Interesting set up this day. Old outflow boundaries were present in the Texas south plains and caprock. Although dewpoints were only in the 50s, with temperatures in the 80s, enough instability and shear were present to develop storms. One such storm formed near the Plainview area along a boundary that contained low 60s dewpoints. We knew this was out storm! We stayed with this for a couple of hours as it developed into a pretty supercell with that nice sculpted structure from the east. Later, storms developed near Lubbock and moved north. Other high based storms developed behind our supercell and all 3 collided north of Lubbock. We were on the east side still, with no true reason to go behind the storm (typically not a favorable place to watch!), but a fluke occurred and produced a 2-3 minute dusty, weak tornado behind our storm! I wouldn’t have changed anything in the way we chased this, as this is usually the best view of a supercell. A couple of chasers caught the tornado as they blasted south to try and get around the south side of our storm from behind and basically were fortunate to witness this dirt bomb. Funny day, still like how we chased it but did witness a landspout tornado during its lifetime.
June 28th Kimball, Nebraska Large Tornado
June 28th had a lot going for it. Good moisture, strong instability, superb wind shear and the upslope play of the Laramie Range in southeast Wyoming. A supercell formed mid afternoon and became an electrified beast! As the storm spun east/southeast, it produced huge hail baseball sized, but never really was a tornado threat. As it moved into far southwest Nebraska, it encountered better moisture which allowed the cloud base to come down. That helped the storm tap into greater low level wind shear and develop rotation. A couple of funnels occurred before a rather large, dusty tornado formed about 8 miles south of Kimball. The tornado was on the ground for over 10 minutes as it moved slowly southeast. The storm continued to spin strongly off the Cheyenne Ridge into far northern Colorado. It weakened for a time and then reintensified east of Sterling. It continued its slow march to the east, now producing huge hail and flash flooding. We let it go at that point and went to the hotel after shooting lightning for awhile. Crazy fun day and thankfully the large tornado stayed over open lands. Enjoy the pics!!!
