Sunday, August 27, 2017

06/17/17 Alpha, IL Supercell

A rotating wall cloud northwest of Alpha, IL 

On June 17th, I spent the day in Peoria, IL and by mid-day headed west toward Monmouth, IL to wait for severe convection to develop later in the evening. The area in west-central Illinois that I was targeting featured 3,500J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 35kts, and a moist boundary-layer with dew points near 71°F. By evening, storms had initiated in southeast Iowa and eastern Iowa. I decided to head north on I-74 toward Alpha, IL to intercept a developing supercell that initiated near Muscatine, IA that was moving southeast. I pulled off the interstate and watched this supercell get closer with a nice rotating wall cloud. At one point, it did funnel off the wall cloud and I heard of a tornado being reported, but I never could get a clear view if the funnel touched down or not based on my position to the storm at that time. Once the storm got closer I continued east and south straddling the supercell, but never could pull back ahead of it like I wanted to near Wyoming, IL where it had some rotation on radar. Eventually new storms developed along I-74 and began to overtake me from the southwest at sunset as I drove back home to Peoria, IL. I shot all the photos below with my Canon 5D Mark III and a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I've added a few photos from the late evening chase below:

First view of the wall cloud!
A lot of water/hail in this supercell!
High-precipitation (HP) supercell to my north!
Funnel cloud attempt off the wall cloud...
"Greenage"
A circulation, but the storm is struggling to contain its outflow...
 One more photo before heading back southeast...

That will wrap up this post and my summer vacation. Overall, it was a successful trip and I had a good time traveling, storm chasing, and visiting some neat places and national parks. After my vacation, I've been quite busy with portrait photo-shoots and some nature photography as well. I also traveled and photographed the solar eclipse near Hopkinsville, KY on August 21, 2017. It was amazing and I'll be adding a post in the coming weeks featuring some of my shots from the solar eclipse. I also plan on doing more photography during the fall so I'm sure I'll be posting more as needed over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Monday, August 14, 2017

06/14/17 Iowa Shelf Cloud & Laura, IL Severe Thunderstorm

An photogenic shelf cloud in western Iowa near Adair, IA

On June 14th, I woke up at my hotel in Walnut, IA just after sunrise. I spent the previous day traveling east on I-80 most of the day while at the same time hoping for some decent storms in central Nebraska but I ended up with not much of anything on that day. I was planning on storm chasing in Illinois on my way back home on this particular day, but I noticed some intensifying convection on radar to my south and packed up and headed out the door. I began to head east on I-80 as convection blossomed along the interstate. This storm did go severe-warned briefly and then became quite outflow dominate however. I had to pull-over several times at many exits along I-80 west of Des Moines, IA to photograph quite an epic shelf cloud. This convection was surprisingly photogenic despite looking disorganized on radar. Once when the convection began to shift much farther north along the interstate I continued east and arrived back in Peoria, IL to chase convection later in the afternoon. I spent most of the afternoon waiting for convection to develop in west-central Illinois. I didn't expect much from this day given that the lack of wind shear would be the limiting factor in a more widespread severe weather event on this day. By mid-afternoon, convection began to blossom along the cold front to my northwest. This area northwest of Peoria, IL along the I-74 corridor featured 3,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 30kts, and a very moist boundary-layer with dew points near 70°F. I ended up traveling north on IL Rt. 78 and stopped just east of Laura, IL to allow the developing convection move closer and overtake me from the south. This convection was mostly outflow dominate, but did provide a few decent photos. At one moment, this storm did provide a weak circulation but got choked off quite quickly thanks to outflow from the southwest gusting to the northeast. All the photos I've added below I shot with my Canon 5D Mark III and a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I've added several photos from the chase day below:

A wicked looking shelf cloud along I-80!
I was really impressive how photogenic this shelf cloud was given how the storms were not really organized at all...
Getting closer, time to head east again...
It sure was an interesting sight along the interstate as many other drivers pulled off snapping photos with their phones...
Mean looking shelf cloud, but more bark then bite...
Amazing view!
They don't get much better than this!
Quite an epic shelf cloud!
"It's gonna rain!"
"Iowa corn and a storm"
It was a good morning of photography as I really didn't expect much of anything...
Circulation for a brief period!
This got dominated quick by outflow, but for a minute or two looked suspicious!
Gusty outflow and gustnadoes galore...
The outflow did pack a punch!

Overall, this day had some bonus photography in the morning with a photogenic shelf cloud while the afternoon storms went pretty much as expected being quite outflow dominate and provided a few good photos. I would later also storm chase on June 17th in Illinois and I'll add that post in the coming days.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

06/12/17 Kimball, NE Tornadic Supercell

"The mothership has landed" as a supercell produces a tornado northwest of Kimball, NE

On June 12th, I started the morning in Sidney, NE after a terrible hotel experience the previous night. After spending the night in a cheap to say the least hotel where I slept with mosquitoes in my room all night I began to head west with an initial target of Cheyenne, WY. I had been eye-balling this potential chase day for many days prior while I was traveling and photographing in Arizona and Utah. It seemed this day had "real" potential for not only storm chasing, but tornadoes as well. Kind of got that feeling if you didn't chase today you were really gonna regret it. By 11:00am, I was already at my target just east of Cheyenne, WY at a gas station along I-80. The atmosphere was already primed as some low-clouds burned off and strong heating and moistening were occurring. All the models tended to point to several supercells in an arc from north of Cheyenne, WY southeast into Colorado. My thoughts on the day were to let the northern storms that would fire early go and wait for the southern storms that would develop in Colorado move northeast into a very favorable area for tornadoes near I-80 by early evening. The area in which I sat along I-80 for a couple hours during the early afternoon featured 3,000J/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 50kts, 0-3km SRH at 200m2/s2, a supercell composite of 12, the significant tornado parameter at 2, and a moistening boundary-layer with dew points near 64°F. By early-afternoon, storms initiated off the Front Range near Ft. Collins, CO and began moving northeast and quickly became supercells. It appeared these supercells were maturing quickly so I began to head southeast on WY Rt. 214 toward Grover, CO. I stopped and took a few photos of these maturing supercells off to my northwest. These supercells were really spinning at this point, but the road network was horrible. While I was heading southeast to get away from the precipitation cores of these two supercells my paved highway turned to gravel without much of any warning. My Garmin and GPS on my computer simply failed me on this go around. This "paved highway" turned to gravel for miles and miles that seemed like it was endless. It was one of the worst gravel roads I've ever come across where you'd be lucky to travel 20mph safely. Anyhow, these supercells I could tell were getting close to producing, but I was already out of position thanks to this terrible gravel road. I knew if I turned around I would still would have a big problem since I could only go so fast to catch back up to these storms and running across the precipitation cores of these storms. At this point, I thought my chase day that had such great potential was pretty much over as fast as it started. I quickly made a ball or strike call to head away from the supercells southeast continuing along this stupid gravel road to CO Rt. 14 which thank the good lord was paved. This however, took me way out of position farther away from the storms and go figure tornado reports started lighting up my computer. Frustrating would be an understatement! With that being said, I continued east and finally began to head back north on CO Rt. 71. This would take me back to the supercell that seemed to go tornado crazy. I finally get a view of some "mothership" storm structure off I-80 where I stopped and took a few photos south of Kimball, NE. I then preceded to travel north on NE Rt. 71 where I stopped and spent a good 20-minutes photographing some insane storm structure at this point. It seemed this storm wasn't too far off from producing a tornado as I was only a few miles to its southeast. I began setting up my shot and snapping photos away and what do you know the supercell in the background decides it is gonna drop a nice cone tornado. How bout that?! I find myself photographing a mothership supercell only to have a tornado sneak into my shots in the background. I was ecstatic at this point so I continued to track this supercell once the tornado lifted where I saw a few intermittent tornadoes along NE Rt. 71 the rest of the evening. The surface winds were screaming during the evening which I'm sure was vital to tornadogenesis as well as these storms tapping into the moist-axis in western Nebraska. By far, the chase day wasn't easy! Missing the Carpenter, WY tornado stung a little especially when I drove through that exact area prior, but I didn't end up empty-handed thankfully after the gravel road fiasco. I shot all these photos with my Canon 5D Mark III and the Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens I rented for the trip which I will say was quite impressive. A radar loop from the NWS illustrating the tornadic supercells can be found here. Storm reports from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) can be found here. A great write-up of the tornado outbreak from the National Weather Service (NWS) can be found here as well. I've added a bunch of photos from the successful chase day below:

Welcome to Wyoming...and I love the brand new sign design!
First view of the southernmost supercell before it produces the Carpenter, WY tornado a half hour later...
Grungy mothership coming into view along I-80...
Mothership supercell while another supercell spins as well in the background!
A wide-angle view as it's starting to get good...
 I traveled north of Kimball, NE and found a good spot off NE Rt. 71 to setup for about 20-minutes!
One of the better supercells I've been lucky enough to photograph in years!
Surface winds were very strong at this point and it wasn't too long after that tornadogenesis occurred from the supercell in the background...
This sucker kept putting out some intense CG's but I kept missing the really good ones, but I managed a lucky daylight bolt in this shot though...
Still spinning like crazy...
A tad wider on this shot!
This was my first time testing out a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 for storm photography and it's safe to say I'll be purchasing one fairly soon as it greatly exceeded my expectations...
Funnel attempt in the background...
I was hoping this mothership would tornado as I had it framed on my camera really well at my location for a good while...
This supercell sure delivered on storm structure!
"Omnious skies"
"Tornadogenesis"
A nice cone tornado develops a few miles to my west-northwest!
Quite unique to have a mothership in the foreground and a tornado from another supercell in the background!
"The chase"
Tornado #1
Getting close to the rope out stage...
Closer-view...
Tornado beginning to rope out!
 Tornado #2
 Intermittent touchdowns in the background...
Mothership getting mean...
I begin to drive north to catch back up...
"The spinning bowl"
Tornado #3
Wide-angle shot of this quick tornado!
Tornado #4? 
It seemed in that dark mass something was going on, but about a mile too far away to tell for sure...
Another supercell comes into view!
This one was getting more messy, but man it sure did try on many occasions...
"Rotating mass"
Tightening rotation!
Almost there...
I thought it might drop a quick one here as it got oh so close and funneled...
Couldn't quite do it...

This was one of the most interesting chase days for myself that I can remember. My forecasting didn't miss a beat during the morning and I sure targeted the right area. If it wasn't for an unpredictable gravel road my execution would have been nearly perfect on this chase day. How often can you say that? If you chase enough you know that almost never happens. Something usually goes wrong. You usually make a forecasting error, navigation error, target the wrong storm, chase the storm at the wrong time, have no luck, etc. There are so many variables that have to go your way to say the least. Mother Nature sure did deliver on this day though! I also chased on June 14th and I'll add pictures from that chase in an upcoming post.