Date: June 1, 2014
Time: 2:30 - 7:30 PM CDT
Place: Colby, Gove City, Ransom, Kansas
Distance: 891 mi (663 positioning, 190 chasing, 38 to hotel)
Camera: T3i, GoPro3 Black & Silver, Lumix
Warnings: SVR
Rating: S3

Forecast and Set Up

In the days leading up to this event, I and several others on storm chase forums had been getting excited about the prospects of a multi-day severe weather episode. Models for today depicted at least 4 possible severe weather plays: a warm front up north in Iowa and Minnesota, upslope storms in Wyoming, a triple point in Nebraska, and the dryline in Kansas. As today dawned, a pretty complicated scenario was unfolding with a shortwave trough ejected piecemeal into the plains. A first portion of energy was forecast to touch off morning and midday storms in Nebraska, followed by a second wave nosing into Kansas later in the day. Moderate instability was on tap throughout most of the warm sector (2500 J/Kg), but the primary problems were a relatively meager amount of lower-level wind shear and high temperature/dew point differentials (90oF/60oF). It looked like storms might grow upscale quickly into bowing segments instead of remaining discrete.

Still, I was pretty excited about the day’s prospects – and the possibilities of additional chase days only enhanced that excitement. In preparation, yesterday we made a leisurely Saturday drive up to Denver – staying in one of Toni’s favorite hotels (Element), eating at one of our favorite restaurants (Mellow Mushroom), and drinking one of our favorite beers (Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA) – none of which we can do in New Mexico. Thus, today we only had a short drive to my target of Colby, Kansas and arrived early in the afternoon. As expected, storms were already ongoing in Nebraska and north-central Kansas as the first round of energy swung through. I had to actively fight my urge to pursue these early storms in northern Kansas, and instead hang back patiently near the dryline to await afternoon initiation. I was growing concerned that the dryline gradient was pretty diffuse and winds in the moist sector weren’t backing towards the west (both of which indicate a lack of dryline convergence to kick off storms). But before too long, my worries were alleviated as crisp towers began growing several miles north of Colby. Storm chase mode was activated!

The Chase

The thundershower north of Colby was growing stronger with each radar update, and I was really excited to be so close for initiation (if there was going to be a tornado today, it’d probably be early on before storms could congeal). We pursued north and east of town on the dirt road grid, and it was at this point I made a mistake that almost ended our chase before it began. The little dirt road dipped beside a small stream that had clearly overflowed recently, but the roadway looked damp yet firm, so we decided to cross. After about 20 feet, I realized our tires were sinking at least 4-5 inches into very soft mud! Not knowing what the remainder of the crossing would be like, I came to a halt and reversed. If we’d been in the Sentra, this would have undoubtedly gotten us stuck, but fortunately the all wheel drive Crosstrek proved its worth and got us out.

After rerouting along a different portion of the grid, we sadly realized that our thundershower, which had looked very promising a few minutes earlier, was now beginning to fade away. Drifting east somewhat listlessly for the next hour, we were unable to decide on a new target. A very linear-looking complex was ongoing to the northeast, and some more discrete, but anemic storms were trying to get established to our southwest. Finally, a southwestern cell started to get its act together and look more interesting. We had a new target.

It took about half an hour to navigate south to a downstream position from this new storm, during which time it really started to take on supercell characteristics. Fifteen miles south of the miniscule town of Gove City, we found an excellent vantage point on the crest of a small river valley. Timelapse and filming could commence! Under the storm’s thick anvil amongst the drought-browned prairie, there was definitely a gloomy, dingy feel in the air. As the elevated storm base rolled in, we were able to see some very well-defined rotation. I was hopeful for a quick landspout, but unfortunately just as the rotation really seemed to ramp up, another cell to the southwest merged and disrupted the organization.

As the storms began to congeal and line out, we rushed east on Hwy 4 to stay ahead of a developing gust front. Near the tiny town of Ransom, we pulled off to again get some timelapse as the storm complex caught back up to us. Toni stayed in the car and I sheltered on the leeward side filming some impressive dust-laden outflow. As the gust front passed over, Toni was the first to notice an extremely large gustnado just across the road in a field - easily the largest and most impressive I’d ever seen (I even had time to get a couple slider shots before it died).

As the storms continued to grow upscale into a line, we made one more intercept attempt on a new tail-end cell. Using the dirt grid south of King, we again arrived on our new target storm just in time to see it gust out and go outflow dominant. We were treated to another round of dust and gustnadoes as the outflow boundary swept over. Feeling a little disappointed with the storm evolution, we pursued half-heartedly east for half an hour more (seeing one of the Dominators as we crossed Hwy 283) before letting the line pass over and wash off the day’s dust.

The sun came out as the line continued on to the east, lighting up a brilliant yellow field we hadn’t even noticed in the previously gloomy atmosphere. Even though the storms had been a little bit of a letdown, sitting in the post-storm stillness and hearing the departing rumbles of thunder is one of the nicest feelings ever. On the way to Hays for the night, an amazing mammatus display capped off a gorgeous sunset.

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned