Day 9 - Western South Dakota

TUE 02 JUN

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Day 8 - NE Colorado

MON 01 JUN

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Day 7 - Eastern Kansas

SUN 31 MAY

We left our hotel in Kearney NE mid-morning to drive 4-5 hours southwards back into Kansas for today's target of Florence KS. Stopped at Salina KS to grab some lunch, and arrived within the risk area by mid-afternoon. Several boundaries (dryline, differential heating and residual outflow boundaries from early morning MCS activity) were draped across the area, and would potentially provide the focus for thunderstorm development later.

The airmass was fairly capped, despite being hot and humid with MLCAPE up to 5,000 J/kg. There were several attempts at initiation, but it wasn't really until 19:00L onwards that we finally saw sustained thunderstorms developing in the vicinity of the I-35 corridor between Wichita KS and Emporia KS. We kept ahead of these, driving through Eureka KS then up to just south of Madison KS. By sunset (20:30L) an impressive low-precipitation supercell had evolved near Matfield Green KS and was drifting slowly eastwards towards us, the structure lit up brilliantly by the setting sun. We sat in the same position for the best part of 3 hours watching this and subsequent supercells run ESE'wards just to our north as darkness descended. These were producing a ridiculous amount of CG lightning, it was hard to know at times which direction to focus our attention!

A tornado warning was issued at 21:44L but we couldn't see it ourselves, relying heavily on lightning to reveal any rotation. However, after getting back to our hotel in Salina KS at 02:00L (we had to drive 2 hours to get closer to our target for the next day) I discovered that I had captured the brief nocturnal tornado at 21:40L only revealed by two well-timed CG lightning strikes!

Brief nocturnal tornado from this right-split supercell thunderstorm near Madison KS, revealed by well-timed CG strikes

Closer look at the tornado and CG lightning

Day 6 - SW Nebraska

SAT 30 MAY

We left our hotel at Salina KS for a 4 hour drive to our target of McCook NE, stopping at Hays KS to nip into Walmart and grab some lunch. Storms were expected to fire mid-late afternoon in NE Colorado and SW Nebraska on the northern periphery of a surface low over west Kansas, along an effective dryline/warm front intersection. The first cells developed by late afternoon, one more or less overhead, and another SW of Imperial NE. We opted to go after the Imperial storm initially, as it looked more sustained and it became tornado warned. At this stage I think there had been a brief landspout, which we didn't see, but cell mode was getting a little messy as storms struggled in the high CAPE limited deep layer (ample low-level) shear environment, resulting in often outflow-dominant modes.

By early evening additional cells were forming along the W-E oriented boundary, so we trundled north and east to keep up with these. They tended to be rather pulsey, struggling with interactions with adjacent cells etc - however, the storm approaching Wellfleet NE was much better organised, though approaching from the west we were not in an ideal position to see the inflow region and missed a brief tornado, hidden behind a tennis-ball sized hail core. We followed this storm, and came across some very large hail on the ground just northwest of town, before drifting north to North Platte NE. Once storms crossed north of I-80 they became rather messy and less severe, so we left them and headed east to Kearney NE to find a hotel, and be a bit closer to the next day's action. 

Turned out a rather photogenic tornado developed near Yuma CO from the cells well to the west (that we briefly intercepted near Imperial) - sadly we missed this, but were happy with our hail finds anyway!

Hail up to tennis ball sized (>6 cm diameter) at the intersection of US 83/23 northwest of Wellfleet NE around 19:50L

 

Day 5 - Northern Oklahoma

FRI 29 MAY

Initially the plan was to chase between Amarillo TX and Lubbock TX. Given this was close to our starting position in Amarillo, we had a nice slow start to the day, went to the Big Texan for breakfast and then sat in a park by a lake for a bit. It was very warm (28C) but with a dewpoint in single figures, and overcast skies from weak elevated convection, it didn't feel particularly "stormy". By this point it was becoming clear northern Oklahoma may have a decent supercell and tornado risk, given significant CAPE, strong low-level shear and the presence of an old outflow boundary. However, deep layer shear was a bit meagre.

After debating for a bit, we opted to ditch the west Texas risk, where model output had never really been particularly enthusiastic on supercells (more like multicells with strong outflow winds given high LCLs) and decided to drive 4 hours through the afternoon into Oklahoma. Cells began to fire en-route, and the SPC also started to acknowledge the risk. We made it to Enid OK by early evening, although by this stage the initial storms, which looked visually impressive, had generated a substantial cold pool radiating across north central Oklahoma, and effectively undercutting most of the storms.

We hung around Orlando OK for a little bit, then some new cells went up to our SW and became organised with some decent structure, wall cloud etc, but then this fizzled - it seemed that the cells were struggling to become sustained for any length of time. As the sun began to set, we decided to head north towards Salina KS for our hotel for the night (in the direction of where we needed to be for the following day), whilst being treated by some fantastic lightning displays at times from marginally-severe storms that kept popping up nearby.

Also, turns out aside from a couple of supercells near Amarillo, much of west TX was a complete bust! So I'm glad we made the decision when we did to change our target.

Day 4 - Texas Panhandle

THU 28 MAY 

When you've got to go, you've got to go

Pretty quiet day really, a few different target areas but none that would yield particularly organised convection, some a bit too far for us (e.g. Colorado) given we were starting the day in Wichita Falls TX so we opted to hang around the SE TX Panhandle in the hope something might get going over the caprock late afternoon. We sat in Childress TX next to a lake and watched convection try repeatedly to initiate, but clearly it was struggling with cap/dry air entrainment. In the end, we decided to just drive to Amarillo TX to find a hotel and chill for the evening, in position for the following day's risk.

Day 3 - Texas Panhandle

WED 27 MAY

Left San Antonio TX at 09:00 for a long (6 hour) drive back north to the Texas Panhandle. Stopped briefly for lunch at San Angelo TX, and arrived in Plainview mid-afternoon. Remnant MCV over the Panhandle to the north, near I-40 and northwards, was creating a favourable environment with low-level shear / vorticity ideal for funnel clouds / low-level rotation. Indeed a couple of funnel clouds were reported, but the depth of convection was limited, with a lack of strong winds aloft to aid deep layer shear, so nothing ever became particularly organised.

Eventually some cells started gaining more strength near Clarendon TX, so we hopped onto these at Estelline and followed them for a few hours down Highway 285 to Childress TX and Quanah TX, stopping several times to take photos. Some blowing dust was evident at times, and we let the outflow hit us each time before sliding a little farther southeast each time. A few chasers on this storm, but all-in-all quite a pleasant evening chase with relatively quiet roads.

Once darkness fell, given they were sub-severe, we decided to let them pass to the south after giving us some heavy rain and lightning - that's when the fun and games began trying to find a hotel room. Most hotels within a 90 minute drive from us were fully booked, with only one offering a single room (not enough for the three of us) for an extortionate $250! We decided to book something cheaper in Wichita Falls TX and headed that way instead, arriving around 22:30.

Sub-severe thunderstorm near Childress TX

Sub-severe thunderstorm at sunset near Quanah TX

Day 2 - Mexican Border

TUE 26 MAY

We left Roswell NM at an early 8am and drove for hours through SE NM into west TX, stopping briefly for lunch at Fort Stockton TX. We were trying to catch up with a line of storms that was moving about 20-30 mph. Eventually we cut through the line around mid-afternoon as we ran close to the Mexico border. A quick stop for fuel at Del Rio and a cell went up over our heads, dropping numerous close range CGs! By this stage two supercells over the border in Mexico were slowly approaching the Texan border, one produced a very photogenic tornado in Mexico (we couldn't see it as too far away / behind the rain curtain). As these storms came into Texas they evolved into a bowing line, with a substantial read inflow jet to our north (radial velocities around 80 mph which apparently was backed up by a surface wind gust of 79 mph). We kept up with the leading edge of this for a few hours, which exhibited some nice structure at times, and a brief period of rotation as a lone cell ahead of this line was scooped up and absorbed. As darkness began to fall, we tried to go after a separate supercell to the east but this soon died, so we called it quits and aimed to get to our hotel in San Antonio TX before the squall line to the west caught up with us. As this approached the metro a couple of brief spin-ups became apparent in radar data, and a tornado warning was subsequently issued.

Severe thunderstorm near Crystal City TX

Day 1 - Travel Day through Colorado into New Mexico

Mon 25 May

Not much in the way of severe convection, at least not within a drivable distance today, so the plan was to amble southwards into New Mexico to get closer to Tuesday's risk area (in W/SW Texas). Somehow spent 90 minutes in Walmart in Denver before eventually getting on the road and heading south on I-25 through some beautiful Colorado scenary at the foot of the Rockies. Numerous pulse storms had developed by late morning and into the afternoon, producing some occasional rain, lightning and gusty winds. 

Grabbed some lunch in Trinidad CO before crossing the border into New Mexico, enjoying several CGs from sub-severe storms in the vicinity. Eventually reached our hotel in Roswell NM in the evening.

Video still of CG lightning near Wagon Mound NM

Day 0 - LHR to DEN

Sun 24 May

Hot day in London, reaching 32°C in the afternoon. Hoppa bus didn't turn up at our hotel, so we had to make our way to Terminal 3 through a different bus to T5, and then the Heathrow Express, which delayed us for bag drop. Quick bite to eat, and then it was time to board - this was delayed due to the plane overheating, and then when we were eventually allowed to board we had to sit for the best part of 1h30 on a plane with no air-conditioning (it was over 30C on board) whilst engineers outside tried to fix it - very uncomfortable is an understatement!

Eventually, 2 hours after we should have departed, we were eventually on our way across the North Atlantic, via southern Greenland, to Denver. Fairly quick process through the airport, onto the shuttle bus and picked up our hire car - with a nice sunset over the Rockies to end the day.

Flying over southern Greenland

Landing at Denver