High Plains Drifter

June 5 will be the first of a 3-day weekend chase with my friend Robin Lorenson.  I met up with her this evening in Salina and we will depart at around 8:00am heading west on I-70 to Burlington then likely north toward our mid-late afternoon target of Sidney to Sterling.  It looks like a fantastic setup for supercell thunderstorms with at least mid 50s dewpoints advecting west-northwestward toward the Cheyenne Ridge.  Elevated heating and orographic lift with east-southeast winds will be more than sufficient to aid in thunderstorm development.  CAPE will likely exceed 2000 J/kg downstream of the high-terrain development, and the plan is to intercept storms as they develop/coalesce into supercell structures sometime around or after 21-22z… at least that’s the plan!  There could be quality chasing/photography well into the evening so a late night may be in order.  We will likely settle for the night somewhere along I-76 or I-80.  Saturday, June 6 chase area will likely setup in the same general area, perhaps a shade farther east or northeast along I-80 corridor.  Sunday could be yet another good day in broad southwest flow aloft around western Nebraska or northeast Colorado.  The surface front farther southeast could be another potential play, which would be much closer to central Kansas where we would have to end up at the end of Sunday’s chase.