Storm Chase Details


Chase Date: May 15, 2015
Miles Logged: 1115
States Chased: KS, NE, CO
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks

Chase Recap:

This was a day I was looking forward to for a few days out and was the first with Jari here in the USA with us. We began our journey the night before after I got out of work. Woke up to an 8am departure from the Hampton Inn in Salina. Brett Wright rode up with us before heading off further with Brandon Sullivan.

On the road early

We awoke early and were on the road shortly before or after 8am heading west on I-70 with an initial target in Northeast Colorado. It would be an early show due to lack of EML and a nice jet streak pouring over the area per Water Vapor.

We headed up north from Burlington, CO through eastern Colorado all the way to a pit stop in Holyoke to top off the tanks and get into intercept mode.

Up into Nebraska we ended up along and just north of I-80 as towers were going up. We almost had perfect timing on initiation, and weren’t too late or too early.

We followed a storm north of Chappell at first before heading west towards Gurley for a second storm. We dropped south towards Sidney and west yet again, watching a storm wrap up and almost produce a tornado. It was a nice funnel, but never seemed to touch the ground. The air seemed extremely cold, I was in a jacket and freezing my balls off.

We would aggrevatingly follow this storm north as it moved north into crappy roads before giving up. The car we were in was not going to handle this so well and Lindsey was driving.

We decided to play further south at the storms in Colorado, and would make it south to Sterling before giving up on the day and having Taco Johns and marathon driving south to Garden City for the evening.