17 May 2019
“Anti-cyclonic. Is that clockwise or anti-clockwise?”
Ogallala to Alma, Nebraska (580 km)
It seems the last person in my room had set the alarm to go off in the middle of the night.
Grrrrr.
I was up six and went for a short walk in a very cool breeze. I sat down for a big bowl of oatmeal and saw that the chance of tornadoes for Nebraska at 10%. That was something I’d never seen and some of the others said they’ve never chased a 10% risk.
We met up for our meeting just after nine and Bill went through the enhanced risk for Nebraska that has been all over the news. The low coming off the Pacific, which had a twin on its heels, was setting up the ideal conditions for supercells.
We headed east towards North Platte and stopped for lunch at The Windy Gap in Paxton where I had a chicken strip basket.
We had a few hours to wait so we took our time drifting east, stopping to say hello to a farmer’s dogs.
And checking out the approaching storm.
At one gas station, we noticed roll clouds that the others said were indicative of a tornadic system. It even formed a funnel cloud that is called a horizontal convective rotation (the white line in the centre).
As the storm moved north, we moved south towards McCook. At one point we got stuck behind a line painting truck moving at about ten miles an hour. We got by him in McCook and pulled off just outside the town to watch the storm move behind us. It formed a funnel in the clouds at one point.
And the NOAA Hurricane Hunter went over several times, taking advantage of the expected breakout to study the supercells.
Then we moved a little farther east and pulled off to the side of the road. Everyone started to cross the road, so I followed and we set up against a fence line with a great view.
I got my time-lapse camera set up just as a tornado formed on the other side of the town.
There wasn’t a lot of contrast but the time-lapse came out okay.
The storm was moving north northeast at about twenty-five knots and while most chasers followed it up to the west and fell behind, we headed east and then north and met up with the storm near Eustis.
On the way west, we saw at least one and maybe three tornadoes out the window. I only managed one cell phone pic of the first one.
We weren’t sure what the lighter area to the right of the third tornado was here. Either scud or another tornado.
We went back west and north towards Cozad. We passed through the town and pulled into a driveway for a minute. The whole area was under a tornado warning and the homeowner came out and said we were all welcomed to stay in his shelter if we wanted.
Bill declined, and as we left, I looked back to see the family opening up the cellar and going inside. It was a different perspective to chasing. While it’s exhilarating for us, it’s a risk for everyone on the plains, something they live with everyday.
We pulled off at one spot where the winds made it hard to set up and then Bill called us across the road and pointed out an anti-cyclonic tornado at the end of the field we were standing in.
At this point, the storm was booting it to the northeast and it was almost sunset. We followed for a short distance and then stopped to watched the storm move away.
And we could finally breath.
Our hotel was an hour south at the Super 8 in Alma, Nebraska.
That put us in a good position for the coming days.
Go to Day Six
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Also See: Chris Gullikson’s Video/Timelapse
William T Reid’s entry for 17 May 2019