Sunday, June 1st was a pretty good day for storm photography. I targeted the far western Nebraska Panhandle, arriving at a location north of Pine Bluffs, WY by mid-afternoon. Storms first formed off the Laramie Range and struggled for quite some time. Finally, a cluster of severe storms formed just north of where I was positioned along Hwy 88 over far northwest Banner County, NE. Ultimately, a supercell was spawned out of this cluster northwest of Bridgeport. I repositioned myself to the southeast of Bridgeport after driving briefly through the core of the storm at Bridgeport, receiving 1" diameter hail. I met up with Matt Crowther, Greg Brenneman, and the "Original Twister Sisters" at the junction of Hwy 385/92 southeast of Bridgeport. I was greeted to a moderately rotating wall cloud to the immediate west southwest with dust being kicked up from the RFD. We followed this supercell to the southeast across a gridded dirt road network between Hwy 26 and I-80…east of Hwy 385 (northeast of Sidney). The storm had too much cool RFD air thanks to the high-based nature of the storm, but the structure was quite nice. When I reached Chappell, I continued south for photography opportunities from afar. The storm looked fantastic from the distant southwest. I photographed the storm from the distant southwest for the rest of the chase…while pretty much all the other chasers were up close. The isolated nature of this supercell was ideal for more distant structure shots given the pristine blue sky around the storm. I finally called it a chase about 17 miles SSW of Julesburg and drove up to Ogallala, NE for the night.
