2013-06-14 REPORTS: NE

[Scott Nicholson]

Spring Weather left the Omaha area around 3:30pm and headed northeast on Route 275 toward Norfolk. We decided to stop at Pilger, NE to wait for storms to pop...but, after failing to find a gas station in town, we worked the extra 15 or so miles to Norfolk, NE. While topping off the gas tank, the storm popped to our southeast, south of Pilger. We returned to Pilger and headed south on Route 15...then east on 32, splitting the updraft and precip. We set up shop a couple miles south of 32 to take in the beautiful display Mother Nature presented us...an extremely slow moving, mothership supercell. It was truly a beautiful sight! It appeared like it was trying to wrap up on the north side of the updraft...but it just couldn't do it. After a little while, with no tornadoes immanent, we jogged a few miles east to get a better perspective on the structure...and then a mile or two more a bit later. When the contrast began to worsen, we headed back west to our 2nd position for a better look. While there were a few interesting and suspicious lowerings, I could not confirm any funnels from my position due to the poor contrast (apparently a funnel was reported). Once the storm became outflow dominant, we raced the bow charging into Omaha. Within the back side of the bow, we only caught heavy rain, a few pea-sized (or smaller) hail, and a few minor gusts (30mph max).

Here is the video I posted to YouTube of the beautifully rotating supercell from between 6 and 10 miles west of West Point, NE:

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[Zack Hargrove]

Here was our experience near the West Point, NE supercell. Talk about jaw-dropping structure and a CG barrage. What a cool storm. I love tornadoes and wished it produced one (came close a few times), but structure like that makes the chase a 150% success.

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[Brett Roberts]

It's a tall order for the cost-benefit analysis of any tornado-less chase 450 miles from home to come out positive, but this one managed it. I left OUN at 8:30am and still ended up sitting around bored and antsy in Norfolk for at least an hour before the Cuming Co. storm initiated. I'm not sure I've ever seen an updraft which initially looked so terrible (high-based and very laminar -- screamed "elevated" given it was also E of the OFB) turn into a beast like this one did. I was in the vicinity of Dodge for well over an hour capturing stills and video. In hindsight, given the array of spectacular shots from all angles I've seen, it probably would've been best to position several miles further NE. But, then, what's the fun if we all get the exact same shot... right?

Here are a few stills plus video (mainly timelapse).

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