And just like that we were on our final day of this year’s stormchase. We had to get back to Denver on Saturday night so the enhanced risk down in Texas wasn’t an option, and even if it was there were many reasons to not get sucked into some crazy chaser convergence!

Our target area was initially Western Kansas/ South Eastern Colorado where there is a good chance the storms that formed over the mountains would run into good air for storm development.

As we headed West towards our target area we picked an initial setup drive, taking us into Colorado.

Our first storm of the day, moving towards us as the sun set behind.

Overall it was a great week, over 3200 miles driven. Severe warned storms on 6 out of 8 days and only one truly storm free day.

Dan’s forecasting was always on point extracting the best possible show from the set ups available. 

Every year I’ve been out has had a different character, and this year, the theme has been lightning! Tuesday, in particular, was probably the best storm for lightning I’ve ever chased. Both the proximity, the long-lasting nature of each bolt, and the New Mexico mountains as a backdrop were just something else. Having a beer with my fellow chasers on an empty road as the light faded and the storm put on a show was truly one of life’s best moments.

Looking forward to next year already!

We started the day in Dodge City Kansas, and had an initial set up drive East heading towards Boise City Oklahoma. Dan shared some interesting history on Boise City and the con artists who founded it!

Once at Boise we had one of the more challenging chasing scenarios which, sitting and waiting before selecting a target storm. The inclination is to go and get on the road for the first thing on radar. Instead we waited to see which storms had the best potential before selecting a target. Great work by Dan once again as we were caught up by other storm chasers and in great position for our storm of the day.

We headed towards our first target near Springfield CO. Continuing on to our first stop near Pritchett.

After getting the most out of our storm we decided to move on to a couple of storms to our South, heading out of Boise towards Dalhart TX.

We’ve had some good lightning this week and Friday was another great lightning show. The following are some of my favorites.

After getting some final shots of lightning in Oklahoma we continued South into New Mexico. The light started to fade, lightning striking around us and the Twister Soundtrack for added atmosphere!

As we entered New Mexico we made a final stop for sunset and some final lightning.

Saturday is our final chase and with the need to return to Denver for the evening we are not attempting to chase the enhanced risk South of Dallas. Logistically it would be a challenge and a hefty overnight drive. From past experience an enhanced risk on a weekend near some densely populated cities is a recipe for a chaser traffic jam. We’re going to try our luck in North Western Kansas instead.

We started the day in Santa Rosa, NM. and chose a target area of Clayton NM. Which turned out to be spot on! We went through Clayton 4 times over the course of the chase.

First stop was Tucumcari home to a railroad museum that seemingly doesn’t have trains, and a Dinosaur Museum with an impressive fossil collection!

After extracting maximum amounts of fun that all Tucumcari has to offer we were back on the road heading to Clayton.

Storms were initially forming to the NorthEast of Clayton with several cells starting and then running out of steam.

After our initial storms started to die we relocated West of Clayton where our storm of the day was developing.

As the storm rolled towards us we were hit with some pretty strong outflow that can best be described as akin to sticking your head out the car in an interstate!

After enjoying some impressive outflow, we decided to relocate South, which was also the right direction for our second night in Amarillo.

Because of the storms position relative to the sun the colors underneath the shelf cloud were incredible. Almost indigo in some places!

As we headed South we were able to get out in front of the shelf cloud and our best view of some structure of the trip so far.

As we began to lose the light we pressed on to Amarillo and dinner at the Big Texan.

We continued to get some lightning a d a rather atmospheric sunset for entertainment on the drive.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.- Mark Twain

We started the day in Woodward OK. With a Birthday celebration for Dan who loves people making a fuss for him!

And since it was his Birthday our first stop was the happiest place in the world, The Shattuck windmill museum! What may well be the greatest windmill Museum in the world!

After extracting maximum fun from the windmill museum, we headed off to our target area for the day around Tucumcari NM.

By around 4pm we had identified our target storm for the day in the mountains between Tucumcari and Wagon Mound NM. While the roads were challenging they happened to take is right to where we need we to be and the scenery was spectacular!

We found a brilliant vantage point with storms to our North and South and were treated to the most stunning lighting show. With intense bolts that were incredibly long duration. Which made capturing the spectacle straight forward even for someone with my limited photography skills. Being at high elevation helped things too!

After we decided to leave the storm the drive to our stop for the night in Santa Rosa continued to put on a show.

Wednesday could be a repeat storm chase in the mountains or a dice roll back in the Pan Handle.

We started yesterday in Amarillo with a fairly ambiguous forecast for the day, no obvious target and not an awful lot to get excited about.

Initial target was Childress TX, but on the way we ran into what would normally be a fairly uninteresting storm, but with little else to chase we decided to have a play and see what we could get. What we got was about 5 hours of solid stormchasing in return!

We left I-40 and decided to head South East on 287 towards Jesly TX to stay on the drier side of the storm that continued to gain momentum. By 12.30 we even had some structure.

We turned back towards I-40 where we found a great spot on a hill just off the highway. I definitely remember some words of advice about hills and lightning storms…

Once again, my photo skills have failed to capture the moment but we were treated to some brilliant lightning just outside of Alanreed TX. Multiple bolts hitting simultaneously.

Most of the ingredients were there, but lack of lift and weak winds meant this storm just couldn’t quite get organized.

Without one dominant cell, there were multiple smaller storms traveling in pretty much every direction. The result was some heavy precipitation with very neatly defined boundaries criss crossing the highway. It felt like we drove through all seasons of the year every few miles!

Having started at 11.30 and almost immediately on the storm we decided to wrap up the chase by 6 as the storms lost what organization they had and head to our stop for the night in Childress TX. Mondays forecast is a crapshoot with low potential for something from NM to Oklahoma.

Kudos to Dan once again for finding the action in a difficult forecast on Sunday!