May 24th was the fourth day of a mini chasecation out to The Plains and was the day that seemed to be the best of the bunch. A surface low in southwest Kansas was forecast to remain there throughout the day while a mid level trough ejected into the Central Plains.
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The third day of my mini chase vacation featured a mid level speed max that was forecast to move into the Caprock area while the dryline mixed east. There were two targets in play, the area up near the intersection of the dryline and the outflow boundary or further south a bit along a dryline bulge expected to form along the Caprock.
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Coming off a surprise success on day one of a mini chase vacation it was time to begin the second day with the SPC outlining a huge slight risk area stretching from North Dakota to Southern Texas with higher tornado probabilities along the dryline in the Panhandle regions.
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I had booked May 23 through the 25th off from work as it looked like these might be a few active days in The Plains, but the decision came after work on Friday the 20th whether or not to leave immediately to target Western Kansas or Eastern Colorado on Saturday. Originally, I was not considering chasing Saturday, but the 18z model runs convinced me to head out and I felt comfortable with the decision once the 0z models began to roll in.
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Day 7, the final day of my week long chase vacation was also supposed to be the simple travel home day, but a slight risk across the Mississippi Valley with a northern extent to the I-72 corridor in Illinois meant I’d kind of chase on my way home.
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