Category: Storm Chase

Originally I wasn’t planning on chasing this day. It didn’t look like a good enough shot at seeing anything to warrant my driving all the way to Iowa or Minnesota. But, the Storm Prediction Center upgrading the day to Moderate Risk did help sway my opinion a little bit, so I ended up going. I…

Day two of my storm chase mini-vacation to eastern Nebraska. Also, it was the first High Risk day of 2014, although I did not chase anywhere near the High Risk (or Moderate Risk, for the matter,) location. I woke up that morning to thunder from a slow moving Mesoscale Convective System that seemed to sit…

This was the first *real* of the year. My target area was Lincoln, Nebraska. Now, on the Monday and Tuesday before this, Saturday looked like it could be a pretty huge day. But by that Wednesday, the outlook was not so great looking. But, there was a chance that a supercell or two could form.…

First storm chase of the year! I had high hopes for this day in the proceeding days up until this event. But the morning of the event, I was much more pessimistic. For one, I didn’t have what I would call a “free range of opportunities.” By that, I mean that I couldn’t chase where…

November 17th was the second and final High Risk day of 2013, as well as the largest severe weather outbreak of 2013. Both days, Illinois was interestingly enough. It seems that when I moved back to Illinois from Oklahoma, I brought the tornadoes with me. The setup was definitely unusual for November in Illinois. Abnormally…

This was a late year Moderate Risk day that I, in retrospect, did not bring my A-game to. My initial target area was central Iowa. I got on the road a little too late in the morning. Then, lots of road construction west of Elgin slowed me down even more. After I got into Iowa,…

This was the first High Risk day of 2013, and my home town was included. Honestly, from the beginning I thought it was being over-hyped. People were calling for a big tornado outbreak, and then a derecho. I thought there would be severe storms and maybe a couple tornadoes. But hey, how often does northern…

The day of the Moore tornado was the last day of my little storm chasing vacation. After I struck out in storm chasing, I went and hung out in Norman for the rest of the evening. Then I tried to find a hotel room. What I hadn’t thought about was the many, many displaced people…

I had spent the night in what I call “my hotel” in Norman, OK. Woke up a little later than usual this day, as I had stayed up late the night before to visit with a friend. As soon as I walked out of the hotel, I felt the warm, humid, windy weather wash over…

Day two started out in Wichita, KS. I was a little unsure of where exactly I wanted to target. Originally I was thinking Tulsa, or slightly west of there. Eventually I decided on either Perry or Guthrie, Oklahoma. So I headed south, and stopped for lunch in Perry. As I waited in Perry, storms began…