May 26,
2014: Mon - Day 8 - Severe & Tornado Warned Storms - Southern Texas PH
& South: Another day that started out with a large MCS to our east
with outflow boundaries pushing back to the west. I hung out with
Bill, Chris, and the rest of the Tempest gang and after lunch in Seminole we
headed south to Andrews thinking about the outflow boundary to our south.
But there was excellent moisture and surface winds converging right into our
area beneath a maximized southwesterly mid-level flow with towers already
going up a little to our north. We decided to target a cell about 20
miles to our north and soon had a severe storm to observe.
This storm lined out a bit as it drifted eastward as new
towers erupted on its western flank as shown in the second photo below.

We then plotted a course eastward from
Andrews to stay on the south side of one of these storms that soon became
tornado warned. We cut north towards Patricia on highway 349 to get a
closer look at the ragged wall cloud with plumes of red dust reaching
skyward. It was around this time that a brief rope-like tornado was
reported and may be visible in the photo below.

We then went south to highway 176 and
traveled west through Tarzan, and then cut north at Lenora to get another
close look at this east-southeastward moving storm. Although the views
were dramatic at times the storm was becoming outflow dominant.

We then dove south to I-20 and westward a
bit before exiting at 165 to look at the next warned storm coming in from
our west-northwest. We stopped to observe this storm a couple of times
before continuing southeastward to Garden City. We then opted to
continue south of town rather than risk the hail core that would impact the
highway going east of town. The first photo below was taken from
northwest of Garden City, the others were taken from highway 33 south of
town looking back to the northwest or north.
We then took Tower Road east which zigzags
east and north to stay with a series of severe and tornado warned storms
that were to our north with the hopes of reaching Sterling City before the
hail core would overtake the road. We stopped to take a photo of a sun
lit storm tower to north and again of the storm base just before reaching
our south option 163. The show was pretty much over after that, even
though more storms were moving in from the west. Now we had to deal cutting
through these storms on our way to San Angelo for the night. About 400
miles for this day.
May 27,
2014: Tue - Day 9 - Positioning Day - Travel North: I
decided to blow off the slight risk in south central Texas in favor some
high plains storm activity in the coming days. I drove from San
Angelo, Texas to Fort Morgan, Colorado in a little over 12 hours, and will
need to drive even farther tomorrow to the best storm indices near the
Montana/Canadian border. The decision will be made tomorrow morning as
to how far north I am willing to drive, and a lot will depend on how great
the tornado risk will be. I could easily be satisfied with a nicely
structured storm farther south as I don't look forward to another day of
marathon driving. I'm sort of beat after the last few days. I did
manage to see some lightning from distant severe warned storms well off to
my northwest, so technically I can say that this is the 8th consecutive day
that I have witnessed a severe storm. 720 miles for today.
May 28,
2014: Wed - Day 10 - Severe Warned Storms - Eastern Montana:
Given the long two day drive to get up here, this certainly wasn't the day I
had been hoping for. I made it to Miles City by late afternoon soon
after a severe watch box had been issued just to my west. I could see
the anvils from a small line of cells to my southwest, one of which was
severe warned. I wasn't all that much interested in these storms at
the time since either these or other storms farther north would eventually
be moving into a much better shear and instability environment a couple
hours drive to my north. But road options are far and few between and they
often lead 60-80 miles in the wrong direction needed for storm intercepts.
The best option at this point was to head northwest on highway 59 towards
Jordan, and then east on highway 200. That would give me good access
to the severe storms coming in from my southwest (as shown in the first
photo below) should they really develop as they moved northeastward, or lead
me to another road option north towards Glasgow for the bigger storms coming
in from north central Montana. Meanwhile a second severe watch box was
issued north of the original one, and I really wanted to be on those storms
northwest of Lewistown. But they were 175 miles away as the crow
flies, but would take over 3 hours given the road network and navigation
around the Missouri River. With only a little over two hours of
daylight remaining that wasn't an option. I had to stick with "my"
storms and hope they would intensify as they moved northeast, but they never
really got well organized. I could easily have blasted ahead of these
storms, but there just was no point. Instead, I used the last hour of
so of light to hang just behind the storms looking to photograph stormy
scenes and lightning. Meanwhile the bigger storms to my northwest were
still over 125 miles away, lining out and becoming weaker. Again not
the day I was expecting, but it could have been worse. Had a large
isolated sculpted supercell or two formed along with a couple of tornadoes
and had I not made the trip knowing that I could have, that would have
definitely been worse! Another 728 miles driven - Glendive, Montana.

May 29,
2014: Thu - Day 11 - Severe Storms & Evening Supercell - Southwestern
North Dakota:
I spent the first part of my day visiting Theodore Roosevelt NP, since it
didn't appear that I would need to travel too far east to stay ahead of the
slow moving CF. I took the driving loop around the southern extension
of the park whilst keeping my eye any TCu that might pop up to my east.
Upon seeing the first small towers bubble ahead of the CF I headed east on
I-94 and snapped the fourth image below as I approached the line of Cumulus
near Dickinson.

I got ahead of these now storms at
Richardton, and exited to take a better look back to my west. I could
see the large anvil of a now severe warned cell that was approaching from my
southwest as shown in the first image below. I then went closer to
town to take a few more images of the intensifying line of convection to my
west. After that I continued east of I-94 a few more miles and stopped near
Hebron to take a few more images of the stormy skies to my west.
I then continued east and exited at Glen
Ullin. I took one last image of the storm moving off to my north (last
image above), and then set my sights on the storms that were developing to
my south. I traveled several miles down highway 49 and sat for a while
watching the tail end of a new line of storms that were forming behind the
cold front, but a new and isolated Cb began to form right on the cold front
just to my west as seen in the first photo below. I targeted this
storm, which soon became severe warned as it moved northeast towards the
town of Beulah. This storm was definitely the best of the day as it
took on supercell characteristics and put on quite a show for awhile.
It had a dark lowering beneath the base and GRLevel was indicating a TVS
marker during the time these images were taken. The final images below are
looking WNW from highway 49 about 8 miles south of Beulah. Unlike
yesterday, today turned out better than expected. Bismark, ND with 335
miles on the odometer.

May 30,
2014: Fri - Day 12 - Brief Tornado - Central South Dakota:
My goal for today was to head south into South Dakota and then west towards
Montana to be in better position for the following day's severe weather
threat. There was a chance of severe weather today along the nearly
stationary frontal boundary that was draped across central SD and then
south-southwestward into Nebraska. I contemplated chasing somewhere in
the Badlands, but as I headed south the central part of SD was upgraded to a
slight risk area and soon an MD was in place as well. I was right on
the western edge of the MD, and with no particular place to go I decided to
hang out in the Gettysburg area and see how these storms to my east would
progress. I could see the towers not too far to my east and continued
to monitor radar trends. There was one storm that was briefly severe
warned about 25 miles to my west that was nearly stationary and prompting
flash flood warnings. By mid-afternoon I decided to get closer and
take a look. Not much exciting was happening so I searched around for
a few artsy photos with a stormy sky background.

I then drifted back west to the
intersection of highway 47 & 212 a little east of Seneca where I had been
sitting for quite some time. The almost continuous north/south line of
storms was now just off to my east with a stronger cell on radar showing up
about 20 miles to my south. I was just about to head in that direction
to take a look when a tornado warning popped up for that cell. It
certainly didn't look very tornadic on the base reflectivity scan, but the
base velocity scan on GRLevel did show a broad couplet. I clicked on
the text for the tornado warning which indicated an EM relayed a report that
a tornado was spotted on the ground. I blasted south on 47 and could
see nothing but uninteresting cloud bases and heavy rain shafts just off to
my east. About 15 miles south I began to see the makings of some base
cloud structure and possible wall cloud through the obscuring rain shafts
directly to my SSE. The full structure soon came into view and it was
quite a contrast to all the other murk that I had been seeing all day!
I hurried to the intersection of highway 47 & 26, which is about 18 miles
north of Highmore, and immediately got blasted by strong RFD winds (33
sustained, gusts to 43) coming out of the SSE which was blowing plenty of
dust into my eyes. There was a large clear slot slicing in from the
west right to a cylindrical/barrel-shaped wall cloud that extended about
half-way to the ground about 1/4 mile to my SSE. I could just barely
make out a brief dust plume under this feature and slightly to its east.
I probably saw a brief connection to the ground at this point as the system
continued moving north. This storm was slightly west of the other storms and
seemed to riding the stationary boundary northward and gobbling juicy inflow
streaming in from the northeast, almost opposite of what is usually
observed. The storm became a little less interesting as it moved off
to my east and then north, but I following it back north again on highway 47
in case it would try and produce another tornado...but it was not to be.
Finally left everything go around 8pm and drove west to Belle Fourche, SD
for the night. 488 miles for today, and like yesterday a much better
day than anticipated!

May 31,
2014: Sat - Day 13 - Beautiful Supercell - Miles City, Montana:
My best chance to see a great looking supercell today appeared to be
somewhere in southeastern Montana based on the best combination of
southwesterly mid-level winds, southeasterly surface winds, and maximized
instability. I left Belle Fourche with a first goal of Broadus where I
would evaluate things further. By mid-afternoon towers were already
going up to my west and radar returns were numerous from north central
Wyoming north through east-central Montana. I had to make a decision
at the intersection of highway 212 & 59...go west or go north, which would
likely make a huge difference in what I would or would not see on this day.
Towers looked a little perkier to my north and backed surface winds looked
better as well, but I could have just as easily flipped a coin as there were
strong storms in Wyoming that would later be heading northward across the
Montana border. I headed north keeping my eye on one isolated Cb that
was growing nicely about 25 miles west of Volborg. The views west
weren't that great so I continued about 20 miles north of town before I
stopped and watched this storm for awhile. It soon split, and
sputtered...but I could see some hard convection occurring well off to my
northwest. GRLevel indicated a severe storm about 60 miles to my NNW,
or about 25 miles WNW of Miles City. I headed in that direction
figuring I might be too late for the show, but soon realized this storm was
more or less growing in place at the tail end of other storms to its north,
and it was looking better and better on radar as I got closer to Miles City.
I could see this was the real deal as I made my way through the town of
Miles City. This was no mushy storm, it was now tornado warned and a
flanking line of hard towers going up behind the main updraft area.
I couldn't wait to get through town and northwest on highway 59, finally a
Montana road that would lead my precisely where I wanted to go! As I
gained elevation north of town the storm's rain free base and a small
defined wall cloud with little funnels dangling below come into view.
I continued about 10-12 miles north of town and stopped where I had an
excellent flat view to west-northwest. I didn't want to travel any
farther north and risk missing some amazing structure obscured by any anvil
rain. Besides, if a tornado formed I'd have an excellent view from
where I stopped, and the storm would be heading right to me! GRLevel
continued to show a nice couplet on the base velocity scan and it is
possible that a brief tornado could have occurred, but I could not see
rotation or dust on the ground from my vantage point, possibly my video will
show something more when viewed on the big screen. The following images were
all taken along highway 59 a few miles north of Miles City. I'll add
more images of this storm at a later time to document its life cycle a
little better.
The hail core was getting awfully close to
Miles City so it was time to get back through town and then either head back
south of highway 59 or east on 12. Highway 12 seemed the best option
to keep me ahead of this storm. I didn't like the idea of heading
south on 59 where I would be right in front of other strong storms moving in
from the west, not to mention limited data connectivity and the radar hole
not showing what is going on. I stopped a few times to look back at
the storm, but it was becoming much weaker as it had a lot of competition
from other storms and the loss of daytime heating. Made it back to
Belle Fourche for the night with another 458 miles logged for the day, but
all in all a great day!

June 1,
2014: Sun - Day 14 - Isolated Supercell - Julesburg, Colorado:
My original plan was to head south to near the southwest Nebraska/Kansas
border area, but the outflow boundary from the previous night's MCS had been
pushed south farther than I expected. That meant that most of
supercells would be down in Kansas, a little too far south for me to reach
in time, but figured I'd still be a le to catch something at the tail end of
the boundary that was hung up near Burlington, CO. I reached the
Nebraska Panhandle by mid-afternoon and as storms were beginning to form
well off to my west. I contemplated sticking around for these storms
but opted to continue south figuring these would be moving into the more
stabilized air left in the wake of the MCS. By the time I reached
Imperial, NE I had safely placed myself 100 miles from the nearest storms!
I could see the updrafts of two large cells to my south but they appeared to
be struggling. The storms back to my northwest were getting stronger
and heading in my direction and an MD had just been issued for a small area
to my northwest. It was an easy decision to head west out of Imperial
and then north at Holyoke, CO to reach these storms...and better yet, a more
isolated cell that had formed on the tail end of a line of severe-warned
storms to it's north. I had a good visual on this storm from north of
Julesburg and set up just west of town to watch it approach my position, as
shown in the following images.
As the hail core approached I dashed back
through town and then back south on highway 385. A second cell formed
on the southern flank of the storm I had just been photographing and soon
became the dominant cell. I encountered a small hail core from
this cell on my way south and then stopped to take a few images as these
cells moved off to my east.
I then cut east from Holyoke on Highway 6
to watch the sunset illuminate the storm as it continued to drift off to the
southeast. It put on quite a pretty show for a while, but quickly
weakened as the sun set. A nice way to finish the day, a pretty storm
that yielded plenty of photo opportunities with nary another chaser around!
525 miles- Imperial, NE.

June 2,
2014: Mon - Day 15 - No Storms - Ogallala, NE: My 13 day
streak of witnessing at least one severe storm each day was broken today.
There was a slim possibility that a storm might form late in the day coming
off the Cheyenne Ridge or forming somewhere in far northeast Colorado, but
it was not to be. Hung out in Sydney, NE for awhile, then drifted
south towards a mildly interesting Cu field, but these never developed. Met
up with Bill Reid and his group later in the day and we are all staying in
Ogallala tonight which should be a pretty good place to start out from for
tomorrow's risk of severe storms including tornadoes. About 200 miles
driven today.
June 3,
2014: Tue - Day 16 - Supercell Structure Storm - Bayard to Lewellen,
NE: Although the moderate risk for severe storms and tornadoes was
somewhat tempting across central Nebraska, the higher photographic reward
would be much more likely farther west across the high plains of Nebraska.
Models indicate more isolated storm activity in this area and a first guess
target was near Alliance. I met up with Matt Crowther & Vince Miller
in AIA for lunch and to study data. The HRRR model had backed off
somewhat on a big supercell moving into NW NE, and Chadron was already
behind the outflow boundary with cool northeast winds. An MD had been
in place and a tornado watch for all of western NE was soon issued except
for the far northwest corner. There were some towers going up to our
north and northeast, but a better and more isolated tower went up to our
south just west of Bridgeport. It was starting to look pretty good so
back south we went for an intercept. By the time we reached Bridgeport
it no longer looked very healthy. A decision would need to be made to
stay put and wait, continue east towards the back edge of the convection
initiating along the outflow boundary to our northeast...or consider stuff
that was moving in from Wyoming. The surface obs said to go east a
bit, and that is what we did. Some stuff to our northeast looked like
it would be our target storm, but now that dang cell moving in from Wyoming
was starting to look mighty good on radar and visually as well! So,
back west we went and retraced the 30-45 minute drive we just made from our
decision spot! But it didn't matter, this storm was isolated, moving
parallel to highway 26 and coming right at us! Maybe the HRRR was
right all along. We reached the cell near the town of Bayard, which is
just north of Chimney Rock. The storm was severe warned and moving
rather quickly to the southeast....and it wasn't long before it was tornado
warned. We snapped a few images and then bolted back southeast on
highway 26 stopping a couple more times to take some quick images...the hail
was getting mighty close. The last image below was taken while driving
and looking north at the approaching hail core while we were attempting to
beat the hail east via highway 92 between Northport and Broadwater.
We just made it to Broadwater and blasted
east a couple of miles when we stopped to take the first image below.
The hail could be seen coming down the road to our west...we had to move and
luckily only got hit with a few stones, maybe marble size or slightly
larger. Once we got about another 5 or 6 miles ahead we quickly
stopped for more images, then the hail core would soon be nipping at our
heels and the whole process would continue all the way to Lewellen.
Some of the best structure, including some rotating funnels were viewed in
the Lisco to Oshkosh area as seen in the photos below.
At Lewellen we took highway 92 around the
north side of the lake in order to stay as close to possible to the southern
flank of this supercell. At times it looked to be weakening and then
it would pulse up and take on some nice structure like the bell-shaped
updraft cylinder as shown in the following images. There was also a
neat inflow/shelf cloud feature attached to the base of this storm that was
streaming in from the south. Unfortunately, the hills were becoming
problematic and often times the best structure would occur when there just
was no good place to stop and set up for photography.

After these structure images were taken
the cell started to go down hill pretty fast. I captured a few more
images from the Lake McConaughy bridge crossing as the remnants of the cell
drifted off to the southeast. As the sun set new towers were going up
well to our east, but we were not interested in going after those except for
a few quick images from afar...we were well satisfied with our pretty
structure storm, with very few other chasers seen in the area.
390 miles - Ogallala,
NE again.

June 4,
2014: Wed - Day 17 - Western Nebraska Supercells: The setup
was again good for late day supercells in the high plains of WY/NE/CO with
good upslope flow, sufficient moisture and adequate upper level wind
support. The target area looked very similar to yesterday...head to
the Sydney to Scottsbluff area and wait for storms to initiate first off the
higher terrain in Wyoming and then later in western Nebraska. Storms
had formed by mid-afternoon in Wyoming and I headed from Sydney to
Bridgeport to intercept this east-northeastward moving storm. By the
time I reached Chimney Rock the storm had weakened and there was no need to
go any farther. I hung out around Chimney rock waiting for more storms
to form nearby. Within an hour one formed nearly overhead and I began
to move eastward to stay ahead of this nicely developing storm. It
soon took on supercell characteristics, but as the storm moved to the east
my only road option (26) runs southeast which took me farther away from the
storm's base. Unlike yesterday, my views were confined mostly to the
updraft region. I stopped several times between Northport and Lisco to
observe this storm but it eventually grew weaker as it mover farther away to
my north.

I then cut north for about
10 miles on a good unpaved road at Lisco and watched new storm development
to my north. There were also ongoing severe warned storms to the north of
the newly developing ones but I opted not to go after those. There was
only about 90 minutes of daylight left and there was a new and isolated cell
forming about 100 miles to my WSW in Wyoming that was moving ESE to between
Scottsbluff and Kimball. I figured I have just enough time to
intercept this storm before it got totally dark so I started heading back
west. I had a good visual on this storm and the new ones developing to
my north. At Bridgeport I cut south and then west on route 88 and
stopped to take some photos of the Courthouse & Jailhouse Rocks with the
storms towers to their north. I also had a good view of the updraft
base and large anvil area of the storm to my west as shown in the following
images. This storm had a persistent wall clouds and some connection to the
ground at times that was more than likely rising scud.
I was fast losing my light and tried to
beat this and other rapidly developing storms with hail cores west to the
highway 88 and 71 intersection so that I could dive south...but it was too
late. Fortunately, I managed to avoid the largest hail cores.
The lightning was incredible with these storms as I was driving though the
heavy rain and small hail! I dropped south a few miles on 71 and these
storms moved off to my east I finally cleared the heavy rain. I
decided to pull off on a gravel road to shoot lightning from this departing
storm, but by now most of the lightning was cloud imbedded. However, a
new storm had formed to my west and was starting to show some lightning
activity. I waited until this cell got closer and managed to capture a
few images with just a hint of the remaining sunset colors. All in all
another fun day with only 298 miles on the odometer. Kimball, NE.

June 5,
2014: Thu - Day 18 - Kiowa to Lamar Colorado Supercell: The
setup looked perfect today for a classic Palmer Divide supercell or or two
to form and move southeastward, and that is exactly what happened. We
reached Last Chance by mid-afternoon and a storm had already formed about 50
miles to our west. Matt, Vince, and I briefly contemplated heading
west on highway 36 for an easy intercept but quickly figured if this storm
would really develop into a supercell it would be moving southeast before
long. We continued south towards Limon and then a few miles west on
Highway 86. The storm was evolving nicely into a supercell and coming
southeast right towards our position, but we had plenty of time to take some
photos. We then headed back down 71 to stay ahead of this storm,
stopping a few times along the way for photographs. From there we took a
series of paved and mostly unpaved roads east and south through Karval to
near Haswell and eventually south to highway 50. The storm put on a
good show during this time near Haswell pulling in lots of dusty inflow and
scary lowerings, around the time that it became tornado warned for the first
time.

When we reached highway 50 near Las Animas
we cut east towards Lamar and were immediately treated to a fantastic
elevator style updraft tower on the backside of this supercell. The
show was brief as low clouds quickly obscured the view.
We were able to get ahead of the storm a little west of Lamar
and I managed to snap off a couple shots of the storm to our north just as
it became tornado warned for the second time (3rd image below). The
final stop was made just west of Lamar a little after sunset looking back at
the storm as it transitioned into LP structure and put on a nice display of
CC lightning. Another day of high plains fun with about 330 miles
traveled ending in Lamar, CO.
June 6,
2014: Fri - Day 19 - Supercells - Northeast New Mexico: Kind
of a crazy day, the first half spent chasing with Matt Crowther and Vince
Miller. Our plan was to head to Clayton, NM and then west towards any
developing supercell by early afternoon. Storms had already formed to
our west and one was producing a tornado near Trinidad, CO...too far for us
given the poor road network. At least three other supercells were
forming about 60 miles to our west, and each one looked like they could be
our target storm as we headed west out of Clayton. The southern most
of these cells became our target storm and we spent the next hour or so
navigating a series of paved and unpaved roads for an intercept near Roy,
NM. The storm had some nice features and structures at times, but new
storms were beginning to form just about everywhere. One right behind
our target storm, and others nearly overhead and to our southeast. I
took the following images just before we blasted southeast on highway 39
towards Mosquero.

This storm and others kept us moving
southeast to the intersection of 102 and 420. I stopped to take a look
back east and decided to head straight east on 420 to stay ahead of the
storm while Matt and Vince continued north. This proved to be a big
mistake for me. Although I was able to stay ahead of the fast filling
storm behind me, I had no road option to escape the ever expanding and
northward propagating hail core from a big cell that rapidly formed to my
south. I tried in vain to outrun it to the 420 north option, but got
clobbered pretty good for about 3 or 4 miles by nickel to quarter size hail.
Fortunately no glass was broken, but I added a quite a few more hail dents
to the collection. By now the entire area to my south had filled in
with two or three tornado warned supercells and I found myself on the wrong
side of these storms! There was just no opening to get back to the
south side of these storms, so I continued north towards Clayton trying to
figure out what to do...there was still nearly two hours of useable daylight
left. I finally turned around and headed back towards the western most
cell which was still tornado warned figuring I might still have a chance at
that one. But it wasn't long before this storm weakened and I had to
pause again. There were some awesome mammatus clouds overhead and I
could see a small isolated LP storm forming off to my west. I targeted
this cell via a gravel road network and had fun filming the mammatus, the
weakening storm to my south, and the LP storm to my west. I finished
up the day filming pretty stuff in and around this LP storm before heading
back to Clayton for the night. 430 miles.

June 7,
2014: Sat - Day 20 - Mothership & LP supercell, Roswell - New Mexico:
I was determined today not to get stuck north of any storms and hedged my
bets on storms that would form farther south in New Mexico by late day.
I could easily see the outflow boundary from last nights convection that was
nearly stationary to my south as I headed towards Tucumcari. About 10
miles south of town I watched a nearly stationary storm develop, but then
did nothing for nearly an hour. An MD was issued for this area and
this storm was mentioned. Met up and chatted with Roger & Elke
Edwards, Charles Edwards, Bruce H. and Sam B. while waiting for this storm
to do something. A new cell looked promising about 50 miles to my west
near Fort Sumner, so I headed towards that one. It looked better than
the storm I abandoned, but it too soon weakened and died. But there
was a much larger storm about 75 miles farther west and it was moving
southeast. I figured this might be the big one of the day as I plotted a
course south and east for an intercept north of Roswell. The storm
prompted a tornado warning at about the time the first photo below was taken
from near the intersection of highway 20/285. This storm and a new
cell on it's heals were moving slowly to the southeast paralleling highway
285, so it was just a matter of following this highway south...stay ahead of
the storm, and take photos until these storms crossed highway 285 north of
Roswell. These storms were pulling in nice warm inflow from the
southeast. There weren't many good pull off stops and I had to jump
fences and gates, nearly killing myself in the process so as to avoid those
damn awful utility polls and wires from ruining my images! The storm
became quite a beast north of Roswell during the early evening producing
amazing structure that including a massive layered barrel updraft region. It
was about at this time that I felt the heat blast from a close lightning
strike...I could smell the ozone, not sure exactly where it hit but bolted
back to my truck just as another one hit!

Behind this amazing structure there was a
second supercell tagging along. This one was more LP structure and in
itself was quite photogenic! Finished up the day photographing this
cell and the barrel shaped updraft of the departing lead cell from near the
highway intersection of 285/70 just north of Roswell at sunset. Tons
more images, but those can come later. 420 miles, Roswell, NM

June 8,
2014: Sun - Day 21 - Final - Supercell & Late Day Stormy Skies,
Roswell to Tucumcari - New Mexico:
Finished up my final chase day with another nice supercell west of Roswell
and some pretty prairie scenes near McAlister, NM. Had a hard time
deciding on heading south from Roswell for what might be the best storm of
the day, or north in the direction of home for a possible tail end storm
near I-40. Starting driving north about 50 miles, then changed my mind
after seeing the latest HRRR model and receiving phone call from Matt C.
Drove back to Roswell to fill up on gas and have some lunch. While
doing so an early cell went up in the heavy cloud cover about 60 miles to my
northwest. This storm quickly became severe and had a darn nice shape
on radar. Headed back to Roswell then west on 70 about 20 miles to a
high point to wait. Charles Edwards was there, and Matt, Vince, and
Mike U. soon joined the group. We hung around about 45 minutes
watching the storm develop and move in our direction. It put on a
decent show with a rotating wall cloud at times and it looked like it was
about to produce a tornado on more than one occasion, but no cigar.
The hail core would soon cut off our path back east and everyone left to
stay ahead of this storm. I hung back not wanting to have the storm
push me all the way south to the Texas border, which would mean several more
hours for the return trip home. I snapped a picture of the departing
cell and hail cores and then headed north towards Tucumcari.

I just about made it to the tail end cell
near Tucumcari near sunset when a bunch of low clouds filled in obscuring my
view of the storm, it didn't matter since I could now slow down and film a
pretty roll/shelf type cloud that rapidly developed just to my north.
I found several wind mills to film in the foreground, so a great
photographic ending to a very successful trip overall! Tucumcari, NM
340 miles.

June 9,
2014: Mon - Day 22 - Departure Day - Missouri Low-Topped Storms:
A long mostly uneventful drive back towards Pennsylvania except for the
low-topped storms that developed along a boundary in Missouri. An MD
was issued as I was traveling through northeastern Missouri and several very
low base, low top strong storm developed. The MD mentioned the
possibility of tornadoes, but I wasn't going to stick around waiting.
The storms were mildly entertaining and helped pass the time on the long
ride homeward bound, but I never once felt compelled to stop and take out my
cameras. I was then plagued by light to moderate rain for the next
several hours. Tucumcari, NM to Greenville, IL - 918 miles
June 10,
2014: Tue - Day 23 - Travel Home Day: Another long
weary day of driving with a good part of the time again encountering light
to moderate rain along the way. Other than a few isolated and widely
separated showers and thunderstorms in central PA, the last stretch home was
mostly uneventful...which was fine by me.
Of note for future
comparison, the average nightly rate paid for hotel stays was $70.00 and the
average daily gas expense came in at $86.00. Highest per gallon was
$3.89 in Illinois and least was $3.25 in Oklahoma. Gas prices started
dropping dramatically from Missouri westward, as usual. Total actual
miles driven for this trip 11,529, which may vary from estimated cumulative
miles totaled above. All in all a great trip with lots of quality
photo opportunities that could be quickly seized upon with ease from my own
vehicle.
2014 Chase
Blog - Part 2
Starting May 26th,
2014....
June 26th, 2014:
Thu - Day 1 - Departure/Travel Day: Nancy and I left
home by 1pm and made it to Vandalia, Ohio by 9pm....wanted to get a good
night's rest for the long drive to western Kansas tomorrow and the risk of
severe storms in that region. This will be a long shot to reach the
eastern fringe of the slight risk area even with an early departure, but
should have a chance of at least seeing something before nightfall.
First 500 miles behind us today.
June 27th, 2014:
Fri - Day 2 - Travel Day/Severe Storm - Scott City, KS:
A very long travel day that ended with a brief chase to near Scott City
Kansas for a severe warned storm after sunset. We passed by Hays and
our hotel for the night around 7pm but decided to continue west towards
storms that had formed to our northwest and ones that might form ahead of
the Dryline to our southwest. The stuff to our north was rather junky
and moving away, so I had no interest in going after them, although Nancy's
"Boxer Cloud" feature north of I-70 was rather interesting :-). We
held up briefly near Wakeeney watching radar for storm development to our
southwest. Some new storms were forming and it seemed we might just
have enough time to at least see some structure and lightning if we got
moving again. We cut south on 83 from Oakley to north of Scott City at
the highway 4 intersection. We stopped to look at some interesting
mammatus to our west and then the shelf cloud feature from the most intense
storm that was now just off to our west and moving northeast. We then
headed back east on route 4 towards Hays and had almost continuous lightning
to our north and from new storms back to our west. 1081 miles in all!
Hays, KS.

June 28th, 2014:
Sat - Day 3 - Travel to Denver Day: No storms, just a day of
travel to pick up the van in Denver and get ready for the start of the tour.
300 miles
June 29th, 2014:
Sun - Day 4 - T9 D1 Orientation - Tornado Warned Storm - Portsmouth, IA:
Another long day of travel Sunday with not
a lot of photo opportunities. Picked up the new tour group
in DEN, blasted east across all of Nebraska hoping for
something to form in the eastern part of the tornado box,
but CAP too strong. Continued towards the
persistent area of new storm development north of Omaha that
was moving ESE into Iowa. Gad, I had to go into Iowa, but
witnessed the nice updraft structure of the "tail-end" cell
moving towards Portsmouth near sunset. Wanted to stop for
photos, but hook-echo suddenly developed on our target storm
and our storm became tornado warned...first "capable" then
"confirmed". Could see the base heading north on highway 191
and possible upper portion of tornado ahead of clear
slot---we only needed 8 more miles to the action area!BUT,
damn hills, trees, and a three minute construction light all
conspired against us. So, only got a couple shots driving on
our approach and upon arrival when the cell was rapidly
dying. We got glimpses of the wall cloud and upper
portion of probable tornado above the hills and trees while
driving north on highway 191. Below shows our
storm as we approached and as it departed. Close to 700
miles driven. Avoca, IA

June 30th, 2014:
Mon - Day 5 - T9 D2 - Tornado Warned Storm - Bethany, MO:
July 1st, 2014:
Tue - Day 6 - T9 D3 - Stormy Skies - Model, CO:
Chase prospects were
slim for this day but we managed to find some stormy skies
north of Trinidad Colorado, with one storm even going severe
just to our west! A perfect backdrop for photographing some
of the old houses in the ghost town of Model, so a day that
ended up pretty much as expected! A long drive of 698 miles,
but was necessary if we wanted to see any kind of storm
activity in the high plains for the next few days.
Trinidad, CO.

July 2nd, 2014:
Wed - Day 7 - T9 D4 - Marginal Storm, Old Houses, & Ft Union National
Monument - Wagon Mound, NM:
Another day of marginal
storm activity mainly over the mountains of
Colorado and New Mexico, much of which was
blanketed with a heavy cloud cover and
showers until early afternoon. Even a trip
to the top of Mount Capulin was a washout!
I then headed south to brighter skies and we
managed to find one pretty storm cell west
of Wagon Mound, NM. We then
went in closer look, but the storm had
weakened. We found some "old
building" to photograph in the small town of Ocate
which sits in a broad valley amidst some
rocky escarpments. The few
storms that later formed were rather weak
and moved south over the mountains to our
west. We finished up the day visiting
the massive Fort Union remnants north of Las
Vegas, NM...a must see for anyone visiting
that area of the state! The size of
this complex is overwhelming to say the
least. Las Vegas, NM 296 miles logged
for the day.

July 3rd, 2014:
Thu - Day 8 - T9 D5 - Severe Storm, Tornado Whirl, and Awesome Lightning
Display - Limon, CO:
July 4th, 2014:
Fri - Day 9 - T9 D6 - Marginally severe storms - Nebraska Panhandle:
Another
day of chasing the general thunder area,
with the best chance to see a storm going
severe likely in the southern Nebraska
Panhandle. We found a line of hard towers
going up near Kimbal with one cell going
severe a little to our south.
We investigated this cell but the base was
mostly uninteresting. We then turned our
attention to a massive Cb bomb that exploded
to our north near Bridgeport. We took a few
images on our approach but the storm croaked
upon our arrival. We later got into a
cluster of storms near sunset south of
Imperial, NE with one cell going severe and
pushing out tons of dusty outflow. Finished
up in Goodland just in time for fireworks
displays, both natural and made made.

July 5th, 2014:
Sat - Day 10 - T9 D7 Final - Pretty Storm & Lightning Display -
Clayton, NM:
We
finished up our last chase day near Clayton,
New Mexico with a pretty storm near sunset
and an awesome lightning display! This was
yet another day with only general thunder
prospects across the high plains. My target
was a small ribbon of Theta-E/CAPE
axis that went SW to NE cutting across far
SE Colorado. We hung out in Springfield, CO
for until mid-afternoon, then briefly got
lured north by a "sucker" storm that was
north of Lamar. That one croaked and we
turned around and headed back towards our
target area as small towers went up to our
south, but these soon croaked as well. There
was one last hope with a cell that went up
about 50 miles to our southwest near
Clayton---IF it could hold together. It did
and actually became the best storm in a 300
mile radius! The storm stayed strong as we
got west of Clayton, but the base was not
all that interesting and we got stuck under
light to moderate anvil rainfall upon our
approach. We then headed back through town
to get into a better position as new rain
shafts developed to our south. I headed for
a high spot on some gravel roads and set up
shop to enjoy the show for the next two
hours until well past sunset. The storm
slowly drifted south and east of our
position, but offered numerous photo ops and
was a great ending for our tour group!

July 6th, 2014:
Sun - Day 11 - T9 D7 departure - DEN - Castle Rock, CO:
No events
on this day...Kim started her drive back to
Texas with the overheating van and Nancy and
I hung out and got some much needed rest at
our son's house in Castle Rock.
July 7th, 2014:
Mon - Day 12 - Pretty Updrafts & late day lightning! - Castle Rock, CO:
Another
day to relax and spend time with family.
After a visit to Pikes Peak we had a nice
BBQ lunch and then hung out and relaxed the
rest of the afternoon. Some late day
storm towers went up to our north and a
short walk into the yard was all that was
needed to capture some lightning images.
Nice to just walk back inside after the
"shoot" and not have to drive for an hour or
two to a hotel.

