Storm Chase of 3 June, 2014

This was a disappointing day for sure. After touring around Nebraska for a bit, I ended up in Ord. Sat there for a while, waiting for storms to develop. There was some convection to my north, but it was very disorganized looking. To my southwest, some new convection began firing up, near where the SPC…

By Brian June 3, 2014 Off

Update on Tueday

Thermodynamically, Tuesday still looks very good. What is giving me pause about Tuesday is storm mode. The GFS and NAM are in agreement about a more derecho-like event taking place. The question is will there be any supercells before that takes place. The GFS says yes, the NAM says no. I’d really hate to drive…

By Brian June 1, 2014 Off

Storm Chase on Tuesday

Tuesday is looking like possibly the best storm chase day of the year, based on terrain and atmospheric conditions. As such, I will be in the field chasing. At the moment, I’m setting my initial target area as Kearney, Nebraska. Of course, that may change in the coming days as the forecast models get a…

By Brian June 1, 2014 Off

Storm Chase of 20 May, 2014

This chase was a kind of a spur of the moment thing. Earlier in the day, the SPC had 5% tornado probability right overhead. That eventually got downgraded to 2%. But during the late afternoon/early evening there were some strong storms moving into northern Illinois. One storm in particular, heading towards Dekalb, was looking supercellular;…

By Brian May 20, 2014 Off

Tornado Outbreak on Mother’s Day

The Storm Prediction Center has already given tomorrow a Moderate Risk, I wouldn’t be surprised at an upgrade to High Risk later tonight. Eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, northwestern Missouri, and Kansas are all under the gun. With CAPE values nearing and possibly exceeding 4,000 j/kg, and pretty extreme helicity values near the warm front, multiple…

By Brian May 10, 2014 Off

Storm Chase of 8 May, 2014

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…

By Brian May 8, 2014 Off

First High Risk Days/Multi-day Outbreak of 2014

We just had out first multi-day tornado outbreak of the year.  32 people were killed during the three-day severe weather event. Tornadoes of note include the Mayflower-Vilonia, Arkansas tornado on Sunday evening, which has the preliminary rating of EF-3 and it killed 14 people, and the Louisville, Mississippi EF-4, which killed 9 people. As for…

By Brian April 30, 2014 Off