Hello SB fans and fanettes! I wrapped up my extended stint as tour director on July 4 in Denver, and I was ready to head home and relax! On the 5th I drove from Denver to Amarillo, and the following day I met Martin in Vernon, TX. We had lunch and swapped vehicles, and I began my drive back home to Westlake Village. It seemed like the drive was a little less arduous than normal, for some reason. Maybe two or three long days on the road just doesn’t compare to two long months on the road!
My last chase update was back on June 16. In this update I will do a quick and dirty write-up of my chase exploits between June 16 and July 4. When I return home after nine or ten weeks of chasing, I am not particularly inclined to stare at a computer screen for a while! But, I have had a couple of weeks to recover, and it is about time to look through my images from late April through early July and to get the best ones posted on the Bruiser. Hopefully some new stuff will start showing up soon, and I’ll let you know where to find it in these updates.
And now — the wrap up for chase 2009:
The previous chase update left us in Yankton on June 16 with Tour 5, after a fun supercell (and rain-wrapped tornado) chase in southeast SD.
June 17th featured the best tornado of the year for me, near Phillips, NE (between Grand island and Aurora). On the 18th, we were hindered by a strong cap in southwest Nebraska. The target was Benkelman and vicinity, and a lot of high clouds didn’t help our cause. Just prior to sunset I elected to charge WNW to the Sidney area, and we had a pretty good lightning show along I-80 during the evening.
On the 19th we were back in Denver to say “goodbye” to the T5 guests. The T5 guests were fortunate enough to have seven fantastic supercell days, three of them with tornadoes.
June 20th was the starting day for T6, with Chuck Doswell, Doug Raflik, Rob Petitt, and 12 guests. We got out of Denver by 2 p.m. and watched a couple of weak storms near Glendo, WY. A lot of mid and high-level clouds were a nuisance.
June 21 featured some marginally severe cells in north-central SD, near Faith and Eagle Butte. On the 22nd we were on a high-based supercell east of Lemmon, SD. The 23rd was fabulous, as we watched a tornadic supercell from the RFD region near Stapleton, NE. The 24th was just as good in SE SD, where we viewed a tornado at dusk near Fulton. June 25th was a bust, for the most part, in the Badlands of SD. We watched some high-based storms throw out some hail, but these didn’t persist. The 26th provided a pretty, nearly tornadic supercell from Big Springs to Ogallala, NE. This was the final full chase day for T6, and we wound up back at the Denver base that night.
June 28th was arrival day for T7 in Denver. Rob Petitt was my driver. We were a little late for the tornado-warned cell near Colorado Springs, and the remainder of the day was boring, stormwise. On the 29th a high-based supercell dragged us from Chadron to Alliance, and I shot some cool nighttime lightning near Chadron later on. The 30th was the highlight day for T7, with a tornadic supercell north of Baker, MT. The 1st of July was interesting in that I saw a couple of “towns” that I had never been to before — Camp Crook, SD, and Capitol, MT. We punched a hailstorm near Belle Fourche. The 2nd was a long day beginning with a visit to Devil’s Tower and winding up with a pretty sculpted cell near Lusk. And on the 3rd, we found ourselves in front of a supercell east of Salina, KS, after a very long drive to get into position. The payoff was some fine structure and a brief tornado at dusk near Solomon, KS. There was some marginally interesting convection in eastern CO on the 4th, and we got back into Denver around dinner time.
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