Wow, what a crazy last couple of days! I think I’ve seen more weather in the past 3 days in the upper-Midwest than I’ve seen my entire life. I know I’ve fallen vastly behind on these blog posts, but that’s because there’s been so much happening, all you have time for anymore is to squeeze as much sleep in as possible. So here I am now, sitting in a laundromat, trying to catch up on my blog…
Friday, May 30th
Friday was our first chasing day and, needless to say, I was more than ready to chase. After two days driving across the country and yelling at a toll plaza machine, this was the moment we have been anticipating for.
The morning began in North Platee, Nebraska with a weather discussion lead by Sherilyn and Alex. The synopsis was that there was some decent instability in the atmosphere and, with a frontal boundary moving through, we could see some convection firing up. In addition, with moderate speed shear, we could expect to see multicellular thunderstorms, but not supercellular thunderstorms. Tornadic supercells require strong speed and directional sheer in order to develop, but we simply didn’t have enough of either. The SPC also had us in a “See Text” region where stronger thunderstorms could develop, so the potential was good for some strong thunderstorms, but no widespread severe activity.
We headed up to Valentine, Nebraska where we waited for convection to start firing. Let me tell you this: waiting for convective activity to start is like watching grass grow. The only difference is that convection can start explosively, if it can get there. We kept ourselves from going completely insane (let’s face it, you already need to be partially insane in order to want to chase dangerous storms) by throwing around a Frisbee and taking pictures in a local park.
Finally some action started firing west shortly after lunchtime and we joyously transitioned into active chase mode, chasing our first storm of the trip. Driving west, the view of these storms were absolutely gorgeous. Back in Jersey, the trees completely block the view of approaching storms, so you can’t appreciate the full beauty of a towering cumulonimbus with an anvil top. Here in Nebraska, you get the whole package!
Its was an amazing site to finally see a full-blown cumulonimbus in person. The size of these clouds make you humble. Many are impressed by the size of a skyscraper or a ship. Personally, I am simply in awe of the vast expanse that was this thunderstorm cloud. You simply can’t fit it all in a standard lens (18-55mm).
Continuing to travel west, more storms popped up on radar. These storms formed behind the initial storm cell, fed by its outflow. This cycle continued, forming an entire train of thunderstorms, making this multicellular. As we intercepted our target storm, we got an incredible view of both our target storm and another storm to our east. Our target storm southwest of us gave us an amazing view of the rain shaft and cloud structure of the storm from the front. The eastern storm gave us a fantastic view of the updrafts feeding the train of storms. Definitely a nice two-for-one deal, as Dr. Decker put it.
Our target storm cell moved slowly closer to us and we would soon be surrounded by storms to our east and west by both our target storm and the eastern storm. With our target storm, the stronger of the two, moving north on our west side, we decided to punch east through a gap between two cells. We ended up in the small town of Cody, Nebraska, where we observed the rest of the storms pass by. Nice town, by the way. They had a nicely stocked town convenience store that the townspeople invested in to save the town. If anyone ever ends up traveling or chasing in north-central Nebraska, be sure to support a small town and visit Cody!
Our day ended at the Bar J Steakhouse in Hay Springs, Nebraska where I had an amazing Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes. I’d say it was the best, but that was my first Chicken Fried Steak ever. But I have to say, the bar is set quite high now! I would’ve taken a picture, but 1) I was in such a bliss I forgot cameras existed and 2) Ray would’ve yelled at me to “just eat your food!”
A fantastic end to an amazing day for sure. However, tomorrow will be even more amazing…
Michael J. Lee 