2015--Day 7

The first full week of chasing begins today in Sidney, Nebraska, much like the previous day.  Rather cool and cloudy to start, the plan is to head toward Phillipsburg, Kansas.   Even though Colorado and Wyoming are interesting and have the added benefit of potential upslope flow to goose things along, I think no one's interested in playing peekaboo (or chicken) with the terrain.

Saw this sign in Ogallala, Nebraska.  At least they admit it.  This must be the place Neil Young sang about.

Speaking of singing, an 'oldies' program just played Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days.  Never a favorite to start with, the fact that it's considered an oldie is just horribly depressing.  I remember when that song came out in 1984, as I was graduating high school.  Guess that makes me an oldie as well.   Pass the prunes and the Geritol, youngster, then get off my lawn.

Random thought: Nebraska is a very l  o  n  g state.

Another: I don't think I've heard more .38 Special in my entire life as I've heard on this trip, and mainly just one song.

The persistent cloud cover is concerning to me, but there are breaks and evidence of it thinning out.  Phillipsburg at about 4 pm local is 82 over 71...which translates to icky.  And once again, that Kansas sense of humor reveals itself.

We spent somewhere between 1 and 2 hours in a parking lot of a hotel under construction waiting...and waiting...for something to pop, and not much of anything happened, in spite of the great (model) conditions.  Apparently a little CIN is enough to prevent the good stuff from happening.  Remember, boys and girls, to heed this equation:

                CAPE + cap = CRAP

We've decided to head west toward some potential development in extreme SW Nebraska.  Driving through Norton, KS, I noticed a sign that the town youth were BB gun champions for several years running.  Guess that means the kids can put your eye out at 500 yards.

We encountered an LP supercell on US 36 between Atwood and Oberlin, which had a radar-indicated tornado warning.  Amazing structure and wall cloud, resulting in 1/2 to 1 inch hail.  It even split into right and left-moving cells, with the latter petering out fairly quickly.  We were able to deploy one of the pods out ahead of the storm as well. 

As the storm approached, we turned around and headed east toward Oberlin.  We turned south on US83 and watched more storms.  While we did this, the left moving storm from the previous cell strengthened and moved toward the northwest--very strange.  In the process, we heard safety instructions for the potential tornado--that were sponsored by an insurance agent.  At the intersection of US83 and Hwy 383, yet another mothership, some spectacular (at times nearly continuous) lightning, and another pod deployment.

Around 10 pm we found ourselves going south on Hwy 481 (a dirt road, yay) when we received notice of a tornado warning near us (and a confirmed one at that).  We waited for several minutes, but try as I could I never saw a funnel despite the vivid and nearly continuous lightning.  We started east on US24, and once again the lightning was absolutely stunning in just about every direction, but no visible funnels (although there were signs in the radar).  Finally around 11 pm, we called it and headed toward Oakley, KS for the evening.  We'll need to retrieve the pods tomorrow--hopefully we got some great data!  After a very late (but very good) dinner, we called it a night.  Final tally: two states, 468 miles, splitting LP supercells, numerous wall clouds, theoretical tornadoes (i.e., we didn't see them), and some of the most brilliant lightning displays I've ever seen.  A long but worthwhile day.