17 April 2004 Storm Chase |  Northwest IA - bust
18 April 2004 Storm Chase |  Aborted Early
April 17: Very frustrating to say the least as I look back on both of these days.  Saturday looked like a decent go for NW IA, so I headed up to KSUX's downtown library from KSTJ for a late afternoon check of the latest obs and RUC run.  I didn't save any images, but I can recall the 850mb and 500mb crossover product from SPC was ridiculously strong!  The cap was the biggest culprit for inhibiting convection this afternoon, but things looked good around 1700 CST when a Cu/TCu field popped to my west near Holstein, IA.  Well those quickly faded and I began setting my sights on Storm Lake for a motel. Along the way a large mound ~80 miles to my NE stood out prior to sunset.  I'm assuming the shortwave trough that kicked off the TCu by me had less resistance for ascent as it passed over the warm front up by Mason City.  Got some pics and a timelapse of what would become a very nice tornadic supercell up there after sunset, but I caved in for the motel and watched the activity on radar.  The LLJ organized enough around 2100 CST to help kick off some organized, non-supercell storms nearby, but I opted against a nighttime chase.  Definitely a bust in my book since I couldn't chase any Cb's.
 

Cu and TCu ahead of the mid-level speed max

"Why are these TCu evaporating?!"

Supercell near Mason City, IA at sunset

Awesome TCu at night in Storm Lake, IA

April 18:  This day was a squeeze play of sorts as I had to be back to work in St. Louis early the next morning but wanted to chase since the upper trough was kicking out today.  The morning data and model runs confirmed this would not be a feasible chase day for me as the dryline and cold front would be too far west (central and eastern NE).  Very disgruntled at this point, I made the most of the weather by going down to Storm Lake and photographing the crashing waves thanks to non-convective winds gusting regularly to 40mph and higher (NWS-KFSD had wind gusts up to 50mph in their zone forecasts!).  Outside of this and a free car wash from the lake spray, not much happened.  I don't like turning my back on days like these (MDT per SPC), but I have to stick to my priorities.  In addition, it wouldn't have been fun chasing today given the progged storm motions of 50+ knots!
 

Storm Lake coming to life thanks to 40+ knot winds!

Seriously, this felt and looked like a tropical storm chase

A patch of ACCAS to my NW as I pack up

Back to some "real" Chase Logs!