Chase 2017
Target: Coldwater, Kansas
Scattered supercells formed in far southern Kansas on April 15. After hanging out for a little bit in northwest Oklahoma I jumped north toward Coldwater, Kansas where I watched a high-based LP storm with strong rotation. The setting sun made for a photogenic scene.
Target: Coffeyville, Kansas
Headed toward far southeast Kansas to intercept scattered severe convection. The highlight of this trip was in the area of Copan, Oklahoma where the storm became briefly tornadic. We stopped near Coffeyville to film the storm pushing outward. There we also let the storm impact our location, where we experienced strong thunderstorm winds around 60 mph.
Target: Goodland, Kansas
Met with Josh and Barb Boustead near Goodland, Kansas to catch storms coming off of the Colorado High Plains. The storms were moving around 40 to 50 mph, so keeping in front of them was a task. The dirt road network was not favorable and the storm overtook us southeast of Goodland. Here we encountered 60-70 mph winds, wind swept dust, and large hail around quarter to golfball sized.
Target: Burlington, Colorado
Moving westward from the previous day, we intercepted an incredible supercell near Flagler and Burlington Colorado. This storm was the most photogenic just before sunset as it moved across the Colorado high plains, into western Kansas. The storm showed tremendous structure for a good portion of the time, and ultimately dissipated as it went into western Kansas and the Goodland area.
Target: Blair, Nebraska
Started the day around West Point, Nebraska with a pretty marginal supercell. The structure from this storm was pretty adequate for a couple hours, but the more notable aspect was the frequent lightning it produced. There weren’t much opportunities for photographing this storm with the constant barrage of cloud to ground lightning. The storm never really amounted to much until the twilight hours, when it got south of Omaha and produced some tornadoes in far southeast Nebraska. By this time we had gotten behind the storm, which had become a large supercellular complex. We ended the day behind the storm, parked on I-80 at the Highway 6 offramp shooting the backside mammatus. The storm was also producing constant bolts, so the lighting photography was top notch. The storm ultimately produced a large tornado near the Pacific Junction offramp to I-29 in far southeast Nebraska.
August 21, 2017
Target: California, Missouri
With the total solar eclipse occurring so close to our area we took the short trip eastward along Highway 50 into the path of totality. Ultimately we decided to stop at Proctor Park in California, Missouri. There were not many people there yet, so we set up on the shore of a small pond in the park and waited for totality to occur. Passing clouds made early viewing difficult, but by the time totality occurred the clouds had mostly moved out. The total eclipse occurred at 1:12 pm and lasted approximately two to three minutes before moving off 1:14 pm. Once the moon moved away from the sun, the eclipse was over and we returned home along Highway 50.
Total solar eclipse at Proctor Park in California, Missouri.
Target: Stockton, Kansas
Started the day in Oakley, Kansas, right underneath developing convection. As the storms moved eastward, they became mature and around Grainfield, Kansas jumped north to Highway 24 to lead the storm eastward. Coming along Highway 24 toward Stockton, Kansas stopped at Webster Reservoir to shoot the storm over the lake. The most noteworthy part of this storm was the inflow winds that approached 50 mph at the reservoir. The storm, otherwise, did not amount to much, so I drove home shortly after the Webster Reservoir photos.
