Starting off the day in Buffalo, WY where Jay and I stayed at the Big
Horn motel... a favorite that Vince Miller and I frequented during
2007 and 2008 June chase trips.
Brief Summary of Chase Trip Day 6 and Day 7
Day 6 -- Tuesday June 21. Jay and I hung around Dodge City most of
the day as I had my windshield replaced out of my Jeep due to a very
large hail stone impact. We then decided to drive to Clayton, NM for
a couple of reason. A) we love Clayton and love green chili and we
heard that the Eklund Hotel and Saloon had re-opened. Jay and I were
very pleased to find out that that indeed is the case and we actually
stayed at the Eklund (despite $$). B) There was a chance at northwest
flow storms in eastern New Mexico and the TX Panhandle per the GFS and
the NAM that we were watching as a potential to chase for Day 7
(6/22).
Day 7 -- Wednesday June 22. After it became clear that the northwest
flow chase potential had dried up, we decided to make this a drive day
to what looked like a much better setup for severe storms over
southern Montana. We left Clayton mid-morning and drove north all day
reaching Casper early evening for a steak dinner then on to Buffalo,
WY for the night.
Below are the sequence of images of the large tornado approaching
Highway 9 as we race east to get east of it's path. At 2:06pm, we
were in the tornadoes path at around Edmond, KS and maybe a mile or so
east. We safely made it far enough east before the tornado(es) made
it to the highway and the last image of this sequence of images at
2:12pm shows the incredible rain and hail-wrapped beast to the
west-northwest by only a few miles.
