High Plains Drifter

Strict Standards: Non-static method nggGallery::get_option() should not be called statically, assuming $this from incompatible context in /home/themeso/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/lib/shortcodes.php on line 47

It was another successful chase trip, but not without some significant disappointments.  The highlight storm of the trip was the Baca County, CO – Morton County, KS Supercell of June 13th.  This storm landed me some of my best images of the year, including a “shot of the year” candidate — a rare image of mirror inflow dust jets feeding into a massive supercell thunderstorm.  Not to mention, this storm yielded me my only tornado images of this vacation — a nice, tall, dusty tornado south of Pritchett, Colorado.  Another memorable moment of the trip was the mammatus over Pratt, KS on June 15th.  This was probably the most amazing mammatus I have ever seen.  Daytime lightning photography was also a success on two occassions in northeastern Colorado — June 14th north of Limon and June 21st near Iliff in the northeast corner of Colorado.  Of course, there were the low points — including the most low-point chase day in my 12 years of chasing storms — the “Bust for the Ages” on June 17th.  Other busts on this trip included the only true “blue sky bust” of the trip which was in Iowa (of course) on June 18th.  Another rather painful busts was June 16th, where we chased weak storms near Sidney, Nebraska while a stationary, classic supercell was parked just southeast of Wichita while we were eating dinner in Sidney.  So the three-day stretch from June 16-18 was indeed one I wish to forget — but I was in good company.  Jay Antle and Evan Bookbinder certainly provided a lot of wisdom, entertainment, and all around good times during the trip, and I thank them for that!  I just wish they wouldn’t have listened to me at 6:24pm on June 17th. But we were chasing in my Jeep, so when it all came down to quick-acting decision making, I guess I had the say in where we were going   Despite these disappointments, rest assured, the chase trip was another success!