Ryan McGinnis
EF5
Part the third:
After the Goshen County tornado passed by and roped out, Vortex 2 repositioned. Here, Bryan Draper looks up at a mesocyclone about to pass over our heads.
And here they reposition again. This was a tricky shot and one that was probably ill-advised, given that I was driving at the time. In the distance is a huge scud bomb that looked really convincing at the time -- this particular probe team assumed (until they got close) that this was actually a large mesocyclone almost scraping the ground. Actually, this probe team was the only truck that went right into this storm; they were doing a bit of teeth-clenching recon.
Here's what the scud bomb looked like from underneath. This picture doesn't really relay it, but it was one of the more bizarre things I've seen while chasing. Bryan Draper is looking up through the windshield of the probe truck.
The DOW truck scans the horizon of the now downcycling Goshen County storm (at this point in Western Nebraska), though mostly just for wrap-up, as the light is failing. The drive back to Kearney was a bit harrowing; a storm east of this went tornadic after nightfall. My Gr3 stopped updating and I didn't notice, meaning that I didn't realize something was up until the storm was rather close to the interstate. I pulled off the interstate to snap some pics, noticed in the lightning flashes that, hey, that's a definite wall cloud not too far away... and then promptly lost my keys. After fishing around for 10 minutes I finally found them and hauled ass outta there and found a road south that let me let the meso pass by (I don't do the night chase thing.) Being chased home by huge storms in the dark is one of my least favorite parts of storm chasing.
A probe truck beneath the rainbow of a storm that just passed overhead in western Nebraska on June 6. This rather high-based storm put down some golfballs, but after the day before, it was almost relaxing.
A weather channel reporter (Katy Tur, I think) shoots a sweet rainbow. This is actually the end of the chase of the infamous Amazonia supercell with it's sudden and unrelenting gorilla hail. In retrospect, the whole thing is comical -- at the time it was a real "oh, SH-T" moment. Imagine 40 cars parked along a road and suddenly Josh Wurman's uncharacteristically strained voice comes up over the radio telling everyone to get the hell out of the way so that the radar trucks and the probe trucks with expensive equipment can escape the "5 inch hail approximately 1000 meters away". I'm telling you, the Dukes of Hazard don't jump in their car and peel out as fast as the entire Vortex 2 armada did that day. Ultimately, only a couple vehicles didn't make it, and only one needed a windshield replacement. The Navy's radar truck got caught in it, but their dish was designed to take small arms fire, so it wasn't much of an issue for them.
The DOW 6 scans a very well-structured supercell near Dodge City, Kansas, June 9. That Vortex 2 even found this beast blows my mind. It appeared from watching GR3 that the entire chasing world went east that day and east sure looked like a no-brainer, but Rassmusen seemed to have convinced all the other Vortex 2 forecasters that the crappy thermodynamics out West didn't matter and that West was where it was at. I think a lot of us scratched our heads and sighed and figured that we'd bust hard that day, but damned if Rass didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat.
It was a really pretty rabbit, at that.
Let it never be said that Tim Marshall doesn't have a sense of humor.
And the end of my time with V2 -- one of the last shots of the last storm I covered on June 10.
End Part 3.
After the Goshen County tornado passed by and roped out, Vortex 2 repositioned. Here, Bryan Draper looks up at a mesocyclone about to pass over our heads.
And here they reposition again. This was a tricky shot and one that was probably ill-advised, given that I was driving at the time. In the distance is a huge scud bomb that looked really convincing at the time -- this particular probe team assumed (until they got close) that this was actually a large mesocyclone almost scraping the ground. Actually, this probe team was the only truck that went right into this storm; they were doing a bit of teeth-clenching recon.Here's what the scud bomb looked like from underneath. This picture doesn't really relay it, but it was one of the more bizarre things I've seen while chasing. Bryan Draper is looking up through the windshield of the probe truck.
The DOW truck scans the horizon of the now downcycling Goshen County storm (at this point in Western Nebraska), though mostly just for wrap-up, as the light is failing. The drive back to Kearney was a bit harrowing; a storm east of this went tornadic after nightfall. My Gr3 stopped updating and I didn't notice, meaning that I didn't realize something was up until the storm was rather close to the interstate. I pulled off the interstate to snap some pics, noticed in the lightning flashes that, hey, that's a definite wall cloud not too far away... and then promptly lost my keys. After fishing around for 10 minutes I finally found them and hauled ass outta there and found a road south that let me let the meso pass by (I don't do the night chase thing.) Being chased home by huge storms in the dark is one of my least favorite parts of storm chasing.
A probe truck beneath the rainbow of a storm that just passed overhead in western Nebraska on June 6. This rather high-based storm put down some golfballs, but after the day before, it was almost relaxing.
A weather channel reporter (Katy Tur, I think) shoots a sweet rainbow. This is actually the end of the chase of the infamous Amazonia supercell with it's sudden and unrelenting gorilla hail. In retrospect, the whole thing is comical -- at the time it was a real "oh, SH-T" moment. Imagine 40 cars parked along a road and suddenly Josh Wurman's uncharacteristically strained voice comes up over the radio telling everyone to get the hell out of the way so that the radar trucks and the probe trucks with expensive equipment can escape the "5 inch hail approximately 1000 meters away". I'm telling you, the Dukes of Hazard don't jump in their car and peel out as fast as the entire Vortex 2 armada did that day. Ultimately, only a couple vehicles didn't make it, and only one needed a windshield replacement. The Navy's radar truck got caught in it, but their dish was designed to take small arms fire, so it wasn't much of an issue for them.
The DOW 6 scans a very well-structured supercell near Dodge City, Kansas, June 9. That Vortex 2 even found this beast blows my mind. It appeared from watching GR3 that the entire chasing world went east that day and east sure looked like a no-brainer, but Rassmusen seemed to have convinced all the other Vortex 2 forecasters that the crappy thermodynamics out West didn't matter and that West was where it was at. I think a lot of us scratched our heads and sighed and figured that we'd bust hard that day, but damned if Rass didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat.
It was a really pretty rabbit, at that.
Let it never be said that Tim Marshall doesn't have a sense of humor.
And the end of my time with V2 -- one of the last shots of the last storm I covered on June 10.
End Part 3.
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