What an awesome day!!!! We started the day out in Oklahoma City and headed north towards the triple point in southwest Kansas. We intercepted an incredible supercell in eastern Ford county and it moved into Edwards county. This storm had 60 mph inflow winds and awesome structure. It produced several tornadoes, of which we saw 4 of them. The first tube formed in the inflow region in the notch of this beast. The second, third and fourth tornadoes formed in the hook area of supercell. We eventually blew the storm off as it approached Greensberg and took on drastic HP features. We dropped south for the next cell, only to find out later that our first cell later produced the Pratt wedge. Moral of the story: Never blow off your storm!!!!
May 5th, 2002 Texas Panhandle Magic
May 5th was an incredible day. Two very large tornadic supercells developed in the Texas panhandle. Since I was on my way to Oklahoma City to join David Gold and Silver Lining Tours, I took the northern route through the northern Texas panhandle. By mid afternoon a supercell developed near Dumas and tracked east/northeast through the panhandle. This storm produced a very large tornado about 10 miles east of Pringle, Texas, and another beautiful tornado just south of Higgins, Texas.
April 27th, 2002 Crete, Nebraska Tornado
This was an interesting day to chase. The atmosphere over my target area was cloudy and cool, with temps in the low 50s and dewpoints near 50. A moderate risk was issued by SPC, and if skies could just clear enough to destabilize the atmosphere, then there was a good chance of significant tornadoes. I left Denver driving through the rain and snow and arrived near Alma, Nebraska by 1 PM. Skies were clearing as the dry slot had pushed northward. A rope cloud had formed and towers were trying oh so hard to establish themselves with little luck. Finally enough heating had occurred to warm temps into the low 60s with dewpoints near 60. A couple cbs became rooted in the boundary layer and quickly exhibited mini-supercell characteristics. Shortly after 3 PM a rapidly rotating cb developed southwest of Crete, Nebraska. This cell raced northward at 50 mph and produced a tornado that stayed on the ground for 4.5 miles just west of Crete. Unfortunately, I did not get my camcorder up and running and focused in time to catch the mature part of the tornado. Photos are below. A couple of the photos have been enhanced to see the tornado in its latter stages.
April 18th, 2002 McPherson County, KS Monster Supercell & Tornadoes
April 18 was my favorite chase day of the year. A dryline/front intersection (triple point) was the focus for intense convection this day. I arrived north of Wichita in time for the first cb to go up. It died quickly as other towers also tried in vain to break the cap. Finally by late afternoon a storm broke the cap and went on the be the most scenic supercell of the year. It moved slowly across McPherson county, Kansas as it became a gorgeous “upside down wedding cake” with intense cg, hail and a couple of tornadoes.
September 22st, 2001 Clay County, NE Tornadic Supercell
I had no idea was the results of Sept 22 chase would be, but I certainly did not expect what I got. My son and I left early morning for our target of York, Nebraska. We arrived by mid afternoon to a cirrus shield and stratus left over from morning convection. However, an outflow boundary was in place from near Grand Island southeast towards Concordia, Kansas. We sat and sat with nothing happening. Then finally around 6 PM (6pm magic !!), things started to change. Towers were exploding not far from Clay Center and soon our first storm developed. It did not look that great, but was only a harbinger of things to come. Another cell went up and produced several small funnels. Then a larger funnel formed and eventually touched down near Saronville, Nebraska. It later dissipated only to be replaced by another, yet larger tornado at dark. The second tornado was eventually rated F3. We found a prominent damage path and a couple of farmsteads destroyed. This storm had the classic mothership appearance and was one of the prettiest supercells of the year.
August 23rd, 2001 Russell/Lincoln Counties, KS Supercells & Tornadoes
What a pleasant surprise this chase was!! An impressive vort max and stacked low were over northeast Colorado moving into western Kansas. By 10 am, storms were firing to the east of the vort max. I decided to blast out of Denver to get in front of this vort center and hopefully find a rotating storm. I found much more than that!!! First, a tornado occurred in Gove county, Kansas near the Castle R o ck state park. Nice small landspout. Next a rather large supercell exploded in the unstable air over Russell county, Kansas as I blasted east on I-70. Another landspout occurred near I-70 in Ellis county, Kansas. As I arrived on the now confirmed tornadic supercell, I saw a huge hail core that contained baseball sized hail. I headed east to get in front of it and southeast of the updraft. As I did a rather large stovepipe tornado formed under the rotating meso. Secondly, another smaller white tornado formed on the east side of the meso as the storm entered Lincoln county, Kansas near the town of Sylvan Grove. The storm soon went HP as I headed east towards Salina to get in front of it and watch the shelf cloud mature. But not before I was pummeled with golf ball sized hail and 70 mph winds. It was a beautiful sight!!! Please enjoy the video stills below.
August 1st, 2001 Lincoln County, CO Supercell & Tornado
Interesting set up this day. Another boundary lay east of Denver with a nice winds shift and pseudo-dryline running from Ft Morgan to Limon. Air to the east was very moist and unstable. By mid afternoon isolated storms developed on the boundary. They started fairly high based as shown in the first couple pics below. As early evening arrived, the bases lowered as temps dropped and the dews rose. A nice supercell developed west of Limon and tracked north, then east across Lincoln county. This storm had awesome structure with a nice vault, shelf, tons of CG and even a small landspout tornado. By dark the storm weakened as the atmosphere stabilized, but not before leaving an incredible image etched in my mind.
July 26th, 2001 Arapahoe County, CO Tornado
July 26 was a day with good possibilities for eastern Colorado. Decent shortwave energy was present, along with good instability and the DCVZ boundary setting up in eastern Arapahoe and Adams counties. I headed out the door shortly after lunch with a target to get under developing thunderstorms near the Byers area. Upon arrival just east of Byers, a nice cell had developed and was racing northeast rapidly away from me. Another cell was developing southwest of town, and this cell was the one I targeted. By 2 PM, a nice bell shaped, candy cane striated mesocyclone developed on the eastern side of the storm. Soon, rapid rotation was evident. At 2:28 Pm the tornado touched down and stayed on the ground for over 10 minutes. Overall a very nice storm and I fortunately got the results I had hoped for.
July 22nd, 2001 Faith, SD Tornadic Supercell
After chasing in northern plains with Rocky Rascovich (great chasing with you!!), my friend Dave Brown and I left eastern South Dakota headed west to a supercell coming out of Montana. As we approached the Mobridge, South Dakota area, we noticed a very long, fairly sharp anvil streaming to our northwest. The closer we got, the more I realized that this storm was something special. When we were about 20 miles east of Faith, we noticed a highly striated updraft that was very electrified. The lighting would light up the vault and reveal an awesome liberty bell shaped updraft that was obviously rotating. This storm had not one, but three inflow bands!!!!!! The updraft was moving just south of southeast, while the anvil was streaming almost due northward. As we got closer, about 20 miles from the updraft, we noticed a well formed wall cloud. At about 8 PM, a rather large cone tornado formed, with a nice tail cloud extending to the east. It stayed on the ground for 5 minutes before rapidly dissipating. As the updraft pushed to our east, we stayed behind it and watched an awesome CG show!!!
June 11th, 2001 Benson, MN Tornadoes
This day was one of my all time favorites. An incredible set up with a warm front lifting northward through southern Minnesota, an approaching short wave and developing cyclone in northeast South Dakota set the stage for explosive thunderstorm development. The day started in Granite Falls, MN under cloudy skies with elevated convection. The morning convection soon cleared and left us with southeast winds at 35 mph with a temp of 90 and a dewpoint of 72!!! WOW!!! All things were pointing to the area northeast of Watertown, SD as the hot spot. Winds were backed wonderfully, but the atmosphere was strongly capped. Shortly after 2 PM, the first surface based tower exploded after several hours of excellent convergence, into a strong supercell that within an hour, produced the Benson tornadoes. This supercell was on the wet side of classic, but morphed into an intense HP storm. By the time it approached the twin cities, we left it for the night. Please check out the photos below, as some are breathtaking!!!
