Dark Skies

This was my first chase day of the year and I wasn’t expecting many storms to fire. However, we found ourselves on an unconventional, seemingly disorganized supercell that provided a nice view and a bit of excitement.

We flew into Denver with an initial target of Liberal, KS. But on the way a cell formed to the west of Dodge City so of course we stopped to snap a few photos. It looked like the cell was dying so we went on our way. But (of course) the cell strengthened and about 30 minutes after we stopped giving chase it became tornado warned. A short-lived landspout eventually formed near Lakin and despite trying to catch up to the cell, we missed it. All in all, a good start to the season!

Never thought I’d be snapping photos in the plains in October, but here I am! Was almost a bust of day… but headed northward late in the afternoon to catch up to some cells northwest of Enid. Missed catching a brief tornado near Jet, OK, but at least I was chasing the right storm as it was the only one that day to yield a tornado.

The consolation prize are some lightning shots. Just unfortunate that I couldn’t get the nice sliver of a moon (on the right side) exposed properly which still capturing the storm… so you’ll have to use your imagination!

Today’s goal was to drive to Lubbock in preparation for tomorrow’s chase day… but some storms fired and I couldn’t resist snapping some photos. Here’s the only one post-worthy.

Not much happened when the shelf clouds collided but not too long after I saw some stronger rotation on radar. Low and behold I looked over while driving and saw a very brief tornado (maybe on the ground for 15secs). This was south of Leon, KS. Craptacular picture, I know, but that’s what happens when I had to quickly stop the car to snap a shot. It was gone before I could set my aperture and re-focus. But it’s a tornado nonetheless!

A fun day.

Storm Overhead

Merging Cells on May 27

Turtle Taking Shelter

Tornado near Leon, KS

Radar Loop

Only got a few lightning pics out the day… overall a mess of storms that never stayed discrete in nature for any length of time. Pictures were taken near Kinsley, KS

When you stand underneath the base of a rotating storm and stare upwards into the swirling mess of ominous clouds, while not the safest place to be, it’s truly beautiful, mesmerizing, and surprisingly calm. This is what I’m chasing!

Headed out to Colorado for a few days of chasing. Here’s a video of two of the four tornadoes that developed in the area near the city of Wray. Thankfully, no reported injuries from the tornado itself.

And here’s the radar…

After waking up in Woodward, Oklahoma, I decided to head Southeast to where the storms were forecasted to be severe later in the day. Around noon some storms fired and slowly died off just east of Stillwater. Nothing doing in Northern OK. So I instead I headed down to chase a mature cell that was already producing tornadoes near the TX/OK border.

I navigated my way through a sliver of dry weather between the tornadic cell I was trying to get in front of and the lines of storms just to its north. Took a few hours to get into position. When I did I was in the middle of SE Oklahoma where it’s anything but flat. Lots of trees, pretty area, bad for chasing. But I raced ahead of the storm to Sardis Lake where the hook of the storm was headed. There is where I set up shop and watched the base of the storm roll overhead.

There may have been a short-lived tornado in there when it passed by the lake ’cause later I saw fallen trees and debris on the roads it crossed over… but regardless, nice to see some good storm structure and an ominous rotating wall cloud.

High-Res Radar

Headed straight to Liberal, KS in the morning to see about getting onto a few isolated cells. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the ones that popped up didn’t turn severe. And one cell I chased all afternoon in Western Oklahoma slowly died out. But snapped a few photos and all-in-all it made for nice chase day.