The start of a three-day mini chase vacation in the Northern Plains as back-to-back-to-back days of severe potential across Nebraska and the Dakotas presented a great long weekend chase opportunity. The first day painted severe potential from the Black Hills eastward across South Dakota.
Read more
While May 22 featured a decent tornado chance along the Red River, but given the distance, I opted to play a secondary target in Colorado hoping that upslope flow could get something to happen along the US 385 corridor between Lamar and Springfield. Alas, while we got to see a rather extensive grass fire which spawned some minor pyrocumulus, the day was otherwise a bust. After spending the night in Burlington we had a decision to make on where to chase this day
Read more
While the Rex pattern was continuing across the eastern United States it was expected to begin to break down and finally allow the amplified pattern to migrate eastward. A cold front extended from a low and occlusion in Saskatchewan southward through South Dakota to Kansas while a surface low existed in southeast Colorado. This presented a decent opportunity for severe weather near the surface low in Western Kansas.
Read more
May 20th was the start of a week long chase vacation which I usually take around Memorial Day each year. This year I moved it forward a week since it looked like a good week of consistent activity. Also, the targets appeared to be mostly in the High Plains which I prefer to chase more than other areas of Tornado Alley.
Read more
The year 2020 is going to be one of those that is a marker in everyone’s lives as the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world and affected how everyone lived their lives. This included how chasers approached the storm season as extra precautions were needed to safely travel across the country. 2020 would end up being one of my least traveled seasons and I wouldn’t even see a tornado until August as the storms that did happen were few and far between in what ended up being a rather quiet year.
Read more