Date: May 15, 2015
Time: 2:00 - 7:00 PM MDT
Place: Sidney, Dalton, Bridgeport, NE
Distance: 965 mi (583 positioning, 192 chasing, 190 to hotel)
Camera: T3i, GoPro3 Silver
Warnings: SVR, TOR
Rating: S4

The Chase

5:51 PM (May 14): Later ABQ! Two day chase trip starts now! Heading north on I-25 to Colorado and eventually the Nebraska panhandle.

9:33 PM (May 14): An old dude was gassing up his fishing truck across from me just now and ripped the biggest fart, then stared at me silently daring me to laugh. I don't know why I'm reporting this.

9:48 AM: After spending the night in Aurora, CO, we are on the road heading northeast towards Nebraska. Today features a nice big upper lever trough over Nevada, with southerly 500mb winds pivoting over the NE panhandle (a bit weaker than I'd like). There will be a weak surface low in northeast CO that will probably provide our main storms today with some good CAPE for this elevation. Hoping for some magic similar to the Eads May 9th action.

11:47 AM: Tried to get to Iliff, CO for some gas, but the South Platte River has flooded the bridge into town. We just can't seem to escape flooded, muddy conditions wherever we chase this year. Oh well, heading back to Sterling.

12:01 PM: Gassing up in Sterling and already some crisp towers are building to our northeast!

12:17 PM: Mesoscale Discussion for my target area!

12:22 PM: Decided to stick around Sterling and watch storms build. DQ for lunch!

1:01 PM: Woohoo Tornado Watch for all of NE Colorado and the Nebraska panhandle. Headed towards Sidney now.

1:30 PM: Craziest thing just happened! We were sitting on this gravel pullout just south of Sidney, Nebraska timelapsing some maturing towers. After a few minutes a blue Suburban started creepin up, but I thought it was just another chaser. By the time I looked over again, a bunch of military police were strapped up and stepping out of the car! They were nice enough but very serious as they asked questions and walked around the car. After making me show the timelapse I was filming they made us leave. WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE WE SITTING NEXT TO???

1:46 PM: We have two main cells starting to take over - one just north of us and Sidney and one to our southwest. Both are basically moving due north. Nothing looks really spectacular yet.

2:09 PM: Repositioned just a little west to watch the SW cell (actually 2 merging cells) come towards us. Great view on a consolidating base.

2:14 PM: Severe Warning on our cell! Really strong rising motion in the lowered base!

2:22 PM: Holy moly tight rotation has really ramped up. A couple of well-developed funnels have reached down.

2:26 PM: Two funnels more than halfway to the ground orbiting each other!!! Could have a tornado any second (maybe already did)! We're getting awesome timelapse and slider shots!!

2:31 PM: This cycle might be done (no confirmed tornado), and we need to reposition north on Hwy 385 to keep up. Storm still looks good, but no Tornado Warning.

2:34 PM: Well I spoke too soon, TORNADO WARNING!

2:55 PM: Our storm has looked really messy since it got Tor warned. We're north of Gurley on the dirt grid, but it's too muddy to really keep up so I'm heading back to the highway. Storm might be splitting.

3:15 PM: Just north of Dalton now and the storm is just a mile to our north still looking shaggy. Getting tempted to look at other cells, but I'll stick with this for a few more minutes. I think this is the muddiest my shoes and the car have ever been on a chase.

3:33 PM: Drove just a few miles north to stay right on the south flank of the rain. As we did a new RFD surge carved in and we have the most robust funnel yet - a nice laminar cone! Beautiful sweeping vantage point right on the south edge of the North Platte river valley.

3:37 PM: The funnel dissipated without touching down, and now we are heading north and west towards Bridgeport to keep up. Unfortunately the cell is heading into the Sandhills with no (trustworthy) road network.

3:51 PM: Flooding in downtown Bridgeport with the main road under at least 6 inches of water. Police have blocked off 385 further up so we need to dodge around them on side streets, if those aren't flooded too.

4:13 PM: We got through Bridgeport fine and are now pulled off the Hwy 385 just north of the non-existent town of Angora. I opted to drive up into the core of the supercell in hopes of having a good view of the updraft as it moved past just to our east. Right now we have no visibility in some rain and quarter hail. Toni is nervous.

4:25 PM: Woohoo our positioning paid off! Just caught a little rat-tail funnel dangling from beside a more robust updraft lowering. Man this storm knows how to tease.

4:38 PM: Went a couple miles further up the road to follow this updraft lowering, no real rotation right now. TIV is just down the road from us. #GoodCompany

4:48 PM: Well, there's now a line of little cells to our south waiting their turn to merge with our supercell. I think this storm has just about had it. But it was a good run from Sydney all the way to Alliance and 3 distinct episodes of robust funnels.

5:35 PM: We passed on a messy looking storm coming through Bridgeport to head SSE on Hwy 26 past Broadwater, NE to get on the inflow side of another cell. We have a gorgeous vantage point looking SW over the North Platte River. Unfortunately the storm isn't too impressive right now.

5:55 PM: Our new storm had beautiful, terraced lowering and tried to tighten up rotation, but it looks like its gusting out now. Toni can't wait anymore, we need a peepee stop.

6:27 PM: Gassing up in Oshkosh now - commiserating with some other chasers about all the funnels and no tornadoes. There's a crisp little cell to our north that I might check out. Otherwise there's more development (and even out-of-reach tornado warnings) down in Colorado.

7:21 PM: Intense lightning is striking all around the car as we sit north of Julesburg, CO. Unfortunately, we are at the north end of a lining-out MCS. The show's over today.

7:43 PM: South of Julesburg now, looking east at the departing line trying to get a lightning shot or two in the growing twilight. A nice relaxing finish to the day. TIV and Doghouse just drove by again - 3 sightings in one day.

9:39 PM: Burlington, CO Denny's for late supper. Toni could not be happier. #Gourmet

10:15 PM: To make Toni's meal even better, a talkative, smelly, Flogging-Molly-loving, fresh-off-the-boxcar dude sat with us all supper and told us about his life. He was in a Five Finger Death Punch video. I had a delightful time.

10:55 PM: Pulling into the Goodland, KS Holiday Inn Express. So tired after a marathon day that started early. Hopefully we will chase in western Kansas tomorrow - my favorite place ever!

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned