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

[Dave C]

I based out of Lexington morning of, and waited in Columbus until afternoon to see what storms would do. Like most everyone else I was disappointed to see storms would not remain isolated. The only tornado warns were for the HP monster surging east at 45+ knots. I initially thought I might approach from the south to have a quick look at the cell that left Ord - which I cautiously did. However, I ended up shaving my margin too thin and got stuck in road construction with a delay and pilot car setup on a one lane highway. This mistake, and missing a couple radar frames, put me in harms way as the storm continued to advance ESE and build itself to the south. No matter how hard I tried, with that road network and the incredible storm speed, I was going to get cored - something I have always been careful to avoid. By clever navigation I was able to avoid the worst of it, but was still pelted with enough large stones to cause considerable damage to my vehicle. This was a hard learned lesson. I was frustrated with the season and storms that day, and let it affect my judgement. I should have headed home as soon as storms formed a squall. This is the first time in my four years chasing I have made such a mistake and I hope it is my last. Pictures to follow if I can find any that are decent in that mess.

 

[StephenHenry]

Finally catching up with a report after a busy month. Our first ever chase in Nebraska turned out pretty fun but also pretty hairy. We started out in Kearney and headed north mid-morning to Broken Bow. Sat in the Prairie Grounds coffee shop for several hours and learned a lot about the town just by overhearing locals' conversations. As the afternoon wore on I got antsy, and when echos finally started showing up north and east of town, we took off. I felt like we were pretty on the ball initially, as we got to Ord with about 20 spare minutes to capture timelapse. Feelings deflated though as a monster HP supercell with low contrast emerged from the haze. We decided to give the storm a pretty wide berth, and abandoned our position near Ord just as the first cold outflow gusts hit. What followed was an increasingly white-knuckled chase as we stair-stepped SE along the major roads just ahead of the RFD gust front. Roads became more and more crowded but everyone was very courteous and I never witnessed any dangerous behavior. Unfortunately, the fast storm motion gave scant few opportunities to pull over for more deliberate footage. In Fullerton, just minutes ahead of the crashing gust front, it was fun to see the chaser train self-sort into the bold (i.e. turning north for a shot at the notch) and the scared (i.e. us turning south to stay clear). I'd say chasers were about 50/50 that day South of Fullerton we saw some really incredible gustnadoes and one of the densest fetches of RFD-driven dust I've ever seen (5-foot visibility at one point). After that, we needed to catch our breath so we sat just outside Central City for a while to look at our options. A new line was quickly congealing to our west and it looked like there were embedded inflow notches. We watched these pass over just south of St. Paul. The underside of this storm's shelf cloud was literally the blackest I have ever seen a sky get. We ended the evening watching a tornado warned storm north of Grand Island as lightning flashes lit the impressive structure. We were lulled to sleep in Grand Island by many more hours of rain and thunder as training storms continued late into the night. Like many others, I had hoped for photogenic tornadoes, but all in all it was still a rewarding day.

Watch video >

 

[Joe Pudlik]

Ended up on the Ord-Lincoln/Wahoo, NE tor warned supercell. Sat in the bears cage most of the time, as we stair-stepped southeast with the storm. Had several bouts of severe hail and gustnadoes.

http://www.turbulentstorm.com/blog/june-3rd-2014-e-c-nebraska-chase

 

[Skip Talbot]

Finally have a full account for this chase including photos, video, annotated map, and stats:
http://skip.cc/chase/140603/

Photography courtesy Jennifer Brindley Ubl