June 20, 2010

Statistics:

Initial Target: Omaha, NE
Departure: Westchester, IL 12:00 pm CDT
Arrival: Lincoln, NE 11:30 pm CDT
Intercepts: Lincoln, NE
Tornadoes: 0
Hail: Severe (1" estimated)
Wind: Non-Severe (not measured)
Features: None
Miles: 506

Summary:

Warm front play across eastern NE. Targeted the Omaha area, but storms failed to organize beyond elevated clusters. Intercepted a severe warned cell near Lincoln, NE getting a bit of severe hail, but not much in the way of structure. Called it a chase and spent the night in the van just outside of Lincoln.

Crew and Equipment:

Solo Chase.  Equipment:  Kenwood TH-F6A Tribander, Dell Inspiron Laptop.  Kyocera data card and router, Holux 236 GPS, Robotic camera dome with Sony XR-520V.

 

 

Details:

On Sunday I decided to head back out for another multi day plains trip, with the next being my main intercept for upslope supercells across Wyoming and Colorado. I left half heartedley at noon after I was rather wish washy about whether or not to chase. I decided to make for the warm front in southeast Nebraska which had the highest tornado risk.

Because of my delay getting out to the target area, storms were already on going across Nebraska, northern Kansas, and Wyoming. Some decent tornadoes resulted out of the Wyoming and Kansas storms while the Nebraska storms by wound going up in rather disorganized clusters. After getting lunch just outside of Omaha, I finally went in to intercept a severe warned cell moving through Lincoln. I hit some severe hail up to maybe an inch in size before I let the storm pass off to the east, noting little in the way of structure or anything photogenic. I found a quite spot just outside of town to spend the night in the van.

Conclusion:

Despite catching a severe warned storm and getting some large hail out of it, this chase was a bust. My initial stalling cost me some really photogenic tornadoes that were on storms further west and south. At least I was out on the plains in position for the next few days of chasing though.

 

 

Lessons Learned: 

  • Don't half ass it when deciding whether or not to chase. Its all or nothing.