June 18, 2013 Hilda, AB supercell and super sunset

Yes, AB.  That stands for Alberta, Canada, and Tempest chased near Medicine Hat, AB, on this day and the following day.

Tour 7 began on June 16th.  Chris Gullikson and I gathered the gang and drove from Denver to Ogallala, NE.  Severe storms were expected in and around the Nebraska Sand Hills, and we sampled a number of supercells which were tracking southeastward in the vicinity of Arthur, NE.  Unfortunately, I am unable to share any of my images from this chase day, as they were not saved properly!  The good news is that there was nothing overtly jaw-dropping visually on this chase.  The storm of the day was a strong and tornado-warned supercell that tracked from about Merriman southward through western Cherry County.  By the time we got on it, it was fighting a bit with other cells and not as strong.  A couple of supercells kept us busy along Highway 92 near Arthur, but by late afternoon it was apparent that these would be on the ho-hum side.  It was time to focus on bigger and better storms — hopefully — later on in the tour, and that meant heading NNW towards the International Border.  A strong trough of low pressure was forecast to impact Montana and southern Alberta by June 19th, and it appeared that the risk for impressive tornadic supercells would be much better up there rather than on the High Plains of CO and WY in the next few days.

On the 16th we stopped in Chadron for the night, and the 17th was a reposition/travel day.  We drove from about 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and found rooms in Chinook, MT (east of Havre).  Skies were mostly clear and there was no weather along the way, via Sheridan, Billings and Roundup.

We crossed the border into Alberta at the Wild Horse station around noon on the 18th, and headed up to Medicine hat for lunch.  The prospects for severe weather were decent, but not great, as the trough that was moving into the Pacific Northwest was a little too far to our west still.  A weak low pressure area in southern Alberta seemed to favor the Medicine Hat area for storm development by late afternoon.  It was sunny, rather warm, and quite humid.  A storm tower went up to the north of Medicine Hat, near Hilda, and we had something to observe for a couple of hours.

The updraft base rotated for a while, gave us a cheap thrill, and then weakened considerably as it inched closer to Saskatchewan.  Sunset was almost at hand (it was close to 9 p.m. MDT!), and the only thing to do now was to head back south towards Medicine Hat.  Some new convection was building in the vicinity of Medicine Hat as we came up to a hilltop about 15 miles northeast of town.  This looked like a good place to stop and set up the tripods, as the light of sunset was getting pretty good and we were eager to go into photography mode.  We weren’t particularly close to the storm cells, but the colors and light made up for that!  Lightning wasn’t quite as frequent as we would have liked, but I caught a few CGs while the colors were still decent.  The Super 8 in Medicine Hat was our home for the night.

p.s…the sunset colors below are authentic!