2024-06-15 REPORTS: NE

[Ben Holcomb]

Storm I was on in S Central Neb shelfed out pretty quickly. I gave up at Lincoln. Realized there was no reasonable hotel rooms in Eastern Neb (college world series I guess?) so I gave up and heading home.

Congrats to those that were on the NE Neb stuff

 

[Brett Roberts]

Started out on what would become the "hurricane" near Hebron/Fairbury, but stayed to its N, and as soon as the outflow was obviously prohibitive I blasted up to the northern target. I agree that there wasn't much obvious to favor the N target until the event was underway and the storm mode on radar looked so jarringly different -- for example, T/Td spreads were quite similar IIRC, with values like 83/71 around Hebron vs. 80/68 up by Norfolk.

Much to my surprise (the 1-1.5 hr drive north felt mostly like an obligation at the time), I managed to arrive just in time for tornadogenesis near Clarkson, which I watched from a few miles to the NE. Got some pretty solid footage as it passed 1-2 mi. to my S, although I would've preferred a less rainy position -- but not sure I could've done much better without risking some gnarly mud roads.



It was only after I dropped the storm that I became aware of the hotel cluster*** across eastern NE due to the CWS that Ben mentioned... ugh. I hope everyone paying these prices scored something decent today!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Congrats on the score. Cap bust in the KC area. I've been through those college (graduations in my cases) hotel armageddons before, once after the Hallam day and another year near Hays. The Hallam day we had to go to Yates Center, KS to get rooms, all from the KU graduation in Lawrence. Long nights during both of those!

 

[James Wilson]

I left KC and WAS going to target the northern target but got suckered into that OFB. I stayed with the southern stuff until it was obvious it was not going to happen. A quick drive north to Clarkson followed and resulted in a few tornadoes. Here is the best one I was able to see. I will add video soon.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Targeted the east-west segment of the OFB near Kansas City for what turned out to be the long shot, the only target that was close enough to do on a day trip. Saw a bunch of orphan anvils. At least I got home at 9pm.

Blog writeup: June 2024 Storm Chasing Recap

 

[William Monfredo]

Tried not to make a huge deal about storms Saturday afternoon (going to the grocery store) but saw a small MCV on satellite image rolling in from western Nebraska in the morning and then again in the afternoon. This helped provide circulation for storms that formed near Norfolk, NE (IMO.)
Felt very warm and humid like a tornado day should. (In a late April and an early May chase, Pratt, KS felt too cool.)
Didn't bring "real" cameras and was driving the "good" car that I didn't want to get hailed on. After the first tornado warning of the day, I out-flanked the view-blocking rain southwest of Norfolk by heading 22 miles south to Madison, then west on Highway 32 to get to the southern sides of the thunderstorms between Newman Grove and Battle Creek. Viewed from 539th Ave, tornado northwest of Emerick...Such slow movement! Warning said 20 mph; seemed much less. Ground-scraping & rotating wall clouds, lots of funnels, & tornados reported. White funnel touched down later. Chase partner snapped phone pics on the 250-mile round trip. A good day not too far from home...

 

[William Monfredo]

I want to mention that SPC noticed the Mesoscale Convective Vortices in their 7:00 a.m. Day One: "At least one MCV is evident across the Siouxland vicinity early this morning, with an additional MCV across west-central Nebraska." And in the future, I will bring my good cameras.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Did a full recap

Storm Chase Log: Shelf Cloud in Nebraska - Ben Holcomb

A long trip from Norman Oklahoma to Southern Nebraska to witness a supercell outflow into a shelf cloud immediately while missing tornadoes

www.benholcomb.com

 

[Bill Eckrich]

Did a full recap

Storm Chase Log: Shelf Cloud in Nebraska - Ben Holcomb

A long trip from Norman Oklahoma to Southern Nebraska to witness a supercell outflow into a shelf cloud immediately while missing tornadoes

www.benholcomb.com

Nice write-up and pictures, Ben. Tornadoes are not the only thing that makes for great pictures. What a great shelf cloud and storm structure.

 

[James Wilson]

Here is a short video I did of the main Clarkson Tornado

Here are a couple other photos to include the first tornado ... not the best quality but fun chase regardless.