Well I had all but given up on those Hill City storms in favor of
getting to a place to cattch something to eat and maybe watch a little
bit of the Chiefs football game like in Great Bend or something, but
the storm cluster north of I-70 now has grown with low level jet
kicking in and moisture racing back northwest…. decided to do some
distant lightning illuminated storm structure type shots as these
storms approach north-central Kansas. Will hang out up here around
Lincoln, KS for awhile and play with this lightning illuminated
structure stuff. Since I’m here, why not?
disclaimer: "The meteorological
views/forecast
thinking expressed are those solely of the author of this blog
and do not necessarily represent those of official National Weather Service forecast products,
therefore read and enjoy at your own risk and edification!"
and do not necessarily represent those of official National Weather Service forecast products,
therefore read and enjoy at your own risk and edification!"
September 13, 2010
chase update 9/13 9:16pm
chase update 9/13 7:45pm
I am wrapping up this chase near Concordia, KS. I photographed a
decent looking LP storm that formed west of Concordia with some okay
structure… and am now watching this storm shrivel up and die as it
moves southeast of Concordia. I’ll be heading back west in the
general direction of home now, but on my way, I’ll be approaching more
storms out near Hill City, so I may photograph some lightning later on
this evening.
chase update 9/13 3:50pm
Well, storms formed fast this afternoon… with the best initial
storms… and one bonafide supercell off to my east a couple of hours.
I will not pursue these given the fact that I am in an area of
congested development from Phillipsburg to Kirwin… where I am
sitting right now (north side of Kirwin Reservoir). I think a
supercell will emerge out of this cluster…and as it moves east over
the next couple hours…begin to interact with the western edge of the
upper 60s to near 70 dewpoints. Patience is key.. we’ll see what
happens. Hope this works out.
chase update 9/13 2:20pm
In holdrege early this afternoon. After lunch analysis of data would
seem to suggest the best surface convergence and focus for
surface-based storm development would be a little east-southeast of
Holdrege. 1km vis sat also suggests that I may need to head east a
little bit… toward Hwy 281 corridor between Hastings and Red Cloud.
This is where the RUC and HRRR is fairly aggressive at developing
storms by 22z or so, which makes sense. More later
July 24, 2010
2010 July 21 SW Nebraska storm chase
I left Dodge City shortly after 3:00pm for a target around Colby, KS where a warm front was lifting north into northwestern Kansas. When I left, the first storms started developing west of Oakley, and I thought I would be in business with a nice storm to chase and photograph through the evening. It didn’t turn out that way as the initial storms never matured. More storms formed near McCook which also failed to materialize. The most organized storm was a left-mover that was moving fairly quickly due north toward North Platte, and since it was the only game around worth following, I went for it. By the time I reached I-80, though, the storm was still some 50 miles away to my west… still moving north, and after driving north about 10 miles north of Gothenburg on Hwy 47, I realized that this was a fool’s errand, especially considering the increased low stratus cloud cover ahead of the storm in the sand hills. I abandoned this and headed back south… aimlessly wandering about southwest Nebraska in dire hope of photographing something of interest in the sky. It wasn’t to be until I reached McCook. I had thought about staying in McCook for the night as I had thought there would be a chase potential the next day (Thursday, July 22) in western Nebraska. I looked briefly at the new model solutions and decided to just give up on this chase as well as the next day and head on back home. Before that, though, one storm was producing some decent, but infrequent staccato cloud-to-ground lightning. I didn’t get any of the staccatos captured on camera, but did manage one and only one cloud-to-ground flash, as you see below. I started the drive back home after this storm weakened shortly after this image and got back to Dodge about 2:30am or so.
July 21, 2010
Chase update 7/31 756pm
This chase is not heading out how I had hoped. I had abandoned the Sand Hills area, and heading back south. There are too many storms developing now. At this point I just hope for some decent lightning or something around sunset which is coming up here in about an hour. Again, this is not turning out how I would hoped. But never the less, there’s storms onto the west. Maybe I’ll get some lightning and do not do this in the future, some marginal storm structure or something. There’s a lot of weak storms at this point. More later.
[ Transcribed by MyCaption ]
Chase update 620pm july 21
Looks like I am heading for the hills, Sand Hills that is. Dealing with left moving dominant storms, and I’m going to drive towards Lincoln county and try to get some storm photography near sunset as a storm’s approached Sand Hills. More later.
[ Transcribed by MyCaption ]
July 15, 2010
Images from 2010 July 14 SW Kansas storm chase
Severe storms formed along a weak cold front across southwestern Kansas on July 14th. I targeted the Scott City, KS area and was hoping to see a landspout tornado from the first storms that developed, however that did not occur as precipitation loading was too much in the first big storm near Scott City and outflow dominance prevailed quickly. I followed this storm to near Garden City then went after another more isolated storm near Johnson, KS. Another small storm formed near Ulysses at sunset which provided amazing warm hues and I managed to capture a lightning flash from this small storm amidst the amazing colors. This was a fun little summer storm photography shoot!
July 14, 2010
chase update 7/14 8:15pm cdt
currently photographing nice tall cloud-to-ground lightning flashes
near Johnson, KS. It was a fairly successful day of storm photography
despite storms being way outflow dominant (not a surprise given the
environment). Will be in “lightning photography” mode until the end
and hopefully some nice colors here in a bit at sunset… then back to
Dodge for my first midnight shift.