I worked a rather rare midweek afternoon shift at Van Nuys AP, and brought my camera with me. It was a bright and beautiful day with N to NW winds, great visibility, plus a few ACSL around. Don’t tell me that you don’t know that “ACSL” stands for “altocumulus standing lenticular” clouds. These wave clouds were courtesy of fast flow aloft over the Transverse Ranges of Southern California (northwest to northeast of Los Angeles). After a few obligatory airplane pics during the late afternoon, my camera lenses were turned towards the ACSL sunset. Enjoy!

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VIDEO LINK TO YOUTUBE!!

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I spotted a tall and narrow smoke plume to my west while heading home along the Ventura Freeway this evening.  From the Calabasas grade, it appeared that the smoke might have been from somewhere along Las Virgenes, but, no, it was farther west.  I continued a couple of more miles into Agoura, and it became apparent that a fairly significant fire was in progress.  I had my camera with me, so I went into photo-journalist mode!

The smoke plume went straight up into the night sky, which was a relief.  If Santa Ana winds were blowing, then this could be a large disaster.  I exited at Chesebro, with the fire still to my west and a little north of the freeway.  I first tried Canwood, along the freeway.  I managed to get south of the fire, but cops were blocking access to the fire (at Derry Avenue), and the view here was poor.  I went back to Chesebro and then west on Driver.   After a half mile or less I turned south on Lewis Road, and found myself a little east of the fire.  Plenty of locals were milling about here, but it was very dark and I couldn’t figure out how to get closer!  I parked the car, grabbed my camera, and asked someone how I could get closer.  I was directed to a nearby street (Medfield Street), which was closed and fenced off, but easy to access on foot.  This was perfect!  I walked west on Medfield no more than 100 yards and wound up with a couple dozen of other folks—-with a front-row view of the structure fire!

This closed street runs along a slope that is right behind (north of) a number of industrial-type structures that are lined up on the east side of Derry Avenue.  The closest structure to Medfield was the one that was engulfed in flames, no more than 40 yards from myself and the onlookers.  The heat of the flames was intense even where we were!  A strange chain-saw-like sound was coming from the buildings, and I surmised that this was being made by fire fighters who were trying to contain the blaze.  No one around seemed sure as to what type of business or businesses were involved here.  The google satellite image of the complex shows a plain, large, storage-type or light manufacturing-type of facility here.

I shot some stills and video, and soon firefighters were along the back alley right next to the inferno.  They sent a large amount of water onto the building, and the flames were quickly extinguished for the most part.  After about ten minutes here, the show was over!

There were a handful of very major tornado events in the United States during the spring.  The tornado outbreak in MS and AL was in late April, a week before the beginning of my first chase tour for Tempest Tours.  A violent tornado mauled Joplin, Missouri, on May 22.  Our tour was on the storm early on, near Parsons, KS, but we were out of position to catch the Joplin tornado later.  We managed to view a large tornado later in the evening a county or two south of Joplin.  Two days later we busted in northern OK during an outbreak closer to I-40 in OK, but we made up for it the next day in Missouri.  So, the chase season offered several opportunities for chasers to capture amazing and dramatic tornado and severe storm footage and images.  However, the bulk of the big stuff was shunted eastward away from the western and central Great Plains in marginal chase terrain.

I would characterize my personal chase season and chase success in 2011 as about average to a little below average.  The day that sticks in my craw the most is May 24th in OK.  If I had played that one better then I would probably have a much better feeling about 2011.  Nevertheless, I can’t really point to any other day and say that I really messed up, and overall I thought that my chase decision-making was very good.  Oh, yes — one other big tornado day for many chasers was June 20 in northern KS and southern NE, but this was during my week off.  It happens every year!

Outside of the above-mentioned big events, the prime-time chase period of early May to about July 5th was not bountiful tornado-wise.  The first three weeks of May were poor to very poor.  The big week was May 19 to May 25.  The final week of May was generally slow, the first two weeks of June were mixed.  I didn’t chase from June 12 to June 20 (when there were a couple excellent chase days), and the period from June 21 to July 5 was generally a little poorer-than-normal with respect to tornadoes and spectacular supercells.  For the season, I took only a few tornado images, and I didn’t get any GOOD tornado images!  This is in stark contrast to 2010, when photogenic tornadoes were nearby on several occasions.  Fortunately, I had a generally good season with the camera due to a number of amazing and colorful stormy sunset shoots.

Spring and summer on the Plains were dominated by a large and warm upper-level high in the vicinity of TX and NM.  This feature suppressed storminess on the Southern Plains and caused persistent hot to very hot weather south of Interstate 40.  Severe weather was very infrequent south of I-40 after the first of May.  In addition, the High Plains region was drier than normal this spring south of the Cheyenne Ridge and I-80.  Thus, the bulk of my chases were on the Central and Northern Plains, near or east of U.S. 83 (which runs from Bismarck to Pierre to North Platte to Liberal).

I was on the Plains and generally in chase mode or able to chase for 56 days, from May 2 to June 11 and June 21 to July 5.  Some of these days were “change-over” days between tours, but, fortunately, there were no missed big chase days because of tour logistics.  The season breaks down thusly:

Great chase days — 4

Good chase days — 20

Junky chase days — 9

Busts — 5

No chase and/or no storms — 18

The great chase days for me were May 21, 22 and 25, and June 11.  A great chase day is typically one with a long-lived tornado and/or exceptional supercell.  A good chase day falls short of being a great chase day usually because there was no tornado or drop-dead gorgeous structure, but the general feel of the chase and the storms is positive.  A junky chase day is a dud chase day.  It means that there were storms to observe, but they were generally weak or failed to impress, and the photo opportunities were not  good enough to salvage the day.  A bust day is one where there seemed to be good severe potential, but either:  a) I missed the good storm(s) for some reason, such as a poor forecast or poor chase decision, or  b) the atmosphere did not cooperate and there was little or nothing to actually see or chase.   Many junky chase days might be considered busts.   For the “no chase or no storms” category, there might have been something happening somewhere on the Plains, but, if there was, it was considered too distant and/or un-chase-worthy logistically to consider.  About half of these 18 days were due to tour group change-overs, but, again, I didn’t miss much on these occasions…unless you count June 20, when I was stuck in Denver to start a tour the next morning!

So, as you can see, less than half of my available chase days were good or great for 2011.

Let’s look at where I did and did not chase in 2011 and how the Tornado Alley states rated:

TX —- amazingly awful.  I drove through TX on May 2 and 3 to pick up the van for my first tour out of OKC on May 4, and there was no moisture.  My only storm chase in TX was northwest of Fort Worth on May 12, when a small supercell persisted long enough to make it a “good” chase day.  We headed to West TX from OKC on May 16 because it looked like the next day might be good that way, but on the morning of the 17th it was obvious that that would not be the case.  There was a big hail event in West Texas and far eastern NM on May 31, but our group was up in NE and SD and not able to get there.  An impressive supercell or two skirted through the northeastern TX Panhandle on June 11, but we were on a supercell near Liberal, KS.  There were a few days with tornadoes in central and eastern TX towards the end of April, but the remainder of the spring was generally hot and dry and storm-free for the state.

NM — amazingly awful.  Eastern NM and the TX Panhandle region and southwest TX suffered from drought conditions from late winter into summer, 2011.  It was not a place for storm chasers to be outside of one or two days, perhaps.  I did not target NM on any chase days, and I was only in the state during my drive from CA to TX on May 1.

CO — very poor.  Decent low-level moisture from lower-elevation areas to the east made very few forays into eastern CO.  The Plains of eastern CO were generally dry and local moisture sources were distant.  Days with dew points above 50F were few, storms were high-based, and tornado threat was persistently very low.  I usually favor the High Plains versus the lower Plains when there is a choice, but this year I stayed away from the High Plains unless it was the only game or it was logistically convenient.  I was not in CO until June 5, when we observed some junky cells near Eads while on our way from OKC to the western Dakotas.  The two final tours were out of Denver, and we were bailing north out of the state at the beginning of both tours!  I had one good chase day in CO (June 27), thanks to a pretty high-based supercell on the Palmer Divide.  On June 11 some chasers targeted southeastern CO and found an interesting supercell near Pritchett, but we played a little farther east, in the central OK Panhandle, where moisture was a bit better.

WY — poor.  Like eastern CO, eastern WY found quality low-level moisture a rare commodity.  My first visit was on June 6 on the way to MT and SD.   I had three good chase days in eastern WY in late June and early July.

MT — poor.  I targeted southeastern MT on two occasions.  On June 23 we found a decent cell near the WY/MT border northwest of Sheridan.  On June 6th I was in Gillette, WY, and was contemplating a run towards Billings.  The tornado threat was a bit too marginal to commit that far west, especially since the next day’s target was up towards southeastern ND.  We wound up with some so-so stuff northeast of Rapid City, and there was a tornado at dusk north of Billings.

OK — fair.  The OK chase season was severely diminished by the nearby persistent high pressure dome over TX after April.  I had a junky chase near Woodward on May 18, a good chase with a small tornado near Okeene on May 23, and a bust near Medford on May 24 (a good day to forget entirely).  We busted near Enid on May 28, bit we were there only because our tour had just begun out of OKC.  My big OK day was actually on June 11, when a nasty supercell was observed in the OK Panhandle southwest and south of Liberal.  I saw no storms in OK thereafter.  So, on just four days this season was OK a target state for me, and only a couple of these OK chases were worthwhile.  On May 22, the strong tornado that we observed from near Southwest City, MO, actually began well to the west, near Grove, OK, and was in OK for most of the time that we were observing it.  Several photogenic tornadoes swept through southwestern OK on November 7.

KS — fair.  The better upper flow and reasonably cool air aloft in May and June were generally north of I-70, so I spent many days in KS.  I show about 8 chase days this year with a target in KS, but about half of these days were duds.  May 22 began in southeast KS and ended with the big tornado at Southwest City.  The day prior featured a spectacular supercell at Topeka, KS.  Three Kansas days were noteworthy for amazingly colorful and stormy-sky sunsets:  May 19 at Rozel (west of Larned), May 20 at St. Leo (west of Kingman), and June 3 at Angelus (north of Grinnell).  June 20 was big in north-central KS for some chasers, as was May 24 in central KS, but I was elsewhere.

NE — poor.  Nebraska was my target state on about a half dozen days, and I witnessed a tornado in the extreme northwest NE Panhandle on May 9.  We saw a handful of dusty gustnado/tornado hybrids near Kearney on May 30, and had a woeful murky chase of a fairly significant supercell on June 26.  Outside of these, there was little fun to be had in the Big Red State.  NE would have been upgraded to “fair” had I been able to chase June 19 and 20, I figure.

SD and ND and, heck, let’s throw MN in, too — poor.  On many chase seasons, magnificent storms in the Dakotas can salvage an otherwise poor-to-mediocre season.  Not this year.  We had to head to Presho, SD, on May 8 to find a nice supercell, and returned to SD on June 2, June 6, June 25, June 30, July 1 and July 4, with a mix of dud and good days.  Perhaps the most significant chase for me in SD was July 1, when a long-lived tornadic supercell went up near Spencer.  We caught it near Colton, but it was already a messy HP.  It outraced us into MN, where it caused damage on a path all of the way to Duluth!  That was my only day in MN.  I was in ND on just one day, June 7th, for a so-so fast-moving supercell on the southwest side of the surface low.  Tornado count for the Dokotas — zero.  A handful of good tornado days made some chasers very happy in the Dakotas later in July, while I was recovering on the Malibu beach.

IA — poor.  I chase Iowa as a last resort, or on obviously big days which do not look big farther west.  The only day when IA was considered was June 8, but logistics and marginal tornado threat along a front through sw IA kept me from darting eastward from Council Bluffs.  The cap held in our ultimate target area around the MO/NE/KS/IA area, unfortunately.  No big tornado days in Iowa come to mind this year, at least while I was in chase mode!

MO — very good.  Much like Iowa, I avoid Missouri — even more-so!  The trees and uneven terrain and grim road network in much of MO make chasing more dangerous and less-than-fun.  I chased in MO on three days, and two of these featured large, long-lived tornadoes!  These were on May 22 and 25.  The chase into nw MO on June 9 was not too good.

Elsewhere — fortunately, I was not pulled into the jungles of AR and LA or the Corn Belt farmlands of WI, IL and IN this season.  Our tour group chased as far south as the Fort Worth area, as far west as Sheridan, WY, and Castle Rock, CO, as far north as I-94 between Bismarck and Jamestown, ND, and as far east as Poplar Bluff, MO.  It was out of the ordinary that the tour and I were never in central or southwest TX, never in NM, and had no decent chases on the Plains of CO.  We were in SK for four days in early July in 2010, but Canada did not beckon in 2011.

Finally, since I was not in chase mode from June 12 to June 20, I should mention where Brian Morganti and the Tempest group chased during this time frame:

June 12  — return to OKC for next tour group (a few tornadoes in sw ND)

June 13 — marginal storms west of  Emporia, KS (tornadic cell in Cherry County, NE)

June 14 — generally junky cap bust in nw MO

June 15 — nw KS pretty high-based supercells

June 16 — outflowing HP supercell along I-70 in eastern CO

June 17 — pretty supercell south of Limon, CO  (Brian is making up for my lack of CO chases)

June 18 — nice tornadic supercell near Arkansas City, KS, then back to OKC to conclude tour

June 19 — amazing sculpted supercell in sw NE near Cambridge

June 20 — headed to Denver and could not chase nc KS/sc NE tornadic supercells

If you are interested in a storm chase tour with me and Tempest Tours, then please send me and e-mail (bill@stormbruiser.com) and/or visit

tempesttours.com

Here is a link to a nice review by one of our recent tour guests, Tom Trott.  Be sure to check out Tom’s photo galleries at capturingadventure.com

May 1 and 2 — on the way to the Plains

May 5 — southeast KS junk

May 6 and 7 — Picher, Sage, Big Brutus and twine/Killing time while the atmosphere re-fuels

May 8 — Our precious Presho supercell/including a pretty lightning display

May 9 — Nebraska Panhandle tornado

May 10-18 summary, no images

May 19 — Central KS severe/a supercell near Sylvan Grove and a stormy sky sunset near Rozel

May 20 — strong storms near Pratt, KS/and a Ten Commandments sky!

May 20 — Amazing storm clouds at sunset/near St. Leo, KS

May 21 — Topeka supercell/Happy Mothership Day!

May 22 — Southwest City, MO tornado

May 23 — Okeene, OK tornado

May 24, OK bust

May 25 — Long track tornado in southeast MO!

May 29 — Little Lincoln LP/in southeast NE

May 30 —Central NE severe/and gustnadoes

June 1 — Lexington, NE supercell/and Eustis supercell

June 2 — gorgeous western SD skies/near Isabel and Hayes

June 3 — great western KS sunset CGs/at Angelus, in Sheridan County

June 6 — back in western SD/tower lightning

June 7 — ND supercell/my only chase into ND this year

June 8 — Busting down I-29/from ND to KS

June 9 — northwest MO marginal severe

June 10 — supercells near Chanute/in se KS

June 11 — cranking OK Panhandle supercell

June 22 — Ardmore SD and Devils Tower

June 23 — strong storm along the WY/MT border

June 24 — High Plains strong storms/Lusk to Hay Springs, and another vivid sunset

June 25 — junky storms south of the Badlands

June 26 — in the murk in NE/a supercell in stealth mode

June 27 — Larkspur CO cells/continued sunset chasing

June 29 — ho-hum NE PH storms

July 1 — Siouxland supercells

July 1 — noctilucent clouds

July 2 — east of the Black Hills rainbow extravaganza

July 4 — Lucky Pierre electrical storm

July 5 — northeast WY supercells