September 15, 2006 |  Supercells, Funnel Clouds and Possible Tornado in Southern NE
All photos © Copyright 2006 Matt Ziebell
What a roller coaster ride this week was.  I made a cross country drive for what was shaping up to be an active end to the week weather-wise, but by midweek the models began downplaying everything.  At this point I was already in MO and decided to make the most out of whatever would happen Friday and Saturday.  Sure enough, the models later seesawed one more time in favor of a late season chase and my fears were abated. 

Anyways, today I played the northern target after starting out in Hays, KS.  By 2pm local time, the Cu had already started bulking up and while in Almena, KS I noticed much deeper growth nearby.   With initiation underway, it was just a matter of time for any of these to organize further in this nicely sheared environment.
 
This Cb organized to my northwest and quickly crossed into NE.  While not great structure here, the RFB did showcase some wall clouds earlier on.  1554 CDT
North of Orleans, NE watching a non rotating wall cloud.  1605 CDT
 
About 10mi southwest of Holdrege this storm still looks nice, but my attention quickly shifts to an explosive Cb southwest of this one.  1624 CDT
This new cell was already rotating when I arrived and I was quite impressed with its vault shown here on the right.  1643 CDT

It wasn't long before I could see distinct rotation within a wall cloud which later produced a funnel shown here in the second and third images. 
 
The rotating wall cloud is actually in the upper right (southeast of the clear slot).  This cell is moving towards Holdrege where it would eventually dump golfball size hail.  1654 CDT
 		 The previous storm eventually lost its character so I shot east on I-80 to get ahead of some new development towards Grand Island.  On radar, a lot of the storms quickly acquired rotation, though only a few were really remaining alone long enough to be supercells.  This storm shown here began rotating rapidly east of Grand Island along I-80.  1834 CDT
 
An awesome anvil cavity underway from a potent updraft to my south.
I took the York exit to find a nice place to watch a cell that was moving up from Hastings.  All I remember from early on is that this updraft organized incredibly fast--the hodographs today were quite arced.  Take note of the wall cloud already visible in the distance and a clear slot nearby.  Here's some nice mammatus on the southeast edge of this storm's anvil.  1905 CDT

At the time, my video tape had ended forcing me to go inside my car and replace it.  Upon stepping back out, I saw this sunlit lowering to my northwest.  I recall having seeing some ill-organized rotation, however my video is inconclusive thanks to me not steadying it on the tripod.  Much worse, I totally brain farted and never thought to call this in...I guess I was too caught up in trying to see actual rotation.  If you subscribe to the 50% or better rule, then this is a tornado.  For now, I'm leaving it as a funnel until NWS-GID says otherwise.  Note: the left two images are video grabs.  1907-1910 CDT
 
A wider view.  The inflow into this supercell was incredible--my kestrel measured a gust to 53mph at one time!  If you don't believe this, then look at the cornfield in the rightmost image above.  Yes, those are corn shalks being lifted into the sky! 

Looking at radar, I'd put this potential tornado about 6mi NW of the city of York.  Shortly after this, the funnel stretched out further before evaporating.  1911 CDT
With daylight fading, I was unable to get back ahead of this supercell before it (or a trailing supercell according to radar) produced the tornado in Surprise.  After this video grab, I could only see some vague meso structure off to the left from downlighting in the RFD.

  
After letting the tornado warned supercell pass off into the darkness, I went back to York for a motel and was treated to more impressive development nearby.  This growth became the Seward Cty supercell that was later TOR warned.  2012 CDT
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All photos © Copyright 2006 Matt Ziebell