- 2008 CONVECTIVE FIELD STUDY B
- Day 1 – Mon 6/2
· On the road at 7:45 am
· Pilot CB radio goes out shortly after departure due to a shorted wire. 3 more short out until the last one is in use. Need to buy 2 more radios tonight for backup.
· Traveling down 49 N to I-80 W to eastern Nebraska. Hotel is located in York, NE, approximately 9 hours from Valpo.
· MILEAGE BETS
· Car 1: 1,134
· Car 2: 5,400
· Car 3: 5,800
· Car 4: 5,750
· Car 5: 5,631
· STATE BORDERS
· Car 1: 20
· Car 2: 23
· Car 3: 30
· Car 4: 26
· Car 5: 19
· Car 3 hits 100 miles at 9:55 am!
· Car 4 experiences microphone troubles with CB at 10am, and continues to make random beeping sounds throughout the day.
· Car 5’s CB experiencing interference from power inverter and an unresponsive XM Satellite program. Later finds another outlet in the back and problems are solved.
· Lunch and gas stop in Iowa City, IA at 11:45am. Total cost of gas around $250!
· Back on the road at 12:30pm and immediately drove through an MCS.
· Not much happening throughout Nebraska… sunny and hot, temps in the mid-80’s. Clear skies for much of the afternoon. Dewpoints reach the 70’s.
· Towards the evening the skies begin to cloud up, some towering cumulus in the distance.
· Another stop for gas… this time $270 is the grand total. Bart tries to pay for gas but apparently someone has reported his credit card stolen. Takes some time to get this sorted out and then back on the interstate toward the hotel, which is about 6 miles away.
· Arrive at the Comfort Inn at approximately 6pm. The group separates for dinner.
· All cars leave hotel at 7:25pm and head for the country where they pull off onto a dirt road to assess the data and decide the next move. Although clouds have moved in, still no weather to chase.
· The cars with internet have some troubles staying connected.
· Volleyball, Frisbee, and Backstreet Boys music entertain the chasers for an hour or so.
· The team decides to leave as nothing is popping up in the area and arrives back at the hotel at 9pm… end up staying in for the night.
Overall, not much to be seen today. Some cirrus clouds leftover from storms in Nebraska seen in Iowa. However, the low-level jet, expected to be an important factor in triggering lift, never reached full strength and so nothing significant popped up close enough for us to chase.
Total Mileage = 626.2 miles
Day 2 – Tues 6/3
· 8am weather discussion – decide to head south to KS. Likelihood for MCS/heavy rain/severe weather to the east – IA, IL, IN – but for tornadic supercells, need to stay west.
· Morning SPC Day One outlook is slight risk covering much of the central plains and eastward with a moderate risk in MO, IL, IN, and OH.
· 30% hatched hail over almost all of KS
· Hotel departure at 9:20am
· Just south of Geneva at 9:40am: T=74, Td=68
· We want to be north of the border where the easterly winds are
· 14Z models show CAPES reaching 2500-3000 in SE KS/ W MO
· Possibility for good storms, but breaking the cap is key to initialization
· The question: do we chase post-frontal upslope in CO or the boundary in KS? Tough choice.
· 11:45am – stop for lunch buffet at Pizza Hut (for good luck of course) and gas up, then head SE
· Team stops on a side road to wait at 1:07pm. We see giant dandelions in the ditch.
· Approx. 3pm – leave road and travel SE to McPherson where the low is situated
· MD out for area at approx. 2:40pm
· Afternoon SPC Day One outlook mostly the same – still 5% tornadoes, although the wind probability is increased in KS
· 3:27pm – just east of McPherson: T=88, Td=71
· 3:31pm – stopped on side road to sit again
· Tornado watch out until approx. 3:45pm for Kansas City and to the NE (to our west)
· Tornado warning until 17:15 in Springfield, Baca County at 16:15
· Question of the hour – go SW towards CO to chase already developed storms there, or stay and watch Cu to see what pops up
· Dinner at Arby’s at 5 pm, watched for a while and then decided to head east toward Lawrence, KS
· Someone points out clouds to the south look like “a meer cat with children” – very true.
· Awesome looking boundary clouds across Cu
· Turkey towers on Cu to SE
· Kansas City storms are feeding off boundary extending NE from Emporia
· 2 boundaries converge south of Wichita at 6:36pm
· Quick stop for gas at 6:40pm
· Tornado watch covering areas SW of KS City issued at 7:21pm
· Sat for 45 minutes in Osage County watching LCL drop… very nice structure! Really good vantage point to see the development
· Decide to follow storm E on I-70
· Run into pendent echo on the interstate, so we head back west to watch lightning (really intense CG)
Total Mileage = 1,033.0 miles
Day 3 – Wed 6/4
· Leave hotel at 9:43am, headed west to Salina, KS where next hotel is located.
· A low situated in western KS is expected to deepen throughout the day. The plan is to find the triple point and sit and wait. This way we’ll be able to go down along the dryline or go northwest above the main circulation.
· Tornadic supercells expected on CO/KS/NE border and north central KS.
· Stopped for lunch at KFC in Salina at approx. 11:15am
· Decide to head west and move hotel to Grand Island, NE because the afternoon SPC Day One outlook now shows hatched tornadoes at 10% and have moved the probability further north as we expected.
· Moderate risk – northern KS, slight in rest of state
· Much of KS hatched hail up to 45% in the north
· MD issued for northern CO, southeast WY, southwest NE, and a small corner of northwest KS at approx. 1:10 pm, predicts a tornado watch in 1-2 hrs. and intensifying storms.
· Stopped to gas up at 1:45 pm – gas is $3.79/gal
· Tornado watch issued for CO, KS, NE at approx. 1:40pm until 2Z
· Car 2 experience vibrating right after leaving gas station so we pull off on next exit, right tire has semi truck tire debris melted onto it, chipped some off and improves driving some, take off to Hays at 60mph.
· MD issued for NE at 2:25pm, tornado watch will come shortly, 2500-4000 CAPE, shear near 50 kts.
· Cap breached at approx. 2:30pm in north central KS, tornado watch issued at 2:41pm for southeast NE and northern KS.
· Michael Grogan appears out of nowhere in between Cars 4 and 5; a happy reunion between the seniors.
· Get to Hays to get more gas and get tire replaced at Walmart at 2:50pm.
· Finally leave Walmart at 3:45pm, no tire change or structure damage, but much improved, just needed to get debris off.
· CAPE north of Salina at 6200 J/Kg at 3:55pm!
· Tornado warnings in Dawson and Buffalo Counties west of Grand Island, NE at 3:55pm – Doppler indicated.
· MD out for north CO, northwestern KS, and southwestern NE at 4:09pm.
· Pull off to a side road to sit at 4:14pm in Wakeeny
· 4500 CAPE close to this location
· Tornado warning in Frontier, Greeley, and Howard Counties NE at approx. 4:43pm.
· Move west at 6:25pm and then north (cap held and warm front went north).
· Storms in eastern CO, NE, and western IA moving NE, nothing in KS.
· Sat on side road and watched south end of storms in NE around 8:45pm.
· Went east and stopped to see some intense cloud to cloud lightning.
· Drove through hail on the way back.
All models were wrong in today’s predictions except the UW. The shortwave never came through Kansas so there was no convection and no chaseable storms.
Total Mileage = 1,579.0 miles
Day 4 – Thurs 6/5
Today, in Bart’s words, was “something you see every 5 years.” Very strong 500 and 300 mb flow guaranteed caps to be broken deep into the South.
· High risk extending from western IA to NE and KS, southern MN, southeast SD, and northwest MO
· Hatched 15% tornadoes in the same region, as well as 30% hail and 60% hatched wind
· Decide to go southwest to KS. We must be west to see formation and generation of these storms because they will all become rain-wrapped HP’s.
· Tornado watch issued from 16Z – 0Z for eastern NE, extreme southeast SD, northern KS, western IA, and northwestern MO, PDS with wind gusts possibly 80 mph, 3 inch hail, strong low-level shear and moisture.
· MD out for central KS at approx. 11:15am
· Tornado watch issued for central KS from 1650Z – 1Z
· 30% hatched tornadoes on the Day One outlook at 12:00pm
· Stop for lunch at Jiffy Burger… delicious!
· Stopped on side road at 2:15pm in Lincoln County to watch linear storms developing to the SW… these storms formed into a classic HP supercell after turning right.
· Sat under supercell’s rain free base and let it roll over for about 10 minutes.
· Left this area and drove a bit NE to try and chase storm, but it is moving way too fast to keep up with, about 70 mph.
· We head NE after some time to get rolled by the squall line and eat dinner at Sonic, some nice hail and lots of rain.
· Gas was $3.64 today, some of the cheapest seen so far
Basically today storms popped up everywhere due to a weak cap and strong upper level flow, however many were linear due to this and their structure was obscured by rain. Storms also were extremely hard to keep up with, making the day a surprising bust tornado-wise.
Total Mileage = 2,024.0 miles
Day 5 – Fri 6/6
SPC outlook is slight today for an area from northeast MN around the eastern border of IA down to northeastern OK, MO and northwestern OH. We have 3 choices – chill out, south to OK, or north to SD. We decide to go south and sightsee, so that we will be able to see stuff if it pops up (isolated HP cells).
· After a quick stop at Walmart, we’re off at 10:30am
· First day of switching cars up
· Stopped for lunch at 1:30pm in Bartlesville, OK
· Decide to go to Wakita, OK to see the Twister Movie Museum and wait for something to pop up. Nothing but some Cu in the sky.
Car Names
Car 1 = Pilot
Car 2 = Silver Bullet
Car 3 = Big Red
Car 4 = Spice Girls
Car 5 = Nighthawk
The Twister Museum was very cool, located in an old Auto Parts shop. The lady was nice enough to keep the museum open until we arrived at 5:30 even though it was supposed to close at 5pm. Chuck Doswell was the latest visitor to sign the guest book before us. Saw lots of movie memorabilia and artifacts from the set. Bart exchanges business cards in order to set up a deal with the museum in the fall; we plan on ordering many of the detectors made by the lady that resemble the ones used in the movie. This lady also told us that the biggest employer of Wakita closed and she doesn’t expect the town to exist in about 10 years. After a quick stop at the grocery store, we left for the hotel.
Total Mileage = 2,575.0 miles
Day 6 – Sat 6/7
· Decide to go SW today
· Moderate risk over much of central plains, including KS and east central NE
· 30% hail, 15% tornadoes – no hatching
· 11:20am stopped in Cawker City, KS to see the World’s Largest Ball of Twine! Each of us got to wrap around one loop of twine.
· Also stopped at the center of the contiguous United States just outside of Lebanon, KS. Chapel is mysteriously missing, but was there just one week ago.
· Eat at Jiffy Burger then decide to head east at 1pm – to Iowa or SE NE?
· Stop at side road in Beatrice at 3:45pm
· Tornado warning issued for Gage County at approximately 4:20pm
· Anvil ahead, in between the action, some cu in the hazy sky
· Decide to go further SW because the cells are separating. Storms are also dying as they cross the border into NE
· See some excellent mammatus clouds
· Tornado warnings associated with system in the NE
· Cells begin to die, then intensify to the north again, so we head NE to catch them – rotation indicated
· Decide to go west, not north or south – rotation and tornado warning!!
· Lots of in-cloud lightning, and radar indicates a nice hook echo, updraft, and TVS appears at approximately 8pm
· Reach the developing supercell and sit on road to watch – see an amazing mesocyclone dropping dozens of funnels and two that touch the ground (we report it as just NW of Downs, KS). They are 2 ropes that twist around each other for a short period of time.
· Also move north where we catch 2 more mesos that drop some more funnels, but here we are attacked by a large swarm of mosquitoes.
· These mesocyclones were classic in structure, not rain-wrapped, and rotation was visible all the way up!
· Gets too dark to see anything else significant so we head to the hotel for the night in Lincoln, NE
Total Mileage = 3,217.0 miles
Day 7 – Sun 6/8
· Depart from hotel at 9:15am, weather discussion on the road – we decide to head south to OK
· We are in slight risk – tornadoes 5%, hail 30%, wind 30% - Dallas and northward is the focus.
· Quick stop in York, KS to get Maddy’s missing shoe.
· 11:45am stop for gas ($3.82/gal) in Concordia
· Lunch in Harper, KS at 3:30pm
· Once we arrive in OK, the cells are going NE, so we head SW
· Sit on side road a bit north of Cherokee in Alfalfa County – watched a shelf cloud form and saw some tornado damage from the day before on a farm nearby (many power lines down, barn torn apart, trees down).
· We head south of Cherokee, OK
· Wall cloud turns into shelf cloud/outflow (inflow shuts down).
· Move south again – see a dust storm in the distance.
· Sit on a beautiful white gravel road on a ridge and let gust front/shelf cloud roll over us, with strong winds! Can see the hail shaft in the distance.
· Leave in a hurry to beat the 1000 mile long squall line to our hotel in Enid, OK.
Total Mileage = 3,739.0 miles
Day 8 – Mon 6/9
· Stop at Walmart in the morning – Spice car has a flat tire and a nail is found in the Pilot car
· On the road at 1:20pm, headed to Slapout, OK.
· The Pilot hits a bird straight on in the windshield.
· Arrive in Slapout at 3:30pm, make a stop in the gas station.
· We see a faint dust devil around 4:40pm
· Stop in Hooker, OK at 4:45pm and spend some time in the gift shop where the majority of the group purchases a souvenir.
· Next stop is Liberal, KS where we see the home of the girl who inspired the character of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.
· At 8:36pm the group passes a peacock trying to cross the road…strange.
· Car 2 and Car 4 have giant cracks that are growing on their windshields, but we are trying our best to stop them by painting them with clear nail polish.
· Arrive at the hotel in Colby, KS and we are treated to a steak dinner at City Lights Bar and Grill.
Total Mileage = 4,153.0 miles
Day 9 – Tues 6/10
· Weather discussion at 8am – decide to go to SD for elevated supercells, despite the long drive
· Due to road construction, we are running behind on arrival time after about 2 hrs.
· Pull over at 12:15pm to discuss the possibility of turning around back to KS for isolated supercells, must break cap though – no clouds in the sky, SD is lacking moisture.
· Turn around at 12:30pm, and save 3 hrs travel time as well as putting us in a better position for tomorrow.
· Slight risk now for western KS where we are heading, further heating and moisture convergence should pop up scattered t-storms, cap in the east won’t break until late.
· Kinematics supportive of isolated supercells this afternoon if cap breaks.
· We hit the dryline right above us heading east on I-70, and note an interesting trend in T and Td: T=90’s…
· Mile 66: Td = 42.5
· Mile 67: Td = 44.5
· Mile 68: Td = 42.5
· Mile 69: Td = 45.1
· Mile 70: Td = 48.5
· Mile 71: Td = 59
· Mile 72: Td = 60
· Stopped in Oakley at 4:10pm for gas ($3.95/gal)
· Stop to sit on side road at 5:20pm in Lane county just outside of Healey, some cu and turkey towers going up, 96 degrees outside!
· Leave and move east because boundary is catching up with us.
· SPC updates our area (western KS) to 5% tornado probability
· We go east a bit more and wait.
· Decide to go NE toward intense cell with shear couplets moving east at 15mph at approximately 7:30pm.
· We see a beautiful supercell with nice structure and striations, along with a microburst, radar indicates a hook echo on this cell and shear markers up to 115mph, also has a severe t-storm warning and Doppler indicated tornado warning.
· We measure about 40 kts of inflow when we first arrive
Total Mileage = 4,714.0 miles
Day 10 – Wed 6/11
After the weather discussion at 8:30am, we realize it’s a tough choice between going north or south. Nothing will happen until later and our location is central enough to reconvene at 10:30am and make the final decision.
At our next meeting, we decide to go against SPC’s prediction (that cells are more likely to be linear to the south) and to head more NE. We will decide where to go from there.
· Moderate risk from southwest IA, eastern NE and northeaster KS, lots of moisture in the air, but can the cap be broken?
· Stop for lunch at approximately 12pm for the Pizza Hut Buffet.
· Stop in Ellsworth, KS for gas, and then on a side road outside of town at 1:30pm
· We leave at 5pm because a storm pops up in the NE corner of Ellsworth County, tornado watch in effect as well as a severe t-storm warning.
· As we are sitting, the cell splits and the larger one moves right…also has a hook echo on it and a Doppler indicated tornado warning.
· We see 2 mesocyclones with rotating wallclouds, a short-lived laminar funnel in the distance, not sure if it touches the ground (we don’t report it).
· The storm has 8 shear markers indicated by XM, with a max of 115mph, max height is at 45,000ft, 72 dBz, 90 VIL
· Rotation begins above us so we make a quick getaway and the event turns into a big dust storm, chasing us at 70mph, cells turn into a bow echo, inevitable that we will get rolled sometime on the way to our hotel in Cameron, MO.
· Bart calls this trip one of the top 3 he’s been on!
· Gas up in McPherson and continue on to the hotel.
Total Mileage = 5,187.0 miles
Day 11 – Thurs 6/12
· Left hotel at 8am for home
· We spend a good 2 hours discussing the details of our trip t-shirt, Kristin has the details
· Stop for lunch in Illinois at 12:15pm
· Continue on home at 1pm.
· Nighthawk wins the state border crossing competition with 19 crossings.
· We make our last gas stop in Hebron, IN at 5pm… gas is now $4.19/gal!!
· Spice car wins the mileage competition, their guess being 5,631.0 miles.
Total Mileage = 5,683.5 miles