Day 15 - Southern Nebraska

With a lack of flow aloft, despite favourable backed surface winds, today always looked a bit messy with disorganised convection - hence the debate on whether to drive all the way back to Nebraska just of a messy chase day. Nonetheless, we came here to chase so chase is what we shall do, regardless of setup!

A long drive from Fort Collins (CO) to our target at North Platte (NE), through persistent rain and a cool 17C. We grabbed some lunch in Sidney (NE) which was THE most disappointing McDonalds of my four years chasing in the plains - undercooked fries, food cold, very slow service and numerous flies near the food preparation area. Anyway, I digress - thunderstorms had already initiated near North Platte (NE) before we arrived there, and given their slow motion there was a significant risk of flooding in the area.

Storms quickly grew upscale into a general large cluster across a good portion of central Nebraska, and began to race eastwards at a much quicker pace. We headed east with them, occasionally parking up and letting strong cores to move overhead with hail and strong outflow winds, ending the day at Grand Island (NE). Had hoped to go out once the storms had passed to shoot some lightning at night, but sadly they lost their lightning activity and left just a general area of persistent rain over us.

10 June 2015 GPS Tracker Route Map

2015 STORM CHASE stats thus far:
McDonald's tally: 16
Applebee's tally: 12
Distance driven: 6,858 miles
States visited: 8