Report & Pictures Chase Day 28

[Paul Sherman]

Started Monday 24th May in Colby with a Chase Target of somewhere between Valentine and SW South Dakota. Short and sweet report on this one as Storm Motions were stupid, one Supercell we tried to track was speeding along at 96mph So pretty quickly gave up on that, Surface winds were blowing at 50-60mph and creating havoc around the Sand Hills as we moved North, decided to try the Line in Western Nebraska as they were a broken Line of Supercells and drove under the Meso of a Cell near Alliance, the Wall Cloud was hugging the ground but alas no Tornado, ended up cutting off the Chase to Position for Today in Western and South Western Kansas. But as we re-approached the Line near North Platte a fitting end to the day came about, as if the weather gods were smiling down on me and letting me know exactly how our day went.........Tits Up!

Thouroughly did NOT Enjoy today one bit and I thought May 10th was bad for Storm Speeds!

Still we have a decent enough risk today for some Nice Storms!

Paul S

[chionomaniac]

I guess with speeds like that it must be very difficult for the locals to get to their shelters before a tornadic supercell bears down upon them . I wouldn't like that at all. Very dangerous.

[Gorky]

Left Aberdeen with a target of Faith, SD. Got concerned I'd miss the storms there time wise as they were already forming so sat for 20 minutes trying to work out if I should play for a more northern target. Eventually saw the storm firing a bit further back which would go on to produce the tornadoes between Howes and Faith, so jumped on that.... 20 minutes to late to witness the tornadoes. Frustrating as if I'd not stopped to check data, I'd have caught the last half of the spectacle. Terrain didn't even give me a view of the base till I was almost on the storm. I can't say I'm too bothered though. After the mayhem of 2 days ago I was pretty so so about chasing at all today, until I was almost on the storm at least

Headed south afterwards through the strong winds from the linear storms in SW SD. Came across a lorry blown into a ditch at the same time as a few other motorists. Jumped out of the car to assist, straight into ankle deep mud water and diesel combined and it turns out the driver was long gone and no one had put up signs to indicate it was being dealt with. Given the amount of spilt fuel and potential for fire, I found it quite surprising the truck was left as it was. As we all left I saw more cars stopping to assist so that's probably still going on now...

Second time in 2 days I've wrecked shoes and trousers/shorts in muddy fields... It's starting to get old quickly!

[AudMun]

An extremely frustrating day that didn't deliver as much as hoped for any of us. Finished on a high though!

Stewart

[pottyprof]

Was always going to be a difficult chase guys. You can't win them all but looks like there was chance for some nice photos. I was here watching radar and stream and was surprised to see how fast the storms were moving. Better luck for the next one.

[nsrobins]

The set-up didn't live up to expectations and the 'cold' frontal surge caused everything to become rather linear quite early on. I'm not sure why there weren't any more discrete structures within the warm sector and it's one of those days when a retrospective analysis may be useful.

[Nick F]

Yep, tough chase definately. Alot going against the succesfull chase unless you were lucky enough to be right on a storm. Motions were superfast and road options were limited/restrictive in the Sand Hills to allow to keep up with them.

Was some nice nados to be had if you were lucky enough to be close to a storm, looking at the reports on stormtrack.

[Harry]

Might not be much consolation, but IMO they are STUNNING mammatus piccies

Better than seeing nothing but blue sky (how patronising I know )