May 17 was another one of the unforgettable days as a tour guide for Silver Lining Tours. Most of Nebraska was under a moderate risk and the set up was promising for tornadic supercells. A strong low was parked over far southwest Nebraska with a warm front across the I 80 area. A dryline was pushing east and north which put the North Platte area in line for some great action. High based storms fired along the dryline in northwest Kansas by early afternoon.

We waited near Lexington for the first cell to fire northeast of the dryline, and it did. This cell raced northwestward over Frontier county and produced our first tornado of the day (see photos below from Farnam). An LP supercell was just east of the first storm and really starting to look impressive as it tracked just east of the first storm. This was the storm that would produce the damaging Brady tornado. We quickly headed north to intercept the Brady storm which was now a gorgeous barber pole supercell. As we headed west on I 80 near Maxwell, a large tornado was visible just south of the Platte River. Pics of this memorable supercell, tornado and damage are below.

2000, May 2000, Nebraska, supercell, tornado