Tomorrow's Moderate Risk

[Rob Wadsworth]

I didn't chase either. Things changed too rapidly; uncertainty vs gas consumption doesn't mix well. But I specifically remember the SPC showing a hatched area for tornadoes in the NE corner of Nebraska. I was ready to move on that, this verifies on a previous post here. Now how can they do that when the lion's share of dangerous tornadoes were between NC KS and SC NE? There certainly was no hatched area for that. Certainly not found on the SPC page. Just an observation.

In a previous post I said that the NWS said that the area between I-70 an I-80 was to have large tornadoes. That was from a graphic from the NWS; not on the SPC page BTW. I think you know what I am referring to; those graphics that show what people should expect in any particular region? Having said that, I am not down on the SPC/NWS, I just thought that it breeds more confusion than possible life-saving info. Certainly; things did not match up. That was my point.

As I said, I stayed in Storm Lake and waited for the squall line to pass over. As it did, GR3 showed three different tornado warnings N of me. But only one was a confirmed tornado. The squall line was not at all what I was expecting. It was much weaker than anticipated. ~40kt winds, no hail (was supposed to be large hail as forecast), and less than an inch of rain (according to GR3). There were a number of mesocyclones to my E. Seems that even the lightning was the only thing that didn't disappoint. Remember; the expectations from the SPC was specific for large hail and strong, damaging winds.

Again, I'm not down on them. This is more of an observation of what took place. Things did change rapidly. The best laid plans of men...? I was expecting the low to be steered by the 300mb flow to the NE. Instead, it moved due N. That was my mistake, as I know that I have a lot more to learn yet. I thought it would follow the upper jet flow

It did make me feel better that Jeff Duda scored. He said he wet E of Sioux City, went south from there, and then got on I-80 W until he got it right. So I got some of my forecast part right; it just wasn't enough. The pics were great,and I read his account. Sounds like one of the better chase accounts this year to me.

Thanks for reading these ramblings.
May God Bless you and I hope to see you on the Plains next year, Lord willing . . .

 

[Brett Nickeson]

I left Omaha yesterday at about 2:00, a little late but work got in the way. A while earlier I had targeted Columbus but I started heading down I-80 towards Lincoln since some nice storms were well underway near the KS border. Shortly down the road, though, I made the decision to return to my earlier target of Columbus since I figured the major storm would move west of GI and I wouldn't catch it in time. I didn't want to be late for any storms forming further north and east. As I got to Columbus the clouds were just starting to clear and I knew that the cap would hold in that area due to the lack of surface heating, as it was only 80-82 degrees under cloud cover. I started heading towards Central City, but then adjusted towards York as a nice supercell was starting to turn more NE rather than NNW as it had previously been traveling. By this time, this particular storm had already been tornado warned and had put down at least one tornado.

I stopped at the top of a hill two miles east of Bradshaw and a funnel started descending almost immediately. I decided against blasting further west to get closer as I wanted to film and photograph the formation. Once it crossed the road I went a mile further west and started following it for several miles until it roped out. Since I'm not a professional chaser, don't make my money on the videos, and didn't want my car to get banged up, I never really tried to get too close to it, but came away with some pretty good photos and video, which you can see below.

Watch video >

 

[JanelleHelling]

Brett, your photos are totally awesome. No need to apologize for not getting closer. It bugs me when the tv news and entertainment shows edit tornado shots to point blank range. I WANT to see the context, the storm, the structure, the landscape ... IMO your shots are classic. Beautiful.