Convective Field Study 10B: Trip Log

June 2-12, 2003

This log details the adventures of Convective Field Study 10B on the Plains during early June, 2003. Our quest: to observe, study, and learn about the environment and development of severe thunderstorms. Through many successes and a few disappointments, we learned a great deal. This trip’s participants have also carried away many memories; this log seeks to record both the convection and some of the fun times we had while storm chasing. Although it is impossible to capture all the amazement of a tornado on the ground or the fun of a night driving through the Nebraska Sandhills listening to the radio, I hope this log brings back many memories for those who were on the trip, and, for those interested in learning more about what these trips are like, I hope it provides an overview of the diversity of learning that can take place.
-Matthew Van Den Broeke, Trip Logger


Pre-Chase Meeting: June 1, 2003
The participants of Convective Field Study 10B met in the Weather Center in Mueller Hall at 6 PM for a trip overview and class expectations. Then we spent about an hour getting everything set up for tomorrow: CB radios, chase kits in cars, and the anemometer. Although it is rather cold in good old Valpo (only in the 50’s), everyone is very excited about the upcoming adventure.

Day 1: June 2, 2003
We met in the Weather Center at 7:15 AM for a weather discussion. There is little hope for severe weather today, so we will use the day to drive west and set up for Day Two. The current Day Two outlook from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has a 25% risk area in western KS and along the mountains from WY to TX. We departed from the Mueller parking lot at 8:15 AM and made a hotel reservation in Salina, KS. The five cars going on the trip, their occupants, and everyone’s mileage guesses at the outset are as follows:

CHASE 1 (The Pilot)
Mike Bardou—Driver - 5750 miles
Prof. Bart Wolf—Field Coordinator - 5158 miles
Steve Jaye—Navigator - 5026 miles
Andrea Gamret—aka the Cornerstone - 5375 miles

CHASE 2 (SPC—Stacey Peterson’s Car)
Stacey Peterson—Driver - 5347 miles
Dan Keeley—Team Leader - 4685 miles
Heather Woods - 5219 miles
Matthew Van Den Broeke—Logger - 5300 miles

CHASE 3 (ACRONYM—A Car Running on Nutmeg, You Morons)
Dennis Flack—Driver - no guess
Kevin Goebbert—Team Leader - 5800 miles
Aimee Pocratsky - 5475 miles
Stacy Gaard - 5372 miles

CHASE 4 (The Suburban)
Steve Jackman—Driver - 4823 miles
Becky Eager—Team Leader - 5757 miles
Jenni Mandli—Photographer - 6001 miles
Sam Bowerman - 5246 miles

CHASE 5 (RFDizzle-mo-Bizzle)
Erin Hokanson—Driver - 5555 miles
Brian Hirth—Team Leader - 5225 miles
Jennifer Wade - 5048 miles
Zach Horn - 4824 miles

-We went south from Valpo on State Route 2. On this trip, we are using a new GPS system, and it can even talk to tell us which way we are driving. Needless to say, before long the GPS had secured its very own quote among the trip’s list.
-9:06 AM—IL state line; state count 2.
-In Kankakee, we saw a double-decker casket truck drive by—not sure if this is a good way or a bad way to start a convective field study. We drove across the flat farm country between Kankakee and Champaign, then headed toward Effingham, IL.
-11:51 TONE!?! Oh. Just a test by the National Weather Service.
-By 12:20 we were beginning to see a little light rain just west of Vandalia, IL. The new Day Two outlook from SPC came out, and is now putting the area of 25% risk along the mountains from WY to central TX. Salina still appears to be an excellent choice for tonight.
-1:11 PM Mississippi River; crossed into Missouri, state count 3. Saw St. Louis from the bluffs west of the river, and got cut off by a truck with a trailer, which then collided with the cement barrier in the center of the road (it was a construction zone).
-1:29 PM Missouri River. We stopped for lunch at McDonald’s in St. Charles, MO, put $100 of gasoline into the vehicles, and were back on the road by 2:20. There was continuous light rain.
-59/56 St. Charles, MO; 2 PM. Only 58 in Kansas City. This is June?
-We ran into some heavy traffic west of the metro area as we left town, but passed the time with a discussion of President Bush as a cheerleader during high school. By 3:30, moderate rain was still falling. There is a conspicuous increase in prairie species as we head west into a drier climate.
-3:46 PM Columbia, MO. 435 miles on the day so far, and still pouring rain. We decided we have been nearing the rain-free base now for 5 _ hours.
-4 PM Crossed the Missouri River for the last time and saw a bit of rolling Ozark topography. By 4:40, the rain was finally giving way to drizzle and the stratus deck was beginning to break up. Also, we reached 500 miles for the trip. We stopped at a rest area near Concordia, MO, to download GPS data, and found some other people there one of the students knew.
-5:41 PM Kansas City, MO, a large outpost of civilization and our gateway to the Plains.
-5:53 PM ¡Benivenidos a Kansas!, state count 4. We passed through the Loess Hills of eastern Kansas and entered the Kansas Turnpike shortly thereafter.
-6:23 PM Lawrence, KS.
~6:25 PM The aerovane shreds a bird, as viewed by Dennis’ car.
-6:44 PM Topeka, KS, and the famous domed capital building. We stopped and added another $100 of gasoline to our convoy, then went one exit further and ate supper at various fast food restaurants in Topeka. The hamburger place was offering a “Daily Cyclone Special.” Our group reconvened at Wal-Mart at 8 PM, where we met a student who will be going to Valparaiso University next year to study meteorology. The world can be a small place sometimes.
-8:13 PM Began rolling westward again. We passed through the Flint Hills, a region of rolling topography with noticeably decreasing tree population from east to west. It is definitely a transition zone between the wet, forested East and the wide-open Plains.
-73/60 Salina, KS; 8 PM, according to the weather radio. There was clearing in central KS, explaining the dramatically warmer temperature. Under the stratus deck, it never climbed out of the 50’s.
-9:01 PM Junction City, KS. Lights on the prairie! We gained a little over half an hour of daylight by going west today.
-9:21 PM Abilene, KS.
-9:41 PM Salina, KS, and our hotel. We checked in and got some sleep, as tomorrow is anticipated to be another long day.

MILEAGE - Day: 731.0 miles
Trip total: 731.0 miles

Day 2: June 3, 2003
-We ate breakfast at the hotel. The Weather Channel noted that Columbia, MO, had its lowest high temperature on record yesterday for June. As meteorology majors on a storm chase, we enjoyed the signs on the hotel doors: “Use caution opening doors during high winds.”
-Weather discussion was at 8 AM. Two MCS’s are moving across Kansas this morning, one across the northern and one across the southern portion of the state. SPC upgraded to a moderate risk today for the West TX Panhandle. Outflow boundaries are moving into that area from this morning’s MCS in southern KS, and instability parameters are showing some impressive values in the most recent model runs (LI to –12, CAPE to 4500 J/Kg). This would suggest large hail, for which SPC put out a 35% probability. Other probabilities include 25% for damaging wind and 5% for tornadoes in the moderate risk area, so we are heading toward the West TX Panhandle.
-57/57 Salina, KS; 8:50 AM, which is approximately when we left the hotel. A little drizzle started in the Smoky Hills of central KS as we headed south and west. Began seeing Sage, an indicator of an increasingly dry climate.
-1527’, 9:09 AM, between Salina and Great Bend, KS.
-1725’, 9:23 AM. We are rapidly gaining elevation.
-9:53 AM Great Bend, KS. 1955’. We are headed toward Dodge City, KS.
-65/50 Southwest of Garfield, KS; 10:39 AM. Elevation has increased to 2111’. 64/59 in Dodge City, KS, at 10 AM. This indicates a decent dewpoint gradient with more moisture to the west.
-11 AM Bellefont, KS. d(trees)/dt appears very negative. 2318’.
-11:28 AM Dodge City, KS; 72 degrees. We saw the NWS forecast office and Doppler radar from the road. Heather, our tour guide for a portion of the trip, read bits of data on the area from Storm Chasing Handbook by Tim Vasquez. The Arkansas River just south of Dodge City was totally dry.
-70/55 Ensign, KS; 11:47 AM. The new SPC Day One outlook has extended the moderate risk a bit further south into central TX, but is otherwise unchanged. Our plans still seem viable.
-2746’, 11:49 AM. We drove through the Gray County Wind Farm, an area of many large windmills near the road.
-12:16 AM Sublette, KS. We got gasoline and applied Rain-X to the windows. Co-op, the local gas station company, occasionally provides free food as a service to towns in their region, and we happened to arrive in Sublette on that day. They were nice enough to provide grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, beans, and pop for everyone. So, we enjoyed an excellent lunch and some conversation with the locals.
-1:10 PM We left Sublette and headed south toward Liberal, KS. There was a little rain south of Sublette, but nothing too significant. The CB in Dennis’ car, which had been down earlier in the day, was fixed while we were stopped. Finally we ran out of the rain and into a very hilly region north of Liberal.
-1:35 PM Liberal, KS. We saw Dorothy’s house from the Wizard of Oz when we drove by. Elevation was 2846’ leaving town.
-1:45 PM Welcome to Oklahoma! State count 5. We are approaching 3000’, and saw bent telephone poles.
-1:57 PM 1000 miles for the trip, about one mile north of Hooker, OK.
-2:03 PM 3000’.
-70/56 OK Panhandle; 2:06 PM. We are entering the Caprock Escarpment. It also appears we have bisected a boundary, as the wind is no longer northeast but calm.
-2:16 PM Guymon, OK. Playing on the radio: “We’ve got to get out of this place.” We stopped for gasoline under a mostly cloudy sky and were headed south again by 2:25.
-72/55 South of Guymon; 2:31 PM. We heard an ad on the radio for tornado shelters. There are grassy, rolling hills around us with an awesome view of the sky in all directions.
-2:45 PM Texhoma, OK.
-2:47 PM Welcome to Texas, everyone! State count 6.
-A Mesoscale Convective Discussion (MCD) was issued for the TX Panhandle. Thunderstorms are expected to roll off the New Mexico mountains in the next few hours. Our new plan: head to Tucumcari, New Mexico!
-3680’ 3:05 PM, Stratford, TX.
-3800’ 3:13 PM Conlon, TX.
-3900’ 3:19 PM.
-A Tornado Watch box was issued at 3:23 PM for much of the TX Panhandle and portions of eastern New Mexico. Explosive development of tornadic supercells is expected in the next few hours, with hail to 3” in diameter. CAPE is right around 4000 J/Kg over most of the watch area. We’re all excited and happy to be chasing!
-3:27 PM TONE. Apparently for the new Tornado Watch.
-3:28 PM We stopped for gasoline in Dalhart, TX, and within ten minutes, were back on the road heading south to catch initiation. -According to the weather radio, spotter activation is possible for the next seven days!
-74/60 Hartley, TX; 3:51 PM. We are taking Highway 385 south, and passed a Prairie Dog town. The cows are hiding under the trees—that means it is supposed to hail, right?
-4:08 PM. We entered the Tornado Watch box. The vegetation and geography has changed a lot, and we are now in an area of hills and mesas, with lots of Sagebrush and Cholla cactus.
-79/58 Boy’s Ranch, TX; 4:13 PM. It is 88 degrees in Lubbock, TX, at 4 PM, and 97 in Midland.
-3500’ 4:20 PM.
-4000’ 4:30 PM, about two miles north of Vega, TX. There are a few cumulus in the sky, but it is mostly sunny and appears rather capped. We stopped for about fifteen minutes in the parking lot of a small grocery store in Vega. Many of us played baseball in a grassy area behind this store and in the road in front of it. Conditions were estimated at 80/60. A local of Vega told Stacey that if we were chasing storms she was going home.
-We headed south from Vega toward Hereford, TX, around 5 PM. A few towers may be trying to build, but it still appears quite capped.
-5:23 PM TONE! Severe thunderstorm warning for Lubbock, TX. There are golf balls on the ground with baseball potential. Cells are building north and west from the Lubbock area. We can see some of this activity as a tower with a nice anvil.
-5:27 PM Base support informs us that storms are firing on the TX/NM border. Our plans now indicate a course toward Dimmitt, TX.
-5:30 PM Hereford, TX. It still appears very capped, and Texas is getting baked. We are still headed south toward Dimmitt. Base support says the Lubbock storm, which has finally moved east of Lubbock, has developed a hook echo. There are two supercells down there according to radar.
-5:48 PM Dimmitt, TX. A bank sign is reading 81 degrees. We stopped for a quick 22 gallons of gasoline and were back on the road in ten minutes. Current plans take us west on Highway 86; there is a nice anvil becoming visible to our northwest, and satellite/radar indicate this storm is beginning to blow up. Eventually we took Highway 1055 north and passed a feed yard with MANY MANY cows.
-6:08 PM We are set up on a small road northwest of Dimmitt, and are waiting for this cell to approach! There is a beautiful anvil and we can start to make out the base. We then turned around for lack of cell phone coverage in the area—a common problem in the High Plains. There was a stop sign riddled with bullet holes. A few miles east, we stopped on another small road to watch the approaching storm.
-6:22 PM TONE Deaf Smith County, for the storm we are watching. It is moving almost directly at us with the astonishing speed of 5 mph. Most of the radio stations we can get are in Spanish.
-The cell we have been watching has split into two distinct cells, and three more have developed to their west. Our cell still has a nice anvil, well-defined outflow, and a slight flanking line. The inflow is gusting at perhaps 25 mph where we are stationed. We are headed west toward the little town of Hub, TX.
-78/58 West of Hub, TX; 6:43 PM. An inflow band has developed, along with mammatus at the edge of the anvil. There is also beginning to be a little close cloud-to-ground lightning (CG).
-6:52 PM According to base support, our storm has 65 dBz and two radar-indicated mesocyclones. Visually, a wall cloud is beginning to develop.
-We stopped on a little road south of Hub, which never amounted to much of a town. There was a well-developed wall cloud at the interface of the updraft and downdraft, and radar still indicated a meso with 68 dBz. We can almost see the hook echo visually, with precipitation beginning to wrap around the wall cloud.
-7:13 PM Our wall has started to rotate; base support notes 79 VIL and 68 dBz. Baseballs are reported on the ground under this cell. -Zach nearly got thrown at the storm as an offering to the tornado gods, and Steve wondered what it would be like to punch a 79-VIL storm, a question we would all like answered, but not directly.
-A few minutes later, we are still watching the amazing cell to our northwest. It has developed an incredible RFD notch, through which we can see blue sky behind the storm. BOLTEK, our lightning detection system, reports 400 lightning strikes per minute, and inflow is still very strong. A new cell appears to be developing to our west.
-A tornado was reported on the ground at 7:27 PM, wrapped in rain (and probably baseballs). The new cell to our west has, within ten minutes or so, started to display a well-developed RFD notch and wall cloud. This exceedingly rapid development is noted by some of us with a little incredulity and concern. We decided to move south to escape a potential encounter.
-There is an amazing black wall of death to the north. Inflow has picked up to a furious rate, and when we stopped on another road for a quick view, tumbleweeds were flying in profusion across the field to our north toward the developing storm. Lightning was beginning to increase as well.
-“Everyone get south now. Bart will explain later.” And thus we headed south. Apparently, we found out a few minutes later, the newer storm to our west now has a TVA indicated on radar, and a tornado is expected to be near a location six miles to our west. What we have been looking at to our west is apparently a gigantic wall cloud. When we got further south, we stopped again. The wall cloud was rapidly rotating and had developed striations indicative of rotation. Scud was rising up into the wall cloud and disappearing. Then, the Doppler On Wheels shot south past us. A very loud blast of thunder scared us back to the cars, and we realized the storm was speeding up and that we needed to be getting south. South of us: the little town of Muleshoe, Texas.
-We arrived in Muleshoe only a few minutes later, with the storm still not too far behind. There was road construction in the town, and a detour compelled us to go east out of town. Then, a call from base support told us absolutely not to head east, as we would have soon run into another very bad storm. We turned around, and, at about the same time, a possible funnel cloud descended out of the wall cloud area.
-The next five or so minutes were little more than a blur. We raced back into the town with an ominous funnel bearing down, only to get stopped at a stoplight in the town, which had suddenly become very busy with chasers. As the funnel, halfway to the ground by this time, was nearly to us, the stoplight turned green and we escaped the construction zone. We drove south for about ten minutes with much inflowing dust blowing around us. When we had gotten far enough south to see the storm’s structure, we found a road where we could watch.
-In appearance, our storm had become an LP supercell. There were several building inflow bands stretching more than halfway across the sky, and a rain free base with the wall cloud under which we had been not too long ago. The entire lower part of the storm showed striations. According to base support, the storm was now 76 dBz, although visually most precipitation has disappeared.
-A little rain started at our location, so we drove south for a better view and ran into heavy rain. Mammatus were beginning to develop, and there were still many inflow bands visible. At the ground, inflow was still very strong, and we all ate plenty of Texas dust.
-8:54 PM Littlefield, TX. We sat outside of town to watch the supercell a little more. There is another cell to our north with reports of 80 mph winds and baseballs. We watch an incredible sunset: the LP is off to our west, and a shelf is approaching in association with the storm to our north. Once the rain started, we headed back northeast toward Dimmitt. Lots of heat lightning was visible to the east, and there was mammatus overhead.
-We stopped for gasoline at Olton, TX, and were back on the road by 10:20 PM. There is a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until midnight. The northwest sky is still being lit up by lightning.
-11:35 PM The Pilot was pulled over for going a little over posted speed, which is different in Texas during the day and at night. We got off with nothing more than a warning, although the University had also forgotten to provide us with proof of insurance.
-11:55 PM Amarillo, TX. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”—our theme song for the trip. Is it really a good idea to make this the theme song? According to the GPS, we left Valpo less than 40 hours ago but have been moving in the cars for 23 hours since then.

Day 3: June 4, 2003
12:22 AM 731 miles on the day, the same as we drove yesterday!
12:41 AM Dumas, TX, and the hotel.

MILEAGE - Day: 751.8 miles
Trip total: 1482.8 miles

-We got up and had weather discussion at 8:30. Even with the excitement of yesterday’s chase, we are all ready for another day of convection. According to the data we looked at, it still appears the TX Panhandle is favored for severe convection today, so we decided to keep the hotel in Dumas. Some of us walked over to Wal-Mart. There was a brief weather discussion at 11:45, and then we ate lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet. After another quick 12:45 discussion, we headed out of the hotel in active chase mode under a low stratus deck, a remnant of last night’s MCS which formed from the convection we chased (or that chased us).
-71/59 Hotel parking lot as we left; 1:10 PM.
-1:15 PM Severe Thunderstorm Watch for northeast New Mexico and southeast Colorado. We are headed toward Dalhart, TX.
-1:20 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Cimarron County, Oklahoma. This storm in the western OK Panhandle is heading south, and we will hopefully be able to intercept it.
-68/60 West of Dumas, TX; 1:20 PM. There is still a stratus deck overhead.
-1:47 PM We stopped in Dalhart, TX, for gasoline, and were back on the road at 2:03 PM, headed north toward the OK Panhandle on Highway 385. A severe thunderstorm is located 17 miles west of Boise City, OK, headed south at 25 mph. It is producing penny hail, and is the storm we are set to intercept. By 2:13 PM, we are picking up 40 lightning strikes per minute from this direction.
-71/61 North of Dalhart, TX; 2:15 PM. Two minutes later, we are picking up 70 strikes per minute, and the updraft is becoming visible. The storms, however, are embedded in the stratus deck, so finding any good views of them will be challenging. We are surrounded by miles of nearly treeless rangeland, and can see for many miles.
-2:28 PM Base support relays that our storm has 64 dBz and 53 VIL, rather impressive compared with what visual observation might suggest. BOLTEK is detecting 90 strikes per minute.
-2:31 PM 110 strikes per minute are recorded. We are in the Rita Blanca National Grassland in the far northwest TX Panhandle, and have stopped along a dirt road to watch the storm, which is still evidently embedded in stratus. Twenty minutes later, we went west to intercept the storm, which is up to an impressive 70 dBz. According to base support, it is the easternmost cell in a line that extends as far west as Raton, New Mexico. Our cell, and most of the line, is moving straight south.
-3 PM: TONE -Dallam County, TX, for the storm we are watching. We are picking up 110 strikes per minutes, and stopped on the side of a dirt road to watch the storm coming at us. Then, we moved a bit south to another dirt road with slightly better road options nearby. We talked with a member of the Pueblo NWS forecast office, who was chasing the same storm. A Tornado Warning was issued for our cell, and base support says the storm is moving south at 20 mph with rotation four miles to our northwest. In that location, we are seeing a wall cloud. A chase team from Texas Tech was also watching this storm, and they headed south as we stayed on a dirt road to watch.
-3:30 PM 300 strikes per minute. Inflow continued to increase, with much blowing dust. The aerovane reported a gust of 27 mph, then 36 mph. Blowing dust was significantly reducing our visibility at times. There were several nice inflow bands, with a wall cloud and rain free base visible to the northwest.
-3:40 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Watch in effect along the Front Range from Lubbock north into central Colorado until 9 PM. -A Trinidad Low is deepening in northeast New Mexico.
-We took a one-lane, partially overgrown dirt road to the west for several miles, and stopped for a few minutes to observe the approaching storm. The road got us exactly where we needed to be, thanks to the excellent work of Steve, our navigator.
-A few giant raindrops began to fall at 4:05, and we headed south with a still potentially tornadic cell to our north. Eventually we were able to get on Highway 102 and head west.
-69/57 Highway 102; 4:27 PM. At 4:30, we stopped on a little road north of Highway 102. It is the only thing in the area, so we will be watching it approach. The wind was southeast at 12 mph, and, according to Mike, the weather radio was speaking in other tongues.
-4:48 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Union County, NM (Clayton area).
-CG began to get closer, and, when the rain started, we headed south. We noticed a few new storms beginning to develop to the south, and headed toward Dalhart, TX. The DOW went by again, and a nice rain foot was visible with the original storm.
-5:08 PM Dalhart, TX. We stopped for a gasoline/food break. While we were in the gas station, what we thought was a Tornado Warning was issued for the area, but it later turned out to be just a Tornado Watch for much of the Panhandle. By this time the new development to the south was becoming better organized and looking threatening, so we left Dalhart and headed south to get ahead of it.
-5:20 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the new development we have been watching (in the Dalhart area). Base support says 63 dBz, and the storm has rapidly developed a nice wall cloud. Back in Dalhart, we had taken on a few chasers from Penn State, and they were following us southward.
-The northern storm, which we had been watching earlier, has nearly died, and the new southern storm has definitely taken over. We are heading south toward Hartley, TX. There are some incredibly bright CG’s, and some nice ACCAS visible directly ahead (to our south). A hail shaft is visible, although the storm appears to be very rain-wrapped.
-Base support says there is a line from Romero, TX, to Hartley, TX, moving south-southeast. We have decided to go to Vega, TX, and watch this line come in.
-73/58 Boy’s Ranch, TX; 6:05 PM. Shortly after we finally were able to pass the Doppler On Wheels, but were passed by it only five minutes later. Finally, we arrived in Vega, TX, and pulled off on a small road north of town to watch the approaching wall of death.
-6:40 PM—an update from base support: there is a TVS approaching us, and the storm is currently at 70 dBz. We sent a reconnaissance car into Vega to find shelter. The police station was unwilling to provide shelter (they “might have to bring someone in”), but the Baptist church in town offered us shelter and free food.
-7 PM The line is approaching. There is still a TVS to the northwest, and we are seeing a large and pronounced lowering in that location. CG’s are beginning to get very close. Finally, as the wall of death was nearly to Vega, we took I-40 eastward instead of seeking shelter in the town. A new cell is developing to the south, and is apparently cutting off the inflow for the severe squall line, which continues to approach. As the line approached Vega, it seemed to weaken substantially, probably because of weakening inflow. -There were cars under the overpasses along I-40. We are going back to our hotel in Dumas, TX.
-The squall line is oriented northwest to southeast, so by driving east as it approaches, we are able to keep just ahead. There were some incredible CG’s, and a rotating lowering that certainly might have been reported as a tornado. Urban and Small Stream Flood Advisories have been issued for this storm, and there is still a Severe Thunderstorm Warning on it as well.
-7:47 PM Amarillo, TX.
-7:54 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the Amarillo area. We missed the proper turn while listening to the tone, so we are now taking a detour through Amarillo as a still-powerful squall line bears down. There was very bright lightning over the city, but we finally escaped Amarillo at 8:05 PM.
-8:13 PM Lightning hits a power pole near one of the cars. There is a beautiful orange sunset to the northwest, with rolling hills and mesas silhouetted against it—all of us concur we love Texas. We spent the rest of the drive to Dumas in miscellaneous conversation.
-8:45 PM Dumas, TX. We filled up with gasoline, went back to the hotel room, and a few groups went out to eat supper. It was noted that the Braum’s in Dumas had see-through mirrors in the walls, which was noted as rather suspicious in a restaurant. Then we all went back to the hotel.

MILEAGE - Day: 284.2 miles
Trip total: 1767.0 miles

Day 4: June 5, 2003
-Weather discussion occurred from 8 until 9:30 AM, and we decided to start thinking more about a long-term plan. Today it appears that east-central New Mexico is the best bet, and tomorrow the only hope of convection appears to be in Colorado. The day after that, however, we will probably need to be back in central Texas, so tomorrow may become a rest day.
-10:05 AM We got moving, according to plan, toward Clovis, New Mexico, although we will reserve a hotel later. In the TX Panhandle, it is cold and cloudy with low stratus; there was another MCS last night.
-10:30 AM Passed the Canadian River for about the 5th time this trip. This time, however, there was some water in it from last night’s rain.
-10:40 AM 57 degrees in Amarillo, TX. This must be some sort of new record low. We are still under a low stratus deck. It began to rain a little just southwest of Canyon, TX, out of low stratocumulus. We turned southwest out of Canyon, headed toward Clovis, NM.
-11:19 AM Dawn, TX. The stratus deck is beginning to break up, with a little sun getting through. We learned that a car missed the turn southwest and continued south to Happy, TX. We decided to meet up with them again in Bovina, TX.
-64/56 Gayland, TX; 11:23 AM.
-11:28 AM Hereford, TX. Hereford was an interesting town, with a lot of Spanish, and a western gifts/computer repair shop.
-11:52 AM Friona, TX. It is 68 degrees, and we have seen several trains moving at about 70 mph.
-12:01 PM Parmertown, TX, a ghost town that dissolved in 1908.
-12:06 PM Bovina, TX. We stopped in this town to wait for the car that had erroneously gone south, and in the process came close to doubling the town’s population. As an easy location to find, we stayed at the gas station in Bovina and ate lunch. It seemed ironic that they were selling New York Yankees baseball caps in a place like this, where time seems to have stopped long ago.
-12:54 PM Back on the road. Base support reports a few clouds over the mountains, but destabilization doesn’t seem to be progressing as expected yet today. The best parameters are currently in the mountains west of Clovis, NM, so our original plan still looks good.
-1:06 PM Welcome to New Mexico, state count 7! And Mountain Time, but we will be staying on Central Time for the purpose of this log and our field operations.
-69/54 Texico, NM; 1:08 PM.
-1:15 PM Clovis, NM. We reserved some rooms at a hotel in Clovis, and had weather discussion from 2:00 until 2:25 PM. Dennis jumped in the hotel pool on a dare. Some of us played baseball and vortex in the parking lot, and we waited for the clouds to fire up over the mountains.
-5:06 PM Left the hotel in active chase mode! Storms are blowing up over the mountains, and, even better, the Doppler radar from Cannon AFB is suddenly working for the first time in about two weeks.
-79/59 Clovis, NM; 5:07 PM. The road signs near Cannon warn of low-flying planes.
-Our elevation went up to 4378’ by Melrose, NM. We are picking up 50 lightning strikes per minute over the mountains, and are moving into much more arid country.
-5:50 PM We have traveled 2000 miles on the trip so far.
-83/50 Taiban, NM; 5:52 PM.
-5:58 PM Base support says a 65 dBz storm with a mesocyclone is headed for Fort Sumner, NM, so that is where we are going. There is an awesome view up here, and the elevation is just over 4100’.
-83/51 Just east of Fort Sumner, NM; 6:01 PM.
-6:04 PM Fort Sumner, NM. We went north on a small road out of town to watch an approaching storm to the west, which appears to be going supercellular. Base support says the storm is up to 71 dBz, with a radar-indicated mesocyclone coming directly at us. A wall cloud is forming under the mesocyclone to our west-northwest.
-Tornado on the ground! The wall cloud, located about 15 miles to our west-northwest, has dropped a well-defined tornado. The RFD was observed to wrap around the wall cloud as the tornado dropped, with a strong increase in CG at the same time. We reported the tornado to the Albuquerque NWS office. Everyone was really excited, and taking lots of video and pictures. The tornado remained on the ground for perhaps a minute, and then lifted back into the wall cloud.
-A shelf cloud is approaching our location from the north, with a giant red wall of dust coming. There is also a dust foot visible much further east with a separate storm. We decided to go east to get in front of the approaching wall of dust, but were not successful. As we drove through the wall of dust, or rather, as it passed us, there was flying debris and strong crosswinds, probably of severe criteria. A gustnado moved across a field to our south under the edge of outflow, and several flying tumbleweeds hit us. We could still see the wall of dust, which had progressed well to the south.
-7:17 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Curry County, NM, for a storm currently north of Clovis. Base support says the dust along the outflow of the storm we are running from is visible on radar. Finally, we punched through the wall of dust and got ahead of it. There was about one minute to take a few pictures, during which time Steve lost his hat in the gusty winds.
-57/45 7:29 PM, in very cold outflow. CG hit directly ahead.
-7:32 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for DeBaca County, NM, for the storm directly behind us. The radio is now talking about how New Mexicans are at risk of skin cancer.
-We were heading east toward Floyd, NM. A CG hit the field immediately to our west, and another nearly hit Steve’s car and CB. -Tumbleweeds are flying, and a new updraft core seems to be developing along the outflow immediately to our north. It is also producing some incredible lightning.
-7:50 PM Floyd, NM, which had a trailer as a post office. We decided to stop somewhere and get rolled by the approaching storm. As we drove under the shelf cloud, some small hail was falling.
-8:02 PM TONE New Severe Thunderstorm Watch for eastern New Mexico through midnight. We are directly under the shelf cloud, with a black wall of death behind.
-8:05 PM Base support says a severe storm is rapidly approaching from the northwest, with a radar-indicated mesocyclone. We have decided to sit in the McDonald’s in Portales, NM, since we got coupons for free meals from tonight’s motel.
-After the Pilot briefly got lost in residential Portales, we all got into the McDonald’s under moderate rain and the promise of much more. Shortly after we entered, the doors were locked. We got our free meals, and watched the heavy rain and strong, gusty winds as the storm passed overhead. There was also a goldfish tank in the center of this particular McDonald’s. There was no severe weather where we were located, and we left around 8:50 PM.
-It appeared Portales had received about 1/5 of their annual rainfall with this single storm. Many of the streets and intersections were flooded, and scary classical music was playing on the radio. Looking east, bright, close lightning was striking the city as we drove through. Back west, a beautiful orange sunset was beginning, an amazing combination. We stopped for a few dim sunset pictures out of Portales, and then drove toward Clovis and our motel.
-We had a fairly lengthy weather discussion at the hotel about tomorrow’s severe weather prospects, which lasted until 10:45 PM. -Then, we decided to reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30 to figure out whether or not we will go to Colorado tomorrow.

MILEAGE - Day: 310.1 miles
Trip total: 2077.1 miles

Day 5: June 6, 2003
-During the 6:30 weather discussion, we decided Colorado was too dry to support severe convection, with dewpoints in the 30’s and 40’s beginning to filter in from the north. Severe convection looks possible today in southeast New Mexico and southwest Texas, so this currently looks like the best option. Discussion ended at about 7 AM.
-On the local television station, which was actually out of Roswell, NM, the meteorologist had his dog on the weather show, and declared it was Yo-yo Day in New Mexico. There was also a news clip about someone who had been rescued from a cave that morning.
-We reconvened as a group at 8:30 AM and discussed the day’s options until 9:45. It looks like Hobbs, NM, is the place to go.
-10:16 AM On the road, driving south toward Hobbs.
-10:36 AM Portales, NM. There was a hail damage repair commercial on the radio by the “All Star Dents” company.
-10:57 AM Dora, NM. Abandoned trailers, houses, and stores are scattered across the prairie in seemingly random fashion. Began seeing some 4’ cacti near Tatum, NM.
-11:47 AM 67 degrees.
-12 PM Lovington, NM. There is more interesting southwestern architecture, with oil wells and cacti becoming more common.
-12:15 PM New Day Two Outlook from SPC puts the area of slight risk southeast of Lubbock, so Hobbs will still work well tonight.
-12:22 PM Hobbs, NM. We are running food reconnaissance and decided to eat at Arby’s, then got gasoline. Wal-Mart was our next stop, and we picked up a DVD version of “Twister” while looking for a part for one of the CB’s. Jenni and Dennis got cowboy hats.
We checked into the Holiday Inn Express, and met for a weather briefing at 2:30 PM. Only a few cumulus are beginning to form in the mountains, so we decided to meet again at 4 PM. Our next discussion was from 4 to 5 PM, and not much was happening yet. The hotel was testing their fire alarm system, and it sounded like goals were being scored.
-The group went to eat supper at Chili’s in Hobbs, and it was an excellent meal. Nothing was happening yet, so we decided to scrap today and reconvene at 9:30 PM about tomorrow.
-Several of us walked northwest toward the edge of town, and found a lake with ducks. We fed one of them, who we christened Quacks, with French fries. Then, we walked back toward the hotel along the railroad tracks, with a beautiful sunset to the west.
-By the 9:30 weather discussion, we had come to the conclusion that whistling vortex footballs didn’t seem to be sold anymore, which we decided was communist. Proceeding with weather discussion, it appeared tomorrow’s setup for central Texas still looked OK, and we decided to meet tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM.

MILEAGE - Day: 142.9 miles
Trip total: 2220.0 miles

Day 6: June 7, 2003
-In the morning, a strong southeast wind was blowing across southeastern New Mexico. At the 8:30 to 9:30 AM discussion, we decided to head toward Brownfield, TX. A cold front is advancing across the Texas Panhandle this morning, and initiation appears most likely in the area southeast of Clovis, NM, where moisture convergence will be maximized along the dryline.
-10 AM We left the hotel in Hobbs. It is already rather warm and humid.
-10:11 AM ¡Texas de nuevo!
-10:31 AM Seminole, TX.
-10:50 AM Seagraves, TX.
-11:10 AM We arrived in Brownfield, TX, and made reservations at the Best Western Caprock Inn. Many of us ate lunch at the Hong Kong Buffet across the street. There was some time spent waiting for the data to suggest we should move, and the drivers got gasoline. Jenni and Steve had their duel at high noon, and some of us played vortex in the parking lot under the hot, direct central Texas sun. Temperatures at the hotel were around 80 with dewpoints in the upper 50’s.
-By 2 PM, temperatures had climbed into the mid 80’s, and the few cumulus indicated very capped conditions. We were looking at weather data, walking to the gas station to get ice drinks, playing a little vortex, or just sitting around waiting for something to happen. At the 3 PM weather discussion, we decided an F6 tornado might be possible for the first time in history.
-3:35 PM Urgent call to action for development to the west. By 3:37, we were on the road headed southwest out of Brownfield.
-87/47 Just SW of Brownfield, TX; 3:38 PM. Towers are visible to the west, and dust devils are visible in the fields around us. We stopped on a farm road north of Seagraves, TX, while the GPS data card was removed from a computer. An impressive cumulus and towering cumulus field is trying to form, but it is being sheared off before it can grow very tall.
-95/43 Hobbs, NM; 4:30 PM, according to the weather radio.
-4:50 PM We are moving again, chasing a single storm that has fired to our southwest, apparently along the dryline.
-86/53 Just north of Seagraves, TX; 4:59 PM. We stopped on another farm road to watch a line that is trying to develop, but this line is still not doing well.
-89/54 Seagraves, TX; 5:21 PM. Texas is baking again, but it appears the winds have backed and are beginning to bring in a little more moisture. The dewpoint in Hobbs went up nearly ten degrees in the past hour! A line is still trying to develop, apparently along a rather weak boundary.
-5:30 PM We are headed south out of Seminole, TX. A 54 dBz storm with likely hail is located near Andrews, TX, so we will attempt an intercept.
-88/50 Near Florey, TX; 5:49 PM. We are seeing large storms over the Davis Mountains, nearly 150 miles to the south. Then, we stopped to get “rolled” by the storm to our west. A few raindrops fell, and the storm had a feature similar to an RFD notch. A second, albeit weaker, storm is behind the first.
-83/63 Near Florey, TX; 6:37 PM, after the rain from the first storm.
-6:42 PM We are moving east.
-6:55 PM Andrews, TX. We are still heading east. There are good-looking cells to the east, but base support says they are an amazing 100 miles away! Well to the south, storms have moved out of the mountains and are now located south of Midland, TX. The best of these storms is displaying a nice overshooting top and extensive anvil. Golf ball hail and winds up to 80 mph are being reported from these cells.
-7:12 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Watch for West Texas until 1 AM, to the east of the dryline.
-7:27 PM Tarzan, TX. We stopped for pictures of the giant storm to the south.
-7:38 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Glasscock County, TX, apparently for the storms south of Midland.
-We headed back west, since the storms to the east are moving too fast to catch. A 60 dBz storm near Andrews, TX, is our next target, but it looks like a good sunset may be the best of what remains for the day. The storm to the west does not appear good visually and seems moisture-starved, although base support indicates it is still 61 dBz. There are mammatus overhead.
-We decided to head south toward Midland, TX, to get a better view of the incredible storm towers to the south. The storm to the west has decreased to 55 dBz and appears to be falling apart.
-8:08 PM Midland, TX. Only 140 miles de México. We stopped in Midland at a gas station, whose pop machine was named “The Cold Front.” Then, we spent a while watching the large cumulonimbus towers to our south and east.
-Storms didn’t quite fire today the way we had anticipated. Although we chased the dryline as it moved in from the west, storms actually occurred to the south where moisture convergence was maximized. What we did was much better, though, than chasing north to the approaching cold front, where absolutely nothing happened.
-We drove back toward the hotel. There was another awesome Texas sunset: the orange orb of the sun descended through a few clouds in an otherwise cloudless western sky. Back to the southeast, the storm towers south of Midland were still lit up orange.
-9:07 PM 2500 miles on the trip thus far. We are somewhere south of Lamesa, TX.
-9:17 PM Lamesa, TX. About ten miles north of Lamesa, we punched the advancing cold front. There were two walls of dust with near zero visibility and very strong winds for short intervals.
-73/45 North of Lamesa, TX; 9:36 PM. After cold fropa.
-Even small experiences like punching a dusty cold front at night are very enlightening. Apparently this is an important way boundaries are seen so easily by Doppler on the Plains: there is a lot of accompanying dust. In a similar way, driving west across the Plains provides an excellent first-hand explanation for how upslope flow can generate convection. Such simple experiences can really add a new depth of understanding to the meteorology knowledge we have acquired so far.
-9:52 PM Brownfield, TX. We all got supper at various places and came back to the hotel. The top news story in Brownfield was the large quantity of rain they have had recently: according to a newspaper in Subway, they received 0.8” of rain in one day in addition to several other recent days of minor rainfalls, and were worried about the unusually wet weather.

MILEAGE - Day: 328.9 miles
Trip total: 2548.9 miles

Day 7: June 8, 2003
-Many of us were woken up around 3:45 AM by a bomb blast of thunder. An isolated cell had chanced to drift across Brownfield, and the accompanying lightning was spectacular. Lightning continued to hit cell phone towers and other high points in the city until about -4:30, when the storm finally drifted away. Another two inches of rain was probably added to Brownfield’s already excessive annual rainfall total.
-Weather discussion at 8:30 AM—the most important question for the morning was whether we wanted to try to catch a little unlikely convection in West Texas today, or whether we wanted to scrap the day, head north into Kansas, and perhaps see an overnight MCS. -By 10 AM we had decided to take the northern route, and at 10:35, were headed north toward Liberal, KS.
-11:18 AM Lubbock, TX. We decided to go through downtown since it is Sunday morning. We passed Texas Tech, saw the NWS Lubbock forecast office, and a random billboard about aliens.
-12:16 AM Plainview, TX. This town has a giant grain elevator.
-There was much discussion about the best place to stay tonight. Liberal, KS, would give us the best chance of an MCS tonight, but somewhere further north and east would be better for days two and three, when activity appears likely in central and northern Nebraska. For the time, considering the situation of the drivers, we decided to go somewhere further northeast, and chose Hays, KS. -Last year, a local supposedly said storms never come to Hays, but this has been more of a convective storm flee than a chase, so you never know.
-1:10 PM Amarillo, TX, at last. Texas really IS a big state. We saw the NWS Amarillo forecast office, and are heading northeast toward Pampa, TX. They give free 72-oz steaks down here if you can eat the whole thing; Andrea thought she might try that someday.
-1:44 PM Panhandle, TX. We were buzzed by a very low plane in this town.
-1:53 PM Elevation 3351’ and slowly falling.
-1:56 PM White Deer, TX, the site of a recent successful Valpo storm chase. Also windmill fields.
-2:08 PM Pampa, TX. We drove through the industrial section of town, where a destructive tornado tore through eight years ago today. -It is also the 50-year anniversary of the Flint, MI, tornado, the last to kill over 100 people in the USA. We stopped in Pampa and ate at Braum’s. By 2:56 PM, we were back on the road, headed toward Perryton, TX.
-In the Canadian River valley, we dropped to 2700’. The Canadian River is what we would call a stream in the Midwest. There were several small dust devils.
-3:52 PM Perryton, TX.
-4:04 PM Oklahoma state line. We heard a weather update on the radio about nickel hail and a wall cloud near Perryton, where we have just driven. The sky is mostly clear with a few altocumulus. I suppose if you lived out here long enough, you could hallucinate about wall clouds.
-80/45 Turpin, OK; 4:28 PM, with a dust devil. Then a large dust devil blasted Chase Two.
-4:38 PM Back in Kansas. On the weather radio, we heard it is supposed to be 95 and sunny here tomorrow; that is why we are heading north. A new word, ‘convectogenesis’, is created.
-4:41 PM Liberal, KS. We drove through downtown and added $115 of gasoline to the vehicles. In the gas station, the locals are talking either in Spanish or about the weather. The elevation is 2843’.
-5:34 PM Sublette, KS. Suffice it to say, Sublette is a great town.
-6:23 PM Dodge City, KS. We saw the NWS Dodge City forecast office and noted the Arkansas River is still entirely dry. 37 years ago this hour, the Topeka tornado went over Burnett’s Mound southwest of town.
-7:04 PM We reached 3000 miles for the trip several miles northeast of Kinsley, KS. Shortly after, we turned north toward Hays.
-7:22 PM Elevation 2086’ and falling. So far this trip, we have been moving in the cars for 50 hours and 19 minutes.
-75/43 La Crosse, KS; 7:41 PM.
-8:04 PM The great city of Hays, KS. We checked into the hotel and played frisbee for a few minutes with Dennis’ red cowboy hat. Then, we went to eat at Montana Mike’s steakhouse in Hays, where Andrea drank A1 sauce through a straw.
-At 10:30 PM, we met for a weather discussion. It appears that northern and central Nebraska are going to explode tomorrow; the models are progging LI to –10, CAPE on the order of 5000 J/Kg, and a strong dryline moving in from the west. As for tonight, a few showers have developed in southeast Colorado, and an MCS may try to organize a little later.

MILEAGE - Day: 519.7 miles
Trip Total: 3068.6 miles

Day 8: June 9, 2003
-We ate breakfast and had weather discussion at 8 AM. According to our newest data, north-central and northeastern Nebraska may still experience a significant severe weather event this afternoon. SPC has gone with a slight risk but we think they will update to moderate with the next outlook. An MCS never happened last night.
-9:32 AM We departed Hays for Bassett, NE, straight north on Highway 183. We got a hotel in Fremont, NE.
-70/59 North of Hays, KS; 9:42 AM. Low 90’s are predicted today over most of Kansas.
-10:09 AM Stockton, KS, in a very hilly area. We passed within eight miles of Codell, KS, which got hit by a tornado three years in a row on the same day.
-10:35 AM Phillipsburg, KS. Flags are beginning to show a southeast wind! We passed by what is supposed to be Kansas’ largest rodeo.
-10:55 AM Nebraska state line; state count 8.
-74/58 10 miles north of Alma, NE; 11:12 AM.
-We stopped for gasoline in Holdredge, KS, at 11:24 and were back on the road by 11:38. The pump maxed out at $48.
-11:50 AM The new Day 1 outlook has been issued by the SPC. As anticipated in our morning weather discussion, they went with a moderate risk for northern and central Nebraska, south-central and southeastern South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, and western/central Iowa. In the moderate risk area, tornado percentage is 5%, while wind and hail are each 35% hatched. Supercells are expected to develop and evolve into an MCS rather early today, so time is especially important.
-We stopped for lunch where our road crossed I-80, and ate on the road. The interstate bridge was undergoing construction, so we detoured on some country roads. Heading north of I-80, we entered Sand Hill country. ACCAS towers began to go up all around us, with very tall ACCAS towers visible to the northeast.
-1:12 PM New Day Two outlook places a moderate risk over southeast Kansas, where an old frontal boundary is expected to provide the focus for explosive development in a very high-CAPE environment.
-77/61 Sand Hills somewhere south of Taylor, NE; 1:17 PM. Moisture return appears to be well underway.
-We stopped at a random gasoline station just south of Taylor, NE, and gassed up before heading into the wilderness of northeast Nebraska. We waited for a while, and many of us played vortex football or baseball. Stacy won $25 on the Nebraska lottery. By 2:21 PM, we had left and were moving north toward Bassett, NE, through beautiful Sand Hill country.
-82/62 North of Taylor, NE; 2:42 PM. There is a strong southeast wind. By 3 PM we began picking up a few lightning strikes on BOLTEK.
-3:04 PM TONE Tornado Watch until 9 PM for north-central Nebraska and south-central South Dakota.
-3:16 PM Bassett, NE. We topped off with gasoline, and noted Silver Lining Tours sitting across the road. Going west out of town, we sat at the Bassett Airport to watch the formation of cumulus towers. There is a southerly/southeasterly wind of around 20 mph. Temperatures are in the lower 80’s, with dewpoints in the lower 60’s. At 4:35 PM we noted possible initiation to the west, so we headed in that direction.
-4:50 PM Crossed the Niobrara River, surrounded by large hills and Ponderosa Pine forest. Hopefully we can get out of the hills in time to watch some weather.
-4:54 PM TONE Tornado Watch for southern Nebraska and northern Kansas.
-Moisture convergence is currently showing a maximum to our north and west, which explains our driving in that direction. Formation conditions appear best to the south and east, but moisture convergence has proven to be valuable in recent days, so we are being guided almost solely by that parameter. Once we got north to near the South Dakota border, we headed east toward Burton, NE.
-5:14 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Keya Paha County (the county we are in), for a storm moving out of South Dakota which we are beginning to see. We sat on a road to watch the cell, which is currently displaying a 57 dBz reflectivity but a poor visual image. A shelf cloud and weak wall cloud were trying to organize, and a little pea-size hail fell on us amid scattered raindrops. Supposedly there is quarter hail on the ground with this storm.
-We decided to drive east a little to get a better angle on the storm. The storm dropped a nice albeit brief wall cloud. We are picking up about 200 lightning strikes per minute. As we drove east, a rotating wall cloud suddenly got established.
-We are driving south to get out of the way of a tornado on the ground, near Burton, Nebraska. By now, a Tornado Warning has been issued for our cell. Visually, we are seeing a rotating wall cloud with a very slight lowering, but there are dust whirls visible on the ground under the wall, so circulation has reached the ground and this is a tornado. By this time, the updraft tower on this storm is very impressive; it appears the storm will continue thriving.
-On a little road near Burton, we stopped to take pictures. There is a rapidly rotating wall cloud, with rapidly rising scud beneath: it is one thing to imagine what such a storm looks like, but entirely another to see such impressive and well-defined motion. The RFD is beginning to wrap around this wall cloud, and base support reports the storm has an impressive 74 VIL. We headed a little further south.
-Stopping again, the wall cloud was only a mile or two to our northwest, and moving toward us. After a few pictures, it was time to move on to a different perspective. We stopped along the road roughly halfway between Mills, NE, and Newport, NE, and watched the approaching storm. Horizontal rolls were visible near the rapidly rotating wall cloud, and a bright RFD notch had continued to wrap in. Then, the wall died and reestablished itself further downstream. We headed to Newport, NE, with sun shining on a black wall of death ahead of us.
-We are driving toward Stuart, NE, and Silver Lining Tours blasts by us at about 90 mph. Base support reports 80 VIL, and then it starts to happen: a light gray funnel descends out of the wall cloud. We stop, hold our breaths, and wait. Suddenly the condensation funnel reaches the ground. We are sitting on a little road very near Stuart, NE, and the town’s sirens are going off from our vantage point. It was a very picturesque tornado, with excellent lighting. The Stuart tornado lasted nearly ten minutes and was estimated at _ of a mile wide. When the funnel reached a small clearing in the trees on the horizon, it rapidly vanished.
-By this time, a new wall had once again established itself downstream; cyclic tornadogenesis appears to be underway. We drove east along Highway 20 to catch the next phase in the life cycle of this amazing storm, after telling some locals in Stuart what to do to be safe.
-It is 7:25 PM, and we have neared Atkinson, Nebraska. By now, base support has indicated VIL values in the lower and middle 80’s, decidedly higher than any values most of us have seen before. The new wall cloud is rapidly rotating, and not too far east of us, heading south or southeast. We stopped near Atkinson.
-Scanning the ground under the rotating wall cloud, not much happened until one instant, when a large cloud of reddish dust suddenly rose into the sky. A whole area of dust had been picked up and was circulating around the new tornado. Within the dust, multiple vortices were observed, and the entire inner dust core was rotating around a central axis. The experience of this tornado was radically different from that of the Stuart tornado, because we were much closer and were witnessing actual events on the ground. We watched for several minutes, and then headed east toward O’Neill, near which the tornado should cross the road.
-Driving south, we can still see the rotating funnel at least halfway to the ground. Base support says the storm currently has 67 dBz and 72 VIL. Somewhere near Amelia, NE, we stopped on a dirt road to take a few pictures. A massive hail shaft has become visible to the north, with a hail foot forming! A dust foot was kicked up at the edge of this hail shaft. The next day, we found out that the shaft had been producing softballs. Originally we were going to stay here for about a minute for pictures and head east, but then a new rotating wall cloud formed to our east and we could not continue. So, we decided to stay here for a few more minutes and watch.
-The new wall cloud lowered to near the ground, although we cannot be certain any rotation ever reached the ground. Four tornadoes had been reported on the ground in the past fifteen minutes with this storm, and we are detecting around 500 lightning strikes per minute. Inflow, as indicated by the aerovane, was around 35 mph.
-We drove east toward Chambers, NE. The updraft on our tornadic supercell is visible: there is a main tower, reaching upward to the anvil, and a flanking line of towering cumulus is being sucked into this tower. The radio had cut off all regular broadcasting and was reading tornado safety tips and warnings. Another tornado is reported on the ground about forty miles to our north, and we can see the tower from this storm. BOLTEK records about 300 lightning strikes per minute out of just the tornadic supercell we have been chasing.
-8:26 PM Chambers, NE. A large tornado is reported on the ground near Orchard, NE, a small town some twenty miles to our northeast.
-We turned eastward on a 12-mile gravel road leading toward Ewing, Nebraska. The tornadic supercell is to our north, and rapidly approaching. A very low wall cloud is still visible under the updraft tower. We heard a report of tornado damage in Laurel, NE, another small town apparently with other storms well to our east-northeast.
-8:52 PM Ewing, NE, uncannily reminiscent of Muleshoe, TX. We had finally escaped the 12-mile gravel road and entered the town, with a rotating wall cloud moving rapidly at us from the northwest. We quickly moved out of town and eastward. Back south, in the opposite direction of the boiling wall, a low sun was lighting up mammatus under the storm’s anvil.
-Near another little town, we have stopped at the side of the road again. A new tornado is on the ground, and, although it is getting quite dark, a cylinder has been observed reaching to the ground, backlit by frequent lightning. Lightning is also showing a massive wall cloud, and binocular inspection reveals rotation in the scud immediately above the trees under the giant wall where the tornado has been sighted. Continuing east to ensure escape time, the streetlights went out in the town through which we were driving.
-It is beginning to get very dark, and there is some major lightning around us. Since it is getting dark, we decided to give up chasing and drive toward our hotel in Fremont, Nebraska. There are two large clusters of severe thunderstorms on the Nebraska Plains, one north and one south of our position. It is 9:20 PM, and we are driving east between these two clusters, hoping they don’t begin to merge into one massive MCS. To the north, potentially tornadic supercells are still embedded within a developing squall line oriented east-west. We are driving south on Highway 45.
-What appears to be a lightning-illuminated tornado has appeared immediately ahead of us within the cluster of severe storms we are approaching, and for a moment, we were all terrified and very excited. Eventually, we came to the conclusion it had been low scud in an unusual formation. Major CG everywhere; this is a bit unnerving.
-We turned east before colliding with the cluster of thunderstorms to our south, and are now headed toward Madison, NE, the next town of consequence, 22 miles to the east. There are greater than 500 lightning strikes per minute. AWESOME lightning show!
-It appears Steve’s transmission is going. We should be able to make it to Madison, which is now ten miles east. There is now massive in cloud/cloud to ground/cloud to air lightning on all sides except straight behind us, with a few anvil crawlers.
-10:01 PM Madison, NE. We decided Steve’s car can make it back to the hotel - it is only a broken exhaust pipe, and filled up with gasoline. We hear of significant tornado damage in the O’Neill area. The roof of the gas station was shaking in the wind. Our plan is to head straight east toward Fremont, NE, and our hotel; we should be able to make it there without getting run over. We left the gas station at 10:22 PM; there is still continual lightning all around us. This is as good as lightning gets.
-Entering the highway from the gas station in Madison, a car pulled up next to ours and motioned for us to roll down the window. We did. There were four of them in the car, obviously very drunk, and the front seat passenger yelled at us, “We’re going to lead the way!” and their car accelerated forward, toward a blazing sky. Eventually they turned off.
-A few new records have been set today. There were the most tornadoes in one day for a Valpo chase (4), and we have now seen the most tornadoes ever for one trip (5). Most of the way to Fremont, the lightning is still incredible, often starting in one corner of the sky and branching rapidly across the entire sky. There was once a possible tornado to the north lit up by lightning, but we could not be sure.
-11:37 PM Fremont, NE. Still incredible lightning, although we never saw a drop of rain the entire drive here. We checked into the hotel at midnight.

MILEAGE - Day: 579.5 miles
Trip total: 3648.1 miles

Day 9: June 10, 2003
-The Stuart, Nebraska, tornado was on national news and the Weather Channel. At 8 AM weather discussion, we discovered that SPC had placed a moderate risk over southeastern Kansas, with 5% tornado risk, and 35% hatched wind and hail risks. It appears activity in this area will develop along outflow boundaries in an incredibly unstable environment. The models are progging LI to –18 (!!) and CAPE values of greater than 6500 J/Kg! This instability will support some major hail, but there is little upper-level support for supercells. The dewpoint down there is also approaching 70 degrees.
-In the Nebraska Panhandle, there is also a marginal but potentially worthwhile severe weather setup. Moisture is decent in this area, but the most important factor is the presence of fair deep-layer shear for supercell development. So, we decided to chase cells in the Nebraska Panhandle and stay out the extra (11th) day. Tomorrow looks promising for north-central Nebraska and south-central South Dakota.
-10:15 AM We departed Fremont, NE, for Valentine, NE, which is the only place we could find a hotel for tonight. Steve’s car need fixing, so he will get it fixed and follow us toward Valentine later today. We have compacted into four cars for the drive west.
-11:05 AM Beemer, NE.
-11:38 AM Norfolk, NE.
-12:05 PM The new Day One outlook came out, and still indicates a moderate risk for southeast Kansas for giant hail. There is now a slight risk over the Nebraska Panhandle and western South Dakota as well; supercells are expected to develop if moisture return progresses as expected.
-We heard that last night’s cyclically tornadic supercell produced over one million dollars damage across Holt County, Nebraska. Several homes and farmsteads were destroyed, and lots of agricultural equipment was also destroyed.
-12:14 PM We stopped for gasoline in Neligh, NE, because the pump last night in Madison didn’t work well. There is currently a stratocumulus blanket overhead, but base support reports nice clearing over the Panhandle. We decided to eat lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet in Neligh while we were there; these buffets are somewhat addictive. We were moving again by 1:10 PM.
-The new Day Two outlook came out shortly after we left Neligh (for our last chase day). The SPC has put a 25% risk area over central North Dakota to central Kansas, with a likely upgrade to moderate risk near the Nebraska/South Dakota border in the next outlook.
-1:45 PM O’Neill, NE. We saw four cars equipped with aerovanes.
-2:17 PM Stuart, NE. We passed the road on which we sat to watch yesterday’s long-lived tornado.
-2:34 PM Bassett, NE, yesterday’s home base. It is currently 64/50 in Ainsworth, NE, and the temperature is 77 in McCook (southern NE). The stratocumulus deck is beginning to break up with clearing visible. In Ainsworth, NE, we heard another radio commercial for hail insurance.
-3:11 PM Welcome to Cherry County, Nebraska! Perhaps it should be its own state. A sign along the road proclaims Cherry County a vacation paradise. At 3 PM, it was 69/49 in Valentine, Nebraska, so moisture return appears to be limited. On the radio we have found 99.5 “The Twister.”
-3:35 PM Valentine, NE, a little town on a big sand prairie. We checked into our hotel, got another coupon for a free McDonald’s meal, and left town headed west at 4:05 PM. There was a small dust devil near Valentine.
-4:23 PM Entered Mountain Time, but as before, we will stay with Central.
-4:27 PM Elevation 3000’. We are just west of Kilgore, NE, a town of 99 people.
-4:39 PM Cody, NE. Wow. I think 93 people live here.
-After Cody, we entered a very sparsely populated region of the Sand Hills, and there was also massive treelessness. A few altocumulus are beginning to develop.
-5:21 PM We just left Cherry County. Welcome to the Nebraska Panhandle; also 4000 miles on the trip so far. ACCAS are beginning to develop.
-It was nearly 140 miles across the Sand Hills from Valentine to Chadron, Nebraska. In this time, our elevation climbed to nearly 3800’, and we decided that, to qualify as a true storm chaser, you had to have drug a tumbleweed under your car. Finally, we left the hills behind and entered a much flatter area. Base support reports a few thunderstorms beginning to develop along the Wyoming/Nebraska border.
-78/54 Chadron, NE; 5 PM per weather radio reports, with a southeast wind at 15 mph.
-6:08 PM Chadron, NE. We got gasoline. There are currently three storms around us: one to the northwest, one west, and another southwest. Although the northern storm currently looks the best, we decided to let the storm to our west roll over us first before attempting an intercept.
~6:30 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the cell immediately to our west. We headed north out of Chadron to intercept it. Finally, we stopped on the side of the road about two miles south of South Dakota and watched the approaching storm, which is trying to become a supercell. Base support reports 65-70 dBz.
-The cell is headed south, so we drove back to Chadron and then west to intercept it.
-7:01 PM TONE Tornado Warning for the cell behind ours, which is not visually impressive. Our cell still has a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.
-Still heading west, we note that our cell is beginning to form a nice shelf cloud. We stopped on a road near Crawford, NE, to watch the shelf approach. There are rock outcroppings here, with a few hills. The shelf has a nice curl at the edge, with mammatus overhead.
-As we watched, the shelf rapidly approached, hanging nearly to the ground. It was an amazing sight, and undoubtedly one of the best shelves of the trip. As it was nearly to our location, we decided to go into the town of Crawford and get rolled. It appears we will see more wind than precipitation.
Crawford, Nebraska, is a little town in the White River valley. We found a location on the north side of town and watched the shelf approach. Dust began to blow, and there were a few raindrops, but being down in a valley has certainly mitigated a large proportion of the wind.
-We went back south through town and out of the valley toward a gas station. As our elevation increased, the wind picked up dramatically. At the gas station, which was on a hill, we were run over by outflow. The aerovane recorded a maximum gust of 56 mph, while wind speeds of 70 to 80 mph were estimated on the hilltop near the gas station.
-8:18 PM We left Crawford, NE, in a mix of heavy rain, high winds, and close CG’s; our destination was the hotel in Valentine, Nebraska. BOLTEK is picking up about 280 lightning strikes per minute. We thought we could get in front of the outflow and make some additional observations, but this proved to be impossible, as we faced mile after mile of heavy rain and gusty winds. This appears to be the beginning stage of an MCS.
-8:32 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the Chadron area.
-8:43 PM Chadron, NE. We are still in very heavy rain but much less wind. There was minor street flooding in Chadron, and all vehicles reported a few small hailstones driving through town. East of Chadron, there was an interminable light to moderate rain, with embedded bands of heavy rain and strong crosswinds.
-We may be seeing the edge of the shelf cloud ahead of us; it is much lighter up there. A CG hit less than a fifth of a mile away, and then there was another with an explosive blast of thunder. It appears a new cell is developing to our east, probably along the outflow from the first cell we have been driving under all evening.
-For a few minutes, we escaped the first storm, and a nice shelf cloud is visible back to the west. Then, we saw the shelf cloud on the newer cell to the east, and its ground manifestation: a giant reddish wall of dust moving southward. We watched the wall of dust swallow an airport immediately to our north along the road, but got in front of it with seconds to spare and drove into another area of heavy rain.
-We are listening to “The Twister,” which is playing lots of great oldies this time of night. While driving across northern Nebraska in the dark with occasional brilliant lightning, it is wonderful to have such a great radio station. We listened to and created our own version of the YMCA song, did some Kung Fu fighting, and learned that Elvis is still alive in Kankakee. All while watching an MCS roll across the Sandhills—what could be better?
-We stopped in Gordon, NE, to download GPS data. A local police officer stopped to say hello. After Gordon, we re-entered Cherry County driving east. There were still marginally severe areas of wind. Then, we drove under a newly developing cell that looked liked a spaceship in the sky. Under it, there was near zero visibility because of the incredibly heavy rain, very close CG’s, and a smattering of small hail. Of course, “The Twister” never let us down.
-10:17 PM Merriman, NE. Weather still about the same. Just east of town, everyone got nearly blinded by a major CG directly ahead of us.
-11:01 PM Back in CDT.
-11:19 PM Valentine, NE! The rain has finally diminished to light, with lots of lightning still visible behind us.

MILEAGE - Day: 580 miles
Trip total: 4228.1 miles

Day 10: June 11, 2003
-Today will be the last day of storm chasing on Convective Field Study 10B. It appears Valentine is in the middle of the risk area, so we probably won’t have to move for a while.
-Weather discussion lasted from 9 AM until 11:30; most of the data suggested we stay here until something happens. From 11:30 until about 3:40 PM, we went to Young’s Western Wear, an awesome authentic western store near the hotel, played vortex football and baseball in the hotel’s parking lot, got free lunch at McDonald’s, gassed up the vehicles, slept on the grass in front of the hotel, and occasionally checked weather data to see if we could catch initiation.
-3 PM Tornado Watch issued for north-central Nebraska and southwestern South Dakota, including Valentine. As of yet, nothing is happening except a few cumulus beginning to evolve west of Valentine.
-3:40 PM We left the hotel because checkout was actually at 11 AM. Originally we had planned on going west of town, but instead went immediately east and sat along a road near a field with horses. Cumulus fields were beginning to develop to the north and south. Suddenly, after an hour or so, the northern cumulus began to die while the southern cumulus began to blow up. So, we drove south and east to intercept the southern towering cumulus.
-88/55 Just east of Valentine, NE; 5:05 PM. Towering cumulus seems to be going up along the warm front, so tornado threat should be maximized there should any thunderstorms eventually evolve, as helicity should be maximized in this vicinity. We are headed east on US Highway 20. Silver Lining Tours has been following us now for a few days.
-5:25 PM We left Cherry County. The line of very high-based towering cumulus we are approaching still seems to represent the warm front, while another line developing behind us (to the west) probably represents the dryline which should be moving into the area this afternoon. There are strong to severe cells well south in southern Nebraska, and we can see some anvils from these storms. A road sign proclaims we are now entering the middle of nowhere.
-Thunderstorms are beginning to develop within the field of towering cumulus. Directly ahead, there is a very tall, crisp storm tower we are chasing; base support reports 53 dBz and 30 VIL. To its south there is another, more impressive storm, with 63 dBz and 40 VIL. It appears they may merge soon, and we will be punching the first cell to get to the other side before anything significant happens.
-5:51 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for southwest Cherry County, Nebraska.
-We drove under the first cell. There was very heavy rain, and probably the best hail of the trip: most was pea-sized, but it fell in fair quantity. Then, we were under the anvil, looking back at a well-defined base.
-Base support says the cell we drove under now has a radar-indicated mesocyclone, and visually, it has developed an obvious wall cloud. We stopped on a road to watch the storm.
-6:26 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for northern Rock County, Nebraska, for the storm we are currently watching. There is also a Tornado Warning for the second cell further south.
-Both cells have well-developed wall clouds; it is rare to see two at the same time near each other with distinct storms. The storm due west still has a radar-indicated mesocyclone, and the other cell further south has a Tornado Warning. It appears the two cells are trying to merge, as the one further north has taken a dramatic right turn in the past few minutes. We decided to reposition for the expected right turn after the cells merge.
-6:43 PM Stuart, NE. Seem familiar? I feel sorry for these people.
-6:45 PM TONE Tornado Watch for eastern Nebraska until 11 PM. We have made reservations at a hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, and the watch goes nearly that far east.
-We are on the best two storms in the area, according to base support. The new SPC parameter maps show good conditions in the path of these storms for the evolution of tornadic supercells: VGP of 0.3 and EHI of 3. Visually, it still appears the two cells are going to merge.
-76/61 Atkinson, NE; 6:54 PM, with a southeast wind. Cell merger has obviously occurred. The northern cell has virtually evaporated, while the southern cell looks about the same. Now, the question is whether it will drop a tornado.
-According to base support, the southern cell now has a TVS! Visually, the updraft appears rain-wrapped. We followed a gravel road west around a hill for a view of the storm to our north. A nice wall cloud was visible under the updraft, and back to the east, the rising moon was located just below mammatus at the edge of the storm’s anvil.
-7:17 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning to the south of our cell.
-7:25 PM TONE Tornado Warning for southern Rock County, NE, for the cell we are watching.
-We are driving south to get a better view of the approaching cell. It has turned to the southeast; thus, it is probably becoming a supercell and getting better organization. We were having some trouble intercepting the cell because of a poor road network and the strong right turn it had taken.
-Finally, we stopped on a paved road that was not on the high-resolution map (!). It was so unusual to find such a road that Heather suggested it was a discontinuity in the space-time continuum, and that by taking it we would probably come out in Massachusetts five days ago. Nevertheless, by taking the road, we got a view of the storm’s base with a few trees and a hill reducing visibility.
-It appears we have an HP supercell. There is much CG, with two very low scud areas under the base. The weather radio is talking about large hail that could cause personal injury, and a tornado was reported on the ground to our northwest moving east. The cell has three mesocyclones indicated by radar.
-As we watched, a wall cloud got organized in a clearing area between the trees. At one point there may have been a brief funnel cloud. With the scud lowerings under the storm’s base, it was easy to see how a tornado would be reported, although we don’t believe there was ever a tornado on the ground.
-8:06 PM TONE Tornado Warning for Brown County, NE, for a storm to our northwest.
-8:08 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Loup County, NE, for the cell we are watching.
-8:11 PM TONE Tornado Warning for northern Rock County, NE. A tornado was reported on the ground five miles northeast of Bassett, Nebraska.
-8:13 PM TONE Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Blaine County, NE (a storm to our southwest).
-Base support says our cell has 63 dBz and 72 VIL, and is moving east at 20 mph. It is now located due west of our location, and still displays a mesocyclone on Doppler. Behind this cell, there is a line of storms which has prompted many of the proceeding warnings.
-We are watching the cell as it approaches. Since it is an HP supercell, we are unable to really see anything. There is scary classical music on the radio, and many close CG’s. We decided to head east to Highway 95 and then go north to O’Neill, the only road left to our hotel, before it got ran over by the approaching line of storms. As we drove north toward O’Neill, there was an amazing orange sunset to the west, with intense lightning still associated with our cell to the southwest. The anvil of our cell was located just above the sunset, and there were a few anvil crawlers while we watched. We figured the thunderstorm activity was, again, conglomerating into an MCS.
-9:14 PM O’Neill, NE. We got gasoline and supper and were back on the road at about 9:45 PM. Local spotters at the gas station were talking about the tornadoes we witnessed two days ago in this area.
-Another night of awesome lightning! The entire southern sky is continuously being lit up. Much of tonight’s lightning is CG and anvil crawlers rather than dominantly in-cloud lightning. We are taking Highway 20 east to our hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, a distance of about 140 miles from O’Neill.
-10:02 PM The Pilot reaches 10,000 miles.
-10:55 PM Dennis’ car reaches 123,456.7 miles
-11:48 PM Welcome to Iowa! State count 9. We crossed the Missouri River.
-11:52 PM We arrived at the hotel in Sioux City.

MILEAGE - Day: 345.9 miles
Trip total: 4574.0 miles

Day 11: June 12, 2003
-We convened at 8 AM near the hotel’s front door without the usual weather discussion, and left for Valpo at 8:18 AM. We took Highway 29 south to 280 and then east to interstate 80 crossing Iowa.
-It is a very warm, humid, hazy morning, and we could actually be in more Gulf moisture than in any other time this trip so far. We designed our trip T-shirt and decided to create a recipe for a successful storm chase on the back rather than have traditional quotes. All in all, T-shirt design was easy. There was a little rain in western Iowa.
-10:23 AM Adair, IA. We stopped for gasoline, and saw the water tower with the smiley face. We were back on the road at 10:46. After the stop in Adair, we read the quotes accumulated during the trip over the CB.
-11:25 AM Des Moines, IA, under low stratus.
-1:07 PM Coralville, IA. We stopped for gasoline again in this suburb of Iowa City, near Iowa’s largest mall. Elevation has dropped to 735’. We were moving again by 1:31 PM.
-2:10 PM Passed the world’s largest truck stop.
-2:29 PM Mississippi River; welcome to Illinois.
-3:18 PM 5000 miles on the trip so far.
-3:30 PM We stopped in LaSalle, IL, for lunch at the Flying J. The team was back on the road for Valpo at 4:20 PM.

MILEAGE - Day: 570.4 miles
Trip total: 5144.4 miles

Trip statistics:
Total mileage: 5144.4 miles
Average velocity while moving in cars: 59.3 mph
Total time moving in cars: 86 hours 50 minutes (3.6181 days, about 1/3 of the total trip time)
Tornadoes: 5
Severe weather days: 6
States: 9 (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Iowa)
Free McDonald’s meals: 50

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