June 16th was a surprise day. We were figuring on a down day or a day that had very marginal potential. By late morning, several storms developed along the east side of a surface low in northern South Dakota. Many were tornado warned. We couldn’t get there in time coming up from Salina, Kansas, but we did manage to catch the storm that was the largest and longest tornado warned in South Dakota. It had beautiful structure and very large hail. Also it produced a large, but weak tornado that ripped through the Menno area causing lots of tree damage and damage to several tin buildings.
June 15, 2009 Kansas Tornadoes
June 15th was a strange day. Early on it looked like the area along the Kansas/Nebraska border would provide the best opportunities for severe storms and tornadoes. We ended up playing the dry punch in southwest Kansas, and intercepted a tornadic supercell near Belpre, Kansas. Later that evening, there were tornadic supercells in southern Nebraska as well.
June 13, 2009 Adams County, Colorado Tornadic Supercell
June 13th was the arrival day for my next tour. As such, Murphy’s Law always seems to be in place! After a visit with Caryn at her horse show (which she kicked butt!), I frantically drove to the hotel, grabbed all the guests and off we went to chase this beast, just north of my house!
It was a fantastically structured monster, with a classic supercell appearance, clear slot with rapid rising scud east of it, long streaming beaver tail and barber pole appearance to the updraft. Although it did not produce any significant tornadoes, it did produce two small, but photogenic tornadoes. I was in such a hurry I forgot to grab my still camera, but I always have my dashcam to shoot video and grab a few stills from.
June 11, 2009 Southeast Colorado Beautiful Supercells
June 11th looked like a good setup in Colorado. Good upslope flow, an old boundary, good shear and moisture, would set the stage for tornado warned supercells east and southeast of Pueblo, CO. We intercepted two such storms, both of which had fantastic structure and tried all they could to produce tornadoes. In the end though, weak low level winds would inhibit much in the way of tornado formation.
June 5, 2009 LaGrange, Wyoming Tornadic Supercell
Probably one of the most well documented tornadoes in history by Vortex II and The Weather Channel. We intercepted the entire life cycle of this gorgeous tornado and supercell from west of LaGrange till its dissipation well into Nebraska. This tornado was on the ground for nearly 30 minutes moving at speeds less than 30 mph.
May 13, 2009 Kay County, Oklahoma Tornado
May 13th took us to the Kansas/Oklahoma border. Our initial target was north central Missouri but due to a late night in northwest Texas, it wasn’t going to happen. We positioned ourselves north of near Blackwell and watched as numerous cells developed on the front until finally a decent supercell formed just to our west. It quickly started rotating and produced a very nice tornado that was on the ground for over 15 minutes. Please click on the video link for a neat 2 minute video and click on the photos for a larger image of this very pretty and well structured tornado.
May 1, 2009 Stamford, Texas Supercells
May 1st kept us in northern Texas playing a high CAPE/fairly low shear day. We had strongly deviant moving supercells with pretty structure, tornado warned but never did produce much, other than large hail, a funnel and heavy rain. Still, two very pretty structured supercells were observed.
April 29, 2009 Cedar Hill, Texas Tornadoes
April 29th took me to the Texas panhandle. Several severe storms developed along an old outflow boundary and warm front. Many spun strongly and a couple produced tornadoes. We were able to intercept the Cedar Hill storm and tornadoes from a distance of about 10 miles. We actually were chasing a tornado warned supercell just east of the Cedar Hill storm, when I saw the tornado form to our west. Due to poor road options, and muddy dirt roads, we were forced to stay east and watch from a distance.
April 28, 2009 Carlsbad, New Mexico Supercell
April 28th took me to southwest Texas and southeast New Mexico to chase upslope storms. By late afternoon such a supercell developed near the Guadalupe mountains and tracked eastward along the Texas/New Mexico border towards Jal. The storm had pretty structure and was tornado warned for a long period of time. There may have been a brief tornado but we were too far away due to poor roads to confirm it. The storm produced large hail and tons of lightning.
April 26, 2009 Roger Mills County, Oklahoma
April 26th had outbreak written all over it. SPC upgraded to High Risk and issued several PDS tornado watch boxes. Problems seemed to start with storm mode as things would develop and become a bit stretched out and eventually linear. By late afternoon a nice pinch point developed along I-40 over the far eastern Texas panhandle. Storms fired, spun quickly and became tornado warned. We intercepted 2 tornadoes near the town of Crawford and we came very very close to the second larger tornado. Close enough to smell the tornado and feel your ears pop. Click on the link below for a video (beware of LARGE file size!) and the small photos for larger images.
