The models were looking good for a chase in the central Nebraska / Kansas border on February 28. It was a 'slight risk' day, so I joined Eric and his dad for a chase in The Rhino (a Subaru Outback with a bullet-proof coating for driving into hail). After four chases with Michael, who avoided hail, it was amazing to see so much of it and be in a car where getting pounded by pea to nickle-sized ice chunks didn't matter!
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'The Rhino' watching a supercell in McCook, NE
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Stopping to survey the clouds
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We took off from Denver early and cut through the corner of Kansas, then aimed for Nebraska. The first excitement of the day was a building supercell in McCook, NE. As that one lost structure we headed farther East. Oddly enough, the storms dwindled when we crossed into the area deemed slight risk, so we moved back toward North Platte.
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The radar gets more colorful
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Outside of North Platte, NE
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Just North of there we found several promising storms. Low-based and lots of scud! Made a left turn to follow one of the storms, but turned around after a few minutes to get back on the main road after noticing something good on the radar. It looked really good. Really, really good. But speeding didn't help much.
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At the promising, yet fateful 'left turn'
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We had missed the tornado show just over the hill by mere minutes, perhaps even the end of it by seconds. We drove up to an empty field right where some fellow chasers had reported a tiwster sighting just moments ago. It even turned out to be the first documented Nebraska tornado in a February!
With each chase I'm getting closer and closer to a 'real' tornado, but with storms firing so early in the year, this points to a most excellent chase season to come in the Spring.
