Today was my final chase day and expectations were high. The SPC had issued an unusual 30% Tornado risk for Southern Kansas and Oklahoma. To put that in to context when I saw 12 tornados in one day last year it was a 15% risk.

The challenge with such a high risk is that the storms fire early and become a large unchaseable (definitely a word) mess of cells. With such good conditions to trigger storms several can start all at once, making it both dangerous and difficult to see anything.

We didn’t have far to go to get into the high risk area which left some time for sight seeing in Dodge.

After learning about the rich history of  Dodge City we left for our target set up location Pratt KS.

As we feared storms started to go up early along with a lot of precipitation. We tracked our first target for the day North from Woodward OK toward Freedom OK.

 After a short stop to observe the emerging wall cloud and some Lightning we soon found ourselves cut off by wind and hail. 

As we retreated from the hail and wind North of us we became cut off to the South by another storm with more than hail blocking our progress.

As we drove South several funnel clouds appeared briefly from the wall cloud ahead, when everyone’s ears popped as a result of a sudden change in pressure and the sky swirling above we had to risk the hail and rain to the North in order to avoid a potential Tornado forming on top of us. It’s fair to say I felt a burst of adrenaline as we raced towards what we hoped was safety.

As we escaped the storm and eventually made our way North Dan was able to get us to the prefect location amid the chaos to chase our second and final target for the day.

After tracking this storm for the remainder of it’s Tornado warned status we decided to head north and get out of the worsening​ conditions and increasingly poor visibility.

We set our sights back towards Kansas and a hotel for the night, however the storms had a few more suprises left.

Due to the challenging conditions today I have only captured a small glimpse of the experience on camera, but today was a truly memorable experience.

Yesterday’s chase was incredibly intense and unfortunately the storm we were chasing tore through Elk City destroying homes and leading to at least one death. Although we are out here to see severe weather we never want to see it cause damage and loss of life. My thoughts are with anyone affected by the Tornado outbreak and hail storms yesterday.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ilx9cbDWs

Yesterday’s Chase

Yesterday had all the ingredients required for severe storms and Tornados and the forecast proved to be accurate, this brings with it additional challenges. Good prospects mean we see a convergence of chaser’s making the roads busy and in cases congested. 

With an easy drive from Borger TX to Shamrock we were in the perfect position to start the chase by 1pm. The biggest challenge being the art of knowing when to stay put and do nothing, not chasing the first thing on radar.

At around 3pm chaser’s started to head out, with storms forming to the West and South our next target was McClean TX.

We initially set our sites on the storm immediately to our West bumping into a fellow chaser Jock McGinty along the way.

We tracked this storm South until the challenging road options in the Eastern Texas Panhandle prevented us from chasing. We decided to target the storm to our South as a result. This storm did however put down a tornado shortly after we had committed to the Southern most storm.

As we got closer this quickly picked up a tornado warning.

Although we didn’t see a tornado the storm was producing funnel clouds.

As we drove on into the storm we ran into hail and rain making for some very interesting driving. Along with some very strong rotation above us. 

Shortly after this we were back on the road making sure we kept an appropriate distance from anything that looked like producing a tornado.

Below is a short video from inside the car as we drove through a hail core. The hail was around the diameter of a quarter.

After driving through the hail we started to get a view of the storm ahead. On radar the storm heading for Elk City looked very severe on radar.

After the road ahead was clear we raced towards I-40 to get further east and away from the storms path. After producing several tornados and dropping hail the size of golf balls this storm was starting to reduce in severity. We got off I-40 at the town of Clinton which had lost all power as a result of the days severe weather. With daylight running out the chase was over.

We ended our day back in Shamrock TX and the prospect of a well earned rest. The damage caused to Elk City re emphasised the danger present when chasing severe weather and the very real impact it has on people’s lives.

Day 5- Blue skies in Dodge City

No severe weather was forecast for today so with a late start we headed toward Dodge City to set up for the Storms forecast for Thursday in Kansas and Oklahoma. 

With all the models pointing to Tuesday and Thursday being the big chase days for this week we did a good job of managing our expectations for today. It turns out we didn’t need to!

Starting out in Colby Kansas we faced a fairly long set up drive to the Texas panhandle, our target for the day. 

We certainly had to practice some disicpline today waiting for the dryline to kick up storms just east of Amarillo.

The dry line started to help initiate updrafts around 4pm and the real challenge of knowing which storm to pick was about to start.

By around 5pm and Daniel Gregory our talented forcaster had put us right in the perfect spot to start the chase.

After brief stop we continued to drive North in order to get ahead of the storms traveling towards us, it became something of a race.

After a mini core punch we made it to the perfect spot to really see the structure of the storm rotating wall cloud and all!

As we chased the structure of the storm became more apparent and a truly spectacular storm emerged, i’ll let the photos do the talking.

Although there were no tornados today, the odds or looking good for tomorrow. 

Today was never going to be a great chase day so it was a late start and a long drive from South Dakota to set up for tomorrow.

Along the way we stopped at a replica of Stonehenge made entirely of cars, which I personally think is better.

400 miles later we neared our planned stop for the night, Colby Kansas we could see the tell tale shape of a thunderstorm on the horizon. We decided to head a little further South to see if it was going to be worth late evening chase.

Deciding it wasn’t worth the chase we called it day and chased down some dinner instead.

Tomorrow looks more promising with potential chase areas in Texas and Kansas, the challenge could be making a call between 2 different storm systems.

Some of my best chase days I have been in areas of slight risk, tune in tomorrow to see where we end up…

Welcome everyone to my 2017 storm chasing adventure! Brought to you by the Tornadic Wind and Thunderstorm Seekers…AKA Sean, Dan, Peter and Ang. 

Day one is over and it seems like we are going to have a quiet start to the week- but hopefully a little more excitement by Tuesday.

As you can see from the SPCs convective outlook the risk of severe thunderstorms was pretty low. However a marginal risk doesn’t mean no storms- just a low probability- making the chase much harder.

Our expert forcaster Dan however was optimistic and we set our sights on South Dakota. Setting out from Denver towards Keystone via beautiful Wyoming.

After 300 miles we came across the first hint of some convection.

With time on our side we made a quick detour to tick off an item from my US bucket list.

It turned out MT Rushmore was a pretty good spot to watch the first storm of the day approach- unfortunately the Black Hills also make a pretty big obstacle for storms forming to the west. 

After the storm approached us and fell apart over the hills we left for a couple of storms developing to the South. Neither were severe warned but well worth chasing.

We found our selves between 2 interesting storms a d opted for the closest first. The South Dakota terrain made it difficult to get a good look at the full structure of the storm and data coverage was sketchy. Trial and error was the theme for the day!

We caught up with our first target storm by around 4pm and caught a few lightning bolts and precipitation from the only vantage point for miles.

After watching for a while we decided to change our tact and head South to what appeared to be a well organized storm in clean air and away from annoying hills!

After heading south to catch a closer look with the Las storm of our Chase we decided to call it a day. The storms today were small and not likely to produce any severe weather, time for dinner in hot springs!

After arriving in Hot Springs our stop for the night and home to Woolys, the best Mammoth themed restaurant I have ever eaten at we had one more surprise from todays storms- a rather spectacular display of Mammatus.

Looking at the outlook for the next 2 days its going to be a slow start, but hopefully some proper chasing action by Tuesday.