Day 10 - The Final Push…

The last day and it feels like it. The relentless chasing has caught up with us, chronic ailments and general tiredness have us both afflicted.

Scheduled to be up at 8 we get the call for a 7:30 departure so a mad 20 minutes to get up and out. Today has a slight risk over a large area of the Plains with a 5% tornado risk over south west Oklahoma. So we’re heading south down Kansas 27; neither of us could face breakfast. We pass through Tribune then have a pit stop at Syracuse; we’ve both perked up a bit. Soon we’re through Richfield and east on Kansas 51 then P Boulevard, US56, Kansas 61 then the good ‘ol US83 south. 

We’re not in Kansas anymore as we head through the Oklahoma Panhandle. We stop at Perryton for a Subway and get a glimpse of the damage caused by last year’s tornado that caused 3 fatalities just a week after Rory and I stayed there. We continue south and pass through Canadian. 

We arrive at Shamrock, Tx for a team photo and to cogitate on the weather. Despite coming here many times over the years, the U Drop Inn is still a cool example of Art Deco. Time to take some snaps then onwards south. 

We have a pit stop in Wellington and who should be there filling up? None other than Pecos Hank! 

We cross the Praire Dog Fork of the Red River, more like the Red Stream it’s so dry. It’s now 16:50 and there some small blips on radar. 

We sit at Childress where it is baking hot, 36c or 99f in old money. It’s now 17:50 and any vague attempts at initiation are suppressed by the cap. Our perfect record of 9 wins on the road is under threat. A small tower goes up to our north east with a solitary flash of lightning and a hail marker before it gives up the ghost. I call that a win by an own goal in the 98th minute…5000 j/kg CAPE left on the table.

We give up and head back north before taking the US62 east. The outlook from the Steak Prediction Centre is extremely positive…we cross the state line into Oklahoma for the last time on this trip. We pass through Altus with a B47 Stratojet gatekeeper sat outside the airbase, a cool sight. 

We stop for the traditional end of tour steak at the Texas Roadhouse in Lawton, we both had the filet (pronounced “filleh” over here), I had the house salad and Alex the Chilleh…Excellent, washed down with a Shiner Bock of course…

We depart for our base hotel at 21:10 to find a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for later tonight, so we may get back to a lightning display and potentially some giant hail. 

As we settle down a severe warned storm is heading directly for our hotel…now that definitely counts!

Total miles:  609

Day 9 - Time to Kill, Bill…

We’re up ready to go for 9:00 and breakfast is at Perkins, the food was decent but the service was a bit mechanical and you could sense some issue between the staff. 

Such has been the relentless chasing on this trip, combined with the long drives to target there’s been no time for any Plains tourism. Today we have some free time, our target is a couple of hours south so it’s off to see what North Platte has to offer.

First up is Fort Cody Trading Post, a place I have been past a zillion times but have never been in. It contains a collection of Wild West memorabilia including the double headed calf, set in what is essentially a gift shop. 

The Golden Spike Tower is next which overlooks the world’s largest rail yard. The tower is manned by retired rail workers. We spent some enthralling time with Gary, one of the volunteers who took us through the marshalling operations, repairs, schedules and so on. Really quite interesting, even having visited here before I still learned a lot. If you’re into trains this place should be on your bucket list.

Finally we go to Buffalo Bill’s house; built in1886 it’s now a museum with some outside exhibits. Definitely worth the $4 entry. 

We’re underway in the early afternoon, heading west on I80 to Sutherland before dropping south on Nebraska 25 through Wallace. 

Today’s risk has been upgraded to Enhanced with a 5% tornado risk over south west Nebraska and north west Kansas. Sometimes you need to read the emphasis in the associated commentary; often it’s heavily caveated, “a couple of tornadoes are possible”, today however states “very large hail, 2-3” and tornadoes expected” but then talks about “considerable uncertainty” in the forecast. 

We stop at Sinclairs in Trails West. For reasons best known to ourselves we have chilli on nachos. I eat some of it but remain unconvinced by its preparation…came out of a tub and partially reheated. Hmmm…most of it gets ditched. 

Our new target is Wray, Colorado, so we head west on US34. We eventually arrive at Wray at 15:30 and head north on US385: there are two severe warned storms to our north west both showing rotation. 

It’s 16:10, the southerly storm has an 86 knot rotation marker, a couplet, wall cloud and hook echo. We head west on US6 to intercept. True to form it collapses as soon  as look at it…so about turn and target the easterly cell which now has a 102 knot rotation marker. 

We cross back into Nebraska towards Imperial. There’s a lot of outflow which spins up a gustnado on its leading edge. It’s just gone 17:05. 

The storm had flattened out into a huge bow echo, a long line of outflow wind churning up monster amounts of dust. We head south on Nebraska 61 and are in storm fleeing mode as we’re on the leading edge, masses of tumbleweeds are blowing across the road in spectacular fashion. It’s all we can do to stay in front of it, we pass another gustnado. It’s now 18:40. 

We’re near Benkleman, we park up to avoid the massive hail core. Wow! Alex snaps it out of the window. Lightning is all around us, we’re all staying in the vehicle. There’s 3” hail in the core which would really ruin your day. The gust front we’d recently escaped from is catching us; we’re meat in the sandwich.

We dart west on US34 into clear anir and snap some mammatus with the outflow boundary clear on radar surging southwards. We get to Haigler and head south on Nebraska 27 and into Kansas. A quick pit stop at St. Francis and we head east on US36 then drop south on Kansas 27 towards our hotel in Goodland, subject to negotiating the storm that is now in our way.

We get a Big Mac and can barely force it down. Initially thought that it was shut and we’d have to go to Sonic next door…thankfully not. It’s 20:00 and we just want to go to bed. Knackered. Some mammatus overhead then we’re checked in extremely efficiently into the Super 8.

Total miles: 385

 

Day 8 - Hello North Platte my old friend…

We’re up at 8:00 mountain time so essentially 9:00 central. I’ve not had a great sleep since I’ve been here, last night was no different. The hotel room was of its time and half the electrics didn’t work.

Breakfast was at Becky’s in Lamar, a small Mexican American diner and after scaring off some of the locals we had the place to ourselves. Breakfast was fine though the bacon was more crunchy than crispy. It all go wolfed down.

Today the SPC has a fairly large slight risk area stretching from western Texas north to western Nebraska with a 2% tornado risk covering eastern Colorado, western Kansas and western Nebraska. 

We’re heading to north east Colorado, back up the US287 we went up and down yesterday. Initial target is the Fort Morgan/Sterling area, we’ll reassess when  we get there. Supercells are likely to drift into western Nebraska so I think we’ll end up staying in North Platte, a place I’ve visited countless times over the years, ditto for my old mucka Liam.

So quietly confident of a a good day, tomorrow has a slight risk over Nebraska then our final day has a marginal risk over Oklahoma so it’s not inconceivable we’ll be chasing every day: storms 10-0 tourist days? We shall see. 

SPC lunchtime update has added an enhanced risk further south, essentially for wind, the tornado risk in our locale is unchanged with a 15% hatched risk for hail in a similar area. 

We have a pit stop at Limon, the brightly coloured trucks dazzling in the bright sunshine against blue skies and cotton wool cumulus clouds.

We head north on Colorado 71 towards Fort Morgan where we stop for some picnic provisions at Walmart. I can’t remember seeing any real alternative to this behemoth. Toying between a sandwich and a salad a notice some of the boys are at a chicken counter so I get what Alex picked…battered deep fried chicken wings and battered cheese tots. Mistake, they were revolting, deep fried sludge. Bloody awful. Meanwhile oily boy strikes again, how I’m not sure…the inside of the fridge is now covered in oil from his supposedly secured pot of olives and it’s also run all over the back of the vehicle…

We eat our picnic at Riverside Park in Fort Morgan, a sea of lush greenery replete with a large lake and numerous ducks. Really pleasant. With that out of the way, and the major pollution incident under control we head north east on I74; we’re under a severe thunderstorm watch. 

A quick note on watches and so on: watches are issued a few hours prior to when severe weather may be possible, such as severe thunderstorm, tornado or flood. It does not mean this is going to happen, liken it to a forecast. Warnings happen in pretty much real time when the threat is occurring or likely imminent. Both watches and warnings can be prefixed by PDS or “Particularly Dangerous Situation” where the threat is really serious. In exceptional circumstances where a violent tornado is on the ground heading for a population centre a tornado emergency may be declared; this is what happened the other day when we were in Texas, there’s video taken from inside Midland Airport with a large tornado approaching as staff were ushering people to a safe space. Really bad things can happen during a tornado emergency. Damage potential is usual labeled as “catastrophic”. 

We continue on I74 towards Sterling, north, then onto Colorado 14 west. We stop near Stoneham to look at a severe warned storm that promptly loses its severe box. We retrace our steps back towards Sterling. It’s nearly 16:00. A quick pit stop at Sterling is thwarted as the facilities are out of order, me and Alex get a cold coffee drink to ward off a sleepy moment. A second stop is more successful. And we have a storm; it’s 16:50. 

We head east from Sterling then south on a proper dirt road between Galien and Fleming. A severe warned storm is to our south, This dirt road is perfect for viewing our storm. We stop, take photos, get wet, go south and repeat this a number of times. As we progress south the storm gets more organised, the base sharper with a clear wall cloud and scud dances around a tightening circulation. Surely it’s going to drop a tornado? 

As has become annoyingly frequent during this trip another storm appears and interferes with the inflow. We take another dirt road east and as we do so cold air belches out of the interloper and undercuts our storm. Splat, and within 10 minutes our storm collapses. Damn!

We head north to Haxton then west on US6 to Holyoke. There are storms in better air to the north but they’re out of reach, a massive anvil has spread far and wide acting as huge fire blanket suppressing any chance of convection where we are. Game over for today. There were no tornado warned storms anywhere in our risk area.

We head north into Julesburg which looks shut. I saw a fabulous supercell just north of here in 2008, a print of which hangs on a wall at home. We need some food and find the Julesburg Tavern. The sign says open but it looks anything but. We venture in, the women serving comes to life; we are her only customers. A grilled cheese sandwich, some fries a bud, a couple of games of pool and we’re on our way to the Super 8 in North Platte east on the I80.

A frustrating day in many ways, but we did have a storm to chase and it looked great until it didn’t. Notwithstanding, that’s 8 days and 8 chases, an exceptional return. Will we make it 9 from 9 tomorrow?  We’ll still be in Nebraska for what’s currently A slight risk so hopefully less travelling.

Total miles: 496