recent events

I got up early and made the final 980 miles home by midnight. There was a moderate risk of severe in place from Iowa all the way to western PA, but I only encountered a few brief and weak storms along the way.

SPC had a moderate risk of severe including a 15% hatched tornado outlook across most of Iowa for today, but I've never had much luck chasing in IA. But, since it would be my last day chasing and Iowa was on the way home...why not? By mid-afternoon I was heading north of Des Moines with thoughts of intense supercells forming by late afternoon across north central Iowa, so the plan was to park myself along I-35 somewhere in north central IA in "middle ground" and wait. I hung around Webster City for about 3 hours in very steamy conditions and by 7pm or so figured it was going to be a bust. Nothing was on radar and only a few small TCu could be seen off to my east. I figured, I need to go east anyway so why not head for these and see what happens. A persistent area of growing cumulus teased me north of the Waterloo area and these eventually became storms after sunset, but nothing impressive. I called it quits around 9:30pm and headed south to Cedar Rapids for the night. 555miles.

I was only kidding myself the day before when I mused about "I may or may not chase the elevated risk of severe along the KS/NE border" for today. If I chased and busted I could have lived with that, but had I not chased...drove home and missed a big tornado day I wouldn't have been able to live with myself for the next several weeks---especially being aware of the fact that I had just traveled through that area earlier in the day at the end of nearly seven weeks chasing on the plains!

I left Lamar, CO around 9AM with thoughts of reaching the central KS/NE border region by mid-afternoon. This area was forecast to be on the northern edge of the CAP along with extreme instability, excellent wind shear with height, and a boundary or two to lift the juicy air aloft---all the ingredients were there for the possibility of strong and long-lived tornadoes. By 1pm or so a couple of storms have developed in far southeastern NE about 150 miles to my east. These cells rapidly became supercells and soon produced tornadoes, but they were hours away from me and moving away from my direction with no real chance of an intercept. I hoped this was not going to be the main show of the day and by 3pm I stopped to top off the tank in Phillipsburg, KS and found myself drawn towards these ongoing storms even though I knew better. I got a hold of myself and stopped at Smith Center (30 miles east of Phillipsburg) and looked at data again. Things still looked good for later in the day a little north or even west of my current location. In fact, a new tornado watch had just been issued to the west of the original tornado box over eastern NE. I then headed back to Phillipsburg with thoughts of going north on 183 into NE. Along the way I got a call from Bill Reid who was with Doug R., Scott W. and the Tempest Group and not too far to my north in NE and had similar thoughts as to where storm initiation may occur. We kept in touch and could both see decent towers beginning to form to our north. We eventually met north of Campbell, NE (south of Minden) and watched some towers grow and wither. We continued north towards the intersection of the synoptic and outflow boundary and before long a cell showed up on radar about 20 miles to our north. We had a good road leading towards the storm and soon had a visual of the base as we approached highway 30 near Gibbon. One problem, there was a RR crossing just south of 30 and a very long and slow moving freight train approaching from the west that threatened to cut off our approach. No, problem as we could just blast east a mile or two on a dirt road and then cut north to beat the train! Except for another problem---a sign that indicated "road closed ahead" at our next north option...not good. We had to turn around and again go east and north and this time we successfully crossed the tracks ahead of the ever approaching train.

At this point there was a large and impressive looking storm forming just to our northeast, and the original target storm which could produce a tornado at any moment was only a few miles to our northwest. After some discussion of which storm to target, I took off for the initial storm via Ravenna Road going north out of Gibbon. I could see plenty of scary lowerings beneath the storm to my west and if a tornado were to form it would be highly contrasted! Meanwhile, the storm to our east continued to grow, but it didn't appear to be moving away...just sitting and growing in position. Eventually, this storm actually began to retrograde westward and was actually being ingested by our original storm, which was now moving off to our north and was tornado warned. After watching and filming this storm for several minutes the time came to get moving east. A brief, but low contrast tornado soon became visible to our north in front of the precipitation core. I stopped to shoot a few pictures of the overall storm base and then again blasted east.

We then blasted back south on Ravenna Road in order to get east of the storm along highway 30. Unfortunately, there were no east options directly from Ravenna Road. On the way south Bill radioed back to me to be careful as the state police were on the prowl. I heeded his advice but later learned another hapless chaser got slapped with a $340.00 ticket for greatly exceeding the posted speed limit---ouch! We lost sight of our storm while traveling south until we could once again go east and look back to our north. Looking out the driver's side window on my way to Shelton I could see the upper half of what appeared to be a cone tornado through the dang buildings and trees that lined the view north. Sure enough, a couple of clear views north clearly indicated an elephant trunk tornado and a bit later I could see the rope out stage. Why couldn't this have happened while we were much closer and stationary with our tripods set up!? We continued through Shelton and then north on a gravel road in order to get back closer to the storm. Once again we were able to get close to the base and stop for photography, but the storm was cycling and not producing tornadoes at this time. In fact, at one point it appeared the show might be over as the storm began to dump a lot of precipitation. Bill and I crossed paths occasionally along the grid-work of gravel roads to the north of Shelton and Wood River as we tracked the storm eastward.

It was time to get east again, so we continued east to the Alda area and stopped numerous times when tornado genesis appeared imminent. RFD slots became evident at times and we were blasted by warm RFD winds! Structure was sometimes dramatic and an occasional rapidly rotating wall cloud would tease us to the point of holding our breath waiting for the tornado. Frankly, it is still hard to imagine why these rotating wall clouds did not produce tornadoes, although some whisky dust swirls could at times be seen beneath the cloud base rotation.

We had now stuck with this storm for a couple of hours and light was beginning to fade...but we knew the main show was still likely to come. The Platte River south of Grand Island had cut off our east options so we had no alternative but to dive south and jump on I-80 eastbound in order to cross the river and find an exit back north ASAP! Of course, while blasting east along the interstate the storm finally decided that NOW was the time to produce a very dramatic and highly photogenic tornado! I was able to capture some of this on video thru the open driver side window while looking north between passing trucks and praying for a north exit NOW! After a mile or so we had a north option at Exit 324 onto S418, or what is know as the Giltner Spur Road. Driving north from the exit was like navigating a demolition derby as cars were crazily driving and parking in every direction. The tornado could be seen approaching our road from the west as we found a safe spot to stop and pull off the road. It was now 8:59pm CDT. I left my dash cam running so as not to mess with setting up a tripod and instead concentrated on digital still images. A truncated bulb-shaped cone tornado churned up an intense dusty debris whirl as it crossed the highway about a mile or so to our north. Power flashes could be seen as power lines were pulled down as the tornado crossed over to the east side of the highway. We filmed for several minutes at this location before again heading east to capture the last vestiges of this tornado, although another low contrast tornado was later observed in the low light off to our east. After dark I again met up with Bill and crew to film the supercell moving off to our east as it was now putting on an incredible light show for us. Although EF2 damage occurred with this tornado, luckily no serious injuries or deaths were reported. Definitely a career chase day for me! 537 miles Grand Island, NE

By early afternoon it became apparent that no storms would form on the southeastern plains of Colorado. Dewpoint temperatures remained in the 40's and SPC's slight risk of severe was removed from CO with the 20Z update. Oh well, that was a risk I was willing to take since I had no interest what-so-ever in making a 6-7 hour drive across the state for the possibility of severe in SE KS---or the marathon drive north to SE SD. I've had enough of that noise for one season. I explored a couple of old houses and then called it quits for the day. I'll start my journey home tomorrow and may or may not chase the elevated risk of severe along the NE/KS border. I am well satisfied with the season I had and it's time for me to get home. 230miles Lamar, CO.

I hung around Dodge City until early afternoon anticipating convective initiation ahead of the DL not too far to my west. Winds began to back slightly to the SSE by 2pm and a few nascent cells had formed about 75 miles to my WSW. I headed north towards Jetmore for a possible intercept, not fully sure if I wanted to stay south or blast to northern KS where the air was cooler and easterly winds might prove better for tornadoes. But the towers were beginning to look better and had formed in a newly issued tornado watch box, so I cut west on road 156 towards the most northerly cell to my west. I stopped near Kalvesta to take a few photos of the western storm which had a tilted updraft tower and spoon-shaped base, but little tornado potential, before blasting back east and south in an attempt to get ahead of the "lead" and potentially tornadic cell.

I dropped south from Jetmore on highway 283 between the departing "lead" cell off to my east and another big messy storm off to my west. I was just barely able to make it to highway 50/56 east of Dodge City before being overtaken by this storm which was now severe-warned.

A few miles east I stopped to look back at this storm and it had a large rotating forward-flank wall cloud punching out to my southwest. It appeared to be very close to producing a tornado at one point but I had to continue east as I was getting slammed with powerful outflow and rain from the storm off to my northeast. This was made evident shortly thereafter by an overturned 18-wheeler on the south side of the highway. I continued on 50/56 to Kinsley and bailed south as the storms had connected and became one big "outflowish" mess. I stopped south of Greensburg near an old house to take a look back, but there wasn't much to see...just blowing dust and stormy skies.

Meanwhile, I could see an impressive tower and large anvil well off to my south in the OK Panhandle and radar indicated two or three somewhat isolated and severe-warned cells in that region. It was now about 7pm, so I figured I'd have one last shot at finding a photographic---if not tornadic storm before sunset. I continued south and east and watched these cells dry up on radar one by one---except for one lone tower and anvil that had weakened but had persisted for quite some time to my WSW. I stopped for gas in Buffalo and the tower still beckoned about 30 miles to my southwest, but was beginning to look a bit ragged. However, radar indicated it was gaining in strength and even began to show shear markers! Looking more closely at radar, there was a little piece of a storm in front of the main storm which was completely hidden from my view by the stupid updraft and precipitation directly in front of me. I plotted a course west and south of this pathetic storm to get to the bigger one and could soon see a bell-shaped updraft base becoming visible through the rain shafts to my west. I had to first drive west into increasingly heavy rain along highway 412, but managed to dodge any hail as I dived south from Slapout, OK. A few miles south of town I was clear of the heaviest rain and had a spectacular view from a high point off to my west of this very pretty storm as the sun was setting. The updraft tower was turning and tilting off to my north as the sun shone through rain shafts well separated from the updraft region. Clear blue skies beyond help contrast one of the prettiest storms I had seen this season...or for that matter any season! I turned around at one point and I saw that someone had pulled up next to me---it was Martin Lisius who had also blown off the KS storms and headed south to the OK PH.

I then headed back north into Slapout and stopped to pick up a few half-dollar size hailstones, some of which were still falling at the time.

I figured the view should be pretty good from the west side of the storm since the air was nice and clear with no obstructing cloud interference, so I drove a couple of miles west on 412 to look back on this beauty. It was a great ending to a very active, but tiring chase day. Liberal, KS 460m

I made the long journey north from my previous nights stay in Albany, TX (north of ABI) and arrived in the northern TX PH just as an MD was issued to my north. A couple of storm cells were moving ENE across Baca County, CO and I aimed for those as a preliminary target. A tornado watch was soon issued for parts of the northern TX PH, eastern OK PH, and a good part of western KS. A "tail-end" storm was moving right into the middle of the box and I plotted an intercept via highway 83 north. I stopped a few miles south of Sublette to take a better look between 5:23pm and 5:35pm, about the time a tornado was reported by others. There was a clear slot visible to my north and rain beyond but no tornado visible from my vantage point...no doubt hidden by the rain core. I then had to blast south and east to stay ahead of the storm which was starting to offer some very nice structure to my north.

East of Meade where highway 160 meets 283 there was a suspicious lowered area to ground level between 6:49 and 6:51pm...that may have been a tornado. It was too far to my north to determine circulation, but appeared just to the east of a clear slot region in the following two photos.

I then headed a bit farther east on 160 but the storm began to lose it's visual appeal and had weakened somewhat on radar. Over the next several minutes a couple of dozen bunch of chase vehicles blasted by my stopped vehicle playing catch-up, but I had lost the desire to follow this storm any longer. I had some regrets later when it once again became tornado-warned and looked much better on radar. I took a few more photos of the storm off to my east as I headed back to Liberal for the night. 556 miles.

After finishing cleaning and servicing the van Marsha was kind enough to drive me back to Martin's house in Arlington. We got there at 5pm and I threw everything haphazardly in the van and didn't even hook-up any of my equipment. It was way too hot and humid for that misery! Martin showed me a good looking tornadic supercell on radar about 3-4 hours to my west so off I went. This storm had produced several tornado warnings and had MTN shear values to 123mph. Of course, by the time I got close enough a couple of hours later the storm had weakened somewhat, but a new and much smaller cell prompted a new tornado warning just to its south. I was able to see a bell shaped updraft base ever so briefly before the whole storm started out flowing like crazy and sent out red dust clouds in all directions. I called it a day and stopped at the first hotel I could find. Albany, TX 190 chase miles.

A good part of Oklahoma had a potential risk of explosive storm development "if" the CAP could be broken. This worked out well since we needed to get back to OKC either today or tomorrow morning at the latest. What didn't work out was the CAP breaking before sunset. We positioned ourselves a bit east of the DL and a bit south of an outflow boundary left over from the mid-morning MCS that moved through the area. A towering cumulus cloud pushed into the sky just to our west and quickly sent out an orphan anvil. It tried again...and again, but the results were always the same. At one point it did have a small rain core and even a bit of hail, but the whole thing finally fizzled right before sunset. So, no storm today...but not bad considering we had gone 4 for 4 up to that point. 486 miles OKC.

Today was somewhat similar to yesterday in that we had low clouds overspreading the target area until mid-afternoon. The first storms appeared on radar west of LIC and we headed north on highway 71 hoping that these or one's that would develop farther south would become our target storm. By the time we reached Punkin Center a new storm lured us west, but it quickly fell apart leaving us nothing to chase. A much more isolated and stronger looking cell was developing to our southwest near Pueblo and the decision was soon made to head after this one. We took the road south out of Yoder and watched the storm develop to our west just north of Boone. It was severe warned, and began to take on a more interesting look as it ever so slowly drifted in our direction at 15mph. We let the young core overtake us and measure hail to 1 1/4" diameter which Bill Reid called into the Pueblo NWS office. We then continued south and took a brief look at the backside of the storm as it moved off to our east.

A new storm began to develop to our south, so after taking a few pictures of that one we blasted east along highway 96 between the two. Photos are from "south" storm at initiation and then from points farther east.

After that we continued east via highway 96 and then highway 50 from Fowler. We now had two alternating severe/tornado warned storms on either side of us and it was difficult to choose which one to be watching from time to time. Photos here are looking west at southern storm as it drifted ESE in our direction.

The two storms began connecting their precipitation cores, but both still were rotating and offered tornado potential. The southern one continued to offer the most structure wise from our vantage point as we continued eastward through Rocky Ford and LaJunta.

As we continued east to Lamar the storms had finally merged into one big supercell and began to head off to our south right at sunset. We took one last photo op and could see a pronounced barrel-shaped lowering on the rear flank of the storm. It was again tornado warned, so we drifted a bit south of Lamar but had to stop due to road construction, darkness, and the heavy rain and hail that had overtaken us. MTN indicated shear values as high as 123mph at the time. All in all a fantastic chase day! 327miles Lamar, CO.

After driving across the state beneath overcast skies and occasional rain I really wasn't expecting much in the way of big storms for the day. There was a little sunshine breaking thru by the time we reached Ulysses, and we could see a large tower poking above the low clouds to our west. Radar also indicated a decent looking cell to our southwest near Campo, CO...but we decided to head straight west thru Johnson City to investigate this new storm. It actually put on a nice show for awhile as we followed it back east thru Johnson and then got ahead of it one more time south of Ulysses. After that our attention turned to a much larger storm forming to our SW. This became the main show as we followed it eastward along highway 51 from Hugoton thru Woods to highway the intersection of highway 83. The structure was fabulous at this point, but we were quickly overtaken by the core with no good eastward options. A great day overall, especially considering the earlier prospects. 597miles - Lamar, CO

The moderate risk was in place for a good portion of SE KS and I liked the area just to the south or southwest of ICT for storm initiation. We drove to Wellington with thoughts of driving west towards Harper, KS...but decided to hold fast as storms appeared likely to form to our immediate north and northeast along the boundary which stretched W/E across the state. Messy storms from the earlier MCS were severe and tornado warned 75 miles to our east and we could see towering cumulus clouds forming to the west of this convection. We moved a bit east to Winfield and hung around for a couple of hours waiting for things to happen. By late afternoon a few TCu appeared and one to our immediate southeast showed promise. We decided to follow this developing storm's northern flank with hopes of getting ahead, and then south of the updraft region. The storm more or less followed highway 160 and after passing thru the developing core we were able to drop south at Moline. We then cut west on a gravel road and waited for the storm to move by to our north. It gave us a good show for about 20 minutes with plenty of scary lowering and intense CG's, but never developed a well defined rotating wall-cloud in spite of the warm SSE inflow. We had one last look at what had become a partially rain-wrapped barrel updraft off to our east as the storm entered a poor road network area. We finished up the day with pretty pastures and stormy skies near Wauneta, KS. 450 miles - Winfield, KS.

June 8, 2009: Mon - Day 34 - T5mini Orientation & Throckmorton/Haskell County Supercells:

After completion of the orientation meeting I whisked the guests south towards the Red River where skies with full sunshine had been cooking the atmosphere and big supercells were likely to form by early evening. We intercepted the first couple of cells to our west between Archer City and Olney and later the leading edge of a much larger cell near Haskell, TX. That cell briefly became tornado warned, but from our position it didn't offer much more than a nice CG display. We finished up with a nice sunset near Throckmorton. 375 miles - Ardmore, OK

June 7, 2009: Sun - Day 33 - T4 Departure & Belle Plaine - Conway Springs, KS Storms:

After a quick good-bye to all the guests, cleaning the vans, and getting caught up on a few things it was time to chase again. There was an MD out for SC KS about two hours to my north, which was eventually followed by a SEV watch box. I figured I might be able to at least capture some structure and/or lightning, so why not!? There was a cluster of severe-warned storms moving northeast towards Wichita, but I was not able to intercept these. I stopped at Belle Plaine to look at a pedestal updraft base with mammatus above when and a new storm formed to my west. I headed towards that storm via route 55 and the base structure started to look downright interesting just east of Conway Springs. I quickly found an off road film spot and was treated to some really nice structure as the storm base tightened up. I then dropped south ahead of other storms in an attempt to shoot lightning. Some of the CG's were great, but were widely spaced both in time and distance. I then enjoyed an occasional light show all the way back south to OKC. 350 miles.

June 6, 2009: Sat - Day 32 - T4 - Day 6 Final - Pretty Storms - Claflin, KS:

Bill Reid and I hung out west of Claflin, KS on a hilltop during the early evening hours watching a few weak storms struggle off to our west. GRLevel indicated a fine line boundary moving northward that eventually collided with the eastern most storm, which was rather weak at the time. This happened around sunset and sure enough the storm immediately to our west began to take on nice base structure as the CG activity rapidly intensified in the pink colored rainshafts off to our west. Another cell just to the southwest of this one became severe warned at about the same time for quarter size hail and 60mph wind gusts.

Looking at radar it was hard to believe these two cells were the only storms in all of Kansas---almost dead center in KS! After our pretty sunset photo-op we followed the storm's southern flank east along highway 4 to near Bushton and had another so-so lightning display for the next hour or so. Not a bad day, but somewhat of a let down after the previous mega-chase day in NE. Wichita, KS 378 miles.

June 5, 2009: Fri - Day 31 - T4 - Day 5 - Tornadic Supercells - LaGrange, WY - Dalton, NE:

Witnessed the last few minutes of the LaGrange, Wyoming tornado including a beautiful "rope-out" as viewed from about 15 miles away near Harrisburg, NE. Followed storms east to Dalton where an insane ground-hugging wall cloud was filmed just north of town. More detailed summary later. Great chase day for sure! . 578miles - Colby, KS.

June 4, 2009: Thu - Day 30 - T4 - Day 4 - Supercells - Limon to Peyton, CO

After reaching Limon I needed to decide whether to continue north towards the slightly better 500mb flow or stay put and watch for convective development off the mountains to my southwest in the higher CAPE air. In the past I've missed plenty of great looking storms that had formed over the front range by being positioned too far north or east. Shortly after having lunch, radar indicated a few returns to my southwest and I could see the tops of what appeared to be healthy looking updrafts. I decided to blast south via highway 24 towards Simla which would put us ahead of any southeastward moving storm. By the time we reached Rahma a beautifully structured LP was visible about 12 miles to our southwest. We stopped to film the updraft near the town of Calhan, but the show was brief and the storm began to weaken as it moved farther east.

For the next few hours eastern Colorado was mostly devoid of storms, but we could see some new updrafts forming to our southwest. We headed down towards Peyton and hung out watching a linear storm form just to our north. This storm eventually disconnected and the western storm remained nearly stationary and produced a few funnel clouds as reported by others. The eastern cell drifted to the east and had a persistent wall cloud as well as an RFD cut on its western flank. We followed this storm back to LIC where it began to fall apart just as a new storm formed back to our southwest. We went back west on 24 and watched this storm cycle to our north before ending our chase for the day. 264 miles. Limon, CO.

The play for today was to head to the high country of the Raton Mesa in northeast NM and enjoy the beautiful scenery and perhaps find a pretty storm as well. There was just enough moisture in the upslope flow to get a few storms going early on near Springer and these slowly began to drift eastward. We enjoyed pretty updraft towers and distant stormy scenes along highway 64/87 near Capulin and took numerous film stops. There were a couple of storm cells to our northwest so I decided to head north towards Kim, CO for an intercept and for what might prove to be a pretty show towards sunset. Even meager storms can produce fantastic "stormscapes" in this region, and we were not disappointed on this day. 450 miles - Lamar, CO.

I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw the first radar returns showing up at 2PM as we were approaching AMA. Storms had initiated well to our south about 2 hours earlier than expected and now we would be in "catch up" mode. We encountered small but severe warned storms as we passed thru the LBB area on our way southeast towards a couple of big storms that looked capable of producing a tornado. We had a good road that paralleled the first storm's southern flank, but it took us over an hour to finally catch up near Snyder, TX. The storm by then had weakened and was moving off to the east into an area with no roads. Meanwhile, another large cell was nearly stationary just to the west of LBB, so we headed back for an intercept. Of course, that storm also croaked upon our approach. Lastly, another severe and isolated cell beckoned to our northeast near Clovis, NM so we had one last shot at seeing something decent. We were able to intercept this cell just west of Sudan, but again it went down hill fast as we approached. We killed yet another storm! We hung around watching an occasional brilliant CC display when an embedded smallish cell to our north pulsed in strength We cut north on 303 and had fun punching through a swath of dusty red outflow beneath a whale's mouth canopy. Farther east near the town of Earth we had one final color and light show in the setting sun. Pretty, but not the day I had expected for supercell structures. 587 miles. Plainview, TX

Not a whole lot to report from this day. We more or less stuck with my original target near NW KS until late afternoon. After visiting for the first time ever the world's largest ball of twine in Cawker City, we drifted west to the Hill City area. We hung out at an abandoned farmstead and watched elevated Cu build back to our east and southeast. Although we still had light southeast winds at our location, the storms seemed to be forming about 40 miles ahead of the DL and merging with cells forming along the e/w orientated frontal boundary well off to our east. I was a little reluctant to head back east, but figured it might be our only play. We intercepted several marginally strong cells from Osborne to southward thru the Russell area before bailing south towards our Day 2 target. Eventually a line of severe storms did form in NW KS near Colby shortly after sunset. Liberal, KS 516 miles.

One way or another we were not staying in OKC after the orientation. Although no severe storms appeared reachable on this day, the prospects for severe and perhaps rotating storms where likely on Monday either in the TX PH or somewhere along the KS/NE border near the frontal boundary. I chose the later target, but figured we may just as well wind up heading south to the panhandle if things looked more promising for that area in the morning model runs. We briefly got side tracked north to CNK as a couple of weak storms formed to our north. They never really got going and a few young updrafts kept growing to the west of the original cells, but these too weakened as the sun began to set. 442 miles driven - Hays, KS.

A down day to clean/service vans and prepare for the next tour. Although there is a possible of some storms with strong wind gusts in eastern CO and western KS, it doesn't look like we are missing much. OKC.

May 29, 2009: Fri - Day 24 - T3P Day 6 Final - Travel Day, No Storms - Ozona, TX to OKC:

No storms today, so it was a good day to travel back to OKC for our final evening together. We all had a great week photography wise and gave our cameras a good work out with five of our six days shooting stormy scenes. Thanks to my driver Chris and our guests Laurie, Joanne, Joe, and Mark for making this trip one to remember! Appx 470 miles were driven today with one photo stop along the way at Mount Scott near Lawton, OK. Total miles for the week: 3400.

May 28, 2009: Thu - Day 23 - T3P Day 5 - Severe Storm - Alpine, TX to Marathon:

We spent the morning visiting various sights from the Big Bend to Presidio, TX before pursuing a storm to our north that formed over the Davis Mountains. The cell became severe warned as we approached Alpine and was easy to intercept as it was only moving ESE at 5mph. We followed the storm east along highway 90 and found hail covered roads east of Alpine as well as white hilltops clearly marking the hail swath. By the time we reached Marathon the storm had weakened and split, so we continued on to Sanderson and then north towards Sheffield in hopes of intercepting a broken line of severe storms moving southeast towards I-10. The CG's were pretty good right up until we set up our cameras on a high point to film the show, then the lightning was mostly imbedded in the clouds or rain. Spent the night in Ozona, TX - 470miles.

May 27, 2009: Wed - Day 22 - T3P Day 4 - Severe Storm - Marathon, TX to Big Bend:

Severe storms appeared likely in the DRT to Ulvalde to Eagle Pass region as well as the high country east of the Davis Mountains. We eventually decided the high country might prove more photogenic, even if the storms didn't become quite as severe. Along the way we found a profusion of cactus flowers in full bloom west of Eldorado, TX. As soon as we arrived at Fort Stockton a target storm became apparrent to our SW. The storm began to look decent with a nice flat RFB and inflow bands as we approached Marathon, but then weakened shortly thereafter. We managed to get south of the core on highway 385 several miles south of Marathon. We skirted the approaching hail core and experienced nickel to perhaps quarter size hail, although we later learned baseball size was reported with this storm. We took several more photo ops looking back to our north, some of which produced very nice CG's...all of which escaped my lens, of course. We then headed to Terlinqua for the night and watched another nice lightning display off to our north while waiting for dinner at the Star Light Cafe. 475 miles.

May 26, 2009: Tue - Day 21 - T3P Day 3 - Severe Storm - Weatherford - Fort Worth TX:

The same problems persisted today as the last few days, weak flow & convergence at the surface and weak winds aloft. Surface moisture and anvil level flow were better however across a good portion of northwest TX along and south of the Red River. After a visit to the Hollis "Bridge of Doom" we headed southeast towards SPS and Bowie, TX. We then hung out at a rest stop north of Decatur feeling the oppressive air and watching a few towers bubble up here and there. One persistent but somewhat soft tower caught our attention to our southeast. It didn't look the greatest, but it was holding together in the right area of convergence and instability. We decided this might be our storm so we headed south of Decatur along highway 51 to Weatherford. Golf ball size hail was reported near Weatherford, but the core was moving off to our east and we only experienced to perhaps dime size hail. Going thru Weatherford was painfully slow, as we could only occasionally glimpse the storm off to our ENE. Bill, Kinney, Rob, Chad, Chris, and I headed our group east on I-20 and were able to get one decent photo-op after traveling a few miles. We continued to follow the storm east towards the metroplex and it looked to be weakening a bit, so we stopped and waited things out as the storm began to split. We waited out a small hail core and then headed back west on I-20 not feeling it was worth the effort to deal with the congested road network off to our east. We stopped to film lightning just south of Cisco an hour or so later, but the weakening line of storms was uncooperative for the most part. Abilene, TX 475miles

Another marginal day for strong to severe storms was on hand, but we once again managed to find plenty of interesting photo opportunities. We started the day in Sidney, Nebraska and then dropped south through the eastern plains of CO. We broke out of overcast skies near Burlington and were treated to beautiful cumulus filled skies farther south including a double TCu each with a pileus cap, followed by storms...too many storms due to a weak capping inversion.

By the time we reached the Oklahoma PH we were faced with a decision to target newly developing cells to our immediate west and southwest, or stick with our target area in the NE TX PH where an isolated strong storm was already under way. After a bit of waffling we headed for the northeast PH storm near Canadian, but it eventually became apparent we would not be able to be in position on this storm much before dark. At the same time there was a strong line of storms forming to our immediate west as we drove through Perryton, TX and we could see a shelf cloud was beginning to take shape. Chris and I were both thinking the same...turn around and get in front of that shelf cloud! We went back thru Perryton and then northeast via SR15 and were presented with numerous photo-ops looking back west at what had become an awesome looking shelf cloud! Shamrock, TX 606 miles.

May 24, 2009: Sun - Day 19 - T3P Day 1 - Weak Storms NE/WY/CO Tri-State Area:

A marginal day for storms was expected, but we still managed to find a few nice photo-ops among the mostly weak and disorganized storms in the NE/WY/CO tri-state area. The first storm we encountered actually looked much better from the west then it did while on the approach. We drove a few miles south of Egbert, WY and had a brief view of an interesting updraft tower and rain shaft prior to the whole storm falling apart. We then drove southeast under the cores of several cells along the gravel road that connects Hereford, Grover, and Keota, CO. We then continued east of the messy line of convection thru Sterling and then north to the Pleetz Plateau. The storms never became severe, but at times the ominous sky to the west did afford us with a nice backdrop for photo-ops along the way. Sidney, NE 540 miles.

We traveled from OKC to Hays KS to get in position for possible weakly rotating storms somewhere in NW NE, SW SD, or extreme E-WY on Sunday. Before dinner we took a short drive south of town to photograph some old farm buildings in the fading sunlight. 360 miles

Day to clean and service vans and prepare for the new T3 guest arrivals---OKC. No storms of significance on the Plains.

No storms...travel day from Imperial, NE to OKC with a brief stop in Greensburg, KS - 557 miles.

May 20, 2009: Wed- Day 15- T2 Day 9 - Severe Warned Storms - Nebraska Panhandle:

After having lunch in Hot Springs, SD we decided to drift south into the northern NE PH where instability and moisture seemed a bit better. Weak storms were forming to the west of this region in Wyoming and we anticipated these would get better organized as they moved east. We intercepted those storms near Harrison and set up shop for about 30 minutes and watched them strengthen as they approached our position. One cell to our south showed signs of weak rotation.

The storms remained mostly uninteresting and linear while heading east on highway 20 thru CDR. One cell to our south looked promising and we were able to make an easy approach along route 87 about 10 miles south of Hay Springs. A flanged base came into view followed by the leading edge updraft base that gave us some nice structure to our south. The updraft region appeared on the southeast flank of the storm with all the heavy precipitation off to its northwest. A bit farther east along route 87 we encountered the large armada of V2 and then took another film stop looking back at our cell as it drifted off to the east.

We took our final photo op along highway 2 near Bingham/Ashby of a nice mammatus canopy being illuminated by the setting sun. Imperial, NE 460 miles.

With shallow moisture, weak surface convergence and a strong CAP in place we weren't expecting too much today. We visited Mt. Rushmore mid-day and then had a late lunch in Rapid City, SD. We were somewhat encouraged by a slightly enhanced Cu field over the Black Hills and some storms with lightning off to our west in WY. We waffled a bit trying to decide whether to drop south into NE ahead of some approaching convection or go northwest into SE MT along the moisture/CAPE axis near the boundary. We chose the latter and ended up filming a bunch of left over virga/mammatus near sunset from earlier high based storms. We were treated to a little lightning after sunset, but not enough to get excited about. Finished up back in Rapid City with another 360 miles on the odometer.

Yet another day without storms, but this was as expected. We are still hoping for convective activity over the next two days across eastern MT or western SD/NE before we need to start heading back to OKC. We made a few stops along the way including the Carhenge in AIA and at the western edges of the Dakota Badlands near the small village of Red Shirt, SD. Ended in Deadwood, SD - 355 miles.

Another travel day northward with no storms to chase, but we did enjoy a few photo-ops along the way in eastern Colorado. Tuesday and Wednesday still hold promise for storms somewhere in the northern plains. Scotts Bluff, NE 450 miles.

No storms for today or likely for the next few days. Our next chance may not come until Tuesday or Wednesday somewhere on the high plains of eastern MT or the western Dakotas, so we are slowly drifting in that direction. Hays, KS 286 miles.

Although severe storms were encountered, the day didn't turn out near as good as we had hoped. SPC had a 10% tornado risk outlined from central KS northeastward into NC MO, but the morning convection hung tough across northern MO well into the afternoon. We played around in NW MO on the southern flank of these storms hoping something discrete would form a bit to their south. The best show we had was near Bramer as a cell to our north cut a wide clear slot and appeared to be wrapping up nicely. Unfortunately, the show was brief and we then continued east and south ahead of the messy storms with an occasional film stop along the way.

We then set our sights on the storms beginning to form south of I-70 in Kansas. We targeted a cell on the southern end of a line of storms paralleling I-35 to the west. Unfortunately by the time we got to this storm it had merged with numerous other storms to its southwest. We took one last photo op of the approaching core while we were west of Ottawa, called it a day and then went to dinner.

Bill, Chris, and I blew off the slight risk of severe today in the southern TX PH region in favor of getting into position for what appears to be a much better day tomorrow somewhere in northern MO. We visited the Hollis "bridge of doom" and had lunch in CDS prior to heading north to EMP for the night. One small and isolated storm did form between LBB and MAF and briefly became tornado warned, but it did not appear that we missed much. Emporia, KS 550 miles.

While waiting along the NE/SW boundary in Alfalfa County in NW OK a few large towers began to go up just to our southwest. This became our target storm and it turned out to be the most southwesterly storm on a boundary that stretched all the way northeast to IL. We were able to pretty much stay southwest of the storm as it moved slowly to the SSE. The supercell produced some very nice base structure from time to time as well as copious amounts of nickel to perhaps quarter size hail. Differential motion at cloud base was observed as well as some low hanging and ragged wall clouds...but no tornado was observed. We finished the chase as the storm was intensifying south of I-40, where we took cover from the hail in the town of Carnegie. No time for a more detailed summary now...but the following will offer a visual timeline evolution of the storm. The final two photos show our view looking south as the storm really wrapped up near the town of Geary. A great storm to chase overall, even without a tornado!

May 12, 2009: Tue - Day 7 - T2 Day 1 - Severe Storms - Southeastern TX PH:

Bill Reid, Chris Gullickson, and the Tour 2 folks started our day in Liberal, KS so as to be centrally positioned between potential target areas to our north in KS/NE or to our south in the TX PH region. Even though the southern region was more capped, we were hoping a slight upslope flow against the cap rock might just be enough lift to ignite a few storms. By late afternoon SPC shifted the 5% tornado risk farther to the SW near Lubbock and a persistent area of weak convection was moving northeast into this region from NM. After hanging around in Turkey for a bit, we decided to head towards this convection. Somewhere west of Flomot (near Cedar Hill, I believe) we stopped to watched an area of robust, but high based, towers forming off to our south as a storm was developing to our NW. The following photos were shot looking south, and of what later became our target storm.

We then proceeded after the storm to our northwest and watched it a bit from near South Plains. The towers we left behind were now beginning to look a bit more healthy so we turned around and decided to head in that direction just in case these would become the main show. We reasoned it would be easier to get back to the storm to our NW, then trying to play catch up with the stuff that was moving off to our east. As it turned out it was the right move, even though it never really got fully organized as we had hoped. The best show occurred as we were heading north on 287 near Memphis when a "lead" storm punched ahead and began to take on supercell characteristics. We paralleled this storm east of Memphis via highway 256 and could see it was soon belching outflow to our north. Even so, if featured a nice looking leading edge shelf cloud that was clearly ingesting moisture from the east as made visible in the following photos.

This storm croaked as another one blossomed to our south and moved ENE. As darkness fell we followed this storm east and eventually drove threw the core, but only experienced nickel size hail at best. We ended the chase at Altus and had a nice light show all the way. Not a bad start for the T2 folks! Appx 455 miles, Altus, OK.

No storms to chase today, so it was a good day to pick up the tour 2 guests and travel a bit to get into a better position for possible supercell storms on Tuesday. OKC - Liberal, KS 300m.

Today was a day needed to pick-up the new van from Martin in Arlington and get it ready for it's debuting with Tour 2 starting tomorrow out of OKC.

Weak forcing along the NE - SW frontal boundary combined with anemic flow aloft resulted in no storms occurring in SPC's slight risk area across a good part of central and north Texas. Additionally, cloud cover impeded instability for a good part of the day. A wasted day overall for the 470 miles driven. Waco, TX.

After a late start I spent most of the day driving south from MO with hopes of at least reaching southern OK by late afternoon. I caught up with the SW - NE boundary draped across central OK near Pauls Valley and then proceeded farther south where I could watch what was happening to my immediate north and west. I pulled off I-35 at the scenic overlook north of Springer. It was nice to meet up and chat with Al M., Gene R., Sam B., Tim M, and several others who were enjoying the view and waiting for the first storm towers to show themselves. A few towers began to form to our west and north, so I figured I'd better get moving as I needed gas. While fueling up in Ardmore, a couple of nice updraft towers could be seen not too far to my northwest. A plotted a course back north and caught up with the northern of the two storms near Springer. The base was somewhat murky from my position, but a wall and tail cloud were briefly visible. I tried to get a closer look, but storm mergers began in earnest and I had to duck for cover in a gas station at I-35 and highway 53. Almost immediately I was boxed in by dozens of vehicles and had no choice but to wait things out. While I was waiting the storm to my south pulsed and had a nice hook on radar briefly, but it too soon suffered from storm interactions. I took a bit of video, but never felt compelled to reach for my DSLR once the storms got going. 542m Ardmore, OK.

An MD for parts of NW MO, NE KS, and SW IA was issued shortly after I finished lunch in Concordia, MO. Since there was an outflow boundary evident to my north, I decided to drift in that direction in case that area became the focus for the main show. Along the way a tornado watch box replaced the MD. A broken line of disorganized storms soon formed along this boundary and my thoughts were to head north to the first storm and then west in hopes that the western most storm might have the best chance at becoming supercellar since it was closer to the higher instability axis. I was able to connect with the first storm near Princeton. The storm had been severe warned, but was beginning to weaken as it moved off to my SE.

I then headed to the western most cell on the "line" which was moving ESE just to the west of Bethany. I was able to just barely keep ahead of this cell as I headed south of highway 69. My first photo stop was near Pattonsburg. At this point the severe warning had been dropped for this cell, but it began to show signs of renewed strength back to my WNW.

The storm then crossed highway 69 behind me and I took this photo south of Jameson looking to my NE shortly before it prompted a tornado warning.

The storm was getting away from me at that point and my only option would be to continue south on highway 69 then east on 36 if I wanted to continue the pursuit, but there was also new convection off to my SW. I stopped briefly to film this "new" cell from a point a little west of Winston. I believe this is the cell that Bill Reid and others were pursuing from the west. This picture was taken looking WSW.

I decided to make a run east on 36 for my original target storm that was now heading for Chillicothe, but first I had to deal with the core of the storm I had just filmed to my WSW. Fortunately, dime size hail seemed to be the worst I encountered to the east of Cameron. By the time I reached Chillicothe it was totally dark and the storm was off to my SE, and illuminated by plenty of in cloud lightning. I briefly thought about intercepting the "second" cell that was now heading directly towards Carollton, but didn't feel like dealing with the larger hail that was being reported with this storm. I headed back towards Cameron and watched a small, but pretty updraft to my north being illuminated by the nearly full moon, and by IC lightning on the inside. Cameron, MO. 555m

I began my 2009 chase vacation today and completed the first 785 miles of my trip west to Greenville, IL (just east of STL). First guess for today is eastern KS, Supercells likely IF the CAP can be broken.

2008 Chase Season Events

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2006 Chase Season Events

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