Today was a great day for storm chasing. I picked Linnea up at work at noon and we headed east toward the Kansas/Nebraska/Colorado border. My forecasting skills are still pretty novice, so there was some fear that I would take us out to the only place in tornado alley that didn't see a tornado that day. However, we got lucky and got to see a nice LP supercell in the sunset with a rotating wall cloud and funnels which lead to a night time chase of a sizeable twister.
The storm prediction center had issued a moderate risk for severe weather throughout most of tornado alley. With an outlook forecast like that, and another more definitive forecast later in the afternoon, the chance of catching something was pretty good. The storm we caught was one of 65 tornadoes reported that day.
Here is some video of the rotating wall cloud and funnel (36 MB) and another of what looks like the beginnings of a tornado (18 MB).
- Storm reports from Imperial, NE.
- National Weather Service reports from the day
- Front map from wunderground.com
- NWS day 1 outlook and tornado probability graphics.
- Current severe and current reports graphics from wunderground.
- Damage assessment care of the North Platte weather forcast office.
- Mike Hollingshead's account of the day, with some better photos of the tornado at night.
- There is even a Wikipedia article on the day's events.
