Ooh, the storms that blew up this day were the highlight of the chase trip. I started the day in Woodward, Oklahoma, after a much needed hotel night. The day was setting up to deliver 2000-2500 j/kg of CAPE under 50 kts of bulk shear with a surface low and eastward stationary front over west central Nebraska.
The long haul through Kansas and halfway through Nebraska meant I was running late, as often happens. The first great storm of the day was looming ahead, over Thedford, and I was wondering if I’d be able to position on it before anything especially interesting happened and not get cut off from decent road options.
I managed to get up to Arnold Road before the storm overran it and had a blast hopping from spot to spot as it consolidated some beautiful and ominous structure.
At my first stop, a rancher showed up, trundling out of the hills on his ATV. I wasn’t sure if he’d be irritated I was parked on the side of his field access, but he was just trying to get out of the way of impending atmospheric doom and entrusted me with re-closing the gate as he hustled down the road.
As the storm approached Merna, It lost touch with the surface and got absorbed into the forward flank of a new storm north of Arnold. I jogged back west to set sights on that one. As I got eyes on it, it was apparently brandishing a tornado back in the rain from 2219-2223Z. Contrast enhancing my photos doesn’t pick up anything definitive apart from mystery scuds & shadows.
In retrospect, after this, I should’ve hopped back over to Merna and set up along Route 2/92. The notch moved in right along that highway and pac-manned it for a good 40 miles. I still got spectacular structure and landscapes though, just with the core obscured by RFD from my southerly vantage.
By this point, it was decidedly outflow dominant and growing more linear by the minute. But it still wielded an amazing Sand Hills menace that was impressive to experience.
After dipping in for a close look north of Kearney, I had trouble getting back south as strong winds and unplanted fields lofted huge amounts of dust and made driving away a major effort.
By the time I got south and east of Kearney, it was a stacked structure festival all the way to Red Cloud.
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