June 12th really didn’t look that good on paper. Weak wind shear should have resulted in storms being multicellular or pulse. However, one storm formed on the Kansas border and drifted southwest and became a very pretty supercell. The big story with this storm was lightning and structure. At one point this storm was producing cgs at the rate of 5 per minute. Instability was quite strong and lapse rates were very steep. The storm drifted westward for several hours and maintained its intensity. At one point it was a pretty stack of plates looking supercell. Colors were fantastic as well. Kudos to local fire departments for getting out and putting out the grass fires that were caused by this cell! There were many!! Mid evening the storm weakened and still gave us quite the light show as we drove to our hotel. Enjoy!
June 11th Eastern Nebraska Tornado Warned Supercell
June 11th featured very high surface moisture and extreme instability. A boundary laid across eastern Nebraska and would be the focal point for severe and tornado warned storms this day. By mid afternoon, strong convergence along the boundary would result in rapid supercell development, with one storm in particular near Fremont, Nebraska becoming tornado warned. Shear steadily increased through the afternoon and caused this supercell to spin wildly! It produced a couple funnels, large hail and some wind damage! After a few hours, numerous storms formed and quickly developed into a linear MCS that marched across the area into western Iowa, becoming tornado warned periodically. A fun and exciting day for the tour that really wasn’t expected just a couple days before! The old motto of never give up holds true!!!! Enjoy the pics!
June 10th Northwest South Dakota Tornado Warned Supercell
We expected a good day this day in South Dakota! Great instability, near 70 dewpoints, good shear and a dryline/outflow boundary intersection would set the stage for intense supercells late in the afternoon. By mid afternoon, a cluster of congestus formed in northwest South Dakota south of Buffalo. Soon several cells tried initiating there, with one dominant storm taking over the show. It quickly grew to 60,000 feet tall and became severe warned. Structure was decent and a wall cloud, complete with clear slot formed as it became tornado warned. This cell would weaken and intensify several times, but it never seemed a major threat to produce tornadoes. The tornado warning on the supercell continued for several hours, as broad cyclonic rotation occurred. It just never seemed like the rotation tightened enough to produce more than a weak funnel or two. By early evening, the storm lined out with a really pretty shelf cloud that had embedded mesocyclones that also became tornado warned. Still, a fun day, giving us many hours of chasing time on this pretty storm!
June 6th Wyoming Severe Storms
June 6th sent us to central and eastern Wyoming. Upslope flow into the Big Horn mountains, along with decent shear and moisture would provide the ingredients to get intense storms developing. Several formed and a couple were tornado warned, and rolled across northeast Wyoming. These storms were quite pretty and produced copious amounts of lightning, providing us with ample opportunities to stop and photograph it. A fun day!
June 3rd Central New Mexico Tornado Warned Supercells
June 3rd was a strange day. Never, in 33 years of chasing storms have we chased a set up in the New Mexico mountains and Rio Grande valley like this day looked like. Decent moisture, good instability and shear, as well as lift along the central mountain chains would set the stage for supercells. As one intense storm rolled off the mountains it started spinning wildly. It had good structure and a strong gustnado on the leading edge of the RFD wrapping around the back of the storm. It also produced hail nearly baseball sized as it moved east. As it weakened, it’s outflow produced another storm that became tornado warned. It had classic supercell features and a very low hanging wall cloud that was rotating rapidly. Soon, precip and hail wrapped around the lowering and due to poor road networks we couldn’t get into the notch to see if it was producing anything. An hour later it lined out producing a nice shelf cloud. Quite a surprising day with 2 intense supercells in an area that is considered high desert and doesn’t get much rainfall each year.
June 28th Iowa Tornadoes
June 28th held good promise for supercell storms and potentially tornadic ones to boot. Great moisture, instability and wind shear were forecast across southwest through northeast Iowa. A composite warm front/outflow boundary existed along that corridor and would be to focal point for several tornadic supercells. We were in the Des Moines area and drifted southwest towards Winterset. Soon a cluster of updrafts rapidly formed at the triple point south of Nebraska City, Nebraska. One dominant storm emerged from them. As we blasted west, then south towards Bedford, Iowa (our target!) a tornadic storm developed southwest of Corning, or about 25 miles north of the Bedford target. Since this storm was insanely electrified, had a large wall cloud and great structure, we couldn’t leave it to drop to Bedford for the approaching tornadic storm west of town. It became tornado warned, like the Bedford storm did as well. We stayed with it and watched several tornadoes form and the storm cycle numerous times. We thought it would produce a significant tornado a few times. Most were short lived and sometimes hard to view. Still, a very successful day, 4 tornadoes later, and a pretty supercell. There were over a dozen tornadoes in Iowa this day and a couple were very pretty. Late June and July in Iowa can sometimes be magical!
June 26th Kansas Sculpted Tornado Warned Supercell
June 26th on paper didn’t have a lot going for it. We fully expected high based storms to form along a slowly advancing cold front over northern Kansas and southern Nebraska. Early afternoon storms formed in south central Nebraska, but we decided to wait till later and chase in the area where the best parameters were, over northwest and west central Kansas. The wait was well worth it! One storm formed northeast of Colby, Kansas and became severe. Structure was decent and hail large. Soon another 2 storms formed west of it along the same boundary. The lead storm left an outflow boundary that the second storm injested. The air, full of moisture and helicity caused the updraft of the second storm to spin, soon becoming tornado warned near Oakley, Kansas. We intercepted it there and stayed in front of it all the way south of Scott City, Kansas where it moved south of the instability axis and weakened. The storm had top notch structure, was tornado warned its entire life cycle and also produced hail the size of softballs. An amazing and unexpected treat to watch this thing on the first day of the Reunion Tour for hours!
June 20th Southern Nebraska Lightningfest
June 20th took us to southern Nebraska. Excessive heat, steep lapse rates, moderate CAPE and moisture, as well as a local boundary across the I-80 corridor would set the stage for severe storms this afternoon and evening. Clusters of storms formed west of Kearney, NE and drifted south. Their outflows kicked up new storms ahead of them by early evening. Due to steep lapse rates and optimum freezing levels, the storms were incredibly electrified! Some of the best lightning of 2017 occurred that evening, well into the night time hours. We stayed in front of the cluster of severe storms into Kansas well into the night time hours. A great day for the lightning lovers! And who isn’t one????
June 15th Central Kansas Supercell
What appeared to be a marginal risk day in Kansas ended up producing a decent supercell. High CAPE, moderate shear and moisture, with convergence along an old frontal boundary, would spawn severe storms this day. A couple supercells became tornado warned not far from Hays. They also produced hail baseball sized. Very steep lapse rates would be the culprit for the large hail, as well as decent directional and speed shear. The storms persisted through early evening as the turned southeast towards the Wichita, Kansas area, maintaining their severity all the way.
June 12th Carpenter, Wyoming Strong Tornado
June 12, 2017….it started out like any other day. Too busy to think, let alone chase and then load a trailer for a big show in Amarillo, TX that I was leaving for the next day. But I did and the reward was worth the, “Am I going to get there in time” thoughts I was having. And that is because I didn’t leave Denver until 2:15PM. Yes, 2:15pm. And no, there wasn’t any speeding involved. Just pure LUCK. That and Starbucks, YES, you read that right. I stopped at Starbucks on my way to catching the Carpenter, Wyoming tornado.
Roger had told me that morning, as well as several days before, that if there was “ANY WAY YOU CAN CHASE”, how many times have I heard that phrase???…I should do it. I was torn on going as I also had a gal coming in from Yuma, AZ that afternoon that was going to TX with me the next day. It wasn’t until noon that day that I just told her I couldn’t resist the chase. The sky in Colorado was showing me I HAD to chase! Sooooo, I did. After contemplating on which route would get me north the quickest, I soon decided to high tail it on up I-25 and then north on highway 85 from I-76. My first stop was in Brighton, CO for a STARBUCKS. What???? With a sky like THAT…I stopped??? Can’t a girl eat, drink and chase all at the same time???!!! As I sat ordering my drink and munchies, I watched as a HUGE towering CU was going up directly to my N/NW and man was it GROWING. As I watched radar, I could soon tell I wasn’t going to make that first cell but little booger blowing up on the south side was soon showing me I had a chance! So with renewed hope, I took off with my Grande Very Berry Hibiscus and headed north. And then it happened…that darn Highway 85 construction happened. UGH. I said MANY cuss words as the 45mph speed limit was starting to give me heart palpitations. I soon realized that if it wasn’t meant to be, well, it just wasn’t meant to be. BUT…I DO NOT GIVE UP EASILY!!! I eventually conquered the chase that day, as I remained steadfast with trusty ol’ Radarscope…yes, I chase mostly by Radarscope, and Google maps by my side. I managed to chase the sequence of events that day as instinct lead me along several dirt roads, a herd of cows and eventually to the promise land of Carpenter, Wyoming where I eventually watched an a “drill bit” tornado that lead itself in to an incredible rope out. I also came across the damage path where a barn roof was laying in the middle of road. I did stop to make sure no one was hurt and when I realized all were OK and that hissing sound wasn’t a snake in the grass, it was high time to boogie on! Several houses had damage but from what I understand, no one was injured.
And if you are wondering, Roger and I like to cover 2 target areas, when and if needed. He remained up north and managed to catch tornadoes with his tour group, as I fed him images from my solo chase. My chase ended that day when my gps went out and I had NO idea where I was at. I chuckled as I knew if I just headed towards those Rocky Mts, I would eventually find my way home. Most chasers continued on that day and went north with what ended up being a beautiful supercell. (check Roger’s chase account from this day) But as you have read, I had a huge show to cover the next day in Amarillo, TX and had to get home. I hope you enjoy the sequence of events that unfolded for me on June 12, 2017 as I sure had fun with my Starbucks, Radarscope and that never-ending feeling of, “Gotta get there!!!”.
Caryn Hill
SLT Co-owner
