March 28, 2007 - Supercell and Tornadoes in west Cherry Co, Ne
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Chase Summary: On March 27 I took a long look at all the 12z model runs, along with
every piece of data I could find. I eventually decided that the best area would be NE of the
surface low, on the north side of the forecasted dryline bulge. Low level shear was forecast to
be maximized in this area, and it also looked like this area had the best potential for storms to
form and move off the boundary and stay isolated. I was worried about the storm motions being too
parallel to the boundary further south, so i decided to head up to North Platte and stay the night.
Of course when I got to North Platte and checked out the new 0z models, things looked better further
south since the low was ejecting a little more slowly and it looked like winds might not back as much
in the mid-levels as I had feared. It basically looked like a potential outbreak everywhere on the 0z runs,
but I still liked the low level shear in NW Nebraska best, and plus, I was already almost there.
The first two pics are from extreme South Central KS on my way up on the 27th. Some decent cold core storms formed
underneath the upper low, and there was actually a slight chance for tornadoes given the low level
shear. I watched a somewhat impressive storm for a while, but never saw any serious rotation. The third pic
was taken in the Central NE panhandle, looking off to the NW... Storms were firing on a cold front that had
moved east out of WY. Fortunately I didn't get suckered into heading after these storms, since I thought
the cold front would likely undercut the storms, removing any potential for tornadoes and solid sfc-based
development. This is pretty much what happened, and I headed east towards Northwestern Cherry county where I
waited for storms to fire to my south and race towards me. While waiting I saw a badass snapping
turtle near Cottonwood Lake, NE... It was about 2 feet long from tail to head; very impressive.
Eventually three small storms fired and started racing towards me. (RADAR IMAGE)
I intially favored the eastern-most one for obvious reasons, but it eventually became clear that the central
one was taking over, so I headed south out of Merriman. With almost no road options off to the west, I found
the tallest sand dune I could find and I placed my tripod right on top. The storm was intially about 20 miles
off to my SW when I zoomed in and snapped these pictures of the base, and wall cloud/funnel formation.
By picture 10 (taken at 6:01 MDT) it was clear that a large funnel had formed and was likely about to touch
down, or doing so already. This quickly widened to a a decent sized stovepipe/cone and traveled off to the NNE.
It was reported to be 150-200 yards wide near Morgan Lake, which was very close to the initial formation. It
would definitely get much wider.
In picture 14, lots of new condensation was forming underneath the wall cloud, and it looked like the tornado
was about to grow substantially in size. Sure enough by picture 16 (taken at 6:07 MDT), a large wedge
tornado had clearly formed. Here's a radar and velocity
image from 0006 UTC, or right around when the wedge formed.
By picture 19, the original tornado is smaller, and had moved back into the rain a little, but is still
slightly visible. In addition it looks like a new tornado had formed on the north side of the wall cloud. A
large hill blocks my view for the next few minutes, so I am not sure how long this tornado was on the ground.
Eventually when the wall cloud emerges from behind the hill, no tornado can be seen. This new wall cloud moves
back into the rain, and the original funnel from the first tornado can now be seen coming out of the rain
in picture 24. The rain lets up in picture 25, and two wall clouds can be seen in pictures 26-29. One would
think the wall cloud in the background is likely occluded by now, but it still produced a nice funnel in
picture 30, as the closer wall cloud gains condensation and also has a clear funnel in picture 31.
The new, closer wall cloud becomes disjointed, and a clear rope can be seen on the left side of this now
disorganized wall cloud in picture 33 (6:35 MDT). In my opinion, this was one of the coolest pictures I took of
this storm, since behind the rope you can see two large funnels still going underneath the original wall cloud that formed
the wedge. Both funnels could easily have a strong circulation the ground, but given my vantage point
I definitely can't say for sure whether or not these can officially be considered tornadoes; In my mind
one or both probably were... It was definitely a strange situation for the original wall cloud which
should've been occluded to still have strong funnels and possible tornadoes when the newer circulation
was now roping out, but this appeared to be the case.
All in all this was a very exciting day. Sure lots of other chasers got more photogenic stuff further south,
mostly because the road network was much better, but I absolutely loved my storm.
It was also kind of cool knowing that I was probably the only chaser on this
storm, and I pretty much had a personal 35-40 minute show of intense tornadic activity all to myself.
I did make sure to call in and report the tornado when it was first touching down, but
unfortunately my storm report from this call looks off, as it was reported 20 miles south of Merriman... In
actuality I was about 20 mi south of Meriman, AND looking off to my SW an addition 20-25 miles, so the report should
be much further west than it was listed... I thought I made this clear in the phone call, but I guess not; no
big deal though.
There were lots of other tornadoes that occurred on this day and you can see all of them, along with
the two reports from my storm in NW Ne, in the image below.
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