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My target today was out by O'Neill NE but convection went much earlier than I had hoped. Storms fired in central to eastern NE around Norfolk and down by Grand Island. I was very concerned about additional early development to the west down this line of convection. I thought there was a good chance the initial target out west could be ruined by too much convection, but one can't wait around and see if that happens or not(you'll be late). You just have to go and see. So, I did the only thing I could and targetted a severe storm on the way there. This bowing storm was shot near West Point NE. I imagine it was barely severe at this time up there to the north. The dirt and rain racing east up there seemed to likely be in the severe criteria. Pretty hard to make any of it out in the still as the sun light east of the storm largely blew it out. I drive into the storm and get wifi data in West Point. There was another storm near Columbus but it wasn't yet severe. I thought about dropping south and getting it too before heading west but didn't want to mess around too long and be late to a better op later to the west, and possibly even nw into se SD. So, I leave West Point and head towards Norfolk. By the time I get to Norfolk that southern storm is getting very severe just east of Columbus. I was wishing rather than intercepting the West Point storm that I had just went west down 30 instead, as I had the choice earlier.
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Thankfully nothing was firing to the west yet, so that air west of where these storms fired would be ok and not contaminated. While in Norfolk I got more wifi data and could start to see some cumulus forming south of O'Neill NE. They were right up against the anvil sheild that was spreading north off of those east NE storms. There also seemed to be some weak spin to them(counter-clockwise). This n-s clearning line the anvil was creating surely caused some sort of differential heating boundary. I'm not sure if that played any roll in anything or not, but noted it at the time as well as the fact this cu field was snugged right up against it. I'm heading west towards Neligh NE here. There are a few things to note in the image. You can see the anvil above me and the edge of it ahead to the west. The area west of it was getting full sushine and really wasn't affected by any of the convection so far. Below the anvil, right above the trees/horizon you can barely make out the area of towering cumulus. They are in the center and to the left of the highway(they really are hard to see). That would be where I'm heading. Now look above those and just west of the anvil edge(I'm looking due west). You can see the ACCAS field(the dotted area of clouds). Things were certainly destabilizing there now.
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I head south out of Neligh so I could go west and be on 281 south of O'Neill...a rather familar area. On the way south the first storm gets going. This is looking due west while driving south.
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I'm now on 70 heading west towards Bartlett. That tower in the picture before this one is the one here on the right, in the center of the image.
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Same place as above, but showing the one storm with a new larger one going up to its south. On radar the one on right was the larger one for a good bit, including right at this time.
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The storm to the north had some interesting structure but it was obvious what would happen to it. Being north of the new one would certainly do it in. I am pretty sure it played a roll in the southern one in a bit though.
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I dropped south of Bartlett to keep an eye on this new larger updraft(the southern one).
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I'm now heading west and am in the small town of Ericson. The storm was getting quite round now, but still had that "too small" apperance. I was thinking this one would shrilve up on itself, like the northern one was in the process of doing. The only hope I gave it was that maybe the cold pool from the one to its north would help it out once it ran into it. The core due the north was on its way south and looked like it would bump into this storm. Sometimes storms just need time to build up that pool to help really lift the air ahead of them.
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I continued west so I could drop south. I never got any shots of the better structure before this because I couldn't find a spot quick enough without power poles. They run them on both sides of the highway around here! So anyway, I went west and then dropped south towards Ord. I only went a few short miles and pulled over. I spend the next 30-45 minutes in this very spot. It was moving sooo slow right now. It was also moving to the southwest. I'm looking ne at it here. It was now in the process of trying to grow and lower some, tapping into the juice below.
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Notice the new features sticking off the east side to the ese. Also note how "un-whole" the base seems to be.
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As it gets closer the structure really starts to dissapoint me. Now take note of the treeline on the right side of the image. Those trees are only about 1/4 mile to the north of me. Just remember them since I stop taking pictures in a minute.
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This is looking to the nw, same spot still. This plume/tower was going up very fast. I was impressed by how quickly it was about to block out the sun.
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That updraft and anvil now giving me some shade. I needed some shade. It was 97/70 in Burwell at this time.
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Ok, now some time has elapsed from the image I said to remember that treeline. I still haven't moved. I stopped taking images right after those of that new tower because I got hit in the face with cool north winds, welllll south of the base. That is never a good thing. It didn't last long though, but still, I really lost all hope at that point. Then as I sit there I hear this roar come up out of nowhere. I'm like what the hell is that. I figured hail roar at first but it just sounded too much like wind. I then see those trees, in that treeline I mentioned, bending over to the west hard. Yet as close as I was to those trees it was not windy where I was. That treeline is still just to the right of this image. The wind continued to roar west through them while I remained in light winds. It took forever for that area of wind to reach me, only a 1/4 mile or so down the road! Now the above image and the following ones are what happen right after this wind thing started up. The clouds and the precip on the right side of the above shot started to vanish in this area of strong westward wind. An area of e-w inflow cloud remained and nosed west pretty hard. At the same time the updraft in the top left half of the image started to rotate around.
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You can see how seperated this storm is now from what was an elongated mess. The clouds on the right side are moving left/west while the updraft clouds to the left cut around to the ne.
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This continued pinch was causing some very chaotic motions in the base. Just watching that updraft spin around I knew a tornado warning had to be on the way. Sure enough, about the time of this shot a tornado warning comes out for right here. This area is far away from any one radar though. I think the lowest scans out here are around 10,000 feet or maybe a bit higher. The storm was taking on a hook shape at this time. You can see some of that precipitation falling in this image. That stuff would be back in a bit of an rfd cut in this rounded, but not all that organized(or "whole"), base.
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An area under the base would get a bit of an rfd cut gioing and look like it would be where a tornado would form but would never last long enough. Then wild motions would pick up somewhere else. No one area could stay organized very long though. I was pretty surprised a tornado didn't at least briefly form in this. I question the quality of the low level air it had to work with right now, because the base just did not look good...outside all the wild motions it had in it. Little crapper storms popping of the boundary just ahead of it might have been just enough to screw up its inflow air. T/TD depressions were around 25-30 here too, but I feel more than that the small showers shooting east infront of it screwed this storm. Or perhaps they were both equally causing trouble for the base of this storm.
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This area of the base had strong upward motions in it. You can see that treeline that had the roading westerly winds in it to the right here...I haven't moved. This storm doesn't just remind me a lot of the July 12, 2004(mainly because of how it tracked and exactly where then), but this part here that formed out of a linear sort of mess reminds me a whole lot of the June 20, 2005 storm. It too pushed sw and split away from it's linear nature.
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Well that fun lasted about 10-15 minutes before it lost all its organization. Then the area of interest seemed to jump way east, with the core that now wanted to go southeast. Randy had showed up about this time and we drove and drove to get ahead of this. We were buffeted by some pretty intense winds on the west side of this thing. Heading se of Ord one gust really moved the back of my car. The above shot is looking east before we got to Ord.
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Well we got a late view of this area that was now pushing se instead of the previous sw movement. It looked pretty cool to our east but I never got any images thanks to power poles and driving. It was now rapidly losing its "coolness" over there.
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Sunset west of home near Orum. These towers went up just in time for this and died not long after.
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