May 18th Bennett, CO Tornadoes Event

It is not often that the hunter becomes the hunted. However, of May 18th, that is exactly what happened at our home near Bennett, CO. A supercell thunderstorm developed southwest of our house. It produced it’s first of 4 tornadoes near Southlands (Aurora). The second tornado formed southwest of Box Elder Creek Ranches where we live. As it traveled northeast, Caryn Hill saw it and took action. She alerted locals in our miniranch neighborhood and then took off to chase it. It entered our residential area causing EF1 damage. It destroyed barns, garages, other structures and unfortunately killed farm animals. The second tornado dissipated northeast of our house as a third and then fourth tornado formed. These caused extensive damage near Bennett and were both rated EF2. Caryn stayed with the supercell and tornadoes as they moved north of Bennett and eventually roped out. After returning to Box Elder Creek Ranches, she and other neighbors jumped in to help those with damage. Our place was mostly spared, with just some downed trees, and a roof leak which we aren’t sure exactly how it happened. I guess with 80-100 mph winds hitting around the tornado anything is possible! Here’s some pics and also a Youtube video of the event.

May 16th, Southeast Missouri Tornadofest

May 16th was advertised by SPC with a MODERATE RISK across the MS/OH river areas. It did not disappoint! Strong shear, high moisture and instability, and a slowly advancing front set the stage for what would be the most significant severe weather outbreak of the year so far. We started in Springfield, IL and blasted towards Sikeston, MO, which was my target. Storms formed west along the front and moved east and intensified. We decided to push west a bit and meet them as they came out of the Ozarks (a nearly impossible area to chase in!). As is often the case, we targeted the tail end storm, which typically gets the best feed of moisture, as it moved just north of Poplar Bluff. It had a great hook echo on radar and showed a strong velocity couplet. As it emerged onto the flat terrain, a truncated cone tornado formed and went on to be on the ground over 15 miles. It caused significant damage and was rated EF3. Another tornado formed just east of the first, a long slender elephant trunk shaped tornado, and ended up getting rated EF1. The supercell moved east across the Mississippi and Ohio rivers west of Paducah, and due to terrain and poor road networks, we couldn’t stay up with it.

More storms formed back west into southeast Missouri, so we pursued them. We caught up to them just west of Morley. An elephant trunk shaped funnel descended and touched down just west of town causing EF1 damage. Soon another EF1 tornado formed just to out northeast and eventually dissipated as it crossed the river. Numerous tornadoes occurred across this area during this event, causing extensive damage and unfortunately even loss of life. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to those who suffered, including a tornado that directly hit St Louis. Please take the time to donate to local charities to help those impacted by these tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms.

May 14th Hershey, Nebraska Tornadoes

Wasn’t expecting a lot on May 14th. Moisture was lacking, but shear and lift were good. We chased a high based supercell north of McCook, NE and stayed with it as it moved north. It eventually dissipated as a wind shift boundary west of North Platte generated numerous severe thunderstorms. We approached North Platte as a landspout tornado formed south of Hershey. It persisted for several minutes before roping out. Soon a second tornado formed and became quite pretty! It lasted over 10 minutes before diminishing. Not long after that another tornado formed. It morphed into a slender elephant trunk shaped tornado and also lasted over 10 minutes. Finally we decided to head west on I-80 to the storm, now a formidable supercell. Decent structure and huge hail greeted us north of Hershey, and we decided to head back east as it rapidly weakened when it came off the boundary. A lot of fun today. Great lightning, nice tornadoes and good storm structure! Enjoy the photos!

May 4th Orla, Texas Gorgeous Supercell

May 4th brought a new trough into the southwest US. Moisture was still limited from the previous trough that pushed a front into the gulf. It usually takes 4 days minimum to get moisture back after that occurs, and this was the 4th day. A stout dryline was evident in southwest Texas off the Guadalupe mountains and storms formed along it. Due to lower moisture quality, the storms initially were higher based. Shear steadily increased and a beautiful supercell emerged from a cluster of cells southeast of Carlsbad. As the storm moved east, it encountered better moisture and instability and continued to intensify. Although never a threat to become tornadic, the structure was quite pretty! Right at sunset it became very electrified producing numerous cg strikes each minute. Finally, we left it at dark and headed to our hotel to get ready for the next day. We hope you enjoy the pics!

May 1st Westway, Texas Tornado Warned Supercell

May 1st set up was far from ideal. Limited moisture was present moving into the upslope play of northeast New Mexico. Shear was great, as was lift. However, limited moisture also meant limited instability. Despite all that, severe storms formed south near Logan, NM as moved east. The tail end storm latched onto the old frontal boundary draped across the region and started spinning hard. As the storm crossed the Texas border, it became tornado warned. The structure was amazing! As it churned southeast along the boundary, it produced hail tennisball sized and had numerous lowering over time. Headin into the Hereford area, the hail became intense so we chose to push ahead and northeast of it and get out of its way. For a day that wasn’t advertised, a bit of panhandle magic certainly became the story of the day! Enjoy the pics!

April 26th Roswell, New Mexico Tornadic Supercell

April 26th featured an upslope/dryline play in eastern New Mexico. Storms formed along and north of an outflow boundary. We intercepted the triple point storm that developed just northeast of town and kept back building at the triple point until it got so strong it moved southeast along the boundary. It didn’t take long in the highly sheared environment for it to start rotating strongly. Inflow winds of 50 mph fed the storm. There was so much dirt being sucked into the updraft at times, you could see the dirt cloud rise into the updraft base. Eventually the low levels started rotating as a very obvious mesocyclone formed. A clear slot wrapped around the meso and a long snaking elephant trunk shaped funnel, then tornado descended from cloud base. Dirt partially obscured it from time to time and it dissipated after about 5 minutes. The storm was a prolific hailer as ell we 3-4 inch stones reported. We stay with it until dark when it weakened. A fun day and a major powerful supercell was incredible to experience from birth to death. Enjoy the pics!

April 25th Muleshoe, Texas Tornadic Supercell

The arrival day for Tour #1 took us on an impromptu chase to west Texas. I knew it was a long way out and the we may or may not make it in time. We blasted west of Plainview just as the one decent (but short lived) tornado formed and dissipated. We arrived near Muleshoe to insane inflow winds into the supercell. Multiple wall clouds formed over the next 3 hours, but it just didn’t have that look. Areas of rotation formed, but never could tighten up enough to produce another tornado. The supercell persisted for many hours and was a prolific hail storm with stones up to 5 inches in diameter!!! Typically on arrival day, we restrict the chase within the state of Oklahoma, but this one was an exception, In the end, everyone enjoyed it, but a long way to go for what ended up transpiring, however it was tornado warned for several hours. Enjoy the pics!

April 24th, 2025 Matador, Texas Tornadic Supercell

What a day April 24th was!! There was a high threat for supercells and if one could latch on to a boundary in place it had the potential to produce tornadoes. Strong shear, great moisture for late April standards, and good instability were all present. I headed down from Woodward to the Texas Rolling Plains. When I arrived, a supercell had formed and started spinning hard not far from Silverton. As I approached it from the east at Turkey, I encountered baseball sized hail and dropped south to get out of it. I set up my camera and soon an elephant trunk shaped tornado formed. It planted firmly for about 10 minutes before dissipating. Soon the storm started reorganizing and I dropped south to just north of Matador. It cycled and developed a wall cloud, then a bowl and then a multivortex tornado. That turned into a huge cone, then close to a wedge before becoming rain wrapped. It was on the ground for probably 25-30 minutes!! After that the storm became quite HP and, having to be back in Oklahoma City that night, I left it and proceeded back to our base city. An amazing day, structure, 2 tornadoes, huge hail and lightning. Enjoy the pics!

April 23rd, 2025 Southwest Kansas Tornado Warned Supercells

April 23rd took me to southwest Kansas. A surface low and triple point was southeast of Goodland. Models showed supercells developing on the dryline and interacting with the warm front as they moved northeast and were forecast to spin hard there. That’s exactly what happened. I intercepted one supercell near Healy, Kansas that attached itself to the warm front in an environment of high theta-e air and it became tornado warned. I had to drive through copious amounts of golfball sized hail to get to the hook and what a beauty it was!! Low bowl shaped wall cloud with rain/hail wrapping around it as it spun HARD. It tried to cone up a couple times but couldn’t maintain it’s tight rotation to get a tornado down. Eventually it moved into colder air north of the warm front and weakened. I dropped south to catch another developing supercell west of Kalvesta, Kansas. a massive bowl shaped lowering was spinning hard. It produced a tapered funnel halfway to the ground, but never did contact it. Structure was nice with that classic backward “C” shape to the RFD eroded updraft. It also crossed into colder air and weakened. By then it was almost dark and time to head to the hotel for the night. Fun day and enjoy the pics!

April 19, 2025 Mertzon, Texas Tornado

April 19th was a long drive. Up at 4am to hit the road, we blasted nearly 700 miles, only to miss the best tornado of the day by 20 minutes. Talk about frustration! Models/NWS/SPC stated the tornado threat wouldn’t ramp up until after 6pm when the low level jet kicked in. All were wrong! Before 4pm a supercell hit the boundary and became tornadic. By the time we arrived, that storm had weakened so we targeted another supercell west/northwest of San Angelo. It also became briefly tornadic as the main meso wrapped up and dropped a cone funnel to the ground! It was only down a couple of minutes before lifting back up. A long drive, but we at least were able to capture a tornado!

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