6/18/08 REPORTS: SD/NE/OK/KS/TX/ND/CO/WY

[Mike Hollingshead]

Finally, I see something worth a darn! A wild guess says anything else I see on today's chase won't top this morning's fog madness. I shot night scenes in the badlands last night, till 1:30 a.m. I notice fog forming and think, crap, I need to be here at sunrise. So I go to my $100/night "econo"lodge(wth). I sleep two and a half hours and get up at 5:30, flying south to the badlands landscape again.

The low fog with the rising sun there was really pretty cool, but nothing like what was to come. I noticed thicker low fog to the north moving south and thought, cool, that will help thicken up my thin fog some. Well, lol, it went completely nuts. It was associated with a storm coming out of Rapid City which was lighting up the morning sky itself. It hits the cliffs and goes up, up, and up some more...shaping itself like a freaking peak itself. I can't tell how high this got on the pics but looks like 5 times the height of the badlands peaks. The wall facing me had these mean looking gashes in it carved by the cliffs as it went up. Looks a bit like those morning glory things, but meaner and over the badlands. I was viewing/shooting this from the higher lookout straight south of Wall SD. When it hit, the winds must have been 60mph up there. That was really rather spooky. Almost zero visiblity with clouds racing by and over the cliffs.

I'll try and post some pics, but doubt I can get smart ftp to work on here since I couldn't last chase.

Oh and the big horn sheep were on the cliffs during this walking near the top. They had to be having a blast once that hit.

Edit: Little bigger ones below now. The rest of the day has largely sucked....as my foot severely cramps...damn(too much climbing around and not enough sleep). BTW, those really aren't low clouds that came in and looked like that, but just a lot of low thick fog that climbed vertical at the hills. Just before these it was all flat filling in the valleys.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-6-18-5090.jpg
http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-6-18-5095.jpg
http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-6-18-5097.jpg

 

[edward oneal]

6/18/08 Kansas

Chased storm that became tornado warned over Meade Co. Started on the storm south of Garden City, got behind with rapid development to the south of the first cell. So got on the west side of the hook, had to drive east to try and get back in front of it. East of Plains ran in to RFD winds of up to 80mph. While driving did see several funnels lasting only a few seconds. Got to Meade to look back west, if there was a tornado would have been rain wrapped. Did follow it south for a few miles as it kept showing some rotation. In the end did see a great sunset.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Home safely after 711.2 miles of driving. The 711 signals the luck I had on this chase while the 2 is the number of times that luck prevailed. On top of the hydroplaning that landed me in the mud in Norton County, I split the uprights of two deer on I-70 just outside of Bennett; I was in the right lane while one deer crossed into the left and another stood on the shoulder. The hydroplaning was completely surprise. I was not looking at a laptop, changing music, talking on the phone, or gawking at the weather. Both hands on the wheel in light rain at a (what I thought) was a very reasonable speed for wet roads (nothing I haven't driven in 1,000 times before). Suddenly, the van was going sideways, no hope, no fishtail, nothing.. just gone! I crossed over from right to left where there was no oncoming traffic (thank GOD), went off the highway (US Hwy 36 about a mile west of Reager) and into the mud where I came to rest facing due south. The van never felt like it was gonna tip, but I thought for sure it was. I sat for about 15 seconds and collected myself before attempting to get out of the mud. I was buried to my front bumper with my tires about half to 3/4 buried; no chance. Fortunately an off-duty firefighter came by and within 15 minutes, had half of the county with shovels and chains to yank me free. The whole ordeal lasted about an hour, including my 11 mile trip into Norton and a 5-minute power wash to my wheel-wells. No damage to the van, no issues from there. I jumped south on 283 to KS-9 and headed back through Colby on the way home with a losers dinner in Goodland. The deer in Bennett topped off the night. I have never been happier to get home.

Weather-wise, I intercepted one of several tornado warned cells in northwestern Kansas where I took on some pea-sized hail while watching the area of interest show absolutely no tornatic potential. Then I was on my way east to catch the McCook storm with a planned intercept between Norton and Phillipsburg. Never made it to this cell. After I cleaned the van out, I figured I had more than enough for the day and headed west as opposed to dropping south on the Wakenney storms.

In hindsight, I should've stayed home. For a chase with no real weather to speak of, I sure had more excitement than I bargined for. Photos of the van and other goodies to come later. More than anything, I wanted to say I made it home safely. Goodnight from Denver... a very happy and relieved goodnight.