Tour 3 - Day 8 (Eastern CO + Western KS) - ENHANCED Risk

[MikeUpjohn]

Day 8 began with us in McCook after last nights storms rolled away. Can't think of a trip so far where we've had more overnight lightning storms roll over the hotel than this year!

Today was a warm front and surface low which would spark off South Eastward moving supercells, before they would line out and possibly become a derecho later.

A late start from McCook, and headed North East for a late lunch stop and gas up in Imperial, NE before hopping back into MDT once again and gaining an hour on the chase. Headed up into the edge of the Nebraska panhandle, and found a severe storm near Chappell, NE coming in from Brideport, NE and moving South East.

We followed the storm, constantly keeping ahead of it and stopping to look back as it became surface-based and started to rotate. We kept heading South and East back towards McCook, and as rotation increased, multiple gustnadoes were seen on the front edge, and finally, 2 brief landspout tornadoes. Some of the other guys have got video, but I couldn't capture it in time as it was so quick! One of the tornadoes, was barely 200 metres away in the field to our front right, with a small white funnel cloud above.

Continued with the storm South and East as it rolled down into Southern Nebraska and eventually off into Kansas. Stopped in Benkelman, NE eventually for a loo break and watched a severe storm that briefly looked like it could produce another tornado, pass us by to the North with so much strong outflow, it was hard to open car doors and the canopy and roof of the gas station was rocking.

Finally watched a storm to our East pass over Atwood, KS and Oberlin, KS watching an area of interest with a TVS marker, but no tornado or funnel this time. Reports then came in of large hail smashing windows and cars in Oberlin, KS and by the time we stopped their to gas up an hour later, large 2 inch plus hail was still on the ground. Headed North for food and back to the hotel in McCook, with another storm briefly popping up on the way, and hail fog along the road from the departing storm system.

Early finish (relatively...) in McCook, with an 11pm finish in the hotel for some beers together.

Enjoy the pictures below.

Tour 3's tornado count: 3

 

Mike.