June 10th was a great set up in northeast Montana and western North Dakota. A warm front lay from Glasgow, MT southeast towards Dickenson, ND. Strong instability, good moisture and fantastic shear set the stage this day for multiple supercells and tornadoes along the warm front/dry line intersection north of Wibaux, MT. Cells initially formed all along the boundary, but the northern cells moved into cooler air and weakened. The triple was a storm producing machine firing off one supercell after another as they each matured and some became tornadic. The first tornado was my favorite, coming over the hills near the Roosevelt National Park area and was quite visible. The second tornado was a bit further away and choked with rain and very large hail, making photos hard to see. Nonetheless, it was a spectacular day and great results for Tour 7! Enjoy the photos!
May 29th Campo, Colorado Large Tornado
May 29th was a surprise day! It was our inbetween tours day with tour 5 guests arriving in Denver. With the potential set up in southeast Colorado, we decided to gather those who had arrived in Denver and blast south to the southeast corner of the state. Models showed a supercell developing on the Raton Mesa and slowly tracking towards the southeast through the evening hours. We were on the road and in our target late afternoon as a cluster of high based marginal severe storms formed as models showed. Great shear was in place but the only issue was a lack of moisture. Late afternoon as we arrived in the Campo area a tongue of higher dewpoints surged into the storms and the southern most storm became quite intense. The base lowered and soon a wall cloud formed. As rain and hail started descending and wrapping around the lowering a rather large cone shaped tornado formed and was on the ground for several minutes. Fortunately it was in open country and hit no towns and ranches! The storm drifted southeast as we went down a gravel road over the mesa. Unfortunately as we came around a corner a stone in the road penetrated one of our tires and blew it out. After we got the tire changed as fast as a NASCAR pit crew, we were back in business. We needed a quick exodus as hail the size of baseballs was falling from the supercell. We made it just east of Kenton, Oklahoma and watched this storm continue to crank away! Since we had to be back in Denver, we ended up leaving the storm mid evening to make our 4 hour journey back home. A great day and superb results! Enjoy the pics!
June 28th Central North Dakota Stunning Thunderstorm
June 28th took Photo Tour 3 to North Dakota. Good moisture and instability, coupled with weaker shear would allow a squall line of severe thunderstorms to form northeast of Bismark, ND. We managed to find an old abandoned farmstead south of Wing, ND where we were able to set up and capture some amazing images! The storms, coupled with the lowering sun in the evening, along with the old farmstead, allowed us to capture some of my favorite images from 2020! We stayed in place for a couple of hours photographing the area, and eventually headed back to I-94 and west to Bismark. A landspout tornado occurred well to our south near the South Dakota border, but everyone didn’t mind based on the images each person captured. Spectacular day with nature painting the Photo Tour one of the best set ups one could want! Please click on an image for a larger photo. Enjoy!
April 29th Kermit, TX Supercell
April 29th was a strange day. Models initially like the area west of Midland, only to show no storms forming later in the day. A composite outflow boundary was moving steadily south and we were afraid it would push too far south and undercut any chance of a storm sustaining itself. Eventually however, large cumulus towers formed west of Odessa and turned into a pair of very pretty LP supercells. The structure was very nice and the lightning pretty. One thing to remember when you are in the desert is to watch out for reptiles as we encountered a young rattlesnake where we stopped. It was more afraid of us than we were of it. Pretty desert flowers dotted the countryside as this storm continued for several hours. A good result on a day that didn’t look great. We NEVER give up!!!!
April 29th Canton, Texas Violent Tornado
April 29th was the inbetween day from Tour 1 and 2. However, we also ran an on call tour this day. Many guests from Tour 2, and the On Call tour, went to northeast Texas to chase. As things started to become clear, we blasted south towards the Canton, Texas area. Strong southeast surface winds, extreme instability, high dewpoints in the mid 70s and strong shear set the stage for supercell storms to form and intensify as they moved northeast. Several tornadoes formed as storms matured, with one tornado in particular staying on the ground for 50 miles and over 2.5 hours, getting a rating of EF4! Unfortunately this storm caused significant damage and fatalities in Canton, Texas as well as Fruitvale, Texas. Our hearts go out to those who suffered this day and we hope for a speedy recovery.
June 22nd Western Illinois Tornadic Supercell
We made a long hard dash from North Dakota to Illinois on June 22nd for what appeared to be a setup that had high tornado potential. Extreme instability, upper 70s dewpoints, strong wind shear and a warm frontal boundary would set the stage for a pretty decent tornado event. By late afternoon we arrived near Moline as storms finally got going along the boundary. Several supercells evolved along the warm front and several became tornadic. We intercepted two supercells that produced tornadoes, albeit weak tornadoes. Surprisingly there was only one tornado rated EF2 this day, which occurred well after dark. We chased along and north of I-80 from east of Moline to north of Peru, Illinois. Too many cell interactions made for a sloppy event, although the first tornadic supercell we intercepted near Hooppole had very pretty structure. I was sure this storm would drop a significant tornado. It produced a weak tornado that skipped along the ground for a couple minutes. As it continued east, it produced another tornado, a short lived multiple vortex tornado northwest of Peru. Later another supercell we saw in the dark produced the EF2 southeast of us. We couldn’t stay up with it. A long day, but a rewarding day for the tour!
