Blog

23 Jul
Like this

July 23, 2011 – Southwest Minnesota

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments

Probably the deepest sleep ever for me after being up for 42 straight hours the day(s) before and driving 1,475 miles. We awoke relatively early in Aberdeen to move east into Minnesota to get in position for the chase this day. We were expecting a very unstable airmass across southern Minnesota with temperatures into the 90s and dewpoints approaching 80. I was concerned with the upper flow as we were on the right exit of a 500mb jet, but it was pretty far north and the 300 jet was pretty much in Canada, but the atmosphere was going to be primed and looking at forecast soundings from the night before we were convinced today was going to be a pretty decent day.

Read more
22 Jul
Like this

July 22, 2011 – Flasher, North Dakota Supercell

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments

A big ass ridge was dominating the weather across the southern two-thirds of the country bringing a substantial heat wave to much of the Central and Southern Plains. The displacement of the jet stream to the north confined most of the severe weather opportunities to the Dakotas and even Canada. This day had captured my interest a few days prior and I was prepared to make the looooooong drive to the Dakotas to play in some of the best chase terrain in the country. Decent shear profiles indicated that isolated supercells were possible early in storm evolution before everything grew upsacle.

Read more
18 Jul
Like this

July 18, 2011 – Stockbridge, Michigan

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments

Nothing too exciting to report for this day. SPC had most of Lower Michigan in a slight risk for severe storms, but I wasn’t terribly interested in the day. I was sitting at home keeping an eye on the storms near Grand Rapids when the southern cell started to appear very interesting to me. So, being that it was already southeast of Lansing, I headed towards it.

Read more
20 Jun
Like this

June 20, 2011 – Stamford & Pleasanton, Nebraska Tornadoes

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments

Started the day in Kearney, Nebraska and picked up L.B. LaForce for the chase as his father had to get back to Michigan. We loitered around the hotel parking lot for a while, along with Rob Hurkes, while we waited for something to draw out attention.  A surface low was expected to track across Kansas, slowly northeastward and with easterly surface winds northeast of the low was setting the stage for crazy low level helicity to get the atmosphere spinning…just could the storms stay discrete?

Read more
19 Jun
Like this

June 19, 2011 – Colorado / Nebraska

Nick Nolte / Blog, Storm Chasing / / 0 Comments

I had driven from Michigan to west of Lincoln, Nebraska the previous evening and upon awaking found that I still had a bit of a drive to get to where I wanted to be for the day.  A 300mb jet streak was rounding the base of a deep upper trough centered over Utah and punching into Eastern Colorado to help setup the show for the day.  I left Seward, NE shortly after 14z and began my westward trek down I-80 towards Julesburg.

Read more
©2023 Nick Nolte