| 0 | 0.50" | 60 | 590 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TORNADOES | HAIL | WIND | MILES |
July 7th was another low end severe weather day. A shortwave trough was forecast to move into the Northern Plains through the evening along the top of a ridge. MLCAPE in Nebraska was forecast to be around 2500 J/Kg. The target looked to be in Northeastern Nebraska along the instability axis from Lake Andes, SD to Albion.
SPC actually had a 5% tornado risk in the panhandle and Sandhills of Nebraska, and after staying the night in Ogallala I felt good already being in the target area. However, as I looked at data before leaving the hotel, I felt less comfortable with staying in this area. Models were also showing initiation further east than the SPC outlook was indicating. To me, it looked like the front would be along the US 183/NE 10 corridor from Kearney to Ord. Ultimately, I decided to head northeast to O’Neill. I wasn’t too thrilled about the decision given there wasn’t a nice diagonal road in that direction, but alas, that’s where I went.
At 18z the SPC issued a mesoscale discussion for Eastern South Dakota, I expected storms from there would eventually make their way down into Nebraska. Storms fired in South Dakota around 20z as a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued for South Dakota and Northeastern Nebraska north and along the US 20 corridor.
I arrived in O’Neill, but decided to keep going north to the storms that were nearing the Niobrara river and eventually intercepted one near Monowi.
After tracking these couple cells along the river, another group of cells formed to the south, so I dropped south near Creighton where the cell was dropping golf balls.
Soon after this, the storms started to congeal into a glob so I decided to call the chase and began the trek south back home. But wait! I encountered an isolated cell near Cedar Rapids that actually put on a brief structure show as it went stacked plates before it got overtaken by the line moving south.
Chase Recap
| START | END | DURATION |
|---|---|---|
| Ogallala, NE @ 07/1500Z | Grand Island, NE @ 08/0300Z | 12 hours, 0 minutes |
| INTERCEPTS | CHASER ENCOUNTERS |
|---|---|
| None | None |