2006 Storm Chases


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November 30 - December 1, 2006: Camping Out During a Winter Storm in Western MO

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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September 22, 2006: Supercells in NE Arkansas

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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September 21, 2006: Supercell in SE Oklahoma

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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August 5-11, 2006: Family Trip and Sunsets in Fenwick Island, DE

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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June 11, 2006: LP Supercell, Shelf Cloud and Sunset in NE Colorado

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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June 8, 2006: Supercells in South Central and SE Montana

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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June 7, 2006: Storm Chasing in the mountains of NE Idaho

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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June 6, 2006: Traveling across S WY to E ID - Blowing dust and Gustnadoes

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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June 5, 2006: Lowering in McCook, SD

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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May 30, 2006: Supercell, Gustnadoes in NE NM, OK Panhandle

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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May 23, 2006: Shelf cloud formation in SE SD

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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May 9, 2006: Updraft base in SE OK

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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May 8, 2006: Supercell and Wall Cloud formation near Garden City, KS

Chase Summary: coming soon...



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May 2, 2006: Supercell near Turkey, TX and Supercell/Tornado NE of Chillicothe, TX

Chase Summary: Adam Atkins, Khoi Le and myself intercepted the first storm of the day
near Turkey, TX. This storm looked very good for a while and really tried to wrap up along
Highway 86 to the north of Turkey. The first five pictures were taken along this
highway as we looked off to the southwest, and fairly strong rotation was observed in the
lowering seen in the last two pics below... See where we were via ThreatNet



With the core of the storm approaching from the NW, we decided to head down to Turkey, and
then ESE on Ranch Road 656. We maintained visual with the base the entire time, and a very
impressive rotating wall cloud formed off to our east as we approached Turkey. We never saw
the tornado that was reported east of Turkey, despite being in very good position the entire
time. There is a chance that the very wet RFD may have blocked our view of any potential
action as we looked to the north from Hwy 86, but I will remain skeptical until a definite tornado
picture/video surfaces since many chasers were on this storm.



The Turkey storm then became very HP so we decided to cut in front of it and head towards
Childress where a new cell was beginning to show signs of rotation. We intercepted this
cell along Hwy 287 SE of Childress, and it began looking very impressive visually to the north
of Quanah. Here we observed a nice rotating wall cloud a mile or so to our west, before being
hit by strong westerly outflow. We then immediately knew that the tornado potential was zero,
so we continued ESE on HWY 287 trying to stay ahead of the outflow. We needed to get north
a little to see anything, so in Chillicothe we took farm road 91 to the north, and then east.
We once again got hit by the westerly outflow/RFD, but as we turned to the ENE the winds
immediately shifted to warm/easterly and a mult-vortex tornado formed very quickly within
1/2 mile or so to the northwest. The tornado lasted for 30-40 seconds, and appeared to be quite
strong as individual vortices could be seen churning up the mud/small plants on a hillside. As
quickly as it formed the tornado died, as the dense/strong outflow rapidly cutoff the warm inflow.
The pics below are all video stills, as it was too dark to get any good photos without using
a tripod. Thanks to Khoi for filming the video, and to Adam for supplying the mpg/stills.
Click here for the tornado video



All in all this was a very satisfying chase... The supercell near Turkey was beautiful and the
tornado was a very difficult one to find. In order to see it you had to be on the exact
farm road that we were on. Anyways, this was my first tornado of 2006! Whew!

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April 28, 2006: Supercell from NW of Del Rio, TX to Fredericksburg, TX

Chase Summary: The target for the day was south of I-10 in Texas, somewhere in or just east of the Pecos Valley.
After waiting for a while in Ozona, I decided to head southwest on road 2083 toward Pandale after
storms began to fire near the Rio Grande. Initially the storms were very unorganized, and I had to cut
east on a 20-mile curvy/gravel road towards Juno to stay ahead of the rain. I made it eventually, and the
updrafts began to merge into two discrete cells off to my west. I initially played the northern one, going
north out of Juno on 163, and even seeing a wall cloud-like feature begin to form in the 2nd pic
below. Then, the southern cell began to look incredible, and became tornado-warned, so I headed
south on 163.



Unfortunately, there was one big problem with road 163... It ran north south through a river valley,
and big hills surrounded the road on the west and east sides. I tryed in vain to get a good view
of the sw sky, but eventually had to settle on the marginal view in the pics below, with a big hill
to my nw side. The incredible base of the supercell passed north of me by several miles and when it passed
I didn't see anything on the ground. However, the edges of a giant wall cloud can be seen on a few of
the pics below, on either side of that large hill to my NW. Given the radar representation of the
storm (120 knots gate to gate), it would surprise me if it didn't produce somewhere west of 163.
However, viewing off to the west was impossible, but the condensation was wrapping around very
impressively on either side of the wall cloud. Also, the inflow into the storm was very, very strong.
Eventually I was forced to head all the way down to near Del Rio, and then NE from there, and I didn't
catch back up with the storm until it was near the north-central part of Kerr county. Radar images
of the storm when it was just NW of me, and passing to my north can be found here:
RADAR
VELOCITY



Once I caught back up with the storm, what I saw was an incredible LP supercell. The view as I
approached from the SW was breathtaking, with a very well-defined flanking line leading towards the
main tower that tilted into the storm. However, tornado-wise something just wasn't right, as the
RFD was having trouble punching far enough east to really create some good low-level circulation.
A couple of non-rotating wall clouds formed, but it never came close to producing. Still, it was
a beautiful storm.



This was a fairly satisfying chase... I had always wanted to chase south of I-10 just for the
experience, and it definitely was just that. Down there it really is just you and the storms, as
I saw no other chasers and hardly any other people when I was initially on the cells. The terrain
and horrible road network make it difficult, but this also kind of adds to the excitement.
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April 26, 2006: Supercells near Stillwater, OK and El Reno, OK

Chase Summary: The initial plan for the day was to head up towards Southard in NW OK to
play the dryline, outflow boundary intersection. Low level shear wasn't overplay impressive on
the day so we thought the outflow boundary would help out. As it turns out, storms fired pretty
early around and east of Southard along some sort of pre-frontal wind shift, so we decided to follow
them for a while. We got on a pretty good storm near Stillwater, OK, and despite the modified air
the low level features began to look pretty interesting for a while. The storm may have been
slightly elevated, but we were about five miles east of a wall cloud that began to form in picture
four, and the winds there were still easterly. This gave us a little hope, as broad weak rotation
was also observed in the lowering. However, soon after this photo another storm blasted into this
one from the south, and it was pretty much game over for the area. We then decided to head west
and then south on I-35 in hopes of dryline formation later on.



On our way south, towers began to go up NW of Lawton. Eventually, an incredible looking supercell
formed in the area, and we headed for it. Unfortunately, as soon as we got there it turned right
very hard and began to run into other storms to its south. Our attention then turned to the north
and a storm along I-40. We made it up there shortly after a couple of tornadoes were reported,
and it was still trying to wrap up pretty good when we got there. The wall cloud in the pics below
was rotating pretty good, and we were in prime position to see a beautiful tornado silhouetted by the
red sunset, but nothing materialized. We did see some pretty incredible mammatus though.



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March 12, 2006: Storms firing just before sunset in northeast OK

Chase Summary: I decided to head to NE OK to see if storms could break the cap. I decided against
going to northern Missouri because of the poor chase country and the speed storms would be moving
up there. It obviously looked best up there for tornadoes, but opted for a trip close to home
anyways. The cap held most of the day, but just before sunset these towers/storms began firing
off to our east. It would be dark soon, so we decided to call it a day and not follow the storms.
Still, the colors in the towers were very beautiful and an impressive pileus cloud formed as the
storms matured. On the bright side, Khoi came with me on this chase, and we decided to swing by
and pick up a puppy on the way back home. His name is Benji.



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