This chase day was full of two things: Uncertainty and structure. It appears there was insufficient low-level rotation to generate enough spin to create tornadoes, however there was plenty of energy in the atmosphere to create some incredible storm structure. What really made the day was the fact that we had isolated supercells with very little interference in the mid-levels. This creates an environment where storms can initiate and grow without turning into big messes. Although we didn’t bag a tornado, it was worth the chase.
I went out on this chase with Marcus Hicks, our team lead at EXWX.net. We always enjoy chasing together, and this day was no exception. The day started with a cell that was riding the SD/NE boarder along the Missouri river. Initiation was around 4pm. Since the cell was isolated, we decided to get on the cell and see what happened.
We quickly realized that this cell was becoming outflow dominent, and probably wasn’t going to do anything. In typical chaser fashion, we made a quick decision to burn it south on a cell that looked much better on radar. But about 30 minutes into the drive we found that the cell was dying, and at the same time a new cell had developed to the west of our original target. We did a quick u-turn, and began heading back north. It turned out to be a great decision. Here is what we landed on:
The new cell had some great inflow and a very defined updraft. Rotation quickly became evident, and we started to see what could have become a wall cloud:
Weird scud stuff started entering the inflow as well:
Storm structure got pretty incredible at this point. Here are a few shots:
The storm never actually produced a tornado, but it was incredible to watch.
At the end of the night we were treated to an incredible sunset:
Overall, an incredible day!
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