Storm Chase Details
Miles Logged: 956
States Chased: NE, KS
Tornadoes Witnessed: 1
Largest Hail Encountered: 1.50 in.
Highest Wind Encountered: 85 MPH
Spotter Network Reports: 3
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Severe Reports: Storm Reports
After staying in Hutchinson, we departed for Sterling, Colorado in the morning. We perhaps had stayed a little further east than we should have, but discovered a great Garden Inn in Hutchinson with a built in Old Chicago.
Decision to go North to I-80
We headed up to I-70 and started west towards Hays/Colby. With the Sterling, Colorado target, Waze was telling us to head up to I80 in Hays. Logistically, staying on I-70 could be advantageous if we have convective initiation a little further south. We made the decision to go north to I-80 with an eventual stop in North Platte. A quick assessment of the air temperature being cold told us we were too far north and we started to head south on 83.
Storm near Trenton, Nebraska
As we neared Wellfleet, the storm just west of Trenton started blowing up. Tops started spiking high in a few scans. It was obvious this was probably the storm to be on, so we set course for Hayes Center. In retrospect, we should have stayed south on US83 to McCook and then west to Trenton. We had anticipated slow moving storms, but I was still over compensatory on storm motions and did not think we had the time to get to McCook then west.
After an extensive country tour, we were on highway 25 southbound into Hayes Center and down to Trenton. The storm had continued to grow, overtaking the entirety of the sky. We were on the storm pretty early, heading closer to Stratton on the rural roads south of US34. The storm seemingly was wrapping up, the evolution very good to this point. Then the trash started blowing up to its south and entraining moisture into the updraft.
We worked our way south and east towards highway 25 where we encountered an impassable mud road and had to back track. Thankfully, the storm speeds were extremely slow so we were able to safely do so.
Power Lines falling along Highway 25 in Atwood
As we were heading south on 25 towards Atwood, we saw a tornado report pop up on radar. I was taken aback, as I had not seen anything to our south that would have made me think there was a tornado. Moments after, we encountered the downed power lines for ourselves with a backed up line of chasers. Winds were from the east at significant gusts. What I didn’t realize until later was that both sides of the road had power lines running along, and both sides were blown down with some incredible straight line wind gusts.
A couple of tense moments as we continued south, with winds gusting easily to 75 MPH. A severe lack of roads in this area funneled everyone onto this one highway as we headed south through Atwood. More tornado reports were popping up, although I never officially saw anything. It seemed like it was straight line winds and not tornadic in nature, but its very possible there was a tornado we did not observe.
Zero Visibility due to Dust
After a few miles south of Atwood, the road options started opening back up with a nicely gridded secondary road. Inflow winds started surging, and visibility became very poor as dust started filling the skies from the dry fields. All of the chasers driving, stirring up dust did not help. Even with strong inflow winds, the dust seemed to stick over the road.
We opted to bail south on the road grid, trying to get well ahead of the storm as it was obvious it was becoming dangerous to be out there. As we were continuing south, we got into almost complete black out conditions where we came upon another chaser stopped. Luckily we were able to avoid hitting them, but it created confusion and we were now both sitting ducks. I was able to put down the passenger window and guide JR back onto the road and we were able to escape, with the other vehicle following us. We measured winds to 61, but had a few gusts of around 85 on the roof top airmar weather station. I assumed the spikes were caused by the dust, but we believe they may have been legitimate readings now.
Decision to call the Chase and Head Home
We continued south to US-83 between Rexford and Selden and continued to try and avoid the dust at all costs. Some rain had fallen south of the main inflow which helped with the dust slightly. We managed a few shelf cloud pictures before bailing to I-70 and heading home.
JR drove straight through and we arrived back into Norman around 2am.
