Chase day #1: Mothership...

A few problems with Wifi have delayed posting for a day and there is no (Orange) mobile coverage anywhere.

Target area: Eastern Colorado

Left for breakfast at 9.00, anticipating a short driving day, we set off east with the target area being refined to north east Nebraska. A 5% chance of a tornado is better than nothing but I'm not that confident, although we are likely to see a supercell.

Heading down some back roads we drive past some nuclear missile silos. Spooky. We head into Nebraska and then west into Wyoming which is new to me - I'm hoping to see Cheyenne or even Laramie. We stop at a diner for a "leisurely" lunch, I have one bite when Todd races in: "we gotta go now!", and it's game on. We do a u-turn and charge off back into Nebraska. There's a small cloud in the distance barely registering on the radar, but that's where we're headed.

We continue to track eastward and stop off to watch, and sure enough we get a couple of lightening flashes. Silverlining Tours drive past, but hey we were there first. We continue east and the National Weather Service issues a tornado watch, and sure enough the storm starts to intensify. There's more good news, there are no competing storm systems to interfere with our target's development; this could be a classic supercell.

We stop again and a state trouper drops in for an update. A wall cloud is starting to develop. We're off again, trying to stay to the storm's south east for the best view of the action. This is a classic chase; we stop, then Todd shouts "go", we dive back into the Suburban SUVs (4x4) (much better than being in a van), the V8s are floored and we look for a better position and so on, making sure we stay ahead of the precipitation. We get hit by 10mm hail - it's reported as being 3.5 inches in the core so we don't hang around. I remember to switch on the camera's GPS to record our locations

We stop again, and from nowhere a massive lightening bolt hits the ground right in front of us accompanied by a staggering clap of thunder. Unbelievable, that was too close. By now the DOW trucks have arrived and Silverlining Tours have caught up, and there are a number of other chasers on the scene. Kudos for Todd to be first to the action.



We watch the wall cloud rotating underneath the storm and a tornado warning has now been issued. The supercell is looking textbook, strong warm inflow winds are sucked past us into the storm and corkscrew upwards and Todd advises that a hook echo is forming on the radar - a classic tornado precursor.




We get back round to the south east and are rewarded with a "mothership", a perfect supercell. I struggle to get it to fit into a 10mm lens. There's clear rotation but she won't drop a tornado. It's been such a spectacular chase that nobody is really disappointed.

We've been tearing down dirt roads since 14.00 and it's now 22.00, the storm is losing energy and so are we. Onto McCook in the south of Nebraska, Wendys for a burger and to a Days Inn for bed at 00.30. We were supposed to pick up provisions at Wallmart that morning but the chase put paid to that. I'd had nothing to eat or drink since lunch, most of which got left behind, but who cares.

Total miles: 531

Cheers
Adam