Today was a travel day, we visited several sites along the way. We stopped at Wall Drug first. It is a mega-tourist trap east of Rapid City SD Then we went to Mt. Rushmore. We also saw Crazy Horse. Then we went south to Hot Springs and saw prairie dogs and buffalo along the way. In Hot Springs, we visited the Mammoth site. It is an active dig site where 53 mammoths have been uncovered so far.

We went to Murdo, SD and checked data. We then went to Cactus Flat and met up with several other chasers. A cell started to fire to our SW. It was very slow in developing. We soon decided to go south through the Badlands National Park. We had a great view of the LP as it slowly moved NNE towards us. After a long time of filming this, it started to get a rain core with it and began to right turn. I decided we should move farther east to stay ahead of it. We had just exited the park when the tornado formed behind us. We stopped to film it, then continued east. Road options were not good, we went east a ways then south, The storm had great structure. At one point, some locals stopped by to see what was going on. One of them pulled out a gun and shot at the storm. We continued S then E then N then E (road options were not so good). After a while the gust front of a line behind our storm caught up with it and gusted it all out.

I didn't expect a lot today. I targeted Valentine NE. We stopped there to get gas and I noticed a few blips on radar in far NE Colorado. They were moving NNE. I decided to go for it. Before we could get going, we heard about a tornado watch issued for our area. That confirmed my decision to go. We went west on 20 At Merriman, I called Bill Hark to check on the target and possible towers going up to our NW. Those were not very close so I went south on 61. The storm didn't look very good as we approached. The updraft was soft at times. As we got near Hyannis, a tornado warning was issued for our storm. We continued south towards Arthur. A wall cloud was well defined on the north side of the precip. It had slow rotation, but a strong updraft. It kept producing a funnel cloud, but couldn't quite do it. We continued south to the south side of the storm. A wall cloud forms and looked promising. Then I saw a little close to us there was a tower rotating fast. It formed a funnel and it didn't take long for it to touch down. It was on the ground from 6:15 to 6:29 central time. It roped out in a nice segmented rope.

This was a travel day to get into position for the next day. On the way, we saw a great sunset in Garden City, KS

George has to climb everything. As we waited for initiation, he mounted the mule in Muleshoe, TX. Soon cells fired to our north. We went up to just east of Hereford. The form had a very low wall cloud. We saw a road option just east of us that looked good as the storm was moving to the SSE. The road was paved to start off with, then it turned to dirt. It was too late to turn back now. We continued on this road until we got two of our three vehicles stuck up to the axles in mud. The third vehicle turned around to go back and hopefully come up the road from the south to help pull us out. A stray baseball size hail stone took out his windshield in the process. While we were stuck, the storm passed just to our east. I am sure there was a tornado wrapped up in the rain. The barrel updraft was rotating rapidly and was almost on the ground. One funnel did form just south of us and extended half way down, but never touched down. With the heavy rainfall, the road turned into a river. After three hours, we finally got out of the mud and resumed the chase. We made it down to Lubbock just in time to see a great sunset.

We targeted the area around Des Moines, NM. Storms fired west of Raton. We went after them. We continued north of I-25 into CO through lots of dime size hail. We followed a motorcycle as he punched through the hail. He through his hands up in joy as he finally made out the back side of the storm. In Colorado, we went east on 160, but the storms didn’t get better organized until after dark.

Today, we were back in New Mexico. There were storms in the higher terrain, but they didn’t amount to much.

This was a long day. We came up from Oklahoma City to far western, Kansas. Storms fired near Lamar, Co and others south of Burlington, CO. we went north to Tribune, KS and watched a very high based, low topped storm to our north. The back edge of the cluster of storms to our SW was very photogenic.

Since there were no storms to chase, we spent the day sight seeing at Palo Duro Canyon.

We traveled to New Mexico. A nice supercell formed near Abbott. We watched it for a while, but soon, cold air undercut the storm. We attempted to get on other storms to the south, but road options prevented this. Also, the cold air was pushing south rapidly.

We started out in Burlington, CO. There was a stationary front to our north, so we went NW in hopes of a supercell riding along the front. There was a cluster of storms that started to look interesting SE of Sterling. We saw several dust plumes and a nice base and wall cloud, soon outflow undercut the storms. We had to drive thought the core briefly and saw some quarter size hail. The cluster of storms merged together and it looked like any photogenic storms were over with for the day. We headed back to Burlington and saw a storm near Kit Carson that looked interesting on radar. We continued south to intercept this storm. There were two cells that appeared very interesting. By the time we got just south of Cheyenne Wells, the storms were right turning. When we got to a good vantage point, we noticed a nice "upside-down birthday cake" appearance. We could also see the rounded base of the storm to our west. These storms were very photogenic, but soon they were undercut by outflow.

WOW what a chase day. We saw two tornadoes up close, basball+ size hail blowing sidways. Lost one windshield and a side window. Tornadoes were just north of South Plains, TX and 6 miles east of South Plains, TX

We saw the entire cake today. The only thing missing was the icing. Nice chase day with a bit of almost everything.

I approached this storm from the east on 166. This storm was west of Melrose, KS. As I got north of the meso, I gott into a little bit of hail. This shot is of the wall cloud looking south from near Faulkner, KS. The best funnel that I saw West of Chicopee, KS Panoramic view of the storm north of Preston, MO.

I didn't expect all that much today. Target area was south of Ada, OK. I went south to Sulfur when Cu already started to break the cap. Soon a line formed rapidly. I was on the south end of one line and watched the storm near Ada. It was not that impressive. I opted to go farther south to catch the next storm. It got better organized and looked very HPish near Atoka. I drove up 69 to McAlester just ahead of the storm. In Savanna, I decided to find shelter and let the storm overtake me to film the hail. I only saw very small hail and wasn't impressed with it. At this point the storm got ahead of me and I decided that was it for the day. I met up with Rocky in Henrietta for dinner. After eating we were treated to a nice mommatus display.

Very easy chase. 4 hours 15 miles round trip. I didn't expect much today. I hoped to get a little time lapse of growing cu. At best I hoped to get a nice photogenic LP supercell. The day was very satisfying. I went 7 miles to my east to get out in the open and wait for storms to form. I got some nice time-lapse of the clouds and some great pictures at sunset.

Thunder storms moved through the area late at night. Lightning wasn't as frequent as I expected, but I did manage to get a couple of good shots. Notice the internal lens reflection (ghost image) that makes it look like one branch of the lightning was closer than it really was.

Rockies with Rocky After the Storm Chaser Convention, Rocky and I went up into the mountains to do some sight seeing. This snow-devil formed on the side of the road. Rotation lasted several seconds. A sudden wind and snow storm hit as we entered Winter Park. This eventually moved over to the Denver area and the microbursts from it forced closure of the airport. On the way back home we were treated to several lenticular clouds and a colorful sunset over the rockies.