Storm Chasing Adventures

[tornadotalkin]

May 28 / Final Update:

Part of the journey is the end so here we are at the final day. Today we finished our trip home from Tulsa. On the way, we stopped in Joplin, Missouri, to visit the tornado memorial park. It's hard to believe it's been 15 years since that terrible day, but it has. It's very sobering being in the place great tragedy occurred, even when things heal, people move on, and time marches forward, you can still see remnants of the past in Joplin. Empty plots, trees too short, houses too new. It's eerie to see, but also a great sign of the resilience of people to keep moving forward even after losing everything. I've visited other locations where tragic tornadoes have occurred, such as Phil Campbell, Alabama, and Joplin was much like there. As storm chasers, I think it's important to remember the victims of the storms we see and remember what meteorology is really about, which is helping to protect the lives of people in the path of dangerous weather.

This trip can be viewed as either successful or unsuccessful, depending on your definition of a successful chase. Most people aren't happy unless they get a tornado on the ground. Which we didn't get this trip. But we saw everything else you could hope to see storm chasing: lightning, insane structure, hail, rainbows, wall clouds, shelf clouds, mamattus, ect. So was this trip successful? Absolutely. Storm chasing is more than tornadoes, I mean, it's called STORM chasing, not tornado chasing. Would I have liked to see a tornado? Of course, anyone who says otherwise is lying, but I am happy with the results of this trip, tornado or not.

I grew my skill set as a meteorologist this trip. I got to use charts and maps in application for once and freshen up my skills in contouring maps and forecasting based on those maps. It was great to see how hand analysis can apply to real storms that are happening in the present. Oftentimes, all you get to do as a student meteorlogist is study the past, but now we have to study the present and make forecasting decisions based on real current data. This trip helped me gain more confidence as a meteorologist, which I really needed, especially since I am going to be applying to real forecasting jobs soon.

This trip is one I am sure not to forget anytime soon, even if many of the days spent driving have already started to blur together in my mind. The standout moments are lifetime standouts, and I look forward to getting to look back fondly on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the Great Plains and see all the beauty it has to offer.

[tornadotalkin]

May 27 Update:

Today we began our long journey back to Indiana. We started the morning by visiting the Alamo since we were already in San Antonio. It was neat to see and learn about the Alamo history that I didn't know much about beforehand. We went inside the church, and it seemed to be missing its upper floor; either that or they just really liked doors to nowhere back in the day. We also passed by the riverwalk area, which I didn't even know was a thing. It seemed to have lots of cool attractions and restaurants, but we didn't have time to see them, so maybe one day I'll come back to see those. The rest of the day was spent traveling north to get to Tulsa by the end of the night. We passed through Dallas on our way up, which I can only describe as the New York City of the South ( which can also be said of Atlanta). I spent most of the day being tortured in the back of Van 2. Riding in the back of that thing can only be comparable to riding Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point for 10 hours straight, but without any of the fun upside-down moments and only airtime. I don't think the human body is meant to be getting thrown around that much for that long because by the end of the day, I felt like death warmed over. It's sad the trip is almost over, but I do miss home and look forward to seeing my family and, most importantly, my bed again.

[tornadotalkin]

May 26 Evening Update:

Today was another successful chase, but not as successful as it could have been, unfortunately. We were unsuccessful in avoiding the morning convection that rolled over us as we stopped for lunch in San Angelo. It was pouring pretty good with a pretty mean-looking shelf cloud barrelling at us. This convection went further south than we thought, and it looked like our morning target of Sonra needed to be changed, so now the plan was to head towards Del Rio all the way by the US-Mexico border.

(Can’t believe the border stopped us from seeing this)

There was a storm that was very strong just on the other side of the border in Mexico that refused to cross over to the US, as it just sat out in the desert. Of course, we find out later that this storm produced a jaw-dropping tornado in Mexico that no one could see, as we were all trapped in the US. It was kind of funny just having to stand basically at the border wall and watch the storm just go crazy in Mexico, but refuse to cross the Rio Grande. So only Mexican storm chasers got lucky today, but the storm was still very neat to watch from afar.

From where we were by the road, we could see the Mexico storm, and it had some crazy greenage going on with a very impressive wall cloud visible right in front of us. It was frustrating to know that on the other side was a tornado, but we had no legal way of seeing it. The storm eventually decided to come into the US and get a tornado warning, but it was very messy compared to how it was in Mexico. The storm became rain-wrapped, and if there was a tornado, it would have been impossible to see. So we decided to leave the area to try to escape the giant line that was forming and advancing eastward. The whole way east, we were being chased by this line and eventually made it to San Antonio for the night, right before the storm hit the city.

Of course, right when we were trying to settle down for the night, the storm hits, and it decides to be funny, so we end up in a tornado warning with rotation heading right for us. So of course, we go downstairs to "take shelter," which apparently there isn't, so the next best course of action is to go stand under the hotel awning and watch, of course. This storm was producing some of the craziest close-up lighting I've ever gotten to see. At one point, we almost got struck by a bolt that had to be no less than 500ft away, right in front of the hotel. It was one of the loudest things I've ever heard. That sent us running back inside for a minute before we went back out cautiously. The rain was so heavy that a flash flood warning went off, too, and we saw the parking lot begin to flood. We still stood outside, however, and continued to watch the lightning even though we were starting to get drenched. The hotel next to us got struck directly twice as we stood and watched, and all cheered and screamed like it was a sports match.

After the storm finally moved east and away from us, we could finally go to bed after a very long day. So today's lesson is sometimes you don't get to decide when you are done chasing because the weather has other plans that often don't consider things like you being tired or hungry.

(Bonus group of soggy students)

[tornadotalkin]

May 26 Morning Update:

This morning, the SPC has maintained its slight risk for far south-west Texas. Only a 5% tor possibility for this risk, but much better than the 2% we’ve been getting recently. Convection has already begun to our west in the panhandle and is extending southward. The challenge this morning is to try not to get run over by the early storms and get south as fast as possible. Our current target is Sonora, Texas, where it looks like there may be a possibility of an isolated tornadic cell.

[tornadotalkin]

May 25 Update:

Today was a very long travel day, having to go all the way from South Dakota to Texas. Since we had to go so far, we didn't do much besides driving and stopping to eat. I did not enjoy having to drive through Kansas again, and I am starting to hate that state and wish I never have to drive there again. You can only look at nothing for so long without losing it. We have stopped in Wichita Falls, Texas, for the night, which we have already stayed in once this trip. The hotel has left much to be desired, especially in us girls' room, which has a very foul stench, so we will be switching. The other rooms don't seem to be much better with other various problems. Tomorrow I am thinking of targeting around Fort Stockton, Texas, and trying to stay above Interstate 10 since farther that the roads seem to be very few and far between. The storm threat looks more promising than anything in days, so maybe tomorrow has saved the best for last, since it will most likely be the last day of chasing.

[tornadotalkin]

May 24 Evening Update:

Today was a very successful chase day in my opinion. We got to see some of the best structures I've ever seen from a storm. We hung around a park for a bit in the mid-afternoon, waiting for storms. It was a nice park, and it was fun pretending to be a kid and swinging on the swings and such. Coincidentally, another university chase trip was stopped at this same park as well, waiting for storms. Even crazier was that it was another school from Indiana (Valparaiso), they were launching a weather balloon in the park, and they seemed hopeful the day would be promising. While waiting in the park, we saw a robin with some very tiny baby birdies, and we spent a bit just watching the mama bird bring back food to her chicks. There is nature to be appreciated besides storms sometimes.

We left the park and started heading north towards South Dakota, where a promising storm was heading into. Around 6:30, the storm became severe, so we sped up to get to it(sped up a little too much in the case of van two, who got pulled over by the cops for speeding, whoopsies). From the start of this storm, it looked beautiful with a mothership-like cloud above our heads most of the time. The storm was producing some great lightning as well, which resulted in some pretty cool photos.

The storm has some weak rotation that never really amounted to anything, but that didn't matter because this storm was putting on a different kind of show. By this point, the storm had taken on an even more prominent spaceship appearance with some crazy layering on the edges of the storm.

(This photo is is my personal new favorite)

While we were watching the storm other chasers were in the same pull-off area as us, and one of them brought my favorite intercept of the trip. A corgi intercept, which is far better than a tornado intercept. This corgi was a certified storm chaser and even had on a little harness with clouds and lightning bolts. This very cute corgi successfully distracted me from the storm for a bit, so if there was some cool lightning I missed it at that moment(worth it tho).

As the sun began to set, the storm started to dissipate and weaken, but that didn't stop it from looking gorgeous still. All around us, there were cool things to see, the main storm above the setting sun, mamattus to the back of us with lightning still flashing above our heads. This storm has definitely certified itself as one of the most beautiful storms I'll probably ever see.

The next day, we chase either tomorrow or Tuesday (probably Tuesday), which is my day to lead again. As of right now, I think that Texas is the best target to go for, with there already being a day 3 risk area from the SPC, which is the most we've gotten in a while(things are rough out here). So if all goes correct tommorrow will be a travel day to Texas. Today might be the best chase of the trip but that remains to be seen. I’m also happy to add another new state to my growing list of visited states. This will probably be the last new state of the trip though.

[tornadotalkin]

May 24 Morning Update:

This morning, we are hanging around in Nebraska waiting for storms in the afternoon. We finally had some time to do our laundry, and then we might go hang out in a park for a bit to waste some time waiting for storms. The potential for today isn't too promising, with a few sounding for a marginal tor risk. Storms look like they are probably gonna fire more north than originally anticipated, so we may need to go all the way up to South Dakota to see anything. Hopefully today is a good chase day and the day we see a tornado (definitely not lol).

[tornadotalkin]

May 23 Update:

Today was a technical chase day but really more of a travel day so not much happened. We left Colorado Springs this morning and decided to head toward Nebraska as there was a small risk for storms. The mountains were finally free of clouds this morning so I got to get a good look at pikes peak before we left. It’s cool to still see snow this late in the year. I wish we could go up to the peak but it’s currently still very cold up there so probably not a good idea.

As we got into Nebraska the severe storm risk had really dropped off and there was nothing but some normal rain showers and light storms in the south west of the state. Since we were in the area we did stop and take some photos of these showers since they still looked pretty. It can be hard to appreciate non severe weather sometimes because it doesn’t seem as cool as the big bad storms, but out here in the plains even these normal storms look beautiful compared to back home in Indiana. It’s so flat that you can easily see the rain shafts blowing in the winds and no matter how many times I’ve seen them this trip they are still mesmerizing to watch.

We are staying in Nebraska for the night in hopes of some storms tomorrow in this same relative area but probably a bit more east.

[tornadotalkin]

May 22 Update:

Today was a sightseeing day after the action of yesterday. We went west to Colorado Springs to see the sights there. To me nothing we saw was new since I’ve been to Colorado Springs many times since half of my dad’s family lives there including my grandma. But I was still excited to go there nonetheless since it is very beautiful there. We went to Garden of the Gods and hiked around for a few hours. I always love going there since the views are just incredible. It was kind of cold and cloudy weather wise which actually worked out in our favor since it made hiking more tolerable. The hike was a little to steep for my liking and we moved far too quickly, but once we got to the top of the trail the views were worth it.

After our initial hike we went to the other side of the park and looked at the large rock formations on that end. This is the side of the park I’m most familiar with.

After garden of the gods we went to dinner at a German restaurant called Edelweiss. None of us were looking all to forward to food at this place and most of us just ended up ordering a pretzel appetizer as a meal, but the night was saved when a lady self-tilted as “Susie Squeezer” showed up and played the accordion for our table. We all couldn’t stop laughing at her name, as childish as it was it, and was the hardest most of us have laughed in a while.

Tomorrow is looking unsure for what we are doing since the weather isn’t looking all too promising. We will probably head east perhaps back towards Kansas or Nebraska.

[tornadotalkin]

May 21 Evening Update:

Today was probably the best chase the of the trip so far. Definitely the most action we’ve seen. We decided to chase in Colorado again. We left Texas and headed north towards Limon Colorado. By the time we got there, there was a cell already severe warned. There were quite a few chasers in the area as well. We stopped on a dirt road a bit far away from the storm to avoid chaser convergence, but we still had a great view of the storm.

There was a bit of a wall cloud starting to form so pretty soon the storm became tornado warned. All was looking pretty good until we got caught off guard by a storm coming up from the south. This storm blew up pretty quick and quickly went severe. This storm was now on a direct collision path with the western cell leaving us stuck in between the two.

We went north to try to avoid the south cell but it was growing too quickly for us to escape so we ended up getting ran over by it right as its hail core intensified to hail up to 2.5 inches. The car sounded like it was being shot with how loud the hail was. The ground quickly became covered with hail about quarter size. Luckily we made it out with our windows intact which other chases can’t say the same.

While we were stuck getting pelted with hail the storm went tornado warned with apparent rotation very close by to us.

After escaping the hail storm we went south to get south of the two merged cells now heading southeast. The storm continued to be tornado warned for quite a while but never produced a tornado that we could see. There was an apparent small role tornado very briefly while we were stuck in the hail but we had no way of getting out of that storm merger to see it.

At the end of the night we ended up stopping in Burlington where apparently every other chaser decided to stop because every restaurant in town was filled with chasers. The chaser convergence in Burlington did allow us to see the TIV2 since they parked next to us in that Arby’s parking lot. So, seeing that was neat. I don’t think tomorrow will be a chase day so we might just stay in Colorado and sight see.

[tornadotalkin]

May 20 + May 21 Morning Update:

Yesterday was a travel day where nothing much really happened so I decided to include it in this morning’s update. We decided not to chase in Texas because nothing was looking too good and I don’t think we missed anything. We went north to Amarillo and spent the night there. The most interesting thing to happen all day was probably going to buc-ee’s. I got to get some new bumper stickers for my growing buc-ee sticker collection in my car. I’m a big buc-ee fan so I’m real happy anytime we can get to buc-ee’s.

Today we are chasing in southeastern Colorado most likely, maybe the panhandle of Oklahoma. There is low probabilities for tornadic storms today but there is some chance and there’s no where else to go really. There is a chance of a discrete cell or two either forming in southern or central eastern Colorado. Perhaps today will finally be the day we see a tornado(probably not though).

[tornadotalkin]

May 19 Update:

Today was mostly a travel day trying to get closer to where we want to chase on Wednesday. We started off this morning in Oklahoma and drove to OKC and went to the history center first. It was very informative and I learned a bunch I didn’t know beforehand like that Sonic had started in Oklahoma. They had a lot of neat items on display such as Native American artifacts and more modern stuff like 50-60s diner signs.

After the history center we went to lunch at a Vietnamese/ Chinese restaurant. The food there was good and a nice change of place from more traditional American food we’ve been eating so far.

After lunch we went to the national weather center to look around. We could only go on the first floor but it was still near to see where all the giants of meteorology are located such as the NSSL and SPC.

We then drove to Texas and are staying the night in Abilene. We got barbecue for dinner and the restaurant had all these taxidermy longhorns on the wall and there was one right above our table that was a bit too close to us for my liking, but the food was good so judgmental longhorn above could be ignored.

Tomorrow we plan on driving to west Texas to chase a slight risk. Probably no tornadoes, but maybe some cool structure to look at.

(Bonus hotel parking lot kitty)

[tornadotalkin]

May 18 Evening Update:

Today was overall a day of disappointment among the group. It can be hard to look on the bright side of things when it just seems that everything that could go wrong went wrong.

We stayed in our target location for most of the afternoon heading north of Salina towards Minneapolis. Storms started going severe around 1pm. For a little bit went kept going up and down trying to figure out which storm to go for but eventually we decided to play the southern cell as it became tornado warned, which most other chasers in the area also decided to go for ensuing lots of chaser convergence as aspected. We saw lots of big names in weather out and about such as Reed timmer in the dominator, the national severe storm labs chasing truck and we even got to see the Doppler on wheels a couple times.

For a long while we chased this cell and for a bit it was looking very good with a good wall cloud and decent rotation but it never seemed to want to get its act together. The main issue was new storms kept coming up from the south and cutting off inflow from our cell and this was the main story for the day as every-time something tried to go it would just be cut off.

Eventually the whole line started to squall out so we decided to call it quits after chasing some of the stuff to our south. Of course once we started heading south and got far away from that original cell we were on it decided to drop a tornado. We would later learn that many of the chasers who were nearby us earlier stayed on the cell and cussed a mass convergence and traffic jam by the time it became an observed tornado, so maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t continue north.

Tomorrow we are taking a day off from chasing since nothings really looking too good to chase right now. We are in northern Oklahoma for the night and plan on getting to Texas by Wednesday. So, even though we all got pretty depressed about missing the tornado again today we avoided getting stuck in horrible chaser traffic which would’ve put us all in a worse mood than we already were. Today’s lesson is no more chasing moderates unless there’s no other choice because the chaser traffic gets too ridiculous with higher risks.

[tornadotalkin]

May 18 Morning Update:

After yesterdays chase we stayed the night in Salina(as did every other chaser apparently because the first two hotels we tried were completely booked). We’ve decided to stay in Salina for the chase today and most likely go a bit north east of here for the first round of convection then try to drop south for the second round in the later afternoon and evening. Soundings for the Salina area are looking really good for today with very high levels of CAPE and decent shear. Morning convection seemed to clear out a lot earlier than models suggested so by the time we woke up there was a large clearing in the cloud base and shining sun. With our area having a 15% cig 2 hatch for tor possibilities hopefully today we can catch something before it all goes linear again.

[tornadotalkin]

May 17 Evening Update:

After our early afternoon hike at monument rocks where it was very hot ,very dry, and very much surrounded by nothingness and cows, we decided to head toward our target area of a bit north of Salina. Looking back now it might have been a better idea to ditch the hike and head east sooner but the rocks were cool so perhaps a worthy sacrifice was made. There were lots of birds who had nested in the sides of the rocks by making little round rocky holes which was something I didn’t expect to see. The rocks themselves were limestone that was very easily crumbled away at the slightest touch. It was cool to see the layers of sediment and where it is beginning to erode away.

On our drive to Salina from western Kansas we saw the growing cumulus field and saw the life cycle of the storms that would later become severe. I would turn my head away from the clouds for a couple minutes and then look back and they had grown huge and really started to blow up.

We got a bit delayed in heading to Salina and got there when most of the cells had already merged into a line which is how they stayed for the rest of the evening.

We weren’t really sure what to do next because at the time nothing was rotating as the shear simply wasn’t there yet. We hoped maybe as it got later in the evening the LLJ would kick in and make these guys start spinning a bit so we initially planned to reroute to Ellsworth and watch the end of the line and see how those cells played out. However, by the time we got near Ellsworth there was some rotation to our north near Lincoln so we decided to go pursue that instead and had to punch east then north(even though we were JUST THERE sigh)

Eventually the rotation we were watching got tornado warned but it never really did anything that we could see even with a decent couplet on radar.

We continued north up past culver and eventually decided to just stop and watch the storm as the rotation was dying out anyways with not much else to our south worth turning around and pursuing instead. So we sat and watched the storm for a good half hour as the sun began to set. We ended up in the outflow boundary of the storm and were getting whacked with some intense winds that had us all almost getting blown over. It was fun though, and the storm,even though it wasn’t doing much tornado wise, it was producing lots of photogenic lightning and blowing dust.

Today’s lesson in chasing is to not focus on what could have been and where you should have went (There was a very nice looking tornado in Nebraska for a little bit there before it all turned into a line) but to find enjoyment in where you did end up and appreciating the things you did see (like some more awesome mammatus and blowing dust). Tomorrow is looking more and more unsure on where we might end up (stay in Kansas or head down to Oklahoma or Texas??) but hopefully tomorrow might finally be the day we catch something(fingers crossed).

[tornadotalkin]

May 17 Morning Update:

Today is our second day of chasing and my first lead day as well. We are currently in Oakley Kansas hoping to head east towards Salina by this afternoon. SPC this morning updated to include a 10% hatched risk area for north central Kansas which is my chosen target area for the day. Last night it was looking like we were going to head back to Colorado(against the wishes of most of the group lol), but this morning we have successfully convinced Dr.Call that Colorado probably isn’t a good play for today. So off to Kansas it is. The risk area for today is very conditional with only a small window of a discrete mode but hopefully we can catch something later this afternoon and evening. Since convection is looking to not start until around 6-7pm we have some time to relax this morning before we need to head east so it looks like we are going on hike at monument rocks just to our south for a little bit.

[tornadotalkin]

May 16 Evening Update

For the first chase of the trip we ended up going to eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Once we got to Colorado there were severe storms popping up along the front to our west mostly producing large hail and damaging winds. The biggest thing we saw for the day was all the blowing dust from the gust front of these severe storms. Dry condition out west for the past few months have left lots of loose dirt that was easily lifted by the wind and created quite the show for us in eastern Colorado and then followed us back into Kansas. At many points the dust overtook us and made viewing a bit hard but there wasn’t much for us to see but the dust. At one point we were all outside and had to run back into the vans because the gust front came right us and walloped us with dirt. Because of all this dust blowing about I got my first ever dust storm warning alert on my phone and while it was cool the first time the rest of the evening my phone kept blowing up with warnings about the dust so then it got a bit annoying.

Apart from the dust we saw some great structure from the storms that were north east of us in Kansas while we were in Colorado. These storms got pretty intense with hail up to 2.5 inches and winds at one point up to 90mph. In Goodland Kansas there was an observed tornado warning for quite a while as apparently the tornado was near stationary. This tornado was completely engulfed in rain however so I’m not sure anyone nearby was able to actually see it. My favorite photo I was able to capture today is of some mammatus clouds from the storms to our east while we were heading south from Burlington Colorado.

Aside from cool photos and blowing dust what I learned today about chasing is that sometimes the coolest thing you can see isn’t always a cloud or something cloud adjacent. Seeing a dust storm for the first time was really neat and also a hazard most of us have never had to deal with and it’s probably something we have to keep in mind for the rest of the trip as a problem.