APRIL 16, 2024 IOWA: A TORNADOFEST! 5 TOTAL FROM ONE STORM

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After observing the Rockwell City tornado from a distance, another tornado began to develop shortly thereafter on the same storm near Manson, Iowa. The funnel cloud is visibly condensing as it descends towards the ground in this shot.

Rope tornado making ground contact now near Manson, Iowa! This tornado did not receive a strength rating.

Tornado getting real close now! Roping out and coming right at us as you can also clearly see in the video.

Third tornado about to touch down near Palmer, Iowa. Love the structure here with the big C shape to the storm with the inflow and the clear skies with the RFD cut on the west side of the developing tornado.

Tornado hitting a barn here and throwing out debris. This was rated an EF-0 weak tornado.

Wide view of the whole low-topped storm and funnel cloud still hanging on.

Funnel cloud reaching, stretching, and condensing towards the ground over a wind farm.

Shot of the storm structure and long, snaky funnel cloud.

Fourth tornado of the day northeast of Palmer, Iowa!

Zoomed in shot of the rope tornado dancing away over an open field. This was rated an EF-0.

Fifth and final tornado of the day just south of Rolfe, Iowa. This tornado did eventually move over the east side of Rolfe and produce EF-0 damage.

Scary moment as the fifth tornado was moving over Rolfe and still down on the east side of town as we were driving through. We had debris raining down on us as we drove through town. Thankfully it did not produce substantial damage!

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

AUGUST 5, 2023 SOUTH DAKOTA/NEBRASKA/IOWA: BRIEF TORNADO

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Towering cumolonimbus in southeast South Dakota.

Focused condensating scud into the cloud base. This storm had potential for sure.

Great storm base here. Not rotating or focusing very well but was good structure for a bit.

A couple of decent action areas of slow rotation.

Very weak tornado occurring here behind the tree. Condensation funnel to the ground and all.

Love this shot. Action area to the left, hail/rain core to the right. Time to escape!

Shelf cloud coming in fast!

Beautiful storm moving over the corn fields of northwest Iowa.

Tornado warned storm about to overtake Le Mars, Iowa.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JULY 27, 2023 MINNESOTA: MUCH NEEDED MID SUMMER SEVERE STORM

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Really pleased with how this day went considering the blah storm season we had in Minnesota in 2023. I originally was going to blast north towards the true boundary near St. Cloud, but stopped halfway through the Twin Cities metro as a storm broke the cap west of New Ulm. I had been eyeing that area all day so quickly got down there and intercepted the storm just north of Franklin, MN and sat in nearly the same spot for 2 hours watching this thing. It was great and definitely something I needed! The storm had some decent structure at times and was surprisingly photogenic. Constant thunder from this storm and could hear the hail roar from above at times. Really cool to get out there and watch this supercell as new updrafts kept forming on some kind of pinch point on the tail end of the boundary, possibly right on a weak surface low that was stationary.

Stopped to take a quick photo as I approached the severe thunderstorm near Winthrop, Minnesota.

Goofy high based lowerings on this storm when I first got on it. Interesting features though.

Western updraft starting to take over with action areas near the core on the right side of the image.

Skinny updraft pumping away and starting to produce a strong rain/hail core here. Love all the features of the storm in this shot, especially the couple weird looking bases.

Heavy rain and hail core opening up north of Franklin, Minnesota.

Decent storm base here with scud rising up into it.

I was surprised to see this bowl lowering form on the new western storm rather quickly as it was taking over the show. VERY slow rotation but it was rotating and condensating for about a minute.

The death of a storm right here. Might be my favorite shot of the day thought. Skinny updraft and almost an LP look to it with an eroding base. Time to head home!

New updraft to my west as the storm as I was on died and I was heading back home.

Couple of towers still trying to hold on at sunset.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JULY 24, 2023 MINNESOTA: STORM CHASE FROM MY BACK YARD

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Severe thunderstorm with hail sliding right by my house in Farmington, Minnesota. Taken literally from my back yard.

Most interesting part of the short chase. This circulation was trying to wrap up and was rotating but quickly dissipated.

Area of circulation rotating around in this C shape on this severe warned storm.

Storm wasn’t doing all that much so I decided to head home, but stopped one last time to get a shot of the updraft near Northfield, Minnesota.

Radar loop of the storm as it dove straight south through southeast Minnesota.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 27, 2023 COLORADO: HIGH BASED FUNNEL AND GREAT SHELF CLOUD

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Supercell exploding just southwest of Greeley, Colorado and coming my way.

Storm approaching Greeley with a ragged looking base, looking like it is starting to gust out already with a shelf cloud.

Storm starting to look a little better here as the base becomes better organized with a clear slot developing behind it.

Headed east of Greeley on highway 34 towards Wiggins, Colorado to watch a couple new developing storms that were out on their own with good, clean inflow and better instability.

High based funnel cloud starting to form after a while as the storm was slowly headed towards me.

Funnel cloud on the left trying its best to condense and reach towards the ground. Never really got all that close though.

Another funnel cloud right in the bottom middle of the image as I headed north to try and stay ahead of the intense core. This was looking southwest off highway 89 north of Orchard, Colorado.

Battled getting back ahead of this storm, but managed to do so near Stoneham, Colorado as it was creating a nice shelf cloud.

Beautiful whale’s mouth underneath the shelf as it was about to overtake me. Time to leave!

Gustnado on the leading edge of the shelf cloud. Can see it on the bottom middle of the image.

Fully underneath the whale’s mouth here.

Awesome shelf cloud structure as I got back out ahead of the storm.

Final pano shot from my iPhone as I ended the chase after nearly two weeks of being on the road.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 26, 2023 NEW MEXICO: ANOTHER AMAZING STORM IN THE SOUTHERN HIGH PLAINS

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Finally getting to the severe warned storm (previously produced a tornado) near Vaughn, New Mexico.

Kept blasting west to intercept the storm near Encino, New Mexico.

Amazing storm as we were getting pelted by golf ball hail to the south of Encino.

This structure is top notch.

Brief funnel cloud forming underneath the right side of the storm base.

Big time hail core raging and heading right towards Encino. Forced us to go around the long way and not go back the way we came.

Stopped to look back at the storm with the setting sun east of Vaughn, New Mexico.

Last shot of the day as we headed back east at the end of the chase.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 24, 2023 NEW MEXICO: BEST STORM OF THE YEAR!

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Really enjoy the thrill of the tour guests watching an intense storm develop near San Jon, New Mexico. Had a nice spot to line up and enjoy the view!

New updraft going up quickly on a southern storm as we pursue.

The beginning of what will become the great storm of the day and one of the storms of the year.

Made it up the ridge on Hwy 469 to view the developing storm north of Wheatland, New Mexico.

This was a reported tornado near Wheatland, New Mexico. The white lowering that is right in the middle of the image.

Rear flank downdraft wrapping around what was a tornado that may have still been down.

Big time supercell churning away and becoming outflow dominant.

Here it comes!

Incredible storm after sunset near Farwell, Texas.

My favorite shot of the day. This supercell structure is absolutely top notch and some of the best I have ever seen!

Another awesome one!

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 23, 2023 TEXAS: SPINNING MOTHERSHIP SUPERCELL & FUNNEL CLOUDS

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Our initial storm intensifying quickly near Farwell, Texas.

Big, broad mesocyclone now forming on the storm as it begins to mature.

Scud rising into the base of the wall cloud and tightening up in the process.

Two action areas. The old mesocyclone on the right and the new action area on the left becoming organized.

Awesome storm with spinning mesocylone and funnel near Farwell, Texas! Can see the dirt being picked up by the rear flank downdraft coming around the southwest side of the storm.

We blasted east on Hwy 70 to intercept a new storm that was already tornado warned and producing this giant wall cloud near Floydada, Texas. My thought at the beginning of the day is this would be our best storm of the day.

Big lowering and spinning storm rooted right on a boundary!

Wow what a storm with rotating action area and a lot of condensing scud trying to organize under the base.

Awesome wall cloud that was the best attempt of this storm to produce a tornado near Floydada! What a scene.

Great colors at sunset near Ralls, Texas.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 22, 2023 TEXAS: INCREDIBLE STORM STRUCTURE IN WEST TEXAS

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First big storm of the day exploding near Tulia, Texas.

Funnel cloud already on the storm just east of Tulia.

Interesting feature on the wall cloud. Not a funnel but certainly a look-alike! This is scud rising into the base underneath the updraft.

Funnel cloud and rapid condensation into the wall cloud on the storm east of Tulia.

Possible funnel cloud being the white feature in the middle of the image. Was rotating and right next to the clear slot punching in behind it.

Blasted south to get to the storm near Cone, Texas. Had a lowering and solid base when we arrived.

Mammatus clouds! Gotta love them.

Intense cores of these severe warned storms! Big time hail in there.

Got to love chasing in the Texas Panhandle. Unobstructed views for days.

What a storm!

A white funnel here as this thing was spinning like crazy and trying to condense while the storm exhibited a TVS signature. Much too high-based to have a tornado touch down here though.

Our awesome tour guests enjoying the beast of a storm coming right at them!

Still good structure on this storm as it rolled over the canyonlands near Dickens, Texas.

Beautiful storm over the canyons.

SPC STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 18, 2023 TEXAS: SLOW MOVING, TORNADO WARNED STORM SPINNING AWAY NEAR AMARILLO

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First look at the storm looking west off Hwy 136 towards Gluck, Texas.

Supercell taking shape and inching closer as a wall cloud starts to form.

Caught this bolt with my iPhone. Hence the reason that top part of the image is blown out, but still a cool shot!

Nice wall cloud taking shape here. Really starting to look interesting! Storm is now tornado warned and we haven’t moved at all as it continues to slowly crawl right towards our position.

What a beautiful, intense storm! The structure is incredible and love that twisting inflow tail on the right side of the mesocyclone.

Really interesting lowering/wall cloud on the middle-right side under the meso and tucked away back there. Could have easily touched down as a tornado here.

Just awesome supercell structure! An absolute beauty of a storm.

The Silver Lining Tours guests are sure enjoying that inflow tail and reforming wall cloud now.

Insane ground scraping wall cloud right in our faces. Such a surreal moment watching this storm. A tornado was reported on this storm but we could never see if anything touched down from our vantage point through the life cycle.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 17, 2023 TEXAS: QUALITY STORMS NEAR PAMPA

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First storm of the day starting to crank up near Pampa, Texas.

Beginnings of a supercell as it becomes better organized with a dark, flat base and a mesocyclone forming as noted by the striated look to the tilted updraft.

Storm still morphing and intensifying while other storms just to the north started catching our eye.

Wall cloud now fully developed on a new storm in the area. This ended up being our storm of the day that we followed into the evening.

Beautiful storm twisted up as sunset was upon us. Starting to crank out some lightning!

Love the lightning and storm structure in this shot.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 13, 2023 IOWA: SUPERCELLS AND TORNADO CHASE WITH FAMILY

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Heading south on the Hwy 14 bridge over Lake Red Rock to intercept the initial tornado warned storm south of Monroe, Iowa.

Got west towards Pleasantville, Iowa to view the hook echo and action area. The mesocyclone was slowly rotating here.

Wall cloud near Knoxville, Iowa that was rotating pretty well here!

First funnel cloud on the left that really tried coming down and condensing near Knoxville.

Another weak funnel that developed as we were bailing back east and back across the river to near Pella.

Really thought we were going to have a decent tornado here with the big lowering/wall cloud on the right looking stout near Harvey, Iowa.

Great shot of the kids in front of the rotating wall cloud! They had a really good time on this chase.

Nice funnel near Harvey that was reported as a tornado. We could not confirm ground contact but would not be surprised at all if it produced.

Rain curtains whipping underneath this lowering, possible funnel near Harvey, Iowa. Video will be nice to look at from this point.

Very suspicious shot here of a possible tornado west of Harvey, Iowa as it became rain-wrapped on the tornado warned storm. Best hook echo of the day and we drove south on Hwy T17 just after it passed and saw a lot of tree debris and other things that were blown around. Can see chasers bailing out of there heading back north from this thing.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

APRIL 19, 2023 IOWA: TORNADO AND FIRST CHASE OF THE YEAR

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Initial severe warned supercell starting to crank up near Blencoe, Iowa. Already have a nice lowering in place underneath the stout updraft.

Storm approaching our position, coming directly at us as we stay put just northeast of Blencoe, Iowa off of Hwy E54.

Our position northeast of the developing supercell as indicated by the crosshairs.

Beautiful looking storm as we stand our ground. Nice inflow streamers into the updraft and core.

Core moving closer but main portion looks to move just to our north as we are directly in the primary low level inflow region next to the forward flank core. Hail about to commence!

Primarily quarter size hail on the storm with some bigger stones mixed in here and there.

Storm now a bit disorganized here but is trying to get its act together with a slowly rotating mesocyclone right in front of us near Ute, Iowa.

Here we go. Beginnings of a real wall cloud starting to form with condensation tail cloud on the backside and wrapping around the new mesocycline.

Funnel cloud here on the left side of the maturing wall cloud. Storm taking on great structure at this point.

Funnel wrapping up here in the middle and not able to condense further to the ground. This whole area was rotating and you can see this in the video.

New wall cloud trying to form after the first attempt at a tornado. This did not hold on very long as it quickly became undercut.

Storm holding on nicely with an action area still present and capturing our attention near Charter Oak, Iowa.

Funnel cloud near Deloit, Iowa trying to condensate to the ground. Keep coming down buddy!

We have a tornado! Faint debris cloud underneath at this point. Can see it better in the video.

Definitely a noticeable debris cloud under the tornado at this point!

And that’s all she wrote with this one as the short-lived tornado lifted.

Beautiful structure of the storm after sunset and sparking like crazy east of Deloit as we progressed towards the Boyer and Breda areas.

Funnel cloud look-alike as organized scud was being pulled into the base on the left side of the image.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022 MINNESOTA: LAST CHASE DAY OF THE YEAR

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The storm we were targeting in our forecast the entire time. Great to get on the storm as it was developing near Nimrod, Minnesota. Had a decent lowering underneath the updraft for a while.

A funnel look-alike here as scud was being pulled up into the base. Could have easily been mistaken for a funnel.

The storm took on some decent structure for a while! Was cool to see those inflow bands being pulled in left to right and around the updraft base.

The structure starting to degrade a little bit but overall not bad. Still maintaining although the storm itself was not overly impressive.

Caught some lightning after sunset while watching the storm near Poplar, Minnesota.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JULY 31, 2022 MINNESOTA: FUNNEL CLOUD AT SUNSET

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Wall cloud just to my west, golden in color due to the setting sun. Funnel cloud starting to form on the left side of the wall cloud.

Funnel cloud fully developed and rotating. Can notice somewhat of a clear slot just left of the funnel through the clouds.

Funnel cloud 3/4 of the way to the ground just outside of town near Conger, Minnesota. Clear slot quite evident here now. Wall cloud hanging on but can tell that it’s starting to erode.

Funnel cloud so close to touching down! I could not confirm but there was other chaser video evidence that it did touch down with debris being thrown. Made the official storm reports that you can see below.

Heading home and got off at the Glenville, Minnesota I-90 exit to take a few shots of the storms to the east.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 12, 2022 COLORADO AND KANSAS: SUB PAR STORM BUT NICE LIGHTNING SHOW

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Intercepted an initial storm in northeast Colorado near Yuma. Nothing special but the wide open landscape was beautiful. Nice to be out here viewing storms in the wide open high plains.

Another shot of the storm. Wasn’t doing too much and was struggling so I decided to leave it shortly after this shot and head to Wichita, Kansas for the night. Had to work in Wichita the next week.

Heading to Wichita, a cluster of storms developed on my drive near Grinnell, Kansas and gave me a terrific lightning show!

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

JUNE 11, 2022 NEBRASKA: SOME OF THE BEST STRUCTURE OF THE YEAR

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Stopped heading south on highway 75 south of Auburn, Nebraska to take a look back at the developing supercell. Decided to turn around and head northwest towards this storm after seeing this view and the explosive updraft as noted on the left side! The scud rising up and condensing into the base underneath the updraft really caught my eye.

Beautiful supercell approaching me near Cook, Nebraska. Although the wall cloud was very low on the right side, I decided to wait here and take a time lapse as the tornado potential was not all that high in this environment and the storm was not tornado warned.

Here it comes! Heading directly for my position.

Just awesome structure here. There’s a couple of inflow tails and a nice wall cloud still in place.

Favorite shot of the day. WHAT A STORM!!!

Storm really starting to gust out and become outflow dominant now, but still holding onto some great structure.

Storm about to overtake me here. Ended up bailing shortly after taking this photo.

Got south ahead of the storm as it was tornado warned, and stopped to take a shot of the wall cloud holding on near Tecumseh, Nebraska.

Tornado warned storm here. Thought this was a lowering on the bottom left, possible funnel was going to touch down but it quickly dissipated.

Shelf cloud on the northern end of the hook of the storm.

Beautiful scene at sunset as I ended the case and headed to the hotel.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 24, 2022 TEXAS: TERRIFIC STRUCTURE NEAR SAN ANGELO

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Finally got in good position to get the initial view of this supercell near San Angelo, Texas.

Shot of this storm as it got closer to our location as we stayed put.

Repositioned for another quick shot between the trees of the supercell near San Angelo.

Really nice shelf cloud near Brady, Texas as the storm became outflow dominant and we raced back south to get out of the way.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 23, 2022 TEXAS: THE MORTON EF-2 TORNADO

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Supercell storms starting to fire near Dora, New Mexico. Could tell right away these storms were going to be significant.

Heavy rain and hail core on the storm as it intensifies as we crossed the border back into west Texas.

Storm taking on some great structure near Morton, Texas. Intense inflow winds at 50 mph pulling in a ton of west Texas red dirt into the updraft! We saw power poles being blown over INTO the storm.

Another shot of the structure as the storm approached us. Dirt completely obscuring the base.

Wall cloud very low to the ground and twisting away as the tornado was about to drop.

Farmer casually working the field as the wall cloud approached. Very dangerous at this point and was surprised he continued to work as a tornado was imminent.

Incredible large tornado near Morton, Texas! Tornado was rated EF-2 and would have likely been stronger if it would have hit anything other than open fields.

Absolutely awesome structure with the mile wide tornado underneath.

Love this shot of the tornado and the lightning!

Obligatory tornado selfie.

After the tornado, the storm continued to exhibit great structure near Whiteface, Texas.

Likely another tornado in there on the storm between Whiteface and Levelland, Texas.

Can pick out here what would be the likely left and right side of another wedge tornado.

Incredible mothership structure as the storm was moving over Levelland, Texas!

Really enjoyed the nighttime lightning and structure as we gazed on near Levelland, Texas.

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS:

MAY 19, 2022 MINNESOTA AND IOWA: UNDERACHIEVING BUT A COUPLE NICE SUPERCELLS

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First severe storm finally developing late in the day near Alden, Minnesota on I-90.

Base of the next storm near Dexter, Minnesota. Some okay structure but not great.

Another shot of the storm near Dexter. Can see the hail streaks falling in the core straight ahead.

The vans parked and guests enjoying the storm near Dexter, Minnesota.

The storm gusting out and overtaking us and the wind farm.

Really nice updraft and base of the third storm, backlit by the sun getting low in the sky near St Ansgar, Iowa.

Beautiful storm with a rainbow cutting through the hail shaft near St Ansgar.

Really cool explosive updraft!

STORM REPORTS:

STORM PREDICTION CENTER OUTLOOKS: