Iowa per a mesoscale discussion issued at 2:23pm. As we were traveling west on Hwy 92 towards Greenfield and Fontanelle, we could see towers exploding to the north. These quickly became severe as storms formed on an outflow enforced warm front and not on the ouflow boundary draped to the southwest. We advanced north through Adair where we crossed I-80 and then further north to intercept a severe warned storm west of Guthrie Center. It was very ominous driving up to the storm base where clouds appeared to be on the ground, and there was almost what looked like a fog bank set up south of the storm with such a warm and humid airmass being ingested into it. A Tornado Watch was soon issued at 6:20pm as our storm became tornado warned and also the one to the east. We followed the rapidly developing supercell that was already taking on high precipitation characteristics to the east on Hwy 44 towards Panora. To the west of town, we stopped to watch and this is where it had a large, rotating mesocyclone and appeared ready to drop a tornado. The storm was still tornado warned and the meso was spinning hard with rapid condensation taking place for a few minutes. We traveled through Panora and south on P28 to escape the forward flank core and as the storm started to surge southeast. We stopped once we got back to I-80 as the eastern storm now became tornado warned. The tornado warned storm we were on was now dive-bombing southeast with a large, rotating mesocyclone and a lot of motion over the town of Stuart. Folks in Stuart were a little freaked out by this and there were a lot of people out of their homes and some erratic driving by the locals as we traveled through town.

A new, tail-end supercell had been developing as we chased our storm to near Stuart, and we decided to blast west towards this storm that already had a hook echo and was severe-warned. We had to blast through the RFD hook on our storm going west on I-80 to get to this cell and, as we did so, there was a lot of motion in the clouds, high winds, some hail and even some debris being lofted into the air. It was difficult to figure out what was going on, but it appeared to be swirling RFD winds coming around the hook and possibly a few weak gustnadoes that we drove through. We arrived on the next storm south of Anita on Hwy 148 and watched a lowering come at us to the northwest, but wash out as the outflow winds choked it off. Staying ahead of this storm toward Berea and Fontanelle, the storm slowed down and took on some decent structure with occasional cloud-to-ground lightning that led to some photogenic opportunities. We ended the chase here as the storm was high-precipitation and it was getting dark.

JUNE 20TH IOWA: HIGH-PRECIPITATION SUPERCELL & INCREDIBLE MAMMATUS

July 18, 2015 by Brad in 2015

This was the closest that the storm came to producing a tornado. Low wall cloud wrapping up on the east side of the storm updraft base. This was just east of Eddyville, IA on G77 at the high school.

Awesome mammatus display east of Garwin, IA, looking south off Hwy 229.

The mammatus got even better a short while later near Traer, IA.Incredible mammatus field over Iowa farmland at sunset near Buckingham, Iowa!

Panoramic cell phone shot of the entire mammatus field laid out in front of us.

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION:

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 20th, 2015 CHASE LOG: IOWA

This was one of those chases that had a lot of potential, but didn’t quite live up to the hype. For a few days in advance, myself and others were chatting that this could be a solid tornado day. We stayed at MaryLynn’s parent’s house the night before and then left early Saturday morning to Deer Creek Speedway where my parents were going to watch Gage. Wes and Debby Hyduke met us at Deer Creek close to 10am and we quickly departed for west-central Iowa down Hwy 63 towards Waterloo.

Storm Setup: Morning convection cleared the area very fast, allowing for destabilization to occur with 3,000-4,000 j/kg of MLCAPE. A surface low developed near Des Moines, while a stationary front was positioned to the northeast and a cold front moved across south-central Iowa. Even though some of the low level shear was veered and led to lower 0-1km storm relative helicities, the 0-3km SRH values were near 250 m2/s2. This was still quite supportive for rotating supercells and tornadoes.

A mesoscale discussion was issued at 3:10pm, while a Tornado Watch followed at 3:50pm for southeast Iowa, northern Missouri, and western Illinois. We progressed south on Hwy 63 to the southern side of Waterloo to fill up for gas and grab food, then repositioned further south towards Tama. The thinking was that we were right at the crossroads of a good road network and directly ahead of the surface low/triple point and south of the stationary front. Storm initiation occurred shortly before 4pm directly to our west-northwest. We waited for this storm to approach us as it was still in the developing stages, but did head about 5 miles to the west to check things out as it got closer. The base of the storm was not very well defined and appeared rather ragged, but was low to the ground. The storm was starting to produce a lot of lightning as it moved near and appeared to be strengthening. At the same time, another storm had formed to the south and looked to be right on the triple point or just to the southeast. This was the storm we wanted to be on as it quickly became severe warned shortly after initiation.

We traveled down to I-80 and west to exit 179, south on Hwy T38, and west on Hwy 102 to Pella where we intercepted the storm. From here, we followed the severe storm that was producing big hail southeast on Hwy 163, barely escaping the hail core on the east side of Pella. We got back on Hwy 63 and were able to get out ahead enough to stop a few times as we approached Eddyville. Through the duration, the storm had some interesting lowerings and attempted a few times to produce wall clouds with decent inflow banding going on. We exited at Eddyville and got just east of town on Hwy G77. This is when the storm started to tighten up the wall cloud and the closest that it came to producing a tornado. There were indications here that it produced a funnel cloud and this was reported by other chasers, but too hard to discern from our location. After this intense moment, we had to drive through the forward flank core to get to our south option and back towards Hwy 63. This is where we encountered some very intense rain and some smaller hail with roughly 40 mph winds. Wes had a good time driving out of that! Thereafter, the storm started to gust out upon reaching Ottumwa, taking on linear characteristics, and had a nice shelf cloud before we decided to call off the chase.

On the way back home, we encountered some of the most amazing mammatus that I’ve ever seen and were able to stop a few times to take photos. The colors and visibility of the mammatus field were incredible at sunset and definitely the highlight of the whole chase!

MAY 27TH TEXAS: FOUR TORNADOES NEAR CANADIAN

July 04, 2015 by Brad in 2015

Initial supercell exploding 19 miles northwest of Canadian, Texas. Well-defined base forming to the left of the hail core.

2 thumbs up to this amazing wall cloud and funnel, northwest of Canadian, TX!

Awesome storm and well defined wall cloud with funnel extending over halfway to the ground.

Love this shot. Roughly the time another storm chaser reported a tornado. They were closer and saw a debris cloud at the ground...hence a tornado!

Another funnel forming northwest of Canadian a short while later as the wall cloud tightened back up.

Same funnel next to a rain/hail core. This never did touch down.

Lightning out of the base. Storm really twisting hard here with another wall cloud starting to develop as RFD punch develops clear slot on the southwest side of the storm.

Storm taking on a mothership appearance with large, circular base. Large, ragged wall cloud underneath at this point.

Tornado #2! Large cone/stovepipe tornado right in front of us, a few miles north of Canadian.

Closer shot of the tornado.

Tornado getting even larger with a big debris cloud. Clouds with the inflow were screaming into it right to left here.Tornado taking on a definite cone shape as it sits nearly stationary.

Tornado takes an elephant trunk shape as the cloud base begins to erode and the circulation starts the occlusion process.

Closer shot of the tornado from the previous image.

After the tornado dissipates, a new and fast rotating wall cloud develops just to the east of the occluded meso.

Wall cloud moves east to west (right to left), being pulled into the parent mesocyclone of the storm. The Silver Lining Tours crew looks on in amazement.

Tornado #3 just west of Canadian as we watch from the south side of town.

Lightning bolt out of the storm as it appears to become more outflow dominant.

Tornado #4! This circulation did condensate and touch down just northwest of town. This was the final attempt at producing a tornado. What a day and storm!

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 27, 2015 CHASE LOG: TEXAS

Written by Rich Hamel: (www.bostonstormchaser.com/)

We left Abilene at about 9:30 with the intent of targeting storms at a triple point set up on the Texas Panhandle. Our target for the day was Canadian, TX as the earlier model runs which had favored Kansas backed off that play significantly and favored the Texas Panhandle. We made good time and, after a quick lunch stop in Childress, were in Canadian by about 2 PM with nothing to do but wait, so we hung out at the Dairy Queen. At this point there were towers percolating on two distinct boundaries, one on the front just west of us and the other on the dry line, forming a triple point around Spearman.

After about an hour of waiting, the HRRR predicted monster was in its early stages of development and we left to chase it, heading about 5 miles out of town on Rt. 83 and pulling off on a side road to watch the storm grow. Our vantage point was perfect and soon the storm had classic structure with a vertical updraft (though it later tilted over hard), inflow bands, and a flanking line. It wasn’t long before it developed a nice wall cloud and not long after that dropped an elephant trunk funnel more than half way to the ground! It seemed like for sure the storm was ready to tornado, but after cycling through two additional larger funnels more than half way to the ground, the wall cloud dissipated and as the storm was slowly moving east, we had to as well. It turns out that the funnel did indeed contact the ground (from our vantage we couldn’t tell), tornado #1 for the day! But why is it that when you are in a perfect spot in terms of visibility, contrast, and everything else, they never put down a nice long tornado!!?

We headed back towards Canadian, stopping once more to view the storm as it cycled and generated a new wall cloud. The storm was barely moving, slowly drifting east, and was already becoming HP, so we had to see into the inflow notch to tell what was going on. We went northeast out of town on Rt. 60 and started experiencing significant amounts of chaser convergence, as well as a lot of other trucks that were stopped waiting for the storm to clear past the road which, as it turns out, took hours. We stopped and watched as the storm developed a lowering on the nose of the updraft in typical HP fashion and decided to head north to look into the notch. We weaved through heavy traffic and drove right up to the storm with the mesocyclone just a little in front of us and wild motion almost directly above the vans! Soon the meso was spinning away wildly just to our northeast and we got blasted by heavy RFD winds. We went even further north past the meso on the end of the hook to FM1920 where we watched another larger meso to our southwest move by. It looked like it could tornado right there, and the action was intense as we were pinned up against the front flank core by the meso, and once hail started falling we moved along with the meso to stay just ahead of the hail. As we did, the rotation to the right of the vans got stronger and stronger and soon a large cone shaped funnel lowered and contacted the ground. Tornado #2! This one was a big cone tornado at first heading straight at us about a mile away, then moving southeast, paralleling our direction as the storm dive bombed southeast, then later headed away from us as it curved around the meso. The cone grew in size and started to show a decent debris fan. One cool feature at this time was that you could look right up the clear slot and see up the whole updraft to the top of the storm. The tornado continued to intensify and grown into a larger cone until, after about 10 minutes the tornado roped out and that meso occluded, but no sooner had that happened then the next meso formed on the other side of the road from us and came towards us. We beat feet to get out of the way and stay ahead of the storm.

We traveled about a mile to get ahead of the new meso and watched as it crossed the road behind us, all the while throwing out funnels part of the way to the ground. We continued on south of the town, parking near a small airport. The storm began to look a little strung out, but still had wild motion under multiple lowerings as each took turns being the focus of attention. Soon to our west, the storm generated another tornado, this one an elephant trunk that turned into a multiple vortex, #3, then another multi-vortex which lasted a bit longer and looked almost stationary before getting swallowed by the rain core.. #4!! All the while the town’s tornado sirens were blaring.

Right after the 4th tornado, the storm belched out the strong, cold winds of outflow and a big precipitation core opened up under the updraft. The show was over for this storm.

After an Allsups break in Pampa, we proceeded towards Amarillo, intending to jump south towards Claude and another storm south of there in the Caprock Country but it was barely moving in the slow upper level winds: Unfortunately there was no road to get south on it, and even if we could, the roads in the canyons were slim and at the bottom of the valleys which made it hard to see anything. So we decided we couldn’t make it and gave up for the night, heading into town for dinner at the Big Texas steakhouse.

The night wasn’t quite done with us though as storms kept firing on the pinch point of a pair of boundaries south of town where our Claude storm had been, giving us quite a lightening show at the hotel.

What a great chase day! We only moved a total of about 10 miles over the course of the entire chase. Even an hour after we drove away from it, the Canadian storm, which was right over the town, was dumping water and hail amounting to over 4” of rainfall and causing flash flooding.

Mileage for the day was 399 miles.