6/30 - 10pm - Wrapping Up the Storm Chasing Season

This storm chasing season is officially over for me as I'm back home in Louisville again. This week we went 2,930 miles through Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. Our highlights of the week were a fantastic isolated severe storm with rotation near Lusk, Wyoming on Sunday and the tail-end of a line of storms that dropped a few funnel clouds near the Canadian border town of Scobey, Montana on Tuesday. All eight of us had a great time and I'm glad I was able to help forecast and explain to our guests what was happening with the weather during our chase.

The storm chasing we did this week brings my mileage for the season with Storm Chasing Adventure Tours to 11,313 miles. I've been from the Mexican border to the Canadian border this season and in the process I gained more perspective on just how huge the United States is. Over the next few weeks I'll be assembling a compilation of my best storm video from this season and I'll post it when I'm finished on here and on my website. All of my photos from the past four weeks of storm chasing are already up on my Flickr and Facebook albums, so click on over and flip through them!

5/28 - 10:30am - Video from Friday's Chase

Check out this video taken on Friday just south of Hays, Kansas during our storm chase. The supercell storm we followed for a good portion of that day had quite a bit of blowing dust and even a few gustnadoes. I wish I could have captured more of the gustandoes, but they were happening very quickly and usually while we were driving. This cell ended up producing a very brief, very small string-like funnel before it dissipated.

5/11 - 11am CDT - A Crazy Chase in South Texas Yesterday

Our timing yesterday was just about perfect. As we surged southward from Carlsbad, New Mexico to the Del Rio, Texas area we began tracking storms that were forming in the mountains of Mexico near the Texas border. One fairly supercell formed along a boundary of converging wind just north of Laredo, TX in Mexico and we knew that this was the storm we needed to chase. It merged with another supercell that was moving north quickly to create a big storm with some intense rotation. We were able to get to the south side (where a tornado would be) just in time so that the hail and intense rain wouldn't cut us off from our road down to that area. Once we were there we saw some definite rotation and a couple wall clouds, but the storm was moving fast so we had to keep moving toward Laredo. We pulled over in a parking area just north of the city and continued to watch a wall cloud form that had a tiny hint of a funnel cloud in it. It was so small that it was barely visible, but it was certainly in rotation and was on the correct part of the storm. That was about all the storm had to offer tornado-wise.

By the time we made it east from Laredo the storm had merged with others to form a line of storms called an MCS (mesoscale convective system). This pretty much killed the tornado risk for this storm so we watched a very impressive lightning show from it as the sun set. Given the excitement that we had while chasing the storm while north of Laredo yesterday, it was a pretty good day! You can find more storm chasing photos from yesterday and earlier this week on my Flickr and Facebook albums.

Today we're traveling back to Oklahoma City so that our guests on Tour 1 can depart on their flights tomorrow. Tour 2 starts tomorrow night with our orientation and then we set out on Sunday for another week of storm chasing!

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook anytime for storm chasing updates.

5/24 - 11:15pm CDT - Fast-Moving Storms, but Little Action

As you probably saw in my last post, we weren't too optimistic about today's severe setup. As expected, the southerly flow aloft and at the surface produced disorganized storms that eventually formed into a linear system. The first few cells that formed before merging and contaminating each other in West Nebraska were pretty good though! We raced to intercept a cell on I-80 that formed on the dry line and it looked very good on radar. As we neared it, both our tour leader Todd and I noticed a dark wedge-shaped lowering under the base a few miles away in the haze. The surface winds were blowing at over 40 kt today, so all the dust from the ground obscured what little we could see only a few seconds later. We were pretty convinced it was a tornado based on the strong rotation couplet on radar and the very smooth shape in the distance. We could not chase the storm because it was moving 60 mph northward into an area with no roads. Our tornado suspicions were later confirmed this afternoon when the SPC storm reports listed two reports of a tornado on the ground near Kimball, Nebraska at exactly the time we were there. So in essence we briefly, and I mean briefly, saw a tornado today.

After that cell moved off well to the north, we waited at a rest stop on I-80 and let a few more rotating cells pass over us. We then traveled to the east to get ahead of the dry line, but nothing of interest formed there. The thing we enjoyed today was the impressive surface winds that wrapped around the low to our southwest as I mentioned earlier. Winds of 40-50 mph with gusts to 60 mph blew dust and tumbleweeds everywhere and made it nearly impossible to walk around. All our tour guests wanted to have their picture in the wind because it made everyone's hair look crazy.

After a few hours of waiting for more substantial cells to form ahead of the dry line, we threw in the towel and headed toward Colby, KS. Just as we were getting ready to go head to our hotel, a small funnel cloud dropped from the sunset storm we were taking pictures of. A second one formed after the first diminished, but it too had a short lifespan. The storm then fell apart after the funnels were through. Obviously we missed the big wedge tornado today in South Dakota, but winds and thermodynamic factors were simply better in Nebraska.

We may try to chase in East Colorado if moisture recovers in that area tomorrow, but our backup plan is to go sightseeing in downtown Denver if it doesn't. We'll see how the situation looks tomorrow morning!

5/17 - 11:30pm CDT - We Saw a Funnel Cloud in Texas Today!

About an hour after we left Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, storms began to form from the mountains of West Texas to Roswell, New Mexico. We intercepted the strongest of these supercells just north of Kermit, Texas and began to follow it as it progressed northward. As we stopped on the side of the road to watch it, a small funnel dipped down from the updraft base a few miles away and sent us scrambling for our cameras (it wasn't a terribly impressive storm so nobody had their cameras ready!). The funnel lasted for only a few seconds, so by the time I had scraped my leg up badly on the thorny Texas brush trying to get my camera out of the SUV, it had disappeared. It was definitely a funnel because it was very smooth and had obvious rotation. That was about all the action we saw today because the numerous supercells around the region began to merge into a line after contaminating each others' inflows with cold outflow air.

Today was good because we got to at least see a storm (and a funnel!), but tomorrow should be better because the storms will have a fighting chance at being tornadic. A low in New Mexico will slide north slightly tomorrow, which will trigger southwest winds in East New Mexico and easterly winds south of Lubbock, Texas. 500mb diffluence over West Texas will cause air to rise from the surface and a fast jet at the upper levels will begin to creep into the area tomorrow evening. Something we did not have on our side today was good shear, but tomorrow will be much improved with bulk shear values over 60 kt. Energy Helicity Indicies (EHI) of over 1 near Lubbock won't hurt either, so I think things will come together tomorrow for a better chance of some good supercells. The SPC has issued a 30% Slight risk area for tomorrow, so it seems they're seeing the setup come together like we are.

6/18 - 4am CDT - Aurora Tornadoes Video and Photos

Here's video I shot of the four tornadoes that touched down west of Aurora, NE, including the wedge on the edge of town. Some of this video was shot only 250 to 300 yards from this violent wedge tornado. (NOTE: No audio for first minute and a half due to background noise issues)


News media: Would you like to air the footage above? Email me at ryan@ryanweather.org

Here are photos from the intercept:

6/13 - 9:30pm MDT - New Tour Group Today

We've said goodbye to Storm Chasing Adventure Tours tour 6 and now tour 7 is in full swing! There are 6 of us now and we're ready to head out tomorrow morning on our first day of chasing. Latest indications are pointing toward a target area in NE Colorado, the Nebraska panhandle, and maybe even West Kansas due to an area of low pressure hovering in Colorado. Since we've had a great deal of success with this setup for the past few days, I'm willing to bet that we'll see some good supercells tomorrow.

Here's some irony for you: there was a supercell just northeast of Denver a few hours ago that produced a photographically confirmed funnel cloud. A similar incident happened last week on Sunday when we left to chase storms in Kansas and a tornado touched down just minutes from our hotel back in Denver. Even though we couldn't chase today's storm just a few counties away because we were changing out tour groups, the upcoming week looks great for at least the first few days.

6/12 - 7am MDT - Supercell in Colorado Yesterday

Things started pretty quickly once we got out to Eastern Colorado yesterday. Cells fired due to upslope flow, but they started sticking together and could not produce tornadoes at that point:


We watched these storms form just east of Denver and then we let one pass over us so that we could get south of it. Marble-sized hail fell brutally upon our vehicle, but nothing was big enough to cause damage. What did cause some problems was the amount of hail that stayed on the ground minutes after the storm passed:


I-70 east of Denver was covered with hail and we lost traction at least twice while braking. The air temperature also dropped to a frigid 39 degrees as the hail fell, down from around 65 just minutes earlier. We went to the tail-end of this now conjoined storm system to see if anything would intensify, but nothing was happening.

That's when a little cell near Pueblo, CO started making itself known on radar. It was unknown how this cell would develop, but after a few minutes of radar observation it became clear that this cell was going to be a good one. We made the drive down to the Pueblo area and found an intense supercell that was dropping a wall cloud. A second one formed just to the south of the first after a few minutes and then both started to fluctuate and join. This joined supercell was absolutely enormous and gave chasers (including VORTEX2, the TIV, and The Weather Channel) a few hours of absolute action. We even found the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) and took some very close-up pictures! Unfortunately it did not put down a tornado, but we did see a brief rope funnel (2:34 in video below). Here's a video of the cell from its early stages to sunset:



Here are some pictures:

4/13 - 5pm - Severe Weather Threat Over

Thanks to all those who joined my live severe weather blog today! (see previous post)

The severe weather threat in Louisville has ended. Rain will continue to fall for a few more minutes, but severe storms will continue to be an issue in Southern Indiana and parts of northeastern Kentucky for another hour or so. We got some pea-sized hail and lightning in Louisville, but we dodged a bullet compared to reports of funnel clouds in Southern Indiana and in Henry County so far.

A few more showers are possible tomorrow, but we should clear out for Wednesday. Highs on both days should stay in the 50's. Temperatures in the 60's come back into the area on Thursday and should stick around until Sunday.

5/30 - 11:30am CDT - A Scary Day Yesterday, Off to Denver

After waiting around at a truck stop yesterday for the storms to form during the HIGH risk, Todd (leader of the tour group) noticed that the winds in Nebraska were not shifting east like they were supposed to. This shift was needed so that the advertised tornado outbreak would happen. A cell formed to our west after about an hour at the stop, so we began to chase it with little expectation of a tornado since the winds were not shifting eastward. Once we caught up with the wall cloud, this is what we saw:

This was the eeriest wall cloud anyone on the tour had seen. It had a very prominent rotation to it and it looked like it was ready to fire off a funnel cloud. We had to leave after about five minutes since the mesocyclone looked ready to drop a funnel in our direction. We had to go around the south and east of the storm since it cut off access to the north road. When we finally came back to intercept it again, it had gone from a super cell to a linear wind-driven mess. It was moving about as fast as we were and that made things scary when we tried to outrun it. We were heading north with dozens of other chaser vans in a sort of "escape parade" when the storm nearly caught up to us. We weren't entirely sure what was inside the core of the storm, especially since there were power flashes on the ground (tell-tale sign of a tornado) and reports of funnels. The radar showed no rotation and just a straight line wind situation, which in itself could harbor winds of over 100mph. Here's a picture of that monster heading toward us:

We finally were able to outrun it by going east. We stopped to look at it in the driving rain, when I spotted a funnel. It didn't last long, but it was a finger-like protrusion that was bouncing around in one of the lower cloud bases. I wasn't able to take a photo of it, but I captured it with my video camera. I'll be sure to edit all my video footage and post it when I come back to Louisville.

After seeing the speed that it was going and the possible hail that the storm have been putting down, we aborted chasing this one for our own safety. We drove west on I-80 for a while and saw some of the destruction the storm left in its path. Barns were completely destroyed and houses had some minor damage done to them. Trees were also stripped of their leaves and branches were scattered. The debris was all scattered in one direction, so it looked like straight line winds were the culprit. It was hard to tell though since there were so many reports of tornadoes in the area. That storm really wasn't the type that should have put down a tornado, but stranger things have happened.

We then punched through a line of storms to see some lightning on the other side at night just south of the Nebraska border in Kansas. It was quite an active line with lots of hail and lightning. Todd managed to manuver us in between the hail cores as we punched through, but just barely. A 5 minute delay in our travels would have meant a new windsheild for all three SUVs. We then stopped and took pictures of the beautiful storm structure and the lightning. This was my best shot:

After a good night's rest, we're going to Denver, CO since there's no good storms in this part of the country. We'll be visiting the Denver Zoo for fun. Tomorrow is when tour 4 ends and the guests go home. New guests will be arriving tomorrow and tour 5 will start on Sunday morning. It has been a pleasure meeting and getting to know all the people on tour 4 and I hope this blog has been a good resource for family members to keep up with what we're doing.

Next week looks interesting!

5/28 - 12:50am - A General Mess, Late Night Fun

We started off the day heading south into West Texas, hoping to make the best of the little tornadic activity that was expected. We intercepted a cell north of Abilene, TX and followed it for nearly two hours. As the cell regenerated itself over a cow pasture, I heard a scream from the fence as I was fixing some computer issues. "Wall Cloud!!!" Sure enough, a wall cloud with some serious rotation had formed in the two minutes that I wasn't watching. We watched it boil and churn for about ten minutes, each of us saying "come on, drop a funnel..." It then dissipated, much to the delight of the grazing cows below.

That cell and the surounding cells became contaminated by their cold outflows, and thus formed into one linear line of storms. Yuck! We chased the line for a few hours to get good cloud and lightning photos. It was then time to call it a night in Abilene, TX by about 10pm.

Some of us went over to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for a midnight dinner. During that time the linear line of storms that we chased (or rather outran), caught up with us. As I and a few others were about to leave, rain started coming down in sheets. A small ditch near the restaurant had nearly a foot of water in it in just minutes. After fifteen minutes we had enough and sprinted 200 yards back to the Best Western. What we didn't realize was that the parking lots connecting the restaurant, a shopping center, and our hotel were three inches deep with water. So we all ran through the puddles and got water in our shoes. I've never been so wet in my life... I was wetter than someone who had just gotten out of the pool!

Tomorrow is a sight seeing day since the storm chances look awful. We're going to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and then heading north toward Nebraska so we can be in position for what looks like a pretty good day for severe weather on Thursday. I'll post a couple interesting photos from today sometime tomorrow afternoon.

5/27 - 11am CDT - Pictures, Going to TX Panhandle and SW OK

Here's a couple of pictures from yesterday:

A funnel west of Woodward, OK that we reported.

A super cell developing south of the Kansas border.

Here's a time lapse video I shot of some of the super cell development in the same place as the picture above:

We're now on our way to Southwest Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle in search of some good conditions for tornadoes. There's only a SLIGHT risk of severe weather in that area according to the SPC, but we'll see if we can intercept some isolated cells. Yesterday got a little messy as the individual cells started to stick together, but at least we saw some great lightning and awesome cell development!

You can track our position live at: http://www.spotternetwork.org/google.php

Just look for the "stormchasing.com" vehicle icon on the map.

5/26 - 11:40pm CDT - A Late Night

After seeing some super cellular development at around 5pm this evening, things started to go downhill. We spotted a funnel cloud just west of Woodward, OK that quickly dissipated, with not much else but rain and hail in the surrounding cells. Before reaching maturity, these cells began to merge and steal energy from one another. So we then headed south to reach the zone where super cells were developing without the obstruction of other cells' outflow and cloud cover. It was simply a spectacular sight as we pulled over for an hour and watched towering clouds build up and move. I took some great sunset shots there and even a few timelapse videos of the storm development. I'll see if I can get some of those pictures and videos up tomorrow morning.

Once those storms started really getting revved up, we traveled north to intercept one of the stronger and more promising cells. It began to get dark very quickly as we drove toward Dodge City, KS and the cloud to cloud lightning became simply beautiful. Around the Ashland, KS area we lost our Internet connection and thus our radar data. So we chased this cell blindly for a few minutes (it was about 10pm now) until Todd, owner and main guide for the tour company, decided that we needed some radar data for safety and that the low level jet (main source of Gulf moisture) was being cut off from the south by newly developed storm cells. It was then off to a late night visit to McDonald's and then settling in for the night at a motel in Woodward, OK. Hopefully tomorrow holds more potential...

I'd like to extend a special welcome to those visitors from Belski's Blog. I'll be out here chasing until June 6th and I hope to have more pictures of tornadoes and other severe weather features during the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all the comments!

5/25 - 6:45pm MDT - Rope Funnel, Lots of Hail, Not Much Else

As we intercepted a good sized supercell in West Central Kansas, we just skirted the edge of the hail shaft. We also saw a pretty good sized wall cloud with a possible funnel, which seemed to dissipate pretty quickly after a while. Two golf ball to baseball sized pieces of hail struck our roof and one just on the top of the windshield. They didn't leave a mark, but they sure scared us! We were very close to being inside the hail shaft... That would have left some damage.

After escaping the hailshaft, we stopped and saw this little beauty:



This rope funnel was the first funnel cloud I have ever seen! We stared at it for about 20 seconds and then realized that it was right over us. Get in the car!!! So we drove down the road and it dissipated. After this funnel there wasn't much else but heavy rain and marble sized hail. Tomorrow looks a little less promising since those thunderstorms could be of the MCS (multi-celled structure) and not harbor many tornadoes. Later tonight could be interesting as another outbreak of severe weather could come about. We're staying in a hotel tonight right in the path of the expected severe weather so that we can witness lightning shows and any possible tornadoes. Sleep is a luxury for a storm chaser!