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The first Cbs popped NW of KSUX...soft and
elevated...later became orphan anvils. |
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I caught a glimpse of some crisp TCu to my WSW near
Norfolk and went after them since nothing else looked better. |
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A
full blown Cb was already in progress not more than 30min after the
previous shot! |
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The "Fist of God" (or mushroom cloud) upstream of the
initial Cb. A time lapse would have been beautiful, but I chose to
keep driving given its explosive development. Check out the backshearing
just minutes later! |
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Anvil canopy south
of Wayne, NE. |
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Rotating wall
cloud to the NW...not far from Stanton, NE. I observed two separate
funnels before this shot which were picked up immediately by the local
spotters...compliments to them for their work which got the warning out in
time. |
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Another
shot. I'm on the edge of the FFD, but found it hard to keep driving
knowing this would likely produce at any moment. |
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"I went down to
the Crossroads....but took a left!" I considered continuing west
here, but instead went south to avoid a repeat of last month's close
encounter. |
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Rather strong rotation here with a tail
cloud becoming more evident. The RFD is just beginning its
work. |
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Debris cloud! The diagonal streaks
are hailstones catching back up with me. I was not going to start
driving as this tornado developed. |
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Condensation fills in and removes all
doubt. My view was deteriorating rapidly due to the dense
FFD. |
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Dissipating fast. I shot south only
to encounter scattered 3" stones that cracked my windshield and left
several souvenirs. I looked back but didn't see any sign of the
tornado. A minute or so later I looked again and saw a much larger
vortex unfolding! The official NWS survey has these tornadoes listed as two separate events. |
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I didn't get any stills or video of it
during its most impressive phase, but I did catch everything
thereafter. Wide shot showing meso, distant precip core on the right
underneath the vault and signs of RFD advancement. A new wall cloud is developing along the stormscale triple point (top foreground). |
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A closer look. Early on, the debris
cloud was very firm and compact with NE soil. The tornado moved very
slowly...generally to the S and later SE. I'm roughly 8 miles SE of Stanton. Steve Peterson and company in the foreground. |
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Roping out as I see the precip core racing
south down the HWY. I don't recall seeing rotation with the new wall cloud. |
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Heading west and getting in the preferred
viewing quadrant for the Stanton supercell. To my west there lies a
behemoth of a left split supercell. I could see the base of the
right split early on, but was more concerned about the supercell just to
my north at this point. |
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So much for the meso from the Stanton
supercell. That dense precip cascade in the previous image was
moving ENE and surprised me at this time with golfball sized
hail. |
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Here is the right mover's meso looking
SE. Wow! I aborted this after a hailshaft wrapped it up...but
not before producing a wall
cloud. There may have very well been a tornado in this guy
afterwards that no one saw. A new supercell caught my attention to
the SW after all of this. |
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I love chases that involve decisions made
solely on visual observations! I may have just gotten lucky, but
this new supercell would soon have a very persistent funnel behind a
significant rainfoot. This is the view to the SW heading south on
HWY 81. The slope of this rainfoot will coincide perfectly with
what's about to develop! |
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A better view of the funnel. No
debris was seen while on top of the hills at this time. Shortly
after this, an Arby's truck came by and picked up the
cow....mmmm. :) |
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I'm still mobile trying to find a good spot
to pull over. Debris was visible at this point. |
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Very picturesque. It would have been
nice to be west of this seeing that there is backlighting underway.
Note the slope of the vortex is identical to the slope of the
rainfoot/cold pool from 3 images previous. |
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Wider view with a new meso developing to
its south. |
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Roping out. |
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Still roping out...what a slacker! |
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Successive tail-end Charlies.
Following the performance of the first supercell, I went SW for the next
cell in line (in Howard Cty) all the while watching the last one.
What was likely happening was updraft seeding and/or undercutting. Radar
verifies pretty well with this. |
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The next supercell to the SW viewed from
near Archer, NE. |
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North of Grand Island looking south.
RFD winds were picking up dust left and right closer to the updraft.
This cell seemed to lose its features fast as a western cell's precip core
invaded the updraft. The supercell later regenerated before
sunset. |
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At the motel in Grand Island observing the
supercell back at full strength. Simply gorgeous. Eerily, I was given the exact same motel room from one month ago while
chasing in this area! |
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Another view. |
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Beautiful mammatus at sunset. |
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I got out of the city to document the vivid
lightning display at night, but I started taking stills too late.
The video captured the show, though when I started the stills this renegade
LP cell developed in the supercell's wake and blocked the lightning.
A nice beaver's tail nonetheless! |