2014-06-14 REPORTS: KS/NE/IA/CO

[Mike Marz]

Began our chase near Aurora NE shortly after towers started going up to our west. These storms took a bit to get going but eventually a cell just south of Fullerton began to look somewhat interesting. We ended up sitting underneath the updraft watching the hail core grow dramatically just in front of us. Saw a pretty cool occlusion happen http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuICbWtAgE timelapse http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YVs7HWuBArw and shortly after, the storm became tornado warned. This cell ended up merging with another cell coming up from the south and got real messy and HP after that. Wish we would have targeted further south, maybe we would have gotten to see that land spout tornado by the KS/NE border.

 

[Taylor Wright]

Headed up to Alma, NE and met a few chasers there, then began seeing vertical development just to our south. We decided to move south and east but this thing went from a spec on the radar to tornado warned in less than 20 minutes. Still was able to see the small tornado from about 20 miles away. Otherwise, this was a very successful day from a photography standpoint. Once we finally got on the cell near Stockton, KS it cycled and developed a very photogenic mesocyclone as we were standing underneath it.



Keep in mind these were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S4 using the panorama feature. Still the best pictures I have ever gotten in my short chasing career (need to get myself a camera).

Here's another as it was moving through Smith Center:


Despite the rotation, it didn't want to drop another one until it was north in Nebraska around 10 pm. We got a few rotating scud, though.

 

[Winston Wells]

Another day, another moderate-risk chase in Nebraska. My son and I arrived at our initial target of Grand Island mid-afternoon and waited near I-80 for a couple of hours for the cold front to move southeast and the cap to weaken. Once tops emerged way back to the southwest in northern Kansas, we moved south through Hastings and waited a bit more near the intersection of U.S. 281 and NE-74. The anvil of the storm that produced the Stockton, KS landspout tornado was clearly visible to our southwest, but so too were a closer set of towers back to our northwest near Grand Island:

As the tornado reports began to come in from the Kansas storm, I briefly considered trying to cover the 70 or so miles to intercept it, but the only realistic play was to head back north to Grand Island and wait for the northern complex of towers to mature. They appeared to struggle against the cap for a while, but eventually two cells began to dominate just to the northeast of Grand Island. The northern cell became SVR-warned and seemed to be rocketing off to the northeast. Thankfully, though, the southern cell began to shape up nicely around 7 p.m. after we had moved through town on U.S. 30. We headed north on NE-14 at Central City and had a nice, unhurried view of the slowly strengthening storm off to our west. Here's what the storm looked like from the intersection of NE-14 and NE-92. The view is to the west:

We then headed east on NE-92 and then back northeast on U.S. 30. This was perfect, because for its most interesting phase, the storm moved roughly parallel to U.S. 30 (although a long freight train moving northeast did block our view for a few minutes). We saw the storm produce two wall clouds between Clarks, NE and Havens, NE. The first, which didn't persist, was small and compact:

Soon after this feature disappeared the storm became TOR-warned, but it also began to merge with a more messy line of convection back to the southwest. We were a bit worried about the storm's elongated hail core, so at Silver Creek we moved back south on NE-39. We were about seven miles south of Silver Creek when off to our northwest the storm produced another, larger and more prolonged wall cloud and what appeared to be a funnel or two. This shot looks northwest from NE-39 between Silver Creek and the intersection with NE-92:

After that, the show was over. Precip began wrapping around over our position, but by then the storm was rapidly falling apart; it might have been undercut by the advancing cold front. We headed south and east for a bite to eat in Seward, and then headed home and out of the way of the ensuing monster MCS that formed after dark. Given that there were three distinct areas of interest along the cold front in far northeastern, central, and south-central Nebraska, crowds didn't seem to be much of a problem on this chase.

 

[Dave C]

Started the day late with hopes of chasing in NE Colorado, SW Nebraska, NW Kansas. Beautiful afternoon at Barr Lake State Park outside of Denver CO distracted us for a bit too long. Followed developing cells up I-76 to Brush, then headed straight west on US34 by around 3:45PM as a lone cell fired east of the dry line in KS. We were far from the storm that produced the reported land spout in NC Kansas and MCS mode was immediately obvious on the cells in NE Colorado before we had been on the road much more than an hour, so we decided to do a squall chase for some shelf photos- or more accurately let the squall chase us. Considered dropping south to go around the squall and head home, but elected instead to take shelter in the bay of a self car wash near Oakley, KS off US83 to watch the bow echo come in at about 8PM. A few local LE officers and travelers had the same idea (this was 20 minutes after spotter reports of baseball hail and 70 to 80+ MPH gusts in the storm). The southern tip of the squall passed over by 8:20 with momentarily strong radar indicated rotation. We felt safe to remain at the car wash based on our visuals. We were unable to confirm rotation visually despite a menacing solid lowering to the south, a gorgeous roll cloud/ inflow to the SW, and swirling scud. Typical squally mess.

We experienced about 20 minutes of intense straight line winds, very little precipitation surprisingly, saw a frightening power flash fairly close, and a large sign almost come down across the street. Power was lost at the car wash and eventually came back on. I only got one decent photo of the epic lightning as the storm retreated to the east due to intense tripod shake in the winds.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/101464524@N06/14431994595/

After the storm passed we headed back up towards I-70 on US83. A large metal sign was down on I-70 and some large tree branches had also come down. The window at the gas station up the road was blown out and power was still out there, with minor injuries from glass and some frightened travelers still hiding in the hallway. We assured them the storm was gone and that there was no more storms incoming for the night.

Afterwards, went onto some dirt roads north of I-70 still off US83 to watch a mind blowing 270 degree lightning show breaking perfect darkness with something like 5-6 flashes a second. Storm motion was fast enough and we were far enough from home that we let the storm go, with no more good lightning photos, but a fantastic show for about half an hour as the storm moved off east. Moon and stars came out and we ground back to Denver in the wee hours of the night. This ended up being one of the more exciting and rewarding chases I have been on.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Jenn Brindley ubl, Phil Bates, targeted the northern end up the setup up by Norfolk, NE where we liked the backed surface winds, open cap, and low LCLs. We intercepted a pair of training supercells and were able to watch wall clouds from both at the same time, which I thought was an amazing sight. The day was nearly forgotten two days later though. Here's a detailed log from the chase with photos and annotated map:

http://skip.cc/chase/140614/

The southwest storm:

The northeast storm:

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I apologize for such a late reply ... Below is my chase log on this day.

June 14 was a busy moderate risk chase day that eventually was awarded with a couple of brief tornadoes well after dark. I started the day in Lincoln, and checked data (forecasted). It appeared the beast area to be was from about York to Grand Island, then southward as far as Smith Center and near the Highway 281 corridor. This area was ahead of a forecasted triple point (lee cyclone to the west), and characterized by strong moisture advection under a breaking cap ahead of a Pacific cold-front by afternoon. Meanwhile, the Storm Prediction Center had this area outlooked in a moderate risk with attendant 45% hail and wind probabilities (both hatched), as well as 10% probability of tornadoes. By mid afternoon, I headed west out of Lincoln on I-80 to York, Nebraska for lunch and to prep the vehicle hail guards.

I headed west on I-80 to Grand Island to wait to see what happens. A convergence axis was setting up (pre-frontal) just west of there, visually marked by cumulus (with altocumulus castellanus above that as upper air support started arriving from the west aloft). By about 4:30 PM, the cumulus became agitated and the cap was breached by about 5 PM, with cells developing NW of Hastings and a "tail" end storm initiating about 60 miles to the SW near Smith Center in Kansas. I met up with two other chasers, John Thomas and Charles Hamilton in their vehicles near Hastings who would join me on the rest of this chase. With them in my caravan, we headed down 281 through Hastings, and into Kansas near Red Cloud to target the better storm to the SW (which already was producing a land spout tornado).

At this time, the SPC also issued mesoscale discussion 994 and subsequent tornado watch box 294 for this area as well. The storm being targeted was a supercell storm and was observed from near Smith Center, Kansas and followed several hours back north along and near 281 to near Clay Center along Highways 14, 74, and 6. Tornadoes were observed with this storm around 9:45 to 10 PM near Harvard, Kansas. I decided to leave the storms after that, as well as rapid MCS evolution finally was occurring, by heading back east to Highway 14 and 6, eventually with Highway 81 south to Salina, Kansas for the night. During the drive south on Highway 81, the MCS and strong winds caught up with me from the west (small hail and 60-70 MPH gusts) near the KS / NE border. I got into Salina for the night at about 1:30 AM June 15.

Severe storm log (June 14, 6:00 PM): Interception and indirect penetration of a very severe and tornadic thunderstorm from near Smith Center, Kansas in Smith County and near Highways 36 and 281, and points northeastward through Red Cloud and into Nebraska near Clay Center and Harvard near Highway 6 in Adams County. The storm was a supercell storm (classic structure at times) with a striking visual (stacked plates) appearance. A small landspout type tornado was missed early on in the storms lifecycle. Strong winds (near 60 MPH), hail to 1", heavy rains, and frequent lightning was observed near Smith Center, Kansas during an indirect penetration of the storm along Highway 36. Later on, a series of small tornadoes under a very large wall cloud were observed around 10 PM in Nebraska near Adams County and NW of Harvard, Nebraska. The storm was caused by surface heading, and Pacific cold-front / dryline interaction, low pressure area, and upper trough. Documentation was HD video, audio, and stills. A 2009 Ford Escape was used to chase the storms. A tornado watch was also in effect for the area until 12 AM CDT the next day.

Above: One of a few brief touchdowns (after dark) north of Adams County, NE and west of Harvard, NE illuminated by continuous lightning (June 14 at roughly 10 PM CDT).

Above: My vehicle (FL plates) with hail guards and ready to chase...