I am sitting at a rest area along I-80 near Grand Island. I am going
to wait here for awhile I think — there is an outflow boundary just
to my east and northeast which is intersecting the stationary front
north of Grand Island. The best convergence is right around here and
north of here. The cu is not very agitated, although it’s not even
3pm yet, so there is still a lot of time for things to change. My gut
tells me this is going to end up being a cap bust, but the old outflow
boundary is helping enhance convergence, so you never know. It’s
going to go late if it does at all… like 6 or 7 pm probably.
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Mike Umscheid Photography
http://gallery.underthemeso.com
mesomike@gmail.com
I’ve just perused the latest data and model guidance, and I am
choosing Central Nebraska over northeast Colorado. There is a
mid-level wave moving into Colorado right now, and by evening it will
likely be positioned across far southwest Nebraska…which will put
central nebraska into a favorable region for deep upward vertical
motion along the stationary front. I think the most aggressive storms
will form ahead of this mid-level wave in better deep lift — not
behind it… and northeast Colorado should be behind this feature by
00z (implying subsidence). I am going to head to Kearney, NE –
arriving there by early afternoon. more later
7:30am cdt. I am still absolutely torn 50/50 between two targets:
Northeast Colorado vs. Central/Northeast Nebraska. Both locations
will have excellent shear — both will have very good if not excellent
moisture/instability. I was leaning Central/Northeast Nebraska when I
woke up a couple hours ago, but now I am back to 50/50. I think what
I will do is drive to Wakeeney and make the decision there at about
9:30 to 10:00am or so after assessing the new 12z NAM model. The main
question regarding the Colorado target is how far west the good
moisture can make it prior to 03z. Surface obs are showing mid 60s
dewpoints at both burlington, CO and goodland, KS… with a 68
dewpoint at Imperial, NE! Granted, the cold front will continue to
shove this moisture south, but by midday, the winds will become
easterly again — pulling this good moisture back into northeast
Colorado. I think the 00z to 03z time frame…right around sunset
especially… could be very rewarding somewhere northeast of Limon.
That looks really tempting. I think this is a conditional play,
though. Colorado chasing is such a wildcard many times. The
Central/Northeast Nebraska target is a bit more confident — regarding
substantial severe storms along the stalling out front. Questions
here center around the photographic nature of the storms. Given upper
60s to near 70 dewpoints, will the storms in eastern Nebraska be very
photogenic? I am a photographer, so I seek high contrast and good
visibility — hence my love for Colorado storms! I’ll leave for
Wakeeney, KS here shortly after 8am.
Chasers: Mike Umscheid (solo). Target: Two targets are in mind late
this evening. Primary target is northeast Colorado in favorable moist
upslope. Secondary target is the front itself across central/southern
Nebraska where 4000+ J/kg CAPE will exist with adequate mid-upper flow
for supercells. The decision on which target to chase will be made
early Thursday morning.
Rare dual dust jets amidst massive inflow to supercell thunderstorm
It is not uncommon to observe a dust inflow jet feeding into a mature supercell thunderstorm on the High Plains. It is rare, however, to see two mirror-image dust jets feeding into the same updraft as shown here. The surface inflow into this storm was immense, with 30 to 50 mph east winds blowing into the storm, which is looking west in this image. Details of this image: (Hand-held) Nikon D3 body, 14mm focal length, 1/100s @ f/2.8, ISO 800. Taken June 13, 2009 at 8:42pm CDT near Hugoton, Kansas
Underthemeso.com "Photo of the Month" -- July 2009
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!
From a tornado perspective, my target area failed. From a unique chase/photography experience, it was a success. I chased WEST of I-25… yes, you heard me right. A supercell formed north of Laramie and just sat there developing on the southwest flank. I said to hell with waiting on it, I’ll just drive to it. It was a very risky move because should other more siggy storms develop east of me, I would be screwed because the one-way trip around SR211/Horse Creek Rd. is about 65 miles. This road was perfect to get a closer view of the storm, but the problem was the 7000-7500 foot terrain between me and the updraft base and any lowerings… so about 80% of the drive was just seeing a dark mass to my west without seeing what was beneath the base. Finally, once I neared Horse Creek (NW of Cheyenne), I could see underneath the base. There was indeed an ominous scuddy lowering. I had to break out the 80-400mm lens since the storm was rather far away still. The southernmost of the conjoined, elongated convective entity became increasingly photogenic as I approached Federal, WY. Once again, I took advantage of the telezoom lens to get some compositions of the distant, but very beautiful supercell Cb with mountainous terrain on the horizon. It was a nice sight, complete with classic blocky lowering beneath the distant rotating storm.
Ultimately, this initial storm complex sent out a wad of outflow that ended up becoming the end of the potential tornadic phase of this chase. I followed Hwy 85 then 216 to Albin and became increasingly frustrated at the lack of any structure. Not even tiered shelf structure. I essentially threw in the towel and made my way to I-80. A storm cluster south of Kimball was sparking fairly consistently so I decided to shoot this. Another small supercell-looking cell then developed back west, so I turned back west on I-80 to Pine Bluffs again. As this thing was dying, yet another storm was developing just about on top of my during my drive back to Pine Bluffs. Once I reached Pine Bluffs, I decided to hang out on Hwy 30 northeast of town adjacent Union Pacific rail line. The golden hour light was getting pretty good with numerous convective elements to photograph. I even had a distant rainbow looking east down Hwy 30. That’s right, today I photographed BOTH a morning rainbow AND an evening rainbow. I find that extremely unusual and quite rewarding actually. The sunset light was just getting better and better. Rich, vivid pinks, violets, blues made the convective elements in the sky just jump out at you. Then, before I knew it, I had a pink storm structure to my north with a nice rain-free base and lowering! A large “scud bomb” developed beneath this lowering, and I had an amazing scene in front of me to my north. A non-severe pink storm with a gigantic “tornado look-alike” hanging down below the rain-free base. Simply amazing sky. Just phenomenal. I was fretting about the mis-target today (not chasing the higher CAPE along the front farther east into Nebraska), but that was only until the incredible photographer’s golden hour light gave me a nice treat. I’ll say that this was nice cap to my chase vacation — one with many wild swings in emotion, as most of you have all read about through the various blog posts.
I photographed several severe storms/supercells from northeast of Dickinson to Mandan to Wishek, North Dakota. Below are a few images from this chase:
I don’t feel like driving in any more rain, LOL.
–
Mike Umscheid Photography
http://gallery.underthemeso.com
mesomike@gmail.com
Well, I may not have seen a well-sculpted supercell or even a tornado
this evening, but as a fine art photographer, the evening was a
success. Photographers light was simply amazing with some of the
deepest pinks, violets, and blues I have seen all season. What a way
to cap off the vacation! The storm I photographed in the saturated
colors wasn’t all that bad, with even a “tornado look-alike” hanging
down from the base! No one will ever know the difference!! This is
the reason I chase out here. I’m heading to Sidney for the night.
Mike U
–
Mike Umscheid Photography
http://gallery.underthemeso.com
mesomike@gmail.com
