June 24, 2015

The season was winding down, and we were wrapping up shooting a Sean Casey Tornado Intercept Vehicle IMAX film. This day and the next few looked super marginal and folks had to get home, so the TIV was sent to Oklahoma with Justin Walker and Herb Stein after the June 22 chase. Sean Casey, Mike Browne, and I continued on in the Doghouse, TIV's support vehicle. Storms looked to develop over much of Iowa by mid to late afternoon with upscale growth and a transition to an MCS. A tornado or two was expected among a whole mess of storms, so being at the right place and time looked like it would be difficult. We targeted Chanton, IA where shear and instability parameters looked maximized.

"Mad Mike" Browne getting Doghouse ready for the day's chase:

We loitered in Chanton for the afternoon with other chasers in the area before storms erupted to the northwest. A brief tornado report came in on the initial activity but we didn't see any photos or hear much about it. By the time we got on the storms, a large gust front was already forming. It looked dramatic, but it meant that the tornado show was probably already over, and our chances of getting a usable shot for the IMAX film were bleak.

As the storms started to congeal into a messy and weakening complex, we decided to call the chase and make for Lincoln, NE for the night. Passing pretty sunset thunderstorms along the way: