03/24/07 REPORTS: CO, KS, NE

[Tony Laubach]

FULL MARCH 24, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!
http://www.tornadoeskick.com/logs070324.html

Full chase log has been posted thanks in part to Jon taking the wheel. We're pulling out of Wray, Colorado now and happy to say we'll be home by midnight.

Basically saw nothing of terrible excitement today as the storms junked out waaay to quickly and never really gave themselves a chance. We intercepted several storms between Goodland and Colby before trailing one north and east into McCook where we called no joy.

Jon, Jenn, and I are wrapping up our Spring Breaks this weekend and enjoyed being out. Ran into a hoard of chasers today including Hollingshead whom will undoubtly post photos which will make all these storms look much better than they were!

Hope everyone did well today as yesterday certainly was better to us. Made me happy we went out yesterday as well!

FULL MARCH 24, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!
http://www.tornadoeskick.com/logs070324.html

FULL MARCH 24, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!
http://www.tornadoeskick.com/logs070324.html

 

[Stan Rose]

I've had dissapointing busts before, but i was really hoping to start this year off on a positive note. Oh well. Should have checked the 12z runs before driving 350 miles to Hill City KS, and knowing right away that the cold dry winds didn't bode well for storms. With the warm front in N NE and no dryline to speak of, headed for the cold core and watched the pathetic low-topped storms up near the NE border that barely deserved to be called cumulus. All shear and no CAPE does not make a happy storm. Well, at least i got to test all systems for the next chase--ill be back, but im pretty bitter now. In Limon, and will be back by Midnight!

 

[Randy Denzer]

Wrong spot!!

 

[Van DeWald]

I've had dissapointing busts before, but i was really hoping to start this year off on a positive note. Oh well.

..

..

Well, at least i got to test all systems for the next chase--ill be back, but im pretty bitter now. In Limon, and will be back by Midnight!

Busts come with the territory. At least you got out of the city, got to experience the open road, and tested all your gear.

Van

 

[afischer]

Intercepted two storms today which were mildly intriguing given the pathetic environment. The first was by far the best, around 410pm CDT/310pm MDT west of Sharon Springs in Wallace county. Had a good view from the northeast side of the storm and watched it develop a gorgeous, distinct wall cloud and apparent clear slot. Impressive considering it was quite young. Alas, two new cells to its southeast clobbered it, and I thereafter began following the storm that emerged. Chased this storm as far as ~15 north of Brewster where I ran out of pavement in Rawlins county. At this point the storm had developed a strong (60dbz) core on radar but looked very cold and outflow-dominant. Headed home thereafter. Congrats to the geniuses who played far northeast CO!

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Ran into a hoard of chasers today including Hollingshead whom will undoubtly post photos which will make all these storms look much better than they were!

If I could work some magic on the one photo I took the whole trip, I'd make it some scene around town here. I woke up not wanting to drive to sw NE. I drove anyway. I get to Norton KS and about pull the plug on the day around 2pm and head home for tomorrow, but no, continued on to keep the day/vortmax honest. The best thing I saw was before that "main cell" was to I-70 as it was se of Goodland. From a long ways away I was rather certain it was going to drop a cone. The lowering looked like a cone 1/2 to the ground for a good while. The excitement quickly died after that.

 

[Mike Umscheid]

Started the day in Sterling with Tony Laubach and clan... I was suckered into cold-core play, thinking there may be interesting storms in the La Junta-Lamar corridor by early afternoon right near the upper low center/cold core aloft. To make a long story short, that didn't work out today like I had thought. Drive from Sterling to Ordway, then back east and north to Sharon Springs KS in time for those storms to junk out... then farther northeast following POS convection all the way to between MCK and Beaver City NE! Then called it quits about the time KU had blow it in the 2nd half, listening to the game through the crackle on the AM band... Anyway, I'll soon forget this chase... especially considering the interesting tornadoes about 40 MILES east of where I started the day. I drove a total 650+ miles up and down the high plains and finally back home, only taking about a handful of photos. Some interesting lightning illuminated CB shots in the distance after dark was about the only "reward" from this chase.

 

[fplowman]

Hey, no worries i busted as well.

Me and my fiance/chase partner Susan, decided to leave for NW Ks area last night. We left KC around 10:30 PM. Right before Junction City the engine light came on our Honda Element and the vehicle began lurching. We were unable to maintain speed and had a major power loss to the vehicle.

We could maintain a speed of about 45 but other than that the vehicle was having major issues. We stayed at the rest area and slept til morning. We drove to junction City in the morning and went to Auto Zone where they hooked us up to the computer and it gave him a code he never seen before

He directed us to the Honda Dealership in Manhattan. We arrived there at about 9 am. They replaced an oil sensor of all things. So at about 11am we started on our way with $130 bill to fix our vehicle. We made our way down the highway and were about 10 miles from the dealership when the light came back on and the lurching started again. So back we went.

WE waited there til about 1:30 after they fixed somehting else. I have to say i was mad and angry that I wasnt making it to my target in time. As 1:30 and a 4 hour drive makes me late for intiation. Also I was concerned that the Honda dealership was going to screw us ( out of towners ) and want more cash...

I have to give them kudos. They didnt charge us a dime more than the 130$ they originally charged us. Turned out it was a clogged screen where the oil is filtered into the engine???? Go figure.. They also gave us a free oil and filter change. Awesome service!

So we spent the night at the rest area and from 9 am to 1:30 pm at the Honda dealership.. After all that I said lets go home.,.. i was afraid we wouldnt make target area in time.

I watched the action or lack of unfold on my laptop at home.

My Bust...

Fred

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Sailed from Denton bright and early intending to make north central Kansas by initiation, but changed my mind at OUN. I turned west on I-40 to check out western Oklahoma and the pacfic front/dryline moving in from Texas. Around Elk City, I dropped south to Mangum and the better surface temps and shuffled around town stealing wifi and generally looking suspicious (since there wasn't another chaser within 100 miles). The potential was enough for OUN to assign a 30% intitiation prob to the area (and mention in their HWO that tornadoes could not be ruled out), but when it was over nothing happened and all the fat cu that had raised my hopes evaporated.

My conclusion is that a weak dryline circulation in the presence of subsidence and strong capping makes for a piss poor lifting mechanism. I'll have to write that down for next time.

I listened to Waylon on the way home. I was struck by this line: "It's a measure of people/who don't understand/the pleasures of life/ in a hillbilly band." I think that could apply to chasing, since a lot of us drove around today for no good reason we could easily explain to non-chasers.

 

[Daniel Christianson]

I took my chances i was near Cambridge as the cells moved my way so i didnt make it to the CO/NE border, i was hauling butt lol.. i tell you for a bobs road i only saw 1 person on this road just one, it was P7 or something like that i made it to Cambridge as the storm was tornado warned for the county west of me , i didnt care what it looked like a chase is a chase bust ro no bust , i followed the storms north and slightly east till it was getting dark and i needed gas, so i headed to lexington where i called it quits.. ill post pics when i can, well see what this run looks likein the morning, whether im up for a long journey... or not congrats to everyone who managed to salvge something out of this setup.

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

Decided to make the trek to NE for this set up. I started in Kearney and was optimistic
when the precipitation did not stick around and there was some nice cloud breaks. The lapse
rates and suface winds pointed to NE Colorado and NW Kansas through out the day so I headed farther west to
Lexington hoping things would break and move north to me. I watched the convection fire
in CO north and east of the low and late in the late afternoon soon decided I was not
going to venture into another state for this cold core.
Looked like a tough chase for those who jumped into the fire. I'm in Des Moines now
considering diverting north for another chase today. 2 potential days of chasing in March,
hey why not! I've driven farther for less.
Jerry Funfsinn
http://www.creativejetstream.com

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

BUSTED! We chased a few severe warned cells south of I70 that didn't really do much, but for abut 1 minute excited me when a funnel spun about 1/2 way to the ground before turning to crap. We were then blasted with tiny hail and very strong winds before heading home.

 

[Mark Farnik]

I'm kicking myself on this one. I was in Sterling from 1 to 4 pm attending a car show at Northeastern Junior College with friends. For a brief moment I considered hopping on US 6 to Holyoke, but I had my mom's Passat wagon and knew she would kill me if I got hail dents in it. So I left Sterling about 4, and about halfway back to New Raymer the weatherband radio starts squawking about the tornadoes in Phillips/Sedgwick Counties! I WAS 50 FREAKIN' MILES AWAY AND COULD HAVE INTERCEPTED! AARGGH!

Definitely glad I didn't decide to go to McCook like I had intially planned... that would have made an already bitter day even more bitter.

I think yesterday was a total bust for just about everyone.
If ANYONE was lucky enough to be on those tornadoes near Holyoke/Julesberg, double kudos to you.

 

[Caleb Kimbrough]

Sorry to everyone who got busted, we kind of figured that everyone went home and we were the only chasers dumb enough to stick around on the tornado warned cells up in NE...

Well.... Scott, Aaron, and I originally planned to head for Phillipsburg but ended up over by Oberlin, KS as the storms started to fire south of there. We tracked the storms up into Nebraska a ways around McCook.

We saw a few funnels on the tornado warned cell that moved up into Frontier county in NE and we also got to see some pretty good structure towards sunset. I really, don't consider yesterday a bust... While we did end up driving 750+ miles, I still had a great time and got some pretty good pictures. We've definitely had worse chase days...that's for sure.

Also....we ran into a few more people from Stormtrack and I just wanted to say that it was nice meeting you guys. Thanks for stopping by.

Here are a few photos:

The first two are of the southern cell while it was still in extreme NW KS. It was pretty impressive from where we were. We got hit by a little hail and a 60-70mph gust that almost killed us while we were driving. Good times.

This is of the cell in Nebraska:

I'll have the full chase account up on our website sometime later today or tomorrow.

Caleb

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Chris Wilburn and I originally set out to attend to the Central Plains Severe Storms Symposium in Lincoln Nebraska, but that changed as forecast models showed possibility of supercells and tornadoes for parts of northwest and north-central Kansas and into southwest Nebraska. Like so many other storm chasers, we decided to head for northwest Kansas to storm chase.

Chris and I left Pittsburg, KS Friday afternoon and made our way to Smith Center Kansas where we decided to stay for the night. Storms came in from the southwest Friday night which made me fear that rain would last into the morning killing off any chance for convection.

After waking up Saturday morning and looking at forecast models, our confidence in seeing anything went down. I think both of us had pretty much begun preparing for a bust in our minds. We decided to head further west on Highway 36 out of Smith Center and eventually made it to Norton, KS. After sitting in Norton for a while we decided to head down to Colby Kansas and eventually made our way onto I70 and eventually we met up with Matt Kassawara, Chris Rozoff and another chaser that was with them (I forgot his name) just south of Levant, KS.
We sat just off US-24 south of Levant for a period of time where we began to watch storms to our west, southwest fire up. As the storms got stronger we decided to go west on I70 and got off at the Edson exit to watch the storms to our west, southwest as they passed by.


[FONT=&quot]We tried the best we could to stay with the storms, but the dirt roads in NW Kansas were in horrible condition and couldn’t keep up with the storms as they moved north. We intercepted other storms that developed south, but nothing happened with those and as it got closer to being dark we decided to call it a chase and began our long drive home.

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The rest of the pics can be seen at http://kschaser.com/cpg1410/thumbnails.php?album=36