9-15-06 stormchase

chakalakasp

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We started out in Kearney and headed west on I-80 to try to intersect with a cell that was sliding northeast past the interstate. We ended up doing a U-turn in one of the cop turnouts and stopping at a rest area, as the next exit required driving under the meso and getting on the wrong side of the storm. It wasn't very exciting, structure-wise and was pretty high-based, but it did have an interesting lowering that formed very quickly. This is the storm that ended up going tornado warned after it slid north of Kearney.

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(Pulled over on the interstate)

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(At the rest-stop)

We then zipped over to Minden, with the thought of catching the cell behind the cell we met on the Interstate. This turned out to be a rather amusingly wrong idea, as that cell was well north of I-80 before we even got to Minden -- they were racing northeast at 45mph, which made it hard to keep up with, given the lack of northeast roads. ;) Minden is where we ran into some hail from cells the developed more or less on top of us. Buckets and buckets of peas at first, blown sideways by what I'd call a very stiff breeze. We found a hotel awning, which turned out to be useless against sideways hail. A couple of poor souls on a Goldwing pulled up in front of us and were promptly blown off of their motorcycle, which almost fell on top of the passenger. They were okay though, and once the hail stopped we helped right their bike, then headed off east on the highway.

We should have waited a bit longer though, as we ran into a fairly heavy shaft of nickle-sized hail. So, we waited that out for a bit, figuring we'd mostly missed that storm, and snapped a few shots while we did:

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Rainbow in Minden.

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Man, of all the places for a hailstorm!

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The now severe-warned storm marches off to the northeast.

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Oh, come on, one cheesy shot's allowed! ;)

We west east to near Hastings, then north to I-80 to try to catch up with the tail-end-charlie. Not a lotta luck. We did catch it on I-80, but by then it looked pretty sad. So, we punched into the rain and wind, exited the interstate at Giltner, and watched the sun set:

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Good times! Not a lotta great storms, I'm afraid, but in a year like this, you take what convection you can get. Man, I missed the rain!
 
Yes, I loved those. What a scary thing to be caught in. Thank goodness you didn't get hurt. Great photo's though.
 
Wow. COOL photos! All of them! Not one I would NOT call "seriously cool"!
And thanks for including the "cheesy" one :D. So I take it that's YOU? Nice to meet you!!!

Looks like we've got ourselves a new "wxnut" here, hm?
Where is our good old (as in membership time only!) "wxnut", by the way? Long time no see, methinks. :(
 
LaFoto said:
Wow. COOL photos! All of them! Not one I would NOT call "seriously cool"!
And thanks for including the "cheesy" one :D. So I take it that's YOU? Nice to meet you!!!

Looks like we've got ourselves a new "wxnut" here, hm?
Where is our good old (as in membership time only!) "wxnut", by the way? Long time no see, methinks. :(

I remember seeing him, too... well, to be fair, it's been a pretty terrible season for most chasers. Yesterday was one of the only great chasing days this year, and now we're all looking at a long winter. :)

That's not me in the pic, BTW -- that's my chase partner, Darren. I look like this:

http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/09/time.html

I'm the dude with the camera in the drawing -- that's also my mug up in the upper righthand corner. :)
 
fun series... storm chasing always sounds like such a rush...

beautiful captures of some beautiful skies... :thumbup:
 
The poor farmers in the area must have just been throwing their hands up with disgust if they haven't gotten all their crops off. (Not to mention the greenhouses! Oy)

It is so wonderful to have someone else capture these types of images, because I know if I was in that circumstance, I would be snuggling down into my home.
Very nice
 
WOW! Very cool! What lens did you use for the first few photos? They have an interesting perspective and also tilted. Must be about a 15mm (35 EQ), isn't is?
 

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