Took longer than a “one Mississippi” to actually cross the Mississippi, but with that crossing, we are now officially in Tornado Alley and one step closer to catching that sought-after twister!
Of course, getting there wasn’t the easy part. There was this terrible toll plaza that really just grinded my gears. That’s the problem with growing up in New Jersey – we’re used to a fast-paced environment. So when you get stuck at a toll plaza with a broken machine and the help button takes a minute or two for someone to answer, the inner Jersey gets to you…
Weather-wise today, nothing really much to talk about in terms of severe weather. While you folks back home are hit by another backdoor cold front and wondering where the warm weather went (eww), we’re doing another day-long drive (‘nother eww). And, to be quite honest, we’re kind of bugging out! Sitting in a car or driving a car for long distances, as some of you know, kind of gets to you after a while. What’s keeping us going (and somewhat sane), though, is the outlook for tomorrow and especially Saturday & Sunday!
This morning, our forecast team determined our starting point location for Friday to be North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte is centered between two areas of interest that were in consideration this morning for storm chasing Friday: Northeastern Wyoming and Southeastern South Dakota (why not just one big Dakota? I asked myself that as well). However, a new outlook issued by the SPC this afternoon ended up moving that potential elsewhere. As a result, tomorrow looks eh for severe weather. However, we can probably see some nice thunderstorms anyway and maybe a good lightning show.
Saturday looks more promising as parameters start aligning, but Sunday is actually a day we are really interested in. Even The Weather Channel has interest in Sunday, sending Mike Bettes and Rutgers alumnus Mark Elliot to South Dakota! Maybe we’ll run into one another (not actually run into one another, that would be very, very bad…).
A final notable event that occurred today was during our last gas stop where we met this guy:
Yes, he was a stoner… major stoner… and probably a lot of other things. Real chill guy, but completely off his rocker!
Michael J. Lee 