An amazing photogenic (LP) supercell spins over the Sandhills of Nebraska near Ringgold, NE
On May 22nd, I decided to travel to western Nebraska as it appeared this would be a good chase day that held some good potential for tornadoes and especially supercells along the dry line. I spent most of the day on I-80 heading west toward North Platte, NE where I stopped to re-analyze where I would like to target for severe convection on this day. This area along the dry line featured 4,000K/kg of CAPE, 0-6km shear at 35kts, the supercell composite at 20, the significant tornado parameter at 3, and a moist boundary-layer with dew points at 65°F. After being patient for most of the afternoon waiting for storms to initiate in this area storms began to initiate south of some on-going severe convection near Valentine, NE. I ended up traveling north of North Platte, NE on U.S. 83 as a severe thunderstorm developed just northeast of North Platte, NE moving toward Stapleton, NE. This storm tried to get organized and had a nice updraft on it, but seemed to struggle with a cap (warm-layer aloft) still in place and after chasing this storm for about a half hour it met its demise. I then decided to head northwest where some new convection was beginning to form near Ringgold, NE. I was quite pleased with my decision as these updrafts quickly began to rotate. This storms quickly became supercellular and were low-precip as well. This provided me with some spectacular photography and storm structure that the other storm didn't provide much of. This low-precipitation (LP) supercell had an awesome updraft and was awesome to watch! I shot several pictures along NE Rt. 92 as this developing supercell moved northeast. This supercell would also meet its demise as well fairly quickly unfortunately. Near sunset I called it a chase and spent the night at a Best Western in North Platte, NE. I've added several shots of the (LP) supercell I chased below:
One heck of an updraft to my west!
The atmosphere was quite unstable along the dry line!
I found a nice open spot to spend some time photographing this picturesque rotating updraft!
You gotta love the western High Plains!
A beautiful supercell!
Wall cloud under the base of the spinning updraft...
"A supercell's tilted updraft"
Great contrast and storm structure this storm featured for a brief time!
The first storm I chased is now meeting its demise near sunset which was really interesting to observe the dissipating "barber pole" rotating updraft here...
Overall, this was a decent chase day! I may have missed out on the tornadoes especially in Kansas near Scott City, KS, but I made the best of it with some really great storm structure in Nebraska. I ended up traveling back to Illinois the next day on May 23rd. On the drive back home to Illinois I caught a few storms in Iowa along the way that I'll add those photos to an upcoming post as well.
