2015--Day 4
After morning briefing, we left Kearney and started west (and north) toward Chadron in hope of seeing good stuff on the first official chase day. The conditions aren't terribly promising, but Tuesday is looking better in the central South Dakota region.
Lunch in Ogallala, and then traveled to Alliance (home of Carhenge). Storms are firing to the west over southeastern Wyoming and moving east toward us, so we're cooling our heels for a while. After a bit of waiting, we've decided to leave and chase after a storm coming out of eastern Wyoming that appears to be rotating...stay tuned!
After chasing some dust storms (down dirt roads), we returned to Alliance to take pictures of some storms that were visually impressive but not much else. We decided then to move back north toward Chadron, where there may be an impressive cell that we may be able to intercept.
On the way, two weak lenticular clouds indicating a gravity wave formed in front of us. We were also able to see the underside of a roll cloud (evidence of outflow), as well as a backsheared anvil from the storm north of Rapid City, about 130 miles away. Simply amazing. Even more amazing is that it appears to be anchored to a terrain feature in the Black Hills, and hasn't moved in at least 90 minutes. As such, we've left Chadron and are headed north to Rapid City.
Said storm did not move much at all during the time it took us to go from Alliance to Rapid City. Just before we arrived, outflow from a storm to the south reached the supercell, causing it to elongate to the east. Eventually the western portion of the storm started to weaken, but not enough for us to miss anything really good. It was rotating for sure, although it never dropped a tornado. Decent hail and flash flooding resulted. After finding high ground, we were able to get some decent pictures and video. One of the locals told us about Skyline Drive, a winding road that rose even higher and provided an even better vantage of the storm and the valley below. Our altitude (and the presence of numerous antenna towers) precluded us from spending much time outside of the van due to lightning. This did not prevent some residents climbing higher. Most of us were able to capture some pretty great pictures/video of structure and lightning. My goal of this trip was to capture a low-precipitation supercell ('mothership'), and while I didn't get a full-altitude shot (too many clouds), I did get at least part of one. All in all, a very successful 'first' day!
We abandoned our plans for Valentine (bummer) and stayed in KRAP. The day ended with a very pleasant pizza dinner and chat with some of the students. The final tally for the day was about 502 miles and two states. Absymal internet prevented me from uploading pictures, but stay tuned, I will post some as soon as I can!
Lunch in Ogallala, and then traveled to Alliance (home of Carhenge). Storms are firing to the west over southeastern Wyoming and moving east toward us, so we're cooling our heels for a while. After a bit of waiting, we've decided to leave and chase after a storm coming out of eastern Wyoming that appears to be rotating...stay tuned!
After chasing some dust storms (down dirt roads), we returned to Alliance to take pictures of some storms that were visually impressive but not much else. We decided then to move back north toward Chadron, where there may be an impressive cell that we may be able to intercept.
On the way, two weak lenticular clouds indicating a gravity wave formed in front of us. We were also able to see the underside of a roll cloud (evidence of outflow), as well as a backsheared anvil from the storm north of Rapid City, about 130 miles away. Simply amazing. Even more amazing is that it appears to be anchored to a terrain feature in the Black Hills, and hasn't moved in at least 90 minutes. As such, we've left Chadron and are headed north to Rapid City.
Said storm did not move much at all during the time it took us to go from Alliance to Rapid City. Just before we arrived, outflow from a storm to the south reached the supercell, causing it to elongate to the east. Eventually the western portion of the storm started to weaken, but not enough for us to miss anything really good. It was rotating for sure, although it never dropped a tornado. Decent hail and flash flooding resulted. After finding high ground, we were able to get some decent pictures and video. One of the locals told us about Skyline Drive, a winding road that rose even higher and provided an even better vantage of the storm and the valley below. Our altitude (and the presence of numerous antenna towers) precluded us from spending much time outside of the van due to lightning. This did not prevent some residents climbing higher. Most of us were able to capture some pretty great pictures/video of structure and lightning. My goal of this trip was to capture a low-precipitation supercell ('mothership'), and while I didn't get a full-altitude shot (too many clouds), I did get at least part of one. All in all, a very successful 'first' day!
We abandoned our plans for Valentine (bummer) and stayed in KRAP. The day ended with a very pleasant pizza dinner and chat with some of the students. The final tally for the day was about 502 miles and two states. Absymal internet prevented me from uploading pictures, but stay tuned, I will post some as soon as I can!
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