* *  Mike Umscheid PHOTOGRAPHY & STORM CHASE BLOG   * *


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3-Month Calendar of Shoots Centered on April 2012
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*April 2012*
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= Storm Chases & Shoots of April 2012 =



Location: West Texas & Texas Panhandle from Littlefield to Canyon to Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 3
Synopsis: This was a very underwhelming day with not much in the way of images from this chase. My original target was West Texas northwest of Lubbock near the Littlefield area. Fairly substantial towering cumulus developed along the dryline in the original target area, however there was too much convective inhibition due to the unforecast strength of the bubble high over West Texas. Storms matured over the Amarillo area, so I had to correct back to the north. I didn't get on storms until I reached Canyon. I continued east on FM285 to Wayside and decided to photograph what I could with the Palo Duro Canyon as a backdrop. I didn't get the shots I was hoping for with too much intervening cloud in the way obscuring backside storm structure looking to the east and northeast. At sunset, I went back south back up onto the caprock and photographed the backside cumulonimbus highlighted in orange and pink hues.




Location: West Texas from Levelland to Wolfforth, TX (near Lubbock)

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 5
Synopsis: The first supercell formed northwest of Levelland, and I followed it north of town about 6 miles. The storm had menacing High-Precipitation supercell structure as it approached me. I had to bail back south to Hwy 114 near Opdyke as the rear-flank gust front was approaching me. I was in an inflow jet of 50mph with blowing dust reducing visibility at times to near zero! I continued east watching another storm develop just south of the main storm along Hwy 114. I then noticed the next significant supercell form off to the southwest. This storm appeared to be headed for Lubbock, so I drove to Lubbock and south of the city. I photographed long-exposure storm structure from about 8:45 to 9:05pm as the storm rolled through the Wolfforth area just southwest of Lubbock. The inflow dust was rather amazing! I followed this storm east to near Wilson before giving up on it around 9:45pm.




Location: Northwest Texas from near Snyder to Aspermont, TX

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 2
Synopsis: I intercepted a high-based supercell north of Snyder during the evening hours. This storm moved east-northeast through a poor road network northeast of Snyder. I photographed lightning and storm structure from north-northwest of Rotan from 8:00 to 8:40pm or so. I continued to photograph lightning illuminated storm structure, albeit not all that great, as I approached Hamlin from 9:00 to 9:30pm.




Location: Southeast Colorado into Southwest Kansas from Bristol, CO to Lakin, KS

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 5
Synopsis: After working the day shift, I targeted the Lamar, CO area for a low chance at a picturesque storm after a cold front went through earlier in the afternoon. There was residual moisture behind the front and winds died off in southeast Colorado with up to 1000 J/kg of CAPE in this area. A storm formed rapidly north of Lamar and I intercepted it near Bristol. It quickly took on supercell characteristics as it moved southeast toward Highway 50. I followed the storm east-southeast along Hwy 50 through Syracuse to Kendall, KS. At Kendall is where I got my best images of the supercell around sunset. I continued to shoot the backside of the storm south of Kendall to south of Lakin in the remaining twilight. This was an incredibly photogenic storm and quite the surprise! There was only one other chaser that I know of on that storm on Spotter Network as the majority of storm chasers were in eastern Kansas where the Moderate Risk was.




Location: Southwest Kansas into Northwest Oklahoma from Greensburg, KS to Cherokee, OK

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 2
Synopsis: This was the highly anticipated tornado outbreak of which a High Risk was issued by the Storm Prediction Center. I began this chase from Kansas City after attending the Royals Home Opener baseball game the day before. My target was Greensburg, and I observed the first supercell (#1) that moved north of town. I then caught a supercell (#2) farther south which was somewhat high-based as it moved east of Coldwater crossing Hwy 160. I then broke off that storm and intercepted another supercell (#3) which had a rotating wall cloud moving toward Medicine Lodge. I followed this storm northeast toward the Zenda area then broke off of it as it was moving too fast to the northeast. I noticed a pair of supercells in northwest OK that caught my attention and set off for those, which I would reach by around sunset. I intercepted the Cherokee, OK cyclic tornadic supercell (#4) just northeast of Cherokee, observing two tornadoes simultaneously. This was followed by a longer lived, larger tornado near Manchester, OK which then moved northeast away from me. This storm affected Wichita later on in the evening with tornado damage in parts of the southern and southeast Wichita.




Location: Southeast Colorado from Toonerville to Kim, CO

Shoot type: Storm Chase
# of images: 2
Synopsis: This was a rather frustrating storm chase with not much in the way of images and success. The first storms I chased south of La Junta became an outflow dominant cluster of marginally severe storms as I chased them from north of Kim to Toonerville. Now that I was way out of position, new storms formed back near Kim and points southwest which I tried to get to. I missed the brief tornado that was reported, but finally reached the tail end of this elongated storm about 10 miles west-southwest of Kim which had an interesting, broadly rotating area of scud at ground level before the storm dissipated.




Other storm chases that busted/no photography in