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I left Blair around 2 pm with a starting target of Albion NE. A cold front was sliding east with a nice outflow boundary/warm front intersecting it near Broken Bow. It was quite cold behind the cold front and I really didn't want much to do with it. I opted more east hoping something could get going on the outflow boundary. So I get to Albion and drift north of town in the middle of a decent cu field. I pull over on a dirt road 1 mile north of Petersburg. About 30 minutes later this car pulls up next to me. It was Mike Thomas from UNL. I guess he has a house just down this road and north a jog. Crazy how things work out on chases and who you see where. Nothing goes on the outflow boundary/warm front but a storm goes up where it intersects the cold front, so west I fly. This is the not-so-great storm viewed from the west side of Ericson. Note the faint precip to the far right of picture.
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Now note the precip, it has picked up. The cold front and this precip cooled air kept undercutting the storm. I had hopes this would actually help the storm by firming up the e-w boundary for it to ride east on. It looked really sad for a long time but slowly got its act together. I have pulled back onto this field through a small gate. I could only see the highway straight infront of me as I was on a small hill. Somehow Mike finds me again! I was like, hey, there is Mike again. I'm lucky I didn't get a flat as I backed over a spool of barbwire. Anyway we watched it a bit here and then headed east, back to 281 south. |
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One stop before 281, looking west again. Some strong undercutting continues from the north. This was similar to Hill City, June 9, 2005. I've seen this several times and most times the storm will become more dramatic and intense. |
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Wala. She is starting to crank now. This is a highway going east, just south of the one to Ericson. It isn't paved very far but was the only option to keep from getting too much south of it and losing the contrast/structure east or northeast provides. |
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I should have gotten a higher aperature shot of this but didn't have time for a tripod. |
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The same spot but off that road. |
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You can see the curl going back north and wrapping here while the surge from the north continues at lower levels. |
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Mike, Steve Peterson and I are all together now. As it gets on top of us we jog east more before we turn south on gravel(e-w highway to Albion was about 3 miles fruther south). Before we turn I noticed some crap spinning up out in a field(strong rfd dirt was noted before we left the previous spot). I was like, I wonder what that is as it was quickly blocked by some trees. Then the turn, then we were quickly in the strong rfd. Crap was flying everywhere, mostly corn stalks. Here is one corn-nado just out the window. |
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It really sucks. I just cleaned the inside of my car the other day. I armoral'd the heck out of it. It was as clean as it has been since I've owned it. I did this just last week. Well, my windows were down at this very moment. Looking south here as Steve and Mike stop. |
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Mike getting blown back as he looks west into the rfd, towards the updraft. The winds probably gusted 60-70mph. Some tree branches were broke off in the area, including a large branch I came to a sliding stop on(after we leave here). |
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A few husks left flying through the air. This updarft and base get fatter as the rfd continues to blast east and curl north. My contacts need changing again thanks to the dirt in the air. |
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Base lowering just to our nw(shot at 17mm...all these are). There was some decent curling going on on the gustfront, just to our east. Storm continues to track due east on the boundary. |
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Going south again now, while the rfd continues to blast east. |
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Up here aways is where I about run over a big tree branch. |
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Well our east road to Albion offered crap viewing to the se of the storm, so I have no imagery of that. We had to punch back into north of Albion so we could go east at Petersburg. We had to do this to get a better angle for viewing. I don't recall any hail but fairly intense rain. The lowering just to our south as we came out of the rain was a bit unnerving. It was really outflow dominant at this point and the angle of this lowering wasn't suggesting tornadogenisis being that likely(lowered side was leaning south away from the precip). So we pushed east under the northern side of it. While doing so it was quickly pushed out and lifted/flattened. Here is a view of the storm several miles east of Petersburg, after getting out of its precip. Most of the time the precip was confined well north of this updraft base. |
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It is moving quicker now so not a lot of stills. |
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I'm interested in how this shot at ISO 800 is not that noisey. The previous two were under exposed to save on motion and then opened up later in conversion. This one was not opened up in conversion at all. Probably why it is less noisey. This goes to show why a good exposure is still important with digital. Those 400 ISO files are much noisier than this one at 800. Anyway an excellent chase for any time of the year, let alone late September. |
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