I will be departing Dodge City for Kansas City late in the morning Wednesday for my second storm chasing trip of the 2010 season. I will be chasing with my good friend and fellow NWS forecaster (Pleasant Hill/KC, MO) Evan Bookbinder and will be meeting up with him at his house tomorrow evening. The forecast pattern looks very good for almost daily storm chasing opportunities as there will be sustained west-southwest or southwest jet stream across the Rockies and into the adjacent western plains. Day One, Thursday 6/17, a significant mid-latitude cyclone will move rapidly across the northern Dakotas, and our idea is to chase along the advancing dry intrusion/cold front where the front will interact with extreme instability and very high moisture content. Supercells will be likely with tornadoes a possibility east of the Siouxland area of northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.
Beyond Day One. The front will move slowly into the central Plains and weaken as it does so on Day Two (Friday 6/18). It will be moving south into weaker flow aloft with supercell less likely. We will decide later whether to chase Friday across northern/northeast Kansas or to just position for Day Three (Saturday 6/19). Saturday will mark the beginning of a sustained period of chasing across the northern/central High Plains and into Nebraska and the southern Dakotas. Next week could be quite active!