June 11, 2018

We actually had a decent looking chase setup on the way home from a two week Northern Plains trip. A cold front was pushing through with moderate instability and shear. Capping was forecasting to be an issue on the southern end of the target area, so we hoped to catch a robust supercell north of Omaha where we could avoid the metro area. The Missouri River was an obstacle too and we decided to try to intercept on the Nebraska side of the river, but hung out near a crossing. The initial target was Decatur, NE.

We waited on a gravel road outside of Decatur for storms to get going. The terrain is quite hilly there and we couldn't find a decent pull-off, but thought the roads would be quite empty out there. We parked in the road and a truck coming over the top of a hill at a good clip had to maneuver to miss us. We should have found a safer place to stop, and that was our safety lesson for the day.

Storms finally got going with a few tornado warnings. Bases quickly filled in with rain, however, and we managed to only get a couple of lackluster shots of nondescript updraft bases and weak striations. We called the chase as we tracked the mass of storms across the Missouri into Iowa.