Storms along the Colorado / Nebraska Border

Chase Recap:

Much like the previous weekend chase on June 11, JR and I decided to chase in Colorado on Sunday at about 1pm on Saturday.

Heading to Colby Kansas

We departed OKC and started heading north towards Colby where we were going to stay for the evening. As we drove up I-35, we drove past towering cumulus which blew up further into thunderstorms south of Wichita. We kept looking in the rear view mirrors, asking ourselves why we were driving north instead of chasing.

That storm went on to produce a funnel and brief tornado northwest of Tulsa as we continued north to I-70. As we drove west on 70, we ran into a nice shelf cloud near Wakeeney, KS.

Departing Colby

We woke up Sunday morning and looked over data. Did we want to play further west into Colorado or stay where we were and drift ever so slightly north? We eventually got suckered a little further west, then continued even further west as storms started firing southeast of Kimball Nebraska.

As we headed to Northern Colorado, we drove by a number of nuclear missile silos. We eventually got into the storm, which had a nice shelf, but was definitely outflow dominant. We followed this storm all the way to Sidney, NE, hoping multiple times as it cycled that the next cycle would be the one that got it done. That wasn’t to be, and we eventually gave up, dropping south into Colorado again for another supercell.

Continuing East

Again, it appeared the storm was getting its act together, but still remained outflow dominant. We followed another shelf looking feature for way too many miles. The tornado warnings continued on the storm, so we stuck with it.

Meanwhile, storms had started forming south of North Platte and north of Goodland, which is where we had originally targeted. It was decided to bail on the crap we were chasing and head towards those storms. We knew it was a long shot, but there was tornado reports coming out of that storm.

Supercell near McCook

We eventually caught up with the storm near McCook, but missed the tornadoes. Nightfall was coming, and we’d soon have to give up as it got dark. As we lost light, we decided to break off the chase.

Plans to chase the next day

After looking at the models and new Day 2, it appeared Monday would be a possible tornado day as well. I was able to get ahold of my boss and get Monday completely off, but under the agreement I’d be at the office Tuesday morning. That worked, as we could drive back overnight and be back in time.

We booked a room at the Hampton Inn in York and started heading towards the hotel. There was a somewhat close call as we were navigating back. The storm seemed to be moving faster than I realized and we found ourselves in the inflow and RFD of the supercell. JR drove like a champion and we pulled away from the storm.

Dinner and Camera

We met up with Scott and Jesse in Kearney. I was purchasing Scotts Canon 60D, so we were able to finish the transaction. The next day we’d get to put the camera to good use with a heck of a chase day. Dinner was at Old Chicago before we headed to our hotel in York for the night.