Master Class Tour, 2003 Summary
Tour synopsis: The pattern went from one favorable for sight-seeing to one that, after sputtering and trying to catch fire, finally erupted into a tornado bonanza. Unfortunately, the big day occurred the day AFTER the MC tour ended. Nonetheless, the MC participants were able to apply their new-found knowledge to "real" storm days.
Chase Days: June 14-June 23
Group leaders: David Gold and Bill Gargan
Days on which noteworthy storms were observed: June 15, June 16, June 20-23
Soon-to-be-constructed: picture pages for all storm days.
Quick summaries for June 20-23 to be posted here.
Day 1, June 14: Driving/education day.
Day 2, June 15: Photogenic high-based severe storm on the North Dakota/Montana border west of Bowman. This first storm of the day featured some pretty impressive coloration and lightning activity. The second major filming stop of the day was east of Buffalo, SD where we photographed some beautiful landscape scenery, mammatus and rainbows.
Day 3, June 16: Numerous severe thunderstorms over northeastern Wyoming, including one fairly impressive supercell with large wall cloud southwest of Gillette. Due to weak deep-layer shear, storms became outflow dominant quickly with cold pools merging. The evening ended with a fairly impressive lightning display and sunset over Gillette during dinner.
Days 4-6, June 17-19: Education days; we taught participants how to interpret/apply the Skewt-logp diagram, discussing commonly used quantities such as CAPE, CIN/"the cap" and related concepts. We also visited some gorgeous state and national parks, and had our annual Master Class barbeque; despite the "down time", we had a terrific time during these days.
Day 7, June 20: Significant tornadic supercell over southwestern Nebraska. Summary and pictures forthcoming.
Day 8, June 21: Substantial shelf cloud and significant "almost tornadic" supercell over central South Dakota at dusk.
Day 9, June 22: Significant "almost tornadic" supercell near Aurora, Nebraska (the one that produced record-setting hail).
Day 10, June 23: Pretty nocturnal LP supercell over south-central Nebraska.
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