2017 Storm Chase Day 1 - 6/26/17

I have pledged to dye my hair an outrageous color if we see any tornadoes on this trip! Special thanks to Connor, who I stole the idea from (he dyed his hair pink as promised when his tour encountered tornadoes).

Day 1 of the storm chase was such a thrill. It ended with a beautiful super cell (but no tornadoes).

Our first storm was in east Colorado and was severe warned (means significant damaging hail) after we left it. Roger was worried about leaving the storm, but he knew conditions were much better for severe storms in Kansas rather than in Colorado.

A later storm was in west Kansas and was severed warmed.

Then Roger was faced with the decision between following two storms. In the end, he decided to follow the more northerly, newer storm, which led to our final storm of that day. In west Kansas, further south, it served up the mother load - the mother ship, a stack-of-plates severe storm that our guide, Roger, said was in the top ten photogenic severe storms of the season. It was tornado warned but produced no tornadoes.

I used to have a tool in which you could look at the GPS track and see precisely where these pictures were taken along the track. That is no longer available, and I have not found a suitable alternative. However, I found wikiloc, which allows me to share the GPS track, along with photos not tagged with the track. Still, the location data is the meta-data embedded in the jpeg files. I will keep trying to find it. Until I can find that, here is the GPS track from wikiloc, along with six pictures (the max allowed) for the track.

As far as the future forecast for the week, today (day 2, Tuesday) will be spent in western Nebraska and possibly South Dakota. The road networks are very poor out there, so finding as photogenic of a shot as we did yesterday will prove more difficult. However, I think tornadoes are possible, as does the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). Day 3 (Wednesday) looks like we will chase in Iowa, where tornadoes are also possible. Day 4 (Thursday) looks like a chase in Kansas/Nebraska/Iowa/Missouri border zone. Day 5 (Friday) looks like a chase in Missouri, and day 6 (Saturday) looks like a chase along the Kansas/Colorado border. It is too early to predict whether or not tornadoes are possible on the final three days.

As far as my diet goes, it is reasonably intact, with my morning walk making up (somewhat) for the extra calories consumed.