2014-06-03 FCST: NE/KS/CO/IA

Forgot to add, the 12Z NAM shows precip all morning into the afternoon... Any thoughts on that? Hopefully it's not a mess of storm clusters that just intensify in the afternoon, as opposed to pristine initiation...

There's some pretty good WAA at 850 mb the night before. It's also quite moist. Thus there is most likely going to be some overnight/morning convection due to isentropic lift from tonight's LLJ that will undoubtedly form along the high plains. This is confirmed by checking isentropic charts from the NAM. There's a pretty deep layer of moist and sloped isentropic lift across much of NE (including parts of SD) overnight. I saw lift between 301 K and the 313 K.

How this overnight/morning convection evolves will play a significant role as to the extent and location of diurnal convection on Tuesday. If the morning convection persists and is large in scale, it will most likely reinforce the warm front and shove it farther south. In this case we'll be more likely to see a significant instability gradient along the front with very low cloud bases on any diurnal storms that form north of the front. If this convection is weak, short lived, or small in scale, the warm front is less likely to be impeded and will probably make it farther north and will probably also attain a more NW-SE orientation. The environment north of the warm front might not be so stable either. It's more likely a more significant event could ensue in this scenario. It's most likely the actual evolution will be between these two extremes, so you will want to pay close attention to how outflow from these overnight/morning storms impact the location of the warm front.
 
Tough day to call. I suppose I'm slightly pessimistic because I may not be chasing this event. I'll just list what I do and don't like.

Like:
I absolutely love the sort of turning with height we see; that atop CAPE > 2000 J/kg with a breakable cap alone should excite any chaser. You don't see many days with the sort of speed shear and turning Tuesday seems to suggest. Storm movement should be largely parallel to the WF... any storm that can remain somewhat isolated -- big if -- could be quite a cyclic tornado producer. All this under a 60(ish)kt jet streak. Heck of a combo.


Don't like:
What I haven't been a big fan of is the fact that the NAM seems to be rather persistent in its depiction of no cap and precip in the vicinity of the WF early... 18z timeframe. This has been so for the last 4 or 5 runs.

This is the bane of many great-looking WF setups; convective clutter. (a good example of great shear going to waste because of convective clutter would be 4-14-2012 in southern Neb)

From the NAM's depiction of the event, we've got two types; early clutter (pre 18z) and rapid upgrowth between 18 and 21z -- too many "good cells" firing = clutter where tornado chasability is concerned. There will be tornadoes. Will there be tornadoes easily chased or seen? To me it pretty much boils down to how quickly we see upgrowth into a linear complex. It's going to be a narrow window if the NAM is correct; 18z-21z.

But, hey, if you get a good hour worth of tornadic supercell, it'd all be worth it.

The early convection is harder to get a handle on. One of my concerns here is that we'll have a large amount of junk convection before 18z that might contaminate the air our near easterly surface winds will be ingesting. (see 18z depiction of precip over eastern Neb)

As for the dryline and triple point later in the day. . . Further west things mix out pretty hard and you've got a big push of hot air from the SW after 18z. This makes the triple point and dryline play less enticing. The NAM has been quite persistent in breaking out precip along the DL, but I'm not expecting much given the shear orientation and temp/dp spreads.
 
[Caveat -- I'm geographically biased for a target as far south as possible. As such, I'm not really looking at areas N of I80]
00z NAM would have me shifting my target a bit farther N (I had been hoping to stay in KS since I'm starting from central OK tomorrow morning) as it has the warm front along I80 by 00z. Shear profiles look very good in KS and far southern NE south of the warm front, but LCLs will be high owing to high dewpoint depressions. This will mitigate the tornado threat in KS somewhat, even if there may be a beautiful relatively high-based supercell. That's if any storms can move off the dryline, which the 00z NAM suggests may be difficult owing to robust CINH. 14-16 C 700 mb temperatures in KS and far south-central NE may well keep all convection at bay down there.

Although it's farther for me, I suspect the most robust CI will be N of the front. 700mb temps are quite a bit cool in southeastern NE than in southcentral NE by late afternoon, so there may be a shot at CI along the warm front farther east of the sfc low as well. Convection will begin in central NE, but that may organize into an MCS relatively quickly (the E/W band of high 3hrly QPF from the NAM may be indicative of the quick upscale growth into an MCS). The off-the-chart SRH forecasts from the models have fallen to more reasonable but still high levels owing largely to forecasts of weaker 850 mb flow. Again, the shear will still be strong, but the hodograph forecasts don't look quite as crazy as they did before this evening's NAM run (at least where there's potential for surface-based convection -- there are areas with insane hodographs in areas that won't support surface-based supercells).

Edit: 21z SREF is a bit more bullish on precip in far S NE, with >70% prob of >0.01" convective precip between 21z and 00z down to the KS/NE border - http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/sref/sref.php?run=latest&id=SREF_prob_conpcpn_0.01_3hr__.
 
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Wow. Regardless of what happens, tomorrow is going to HAVE to be interesting and educational. It appears to me that the runs are slowing things down and taking them north.

I would not be surprised to see the first tornado warnings of the day in Cherry County, NE in the early afternoon. As the day progresses, it appears that the best conditions are going to be in the Mullen to Thedford, NE area early and shifting to Custer County and the general area to the east of that by sundown (Greeley & Loup Counties). All of this puts things well north of the originally precicted path of the I80 corridor and out into far less populated territory, which would be a blessing for many Nebraska residents. This would not be the best news for chasers, since we are talking Sandhills (or, at best, Nebraska Hwy 2 chasing corridor).

Best line from today's FDs? I nominate: "progged hodographs remain fairly obscene" (North Platte - LBF)

I can't chase until after work and would be leaving from near G.I. so I'm wishcasting something closer to me (but not TOO close, since Kearney is home).

Best wishes for a sane and safe chase day tomorrow for those going out.
 
The WRF has 2 intense supercells developing near O'Neill and Sioux City late afternoon--will be interesting to see what the model-du-saison (HRRR) does in a few hours...
 
Interesting...HRRR fires up the first sup near Mission-Winner SD with the strong WAA....another couple hours and all will be known! :D
That's at 18z...cells just now firing in NW NE
 
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Yep, the wrf really pushes stuff NE--two big sups one east of Norfolk and another nw of des moines at 02Z, then the derecho gets going. So far the HRRR is following that trend. Kind of glad I get to sit this out from afar.

EDIT: 4am: ok, now the hrrr is out to 22Z...and it is firing up stuff along the dryline into south central NE...I tend to buy this over the dry wrf. Isn't this exciting? :D
 
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image.jpg
This will be the area to watch over the next few hours. So far morning convection seems to be staying well to the north. Will be important to see how it orients itself to the front and how far south the front sags this morning and into the afternoon. Unless more convection forms behind this initial early stuff, I think we're looking good for a great wf play this afternoon.
 
The hrrr produces two massive sups at 23Z--one south of O'Neill, the other northeast of Omaha.
EDIT: now the 10z has the same two dominant cells--likely producing long-tracked tornadoes. Area near Omaha could be in serious trouble in the 23-01z time frame.
Be safe folks!
 
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I will be joining many of you storm chasers today in Nebraska (leaving from Kearney) and with a small rubber cheeseburger on my dashboard in remembrance of Tim - Paul Samaras and Carl Young (c/o Tim Marshall). While a possible big storm day and one of only a few this spring, let us remember to be careful drivers and courteous chasers on the many country roads in central Nebraska, where pull-offs are rare and shoulders non-existent. Don’t block any road, paved or not. Remember, this season isn’t over for at least another month and don’t forget Wayne, NE last year (who in June would have expected that in October). So no one day is ever worth your life. Plan to be around a lo-o-o-ng time.

When I last spoke to Tim Marshall in Burlington, CO on May 21, we both commented on how courteous the many chasers were that day on US36 east of Denver --despite the large numbers. Perhaps there has been a small shift in this culture since El Reno. Let’s remember those three lost friends and do ourselves proud today.
 
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Yesterday someone talked about the 'worst case scenario' where the morning crapvection blew off and the warm front aligned itself with the general storm motion (which is now WNW to ESE along the WF). Storm direction will now be directly into the inflow and those 'obscene' SRH's may actually happen. I'm looking at Oneil-Kearney-Lincoln as my triangle area of chase concern, but anything that slides down that WF into Omaha will either be an 80mph derecho or HP monster from hell.
RAP and HRRR are both in agreement for absolute poop storms out there today, HP cells everywhere. precipitable water is very high, expect a ton of flooding rains as well on your chases. Sadly due to a late arriving chasing friend I'll be leaving around 5pm to see what is out there locally.
 
I'm just virtual chasing this setup and wanted to point out a couple outflow boundaries that might be worth watching for initiation and enhanced helicity. The northern boundary appears to be slowly drifting northward and I imagine would help reinforce the warm front. Most of the eastern part of the southern boundary is drifting southward fairly quickly, while the western edge near the Nebraska Panhandle appears to be holding steady.

20140603_Boundaries.jpg

Satellite Image Credit: College of DuPage Weather Lab
 
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I'd like to echo what Jeremy has posted; the outflow boundary from this mornings convection shows up well on RAPs regional reflectivity radar output and it looks like it's stopped right at the warm front which is along the KS/NE border. So we will have a convective outflow reinforced warm front moving north across NE. God, if a storm can root on that in central NE, it's going to spin like a top.
 
The latest HRRR runs in central Nebraska are a little scary, especially now the sun is out and warming the surface over a wide area. Small synoptic/large mesoscale EHIs are in the ballpark of 10, with isolated higher values when you take the immediate storm environment into account. The HRRR pops up cells around 21-22Z and keeps them discrete. Also worth keeping an eye on is an isolated cell that HRRR tries to develop in extreme NW Nebraska/eastern WY, in a regime of >5000 CAPE but less shear.

Forecast max updraft helicity in the 21-01Z timeframe are as high as I've seen HRRR output.
 
The latest HRRR runs in central Nebraska are a little scary, especially now the sun is out and warming the surface over a wide area. Small synoptic/large mesoscale EHIs are in the ballpark of 10, with isolated higher values when you take the immediate storm environment into account. The HRRR pops up cells around 21-22Z and keeps them discrete. Also worth keeping an eye on is an isolated cell that HRRR tries to develop in extreme NW Nebraska/eastern WY, in a regime of >5000 CAPE but less shear.

Forecast max updraft helicity in the 21-01Z timeframe are as high as I've seen HRRR output.

HRRR does indeed look crazy. Although it didn't quite nail the current precip in N Central NEB, will be interesting to see how much discrete storm action we get in the end. SPC seems on the fence about it.
 
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