5/27/2017 - Northeast NM to TX Panhandle Supercells

While a lot of chaser scurried over to the enhanced/moderate risk area of eastern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, I was reluctant due to the likelihood of having to play in the jungles full of haze and the inability of CAMs to lock onto a formidable daytime supercell threat. For a couple days, I had been watching the marginal conditions along the southeast CO into northwest TX corridor and that seemed to grow more robust the day of.  So, we targeted this area for a pure structure play.  This area had relatively solid upslope flow as the winds were forecast to veer from northerly to southeasterly.  With relatively nice NWFL aloft, this would provide enough shear for some robust supercells. Indeed, the only nice looking supercells on radar that day were across this region. We hopped on a supercell north of Clayton, staying ahead of it until we finally had to let it go north of Cactus, TX. The storm was beautiful, but hard to chase due to the fast southeastern movement in a relatively lackluster dirt road network.  I learned – again! – that I should try to stay well ahead of these type events for the structure play, rather than trying to get up underneath them to see the dangly clouds.  I should’ve given the storm more room early on, as that would’ve provided a better angle to shoot structure later. Alas, I was at the mercy of storm motion and road network, so we did the best we could in trying to remain ahead of the beauty.  Overall, not a bad chase, just wish I could’ve been about 10-15 miles out ahead of the beast.

Lapses from this day

Map of my travels during this first chase trip of 2017. The trip was with my good friends Laura Hedien and Paul Cross. Though not a trip full of good storm environments, we made the best of it. During off days, we visited Santa Fe, Taos, Sandia Peak, Rio Grande Gorge, Wolf Creek Pass, Great Sand Dunes, NP, Black Mesa, Palo Duro Canyon SP, and even a Omaha Storm Chasers ballgame. 

5/26/2017 - Eastern CO/western KS Supercell

Began the day in Ellis, KS with two targets in mind: 1) I-70/US-36 corridor east of Denver or 2) southeast Colorado.  After sliding west a bit, we decided on the northern play due to consistency in the CAMs.  We made it to Deer Trail as a set of three cells moved near and across the Denver International Airport.  Slowly, the storm got its act together north of Last Chance. Once it took on that supercell look, it turned hard right.  Though it was close a couple of times to producing tornadoes, it seemed to miss the low-level lapse rates and just a hint of juice to give it that low-level jump.  Eventually, the storm became an HP beast as it traversed the east-central Colorado Plains. We followed it to Goodland, KS where we finally let it go in the waning light. Overall, a beautiful storm.
  

   

Time-lapse of scenes.

Map of chase.

5/25/2017 - KS Supercells

Began the day in Alamosa, CO after the previous evening’s sunset at Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Target was for far eastern Colorado into western Kansas, where a slight risk was in place due to bulk shear in the 35-45 kt range and about 1000-1500 J/kg of CAPE.  Storms formed early-on between I-70 and I-76, yet I was reluctant to go after those as I wanted to be on the most southeast storm of the day (if it were to materialize).  Eventually convection did form just to our west in Burlington, CO.  We held tight with this storm as it slowly matured. Once it matured – right on the KS/CO border – it became a race to stay ahead of the relatively fast mover as it traversed the not so pleasant road network south of Oakley within the Smoky Hill River Valley.  We did manage to navigate the dirt road, staying ahead of the cell as it continually surged with little RFD punches. It was a real beauty, especially near Winona and Gove City. We continued with the cell as it grew upscale into a meaty MCS, eventually calling it a day near Brownell, KS.  We overnighted in Ellis.

 

Stitched panoramic

   

Stitched panoramic

DSLR and dashcam lapses