June 28th took us to central North Dakota on a set up that didn’t look great. Sometimes nature loves to surprise and it certainly did this day! An updraft developed south of Bismarck and slowly drifted north. It was severe for golfball sized hail, but the best part was the low precipitation supercell structure. Sculpted structure eventually drifted over a nice ripening canola field east of town and was just gorgeous. The storm weakened at sunset, but not before giving us a parting beautiful view! Surprise day, but oh so pretty! Enjoy the pics!
June 23, 2026 Plainview, Texas Tornado Warned Supercell
June 23rd we chose to chase the Texas panhandle were a stout dryline, good shear and instability were present. It was a long drive to make it there in time, but we did, intercepting 2 supercells, one near Happy and the other near Plainview. The latter supercell became tornado warned and had some interesting structure as well as great lightning, a couple gustnadoes, and a lot of mammatus clouds under the anvil. A lot of New Mexico smoke from wild fires covered the area and often gave the updrafts a yellowish tint to them. Cool coloring! A fun day and a couple really pretty supercells.
May 8, 2026 Chattanooga, OK Tornado Warned Supercell
Good shear, but limited moisture would be the problem this day. Storms formed along a cold front in central Oklahoma by mid afternoon, but were high based. We were watching a cluster of towers west of Lawton and hoped something would form from them. Later in the afternoon, they did just that. A supercell emerged and produced baseball sized hail. Early evening it became tornado warned. It produced a couple of funnels but was moving into capped air and weakened. The setting sun made for a cool image as the updraft evaporated.
May 31st Roswell, New Mexico Incredible Supercell
May 31st had potential in the western Texas panhandle and southeastern New Mexico. Storms exploded in New Mexico, and a couple became tornado warned. Those clustered and moved into west Texas. A few hours later, more storms formed near Roswell. With good upslope flow, decent moisture and instability, they quickly became severe. One storm, on the southern end of a cluster, became a supercell. The structure was amazing and the electrification was phenomenal! We stayed with it till dark when it weakened and the lightning ceased. One of the prettiest LP supercells of the season to date! Enjoy the pics!
