Trip 5 "Other"

For me, formal storm chasing has ended for the season (20,000+ mi. since May 1!). Here are some category "miscellaneous" photos taken during CoD's storm chase trip 5. I'll still be blogging during the offseason with cool pictures and videos as they arise, so check back often!

This scene sums up many roads across South and North Dakota this year
Trip 5 participants...great group!
Mean looking rotation near Bowdon, ND
Time to sacrifice!
Burn baby burn!
Moon hanging like a jewel in the sky (somewhere in SD)
My definition of "Dirt Road Anthem"
Dine and Jamie in front of a canola field (Near Medicine Hat, Alberta)
Cloud droplets can look so comfy at times!

7/16/2011: Bowdon, ND Tornado

After a sacrifice to the weather Gods, trip 5 managed to document a tornado near Bowdon, ND yesterday. This was certainly the highlight of the trip, and I am glad that many good people got to experience their first tornado with us! In the morning/early afternoon, it was uncertain what the exact forcing mechanism was going to be for convective initiation (see afternoon MCD). However, by late afternoon, it became clear that sustained supercells were going to grace our presence. We targeted the first cell showing signs of convective battering near Bismarck, and raced for our morning target of Bismarck to Jamestown. While we were a little "late" to the party, this cell produced a nice stovepipe tornado ~ 5 southeast of Bowdon. We hung with this cell for the remainder of the day, but it couldn't establish more signs of strong low-level rotation (see time lapse). We stuck around to watch lightning for a little while before calling it a night in Fargo. More pictures of the entire trip when I return home...






Time lapse can be found here.

7/9/2011 Bismarck (HP) Bombs

Friday marked the first day chasing with CoD’s trip 5 (last trip of the year for CoD; sort of a last moment decision for me as I have a lot of research going on). We overnighted in a pretty swag Comfort Inn in Black River Falls, WI, before making a long journey to our target of Bismarck, ND. The long haul paid dividends, as we were treated to a meaty HP supercell near Solen, ND. The storm tried to produce a tornado several times before crossing the river, but just could not get circulation to the surface. The rapid vertical motion was rather impressive, just missing a downdraft/clear slot to impinge on the “sucking scud.” Additionally, it appeared that the low and mid-level circulations were not in harmony at times.

If you have ever visited this area, you are probably aware of the limited places available to cross the Missouri River (crossing in Mobridge, SD & Bismarck, ND; none in-between). Thus, we had to let the cell push east as we busted through the rear flank back north to Bismarck. By the time we caught back up to the cell near Lebanon, ND, it surprised us with some more rapid vertical motion and appeared as if we may get our treat just before dark. Unfortunately, things rapidly fell apart and the cell congealed into the quickly eastward moving MCS activity. We are staying in Aberdeen, SD tonight with eyes on southern SD into NE tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Animation of this setting can be found here. (Best chance for tornado occurs near :17 s mark)

6/25-7/1 Gatlinburg, TN Adventures

It took 25 years, but my first trip to the Smoky Mountains proved to be one for the memory bank. I had the opportunity to hike to the top of Mt. Leconte (elev. 6593'), whitewater raft, and zipline! If that wasn't excitement enough, I took Jenna to Grotto Falls and proposed to her! She was very surprised/excited, and I couldn't be happier. Enjoy the pictures and videos!

Panny view from Cabin
Grotto Falls...She said yes!

Mama black bear is hungry!

Rainbow Falls
Rainbow falls (slow shutter speed)

Matthew and Whitney scale the base of Rainbow Falls

Tony taking in the view from the side of Mt. Leconte

Panny from S side of Mt. Leconte

What a view!

Additionally, here is a day and night timelapse from our deck.

6/20/2011 Almena, KS & Stamford, NE Tornadoes

6/20 featured an interesting "cold core-ish" type set up in the central Great Plains with another SPC moderate risk for severe weather. Walker and I enjoyed breakfast at our overnight hotel (Ramada Inn) in Kearney, NE before deciding to venture southwest to intercept some elevated convection moving our way out of northwest KS. On our drive toward this cell, we stopped for lunch at a local diner (Frosty Mug) in Franklin, NE, and closely watched the evolution of this cell. After lunch, we decided to go after this cell after it appeared to quickly become surface based. It was a little tough to get "suckered" south into KS, as the 1630 Z SPC tornado risk (and most of the high-resolution model guidance) suggested that the environment along and northwest of I-80 in central NE would become quite favorable for tornadoes during the late afternoon and evening. Nevertheless, we continued to chug towards this cell. It turned out to be a good decision, as the now surface based supercell ended up producing several tornadoes, including a beautiful half-dust ingested tornado south of Almena, KS. I was in charge of taking video while Walker took stills (days like these can be very stressful alone, and it was great to have another person in the car). Thus, you'll have to wait for Walker's post for the (IMO great) still photos. Until then, enjoy the video and suboptimal pictures that I have uploaded. I apologize for the jerky video in some parts as the wind was pretty intense. We followed this cell north ending up near Stamford, NE, and along the way we witnessed several tornadoes that quickly became rain-wrapped. We eventually broke off with this storm (it was our original plan to do so), to catch up with convection firing further E along and north of I-80. I suspect that this convection didn't have the same storm-relative directional shear that was present with our initial storm (inflow winds were northeasterly into Almena/Stamford storm, while storms to the east were in an environment characterized by southeasterly surface flow) and thus failed to "produce." One of the more interesting features throughout the day were the numerous small (what appeared to be) forward flank mesovorticies. These vorticies exhibited tornadic rotation and often produced swirls of dust at the surface. Certainly a day that I will never forget. We ended the day in Lincoln, NE feeling like champions. Kudos to Walker for helping navigate a rather poor road network along the KS/NE border...look for his post in the offing.

Rain-wrapped barrel tornado (end of Hill City, KS wedge that Mike U. witnessed)
New emerging meso and attendant tornado

Video capture of needle-cone tornado S of Almena, KS (approx 2:25 PM CDT)
Video of the entire event here
Watch out for dust! (approx 2:30 PM CDT)
Dust filled meso begins to occlude as its crossing near the highway 36/60 junction
And another...
Tornado roping out near Stamford, NE

A beautiful fibrous sky near Stamford, NE

6/19/2011 Highway 34 Supercells

6/19 marked the beginning of a mini chase trip to the Great Plains as a slow-moving late June high-amplitude west coast trough led to a moderate risk of severe weather from the Storm Prediction Center. Walker Ashley and I departed northern Illinois early on the 19th with our eyes set on on far western NE or even eastern CO as lee cyclogenesis was forecast to advect sufficient moisture for supercells into the region under sufficient bulk shear corresponding to a tightening height gradient. After bailing on some initial crapvection in eastern CO, we latched on to the westernmost supercell forming near Haigler, NE. This storm looked great initially, but quickly became pinched off of high theta-e air from the cell to its immediate east. Realizing this, we darted east towards the dominant cell and caught up with it in the Stratton area where we observed a brief ground dust swirl that was reported as a weak tornado in the storm report log. We stayed ahead of this monster all the way to the Cambridge/Arapahoe, NE area, all the while exhibiting a beautiful upside-down wedding cake appearance. We drove north to overnight in Kearney, NE, where it turned out to be a pretty stormy evening.

Initial robust supercell development near Haigler, NE

Brief dust swirl near McCook, NE
Click for animation

6/15/2011 Moonbow

Decaying convection ahead of a small, compact shortwave trough provided a rather unique (and admittedly unexpected) chance for night photography (~10:30 PM) in my backyard. The environment was characterized by relatively robust CAPE in the lowest 3 km, with sufficient shear as noted by the 00z DVN sounding.

Although the rather impressive lightning display decided to quit as soon as I set up my tripod (figures!), I still managed to capture a few shots that I thought were pretty unique. As the small cell was approaching;

Yellow '+' indicates my position

light from a full moon in the low southeastern sky yielded enough light to produce a rainbow! I was shocked at first to see this, let alone find out later that it showed up in a couple of my pictures. The rest of the photo session was characterized by very stable air behind the cell where stars were shining like diamonds.

Moonbow! (hard to believe this was at 10:30 PM)

Dad taking in the view...

Facing south after cell passage

Ani-GIF of the Big Dipper (click to enlarge)

6/3-6/4 Down Day & CO Bust

6/3 featured a down day as long-wave ridging was controlling most of the central CONUS. While weak storms did fire in northwest KS (as we anticipated), we opted for a day in the Badlands of South Dakota and ended the day camping in Scottsbluff, NE in preparation for an upslope opportunity in Colorado on 6/4.

Campsite near Scottsbluff, NE national monument.

6/4 was yet another moisture-starved setup in eastern CO. We were hoping for a few landspouts with the very steep low-level lapse rates, but the cap would have none of it. We met up with CoD Trip 3 in a park near Kiowa, CO and watched a few cells quickly form and fizzle out.

Marius (trip 3 CoD) is victim of a frisbee "you threw it, you get it" rule