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Started the day in Goodland after getting our first chase in the previous day. Randy knew the WCM at NWS-GLD who allowed us to stop by for a mini-brief of today's setup. At least two outflow boundaries were leftover from last night's convection, though they were very difficult to locate on satellite until early afternoon when insolation helped kick off some Cu as seen in the image to the left. This boundary ran SE-NW and merged with another one running ENE-WSW. We continued north to around Wray as mid-level ceilings slowly overspread the area. This certainly didn't make us feel any better, but while stopped for gas we learned of a tornado-warned cell near Sterling. Upslope flow can work some magic in absence of additional heating. |
| I believe we're a couple miles NW of Yuma here looking at an organizing supercell to our north. Nice, broad updraft base with a modest wall cloud. There was already a substantial amount of dirt being pulled up into the wall cloud, but we didn't see any rotation. |  |
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An escalator of dirt continuing to get channeled along the inflow corridor just to the right of the wall cloud. This cell's motion was generally ESE at a slow enough pace for us to keep up with it; however, there was a linear mass of convection poised just to the WSW of this supercell threatening to interfere with its balance. Note the RFD and green downlighting surrounding the wall cloud. |
| After having driven further east to get back in position, a few people noticed anticylonic rotation in this wall cloud. I looked closely and sure enough, it was! The cyclonic shear side is located behind this wall cloud out of our view. I didn't get video here, though Phil took a timelapse showing its evolution. |  |
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The linear convection mentioned earlier began assuming control over this supercell and by this point we're looking at a big HP supercell picking up speed. The wall cloud seen here remained in place for awhile, but strong outflow was quickly transforming this into a shelf cloud. |
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Voila! One heck of
a menacing shelf cloud to our WNW. Note the low level inflow band still evident to the right (north) of the shelf. This would soon be washed out.
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I'm glad I snapped a shot of this convection to our east as it would soon become our next supercell to chase. We continued east on HWY 34 past Wray and eventually crossed into NE as this cell's base became circular in addition to it developing a great vault. |
| Quite a bit of time passed from the last image to this one, but this was the result of the convection in the previous image! It's a small supercell, but one nonetheless. It's a shame this didn't develop sooner or further ahead of the nascent MCS just upstream. My ISO setting was too low in this shot and when combined with my excitement (or the strong inflow) created the blurriness...d'oh. |  |
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Beaver's tail and a compact, slowly rotating wall cloud. The MCS was just a few miles upstream of this supercell by this point...I was cringing! |
| Insane motion was visible all along this shelf cloud as winds were reportedly reaching 80mph. Yeah, we needed to get moving fast. Although the supercell was being absorbed by this point, the remnant meso was still showing some rotation in the wall cloud and I recall pointing out a small funnel cloud which Randy did catch on video. After getting back east on HWY 34, we noticed a gustnado (1), 2)along the shelf cloud to our distant SE. This may have been mistaken as a tornado by others as a "confirmed tornado" report came over the radio minutes later. |  |
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Well we stopped in Benkelman, NE to let the MCS pass over us before proceeding south to Goodland for a motel. Upon arrival, these bands of anticrepuscular rays greeted us. |
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Some non-SVR cells moved
into the city that evening and we headed out to the exact same spot from
the night before to get some shots. Yes, this time the lightning
cooperated and we ended up with much better results than the previous night.
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Awesome display! |
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photos © Copyright 2005 Matt Ziebell
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