{"id":12823,"date":"2015-06-24T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=12823"},"modified":"2015-10-04T15:15:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-04T23:15:05","slug":"june-24-2015-western-iowa-supercell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2015\/06\/24\/june-24-2015-western-iowa-supercell\/","title":{"rendered":"June 24, 2015 western Iowa supercell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"150624_8321_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Supercell and tornado prospects were not too shabby this day over southern Iowa, so we got out of Mobridge a little earlier than normal and made our way east and south. \u00a0By 20Z, SPC had increased the tornado risk to 10 percent along I-80 in Iowa. \u00a0I just had to figure out WHERE to be along I-80. \u00a0It was not particularly obvious. \u00a0An “enhanced” slight risk was posted for southeastern Iowa, but I didn’t think that I needed to sail beyond Des Moines. \u00a0Instability and shear values were excellent along a front near the Interstate in the vicinity of Avoca, about 40 miles northeast of Council Bluffs. \u00a0Moisture convergence was strong, too, in this area, and by mid-afternoon some cumulus clouds were nearby. \u00a0These were battling a very strong cap, however, and no storms could get going. \u00a0The skies near Avoca had a bit of a “dead” look to it as some coolish air on the north side of the front sagged through. \u00a0Hmmm. \u00a0 I led the group south about 18 miles to Oakland, IA, where the really warm and humid air resided. \u00a0There were cumulus fields to monitor in extreme southeastern Nebraska and to our south, along the Missouri border. \u00a0Not much was happening near us, though, and I was thinking “Iowa bust” as the clock ticked past 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

As I pondered my existence and the meaning of life at Oakland (I was not able to determine if there was any “there” there) someone asked if I was going to chase the new towers that were going up to our north. \u00a0Geez, I guess I was parked facing the wrong direction. \u00a0Very robust storm towers were erupting about 15 miles north of I-80. \u00a0It is time to chase!<\/p>\n

We made our way back north through Avoca and a big storm was warned as it neared Harlan, just up the road. \u00a0Heck, we were in FAT CITY as this would be an easy intercept, and most chasers were much farther east. \u00a0It looked like I knew what I was doing! \u00a0But ——– but the low-level air north of the Interstate was still a little bit cool and stable. \u00a0This strong updraft near Harlan was likely NOT fully surface-based. \u00a0The low-level shear was awesome, though, and as we pulled up to the south side of Harlan it looked for all the world like the town was in a heap of trouble as the wicked storm base loomed.<\/p>\n

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\"150624_8296_Harlan_IA\"<\/a>\"150624_8311_Harlan_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_8306_Harlan_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_8302_Harlan_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_8297_Harlan_IA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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A tornado was reported with this supercell, but we did not see it. \u00a0The images above show a prominent clear slot, menacing wall clouds, and precipitation-wrapped areas where something might be happening! \u00a0This was from about Harlan to the Elk Horn area. \u00a0The storm was moving to the ESE, and near I-80 we were southwest of the base. \u00a0I elected to try to get in better position in front of the supercell, but we got mired in Atlantic by road closures and construction. \u00a0What should have taken 5 minutes took about 15 minutes, it seemed, and I was not happy! \u00a0The good news, I suppose, was that the storm remained on the cool side of the boundary. \u00a0Despite off-the-chart supercell and tornado parameter numbers here, it was not able to produce tornadoes, and we were not missing much as we stuggled in Atlantic and east of there to Wiota.<\/p>\n

We stopped just short of Fontanelle, I believe, and watched the storm move off to the east-southeast. \u00a0It was near sunset and our tornado hopes had been dashed. \u00a0Near Bridgewater, we stopped for a while on a hill to shoot additional storms to the north in the nice and soft evening light.<\/p>\n

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\"150624_2559_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_2570_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_2578_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_2579_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_2585_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a>\"150624_8321_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_8320_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a> \"150624_8317_Bridgewater_IA\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Supercell and tornado prospects were not too shabby this day over southern Iowa, so we got out of Mobridge a little earlier than normal… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,50,15,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-62","7":"category-eyesores","8":"category-sunsets-and-storms","9":"category-supercells","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12839,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions\/12839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}