2015--Day 6
Another day, another trip to Wal Mart. We started in Sidney, Nebraska with a dilemma: two potential target areas: northeast Colorado/southeast Wyoming, or south-central Nebraska/north-central Kansas. Since our transporter and cloning device were both in the shop, we gambled on the western option. The equipment team braved the fire ants to launch a balloon, which stopped calling around 500 hPa. I guess it's just not that into us.
Off toward Cheyenne, and then north toward Wheatland, home of tornadoes #2, 3, and 4 for me. Will lightning (and tornadoes) strike twice?
A sign in front of a Wheatland bar:
'A man needs a mistress to break up the monogamy.' Cute.
We spent a while at a Wheatland gas station, which turned out to be an unadvertised chaser convention. Stories were swapped, vans were inspected, toys were displayed.
It was a late initiation kind of day, with storms not firing until lateish afternoon. Once things started going, they went pretty well. We spent time around Fort Laramie and Lingle (?) watching some good LP structures, but cloud bases were likely too high for tornadoes, in spite of numerous wall clouds.
We did chase a pretty spectacular LP, but the Wyoming terrain, which would be beautiful under any other circumstance, interruped our views. A couple of weak corepunches later and an abandoned cell chase, we were back on I25 toward Wheatland from the north.
After a fairly forgettable dinner at an establishment that prides itself on being royalty, we aimed our vehicles toward the south and eventually east. While on the road to Cheyenne, we were treated to a really intense light show. After making the turn east onto I80 sometime around midnight, we noted a slow-moving supercell that we decided was worth investigating. A 10-mile trip south on a side road yielded very little as the storm weakened, so we reversed and made it back to I80.
We landed in Sidney (again) around 1:30 am, effectively making a 482-mile circle. A long day for sure, and while the structures might not have been as good as the previous two days, there was good stuff to be had. More than enough for now...good night.
Off toward Cheyenne, and then north toward Wheatland, home of tornadoes #2, 3, and 4 for me. Will lightning (and tornadoes) strike twice?
A sign in front of a Wheatland bar:
'A man needs a mistress to break up the monogamy.' Cute.
We spent a while at a Wheatland gas station, which turned out to be an unadvertised chaser convention. Stories were swapped, vans were inspected, toys were displayed.
It was a late initiation kind of day, with storms not firing until lateish afternoon. Once things started going, they went pretty well. We spent time around Fort Laramie and Lingle (?) watching some good LP structures, but cloud bases were likely too high for tornadoes, in spite of numerous wall clouds.
We did chase a pretty spectacular LP, but the Wyoming terrain, which would be beautiful under any other circumstance, interruped our views. A couple of weak corepunches later and an abandoned cell chase, we were back on I25 toward Wheatland from the north.
After a fairly forgettable dinner at an establishment that prides itself on being royalty, we aimed our vehicles toward the south and eventually east. While on the road to Cheyenne, we were treated to a really intense light show. After making the turn east onto I80 sometime around midnight, we noted a slow-moving supercell that we decided was worth investigating. A 10-mile trip south on a side road yielded very little as the storm weakened, so we reversed and made it back to I80.
We landed in Sidney (again) around 1:30 am, effectively making a 482-mile circle. A long day for sure, and while the structures might not have been as good as the previous two days, there was good stuff to be had. More than enough for now...good night.
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