Chasecation 2014 Multimedia Recap

Hey Fellow Chasers!

Since I 100% dropped the ball & didn't update as we went along (a total of 2500 miles in 4 days coupled with some chase frustration / spotty cell coverage will do that to you) ... I'll instead simply share the many photos and videos that Keith and I shot while chasing out in SW Texas & SE New Mexico this late spring. We had mostly marginal chase days - but the final day really paid off. No tornadoes officially sighted, but we were on four different gorgeous supercell structures... each different & awesome in their own ways. A few of my favorite pictures here below:

The full photo gallery hosted on my flickr page (full resolution downloads available):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/41655427@N04/sets/72157644488053140/

And to go along with the photo gallery - a playlist of our several chases as compiled by Keith. Most of these videos are linked to from the flickr descriptions - so you can watch the video that went along with the photo of that particular storm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3VAbr_dpn0&list=PLMkr7qRbd-8XLJ2dwwHjCTM7zn394KXJJ

Enjoy fellow chasers!

-Triple Point

Fellow chasers,

After a bit of a hiatus from chasing, I was back in the swing of things with another veteran chaser who happens to be a Sconnie alum. We headed up towards Cheyenne right around noon Saturday, and immediately had to chase one hell of a traffic jam on I-25 as soon as we left Denver. But I guess perseverance pays off. We were able to spot several nice looking LP cells northwest of Cheyenne that were not moving fast. After letting them develop, one managed to produce a funnel. Check out the video...

-Dryline

Headed South!

Whew! It's been quite a while since anyone (myself included) has posted to this chasing blog... time to fix that. I'll be heading South to Oklahoma City as a starting point this Thursday evening, with four days of planned chasecation Friday-Monday. Keith Cavey and I will be the two chasing during those four days, and we'll be sure to post updates on here, along with pictures and videos.

The overall setup isn't ideal for any massive outbreak in the next week, but certainly severe chances look good in the SW TX / SE NM area near that wobbling upper low.

As a teaser, here's a photo of our tornado warned supercell near Mount Pleasant, IA about a week and a half ago. Catch everyone soon!

-Chris "Triple Point" Manzeck

Live Blogging High Risk

Live blogging the severe weather today - feel free to contribute and I'll approve your posts.

NEW LINK:http://blyve.com/event/09bbb8518301da06b0070000

I'm skeptical of the squall line for WI and IL but looks to get better organized as it moves east. Looks mostly multi-cellular and even discrete for IA, WI and IL. Anyone else agree with this assessment?

Local media has been tossing around "derecho" very loosely which is not helping the cause....

"Convergence"

Recap of June 4, 2013: Southeast Colorado

I was at it again yesterday, this time in southeast Colorado. I started off in Limon around 4pm and was waiting for the Palmer Ridge convection to move east and encounter the juicy air. It didn't take long for a few of the cells to form strong updrafts with some light hail.

One of the cells began to consolidate before crossing CO71 and soon after crossing that road, it prompted a tornado warning. Even though I was blocked off by the precipitation shield, that was the one for me. I raced ahead to Kit Carson and then south to Eads and watched it continuously veer to the "right", always a good thing. Even though there tornado reports during the time I was watching it, I didn't see anything touchdown. That was also confirmed by other chasers. The closest it came is probably around 6:00 into the video where there's a funnel visible.

I'm pretty sure that tornado storm report, on SPC, from Sheridan Lake at 01:35Z was actually all the dust I was filming in the end of the video.


Til next time,
always on the Dryline

Recap of May 28, 2013

Hey guys,

Storm chasing veteran Steve Jaye and I ventured out into northeast Colorado again on Tuesday 5/28. Convection started early in the day, around 1pm local time, northeast of Denver. In typical Colorado fashion, dewpoints were in the 30's and 40's yet the cells had good structure and were growing fast. We headed northeast on I-76 and were watching cells both to our north and south. Around 3pm, we saw this very high-based storm north of Brush, CO:

We left this storm as there were 3 or 4 discrete cells developing south and east of us with better inflow (dewpoints close to 50). By the time we made it to Sterling, CO, there were 3 cells, aligned north-south that were all rapidly developing. Immediately north of Sterling, the northernmost cell got its act together fast, formed a wall cloud and began to produce funnels. The following video and picture is from that storm, which we basically followed for the next hour or two. The video is long, but interesting points are at 2:40 (funnel) and 6:05 (funnel + possible ground circulation).

After this storm lost its strength and grew upscale, we started heading back home when we encountered this lone mothership, which started dropping 1.5" hail on us. Luckily, the hail was melted on the outside and did not cause bigger problems.

- Dryline

Recap of 5-24-2013

Chasers,

Steve Jaye and I chased yesterday in northeast Colorado and western Nebraska. We did well by not listening to the HRRR which was incorrectly insistent on most activity initializing and mostly staying south of I-70. We caught 4 different supercells, 2 of which accounted for 2"+ inch hail, but the very high cloud bases did not allow for much of a tornado chance. Here's a picture from a cell just east of Lake Mcconaughy (Nebraskans say "who the heck needs Cancun?") just before sunset.

Looks like an active pattern will continue for the next few days, so you may be hearing from me soon.

-Dryline