June 27-30, 2021 Sad Pattern Sad Storms Sad Face

June 27/T8 Start:  Denver/lunch:  Jean’s Family Kitchen in Hugo/End:  Dumas/408 miles

June 28/Start: Dumas/lunch:  Big Texan in Amarillo/End:  Wichita Falls/404 miles

June 29/Start:  Wichita Falls/lunch:  Roys BBQ in Chickasha/End:  Kiowa, KS/487 miles

June 30/Start:  Kiowa, KS/lunch:  Yur Place in Hardtner, KS/End:  Perryton, TX/375 miles

I think that Tour 8 of 2021 ranks right up there with the bleakest of bleak storm-chase patterns that I have had to work.  Fortunately, the guests were awesome, they understood my plight and their plight, and we managed to get onto some activity that was not entirely uninteresting.  One of the previous tours with a really bad pattern was that of mid-May in 2006, I think.  We had a major Death Ridge over the Plains.  For the 10-day tour we were in full SCENIC mode for the first 7 days.  (We managed a couple of so-so strong thunderstorm days at the end of that tour.)  As a tour director during such a terrible and blah weather pattern, I have to decide whether to go into “scenic” mode or to try to squeeze something out of nothing.   For this tour, there was enough moisture and instability on the Plains each day for thunderstorms, but the wind shear was pathetic at best.   I had to try to show the group some convection.  It is difficult to go from a severe-storm chaser to a garden-variety storm chaser.  All of the rules are different!

Anyway, I just re-checked all of the SPC outlooks for the tour, from June 27 to July 2, and for all six days there was a combined ZERO number of areas outlined with even a marginal risk on the Great Plains.  That is just sad.  Should I have taken the group to Yellowstone?

Below are pics from the 27th, somewhere northeast of Lamar, CO.  We wound up on a cell with a few flashes of lightning near Dalhart at dusk.

Below are pics from June 28.  Some mid-afternoon storms showed a little low-level structure near Paducah and Electra, TX.

Below are pics from the Perry, OK, area on June 29.  Hmmm…almost an organized base!  Lightning was absent from this one, unless the dog was named “Lightning.”

And the pics below were taken on June 30, near Seiling, OK.  An updraft or two tried to spin a little.  But, like the previous few days, any organization was extremely short-lived.