US Storm Chase - 2nd Half

[Paul Sherman]

Here are some pictures of the 2nd half of the Netweather Storm Chase Trip from 15th - 31st May. A much more active 2nd half to the trip with 11 Tornadoes most of which happened between the 22nd and 29th May when a few Severe Episodes occured

Nothing much happened on the 15th & 16th but the 17th saw a few Upslope Storms in New Mexico - 4,900 feet asl

- New Mexico Border

- Caprock Ampitheatre

Again not much to report for the 18th, 19th and 20th so we picked up the last tour members in readiness for an active Period

We overnighted in Dodge City and headed for Colorado on the 21st where one Storm reached Supercell Status, the Hail Andy is holding was just a baby compared to what we would see over the next few days

- Dryline Initiaton near Burlington (Colorado)

- Sampled the Quarter Sized Hail

- Andys Largest ever Hail - a record that would last just 24 Hours!

- We did not sample these Baseballs

- Beautiful Mesocyclone which would drop the Nightime Sielbert Tornado

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After overnighting in Burlington we then had a High Risk day in Western Kansas and would come to bag 2 Tornadoes on the 22nd May both near Hoxie (Ks) the 1st Destroyed a House and knocked Powerlines across the road and the 2nd would miss our ditched cars by just 1 Mile, thanks to a Kansas Farmer and $100 for the use of his John Deere Tractor which saved us

- Initiation near to Garden City (Ks)

- Driving underneath the Meso which would go on to produce a 1 Mile Wide Wedge

- View from our Ditched Car looking North at Multiple Vortices

- Dave Mud-Ridden - At least the cars are saved!

- Tornado moving away

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Friday May 23rd would turn out to be the best Chase day of the Netweather Tour with 5 Tornadoes on this Moderate Risk Day

- Wedge Tornado just 2 miles to our West - Tornado # 1

- Satelite Cone Tornado around the Wedge - Tornado # 2

- Fat Elephant Trunk Tornado - Tornado # 3

The 4th Tornado was another Cone Tornado North of Ness City which one of the other guys has pictured and the last was the Ellis Cone Tornado with Power flashes

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EIC9dOu1zUc - Tornado # 5

The Dighton Intercept at 520pm on 23rd May

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x65_ECbXA2U

... also video clip of us in the Bear's Cage:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XA9Qvdql3NE

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On the 27th May we got onto some nice LP Supercells near Elk City and then dropped down to the Red River Valley for an amazing Shelf Cloud with nice Lightning.

- LP Supercell

- Pratt Tornado with Barons Showing our Storm & Tornado just in front of us

- Nice Green Sky!

- Time to Move

- Pano of what was chasing us down Highway 287!

- Finally darkness and the Lightning pictures

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The last real Chase day was the 29th May with another HIGH Risk day, we started in Concordia (Ks) and headed west to intercept the 1st Supercells near Kearney, what we would see over the next 5 hours was nothing short of Amazing, another 2 Tornadoes, one too close for comfort south of Aurora

Some Video of the 29th May around Kearney, the Aurora Footage will be shown on ITV Next Year

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4BD82rLxRrw

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yfTVHG4eUeQ

- Chase Team

We intercepted a Cone Tornado just SW Of Kearney, this had already derailed a 90 Wagon Freight train in front of us, we then played around with the Storm until 7pm when we got to a Loves Gas Station just off the I80, Thinking of booking into a Motel in Lincoln for the night and awaiting the Kansas MCS We took our eyes off the now rapidly developing Supercell just to our West, when I came out of the Gas station this was what I saw before bundling into the car with no other option that to ride out the approaching Tornado, this was rated EF2 With winds between 130-150mph

- Tornado Approaching

- We rode it out for 6 minutes and this was the scene

- EF2 & RFD Damage

The Chases were great this year, still have 12 hours to pull off nearly 1,000 Images of Lightning as well as other funny pieces from the trip, so will get some more Pictures up over the next few months

[MP-R]

Wow, some great cloudscapes there. Very good pictures!

[Rustynailer]

Great pictures there Paul

I love the color hail sends the clouds, we get a slight tinge sometimes here in the UK, but never as vivid as that, it must feel strange, the atmosphere with the sky and the light going turquoise.

By the way how much in $ did you depreciate the value of the cars you hired?

Edited June 8, 2008 by Rustynailer

[johnholmes]

tks for those later shots Paul, and for all the other shots and videos, they certainly gave everyone at home a good idea of what the weather can be like in America during the tornado season.

[happe1]

Some nice pictures there!

[pottyprof]

Super pics Paul... I still love the blues of the hail cores.. stunning!!

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

Excellent photos, Amazing!

I'm planning on going in the next 2-3 years, can't wait!

[Jurgen de Boer]

Damd i wish i had the money to go there....... its awsome!!!

[Stormtracker]

ive got the money but would feel nervous going all that way with people i'd never met before. Sounds childish I know but IF I was garunteed there would be a nice bunch of guys then I'd def go. hopeuflly I can win the competition that netweather has, then I won't say no for sure, love freebies

[Louby]

damn forgot to enter the comp

Paul thanks for sharing your amazing trip with us, you and the others have definately had a trip to remember and one I hope to experience in the next couple of years myself.

Stormtracker, I can assure you that Paul and Nick are great guys, and would make you feel extremely welcome and at ease

[Gorky]

ive got the money but would feel nervous going all that way with people i'd never met before. Sounds childish I know but IF I was garunteed there would be a nice bunch of guys then I'd def go. hopeuflly I can win the competition that netweather has, then I won't say no for sure, love freebies

I can't complain either. I know I was a bit grumpy at times due to lack of sleep when I chased with the team 2 years back but nobody moaned at me The other guests were really nice people and as you'd expect conversation isn't too difficult in the quiet periods given the shared interests... It was always a pleasure to meet up with the guys this year whilst out in the plains also but one word of warning, If you do go, take a pair of earplugs is all I can suggest as a few members of the team do snore!

To be perfectly honest, I'd spend 2 weeks with the msot annoying person in the world just to see those storms (Is Paris Hilton free next May I wonder...!) Its certainly a spectacle you won't see over here...

Anyway, this is a nice recap. I might have to do one of my own, as I've gone through and enhanced some of my photos since then. I also still plan on getting more video uploaded. Maybe something I can get done at the weekend.

Edited June 11, 2008 by Gorky