|
A little tired of typing, and no sense in doing it twice, I'll just copy over what I wrote on stormtrack.org last night. Well I just about busted this day. Took the "scenic" route to northern Nebraska via Watertown SD. The MN storm went up as I was west of it, but I really don't care for "new" outflow boundaries. So I chose to go north and chase the western portion of it in ne SD, wondering why I left home. It's sort of stupid to chase behind the 850mb front, where it is veered. It's also silly to chase a boundary oriented like it was that far west(nw-se with mid-level winds crossing it). I couldn't catch the storm east if I wanted to, but didn't matter as it seems being that close to the convection forming the outflow boundary never works. It looked like bust so I headed back south a little after 4pm. I had a tiny bit of hope for the better cu field in se SD, but not much. Saw one tiny cell go up east of Brookings but it was just too small. I get to the Vermillion exit when I see the storms that fired in sw and central NE. I was like yay, why couldn't I have at least went out there and seen whatever those do, instead of the same distance drive to bust in ne SD. With that thought I took a side trip west for the hell of it. They'd head northeast towards me, but I didn't have much hope for them. They were tiny on radar and had the cores/anvils going se a bit much(often a good sign they are elevated and won't amount to much). It was early in that activity so I just went anyway. I soon ran out of data, let alone a cell signal at all. I got one radar image and it had a couple cells near one another sw of O'Neill. That was hopeful as maybe their interaction could cause them to root better and deviate east. Also before I left Vermillion I looked at the ruc and was pretty excited what it showed after dark for the low level jet, and the disturbance coming east out of WY. It had it very strong and southerly, with some backing. I thought if a storm could root it could go nuts(with ok mid-level flow, but good upper flow above that). Well it wound up close. I watched the cell north of O'Neill from west of Niobrara, then from south of town. I'd say it was likely supercellular at times, but mostly just an organized multicellular storm. It was not short on lightning. Just after dark it became extremely electrified. Anymore that's all I hope for, at least some lightning.
|
|
Just before this shot there was this very cool scene I wish I would have shot. The sun was just going over the horizon, I come around the corner and the Niobrara river is just off the south side of the road, sun setting right over it, and two deer right there standing in the water drinking. As I went by I had to do the hand head smack.
|
|
I don't remember where I stopped, but it was like finding gold, a gravel road with a view and no powerpoles on the west or south side. I think I'm near "Monowi" or whatever it is called. Pretty much the whole drive from Crofton to here is without cell service through Alltel(at least via my razr). It almost felt like old times, driving towards convection and not having a clue how it is doing. I didn't care for that.
|
|
Judging by the anvils I'd seen so far, I didn't think there was much to the storm/s yet. As it got darker I began to note some lightning anyway. Soon I was getting sprinkled on, while near Monowi. So, not wasting any time(not yet dark enough for lightning stills) I drove back east and dropped south at Niobrara. By then it was full of lightning, and the anvil was getting better back there. I also heard of a warning over the radio. I wanted to do stills over the river, but found finding a good location very hard. There are very few options to turn off on going south of Niobrara. When there are any, there are lots of hills and tons of trees(along the river). I found this road going up the hills into some trees and used it. The angle sucked, with the front of the car pointing up hill, the cam mounted to the window and looking backwards to the sw. It worked though.
|
|
Gotta love twilight ops.
|
|
You can barely see the highway here, down below me a bit. The lightning was begining to get wild. Oh yeah, and the half moon was out, just left of the shot, helping to light up the anvil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The storm is about on me as I drive back into Niobrara to go east. This is actually 10mm. I was wondering why exactly I wasn't getting much rain here. The more I saw of the base the more I realized why...the storm was rapidly dying.
|
|
As I drove east in the sprinkles I watched the lightning activity really trailing off. Still there was the occasional very long crawler going east. The night sky was very dark next to the moon-lit anvil. I knew the setup would make for some cool night shots, so I stopped. It's just too bad the storm was dying now. I sat there shooting long exposures, begging for just one more good crawler.
|
|
Thanks! I'd call this the last gasp bolt, as that is what it was. There would be no more bolts from this guy.
|
|
Bye bye storm. I'm glad I made the side trip to see what would happen in northern NE, after busting already in ne SD. Those are always "fun" decisions. You've already driven a good ways, spent too much on gas, and are ready to go home and NOT do it again the same day to some other location. Then there's the other aspect of simply not wanting to go home empty handed. It's really no different than the choice to leave home in the morning. It's just doing it again the same day. The way they looked on radar as I made the decision, was that they likely wouldn't stick around. Several didn't. But it was a lot better looking than what I'd seen all day in SD. Anyway, I'm happy I made the extra drive. |
