That’s it for another year!
One of the best weeks of stormchasing since I started doing this hobby over 10 years ago. Terrific company, spectacular storms, and 4200 miles driven across 5 states.
I’ve pulled a few of my favorite meteorological momments of the week together that best encapsulate the week.
After 6 days of quite intense and spectacular stormchasing Friday and Saturday were much less promising in terms of storm potential.
The forecasts showed some potential for storms in New Mexico but unfortunately not early or interesting enough to put us out of position for our last chase on Saturday, where there was potential for severe storms and tornados in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Friday became a sightseeing day with a stop in Roswell, but no aliens were spotted.
With the only storm activity too far to our West we headed back to Amarillo for the night in the hopes of catching some final storms before the long drive back to Denver.
Unfortunately overnight the forecasts had shifted and the potential for severe storms and Tornados had moved further East and the time storms would get interesting was going to be after dark.
That meant our final day was going to be some sightseeing and maybe some storms off I25 as we made our way to Denver.
We headed to Mount Capulin Volcano National Monument an almost perfect example of a Cinder Cone Volcano. I last visited in 2013 and at the time the landscape was very arid and in drought. As we arrived at the Volcano the landscape was transformed after a rainy spring the vegetation had come alive transforming the landscape from.what I remembered from my last visit.
Although it was disappointing to have no storms to chase, the views from the top of the volcano were well worth it.
After exploring the volcano we headed West to catch some final storms forming over the Rockies.
Thursday started in Amarillo Texas with an IHOP for breakfast, which usually precedes interesting storm activity and today was certainly interesting!
Our target area is Brownfield TX. An easy drive from Amarillo.
On the drive down, we stopped for gas just north of Lubbock, and had an impromptu airshow with KC-135 tankers doing touch and go’s and an AC-130 gunship departing.
As we arrived in our target area 2 storms were visible on radar one to our North heading towards Lubbock and another to our West that was seemingly heading into better territory to chase in and good air.
We chose the storm to the West as our initial target knowing we could relocate to the Northern storm once it cleared Lubbock and if it still looked good on radar.
A true wall cloud didn’t develop but we did have a pretty brilliant lightning show
We decided to relocate to target the Northern storm and found ourselves in a race against time to get far enough East to get on the right side of it to view the area of interest.
As we drove east, the storm continued to move South and it was becoming a race against time to find a road that would take us South, out of the way of the oncoming storm and get us into a good position to view the area of interest for tornado potential.
Stormchasing is often a game of fine margins, we want to be close enough to see interesting structure and tornados, but far enough away to be safe. This means a mile or 2 of progress down a road can be the difference between getting to a good view and finding ourselves in the thick of the action. On Thursday, the unexpected wildcard was the dust being kicked up by a powerful rear flank downdraft. Had we been just a little further east we would have missed the worst of the winds and dust that made the following videos one of the more adrenaline inducing momments of my Stormchasing career.
When we found ourselves in this situation, the key to getting out safely was to be cautious and make data driven decisions. The temptation to turn around immediately is strong, but before you do, you need to be confident that the road behind isn’t worse than the road ahead.
The plan had been to reach Lamesa and drop South on highway 137. But it became very clear that wasn’t possible
We paused briefly to get our bearings on the storm, before making the decision to either proceed or turn around. The radar made it clear there was no tornado risk ahead or behind, but visually, we could see flashes from transformers being blown ahead, so regardless of tornado risk the safest way to proceed was to backtrack until the next opportunity to turn South.
We managed to find a fast South road and escaped this monster of a storm.
We tracked a bit East towards Big Spring TX to see if we could get one more chance at viewing the storm.
Unfortunately, the light was starting to fade, and a long line of storms had formed, so we decided to call it a day and escape along I20.
Overall it was a truly incredible day, and about as close to danger as I ever want to get!
We started the day in Odessa, TX. so had a long set up drive to get to our target area in Western Kansas and straddling the Oklahoma and Colorado borders.
The forecast was looking promising for storms forming mid to late afternoon, with all right ingredients for tornado activity present. The only concern with the days forecast was a strong cap,a layer of warm air that storms need to punch through in order to get interesting. A strong cap acts like the lid of a pressure cooker, the challenge for us can come when the cap weakens everything goes up at once, making for a difficult chase.
As we reached the end of our initial setup drive, we stopped to see how things would develop, and also happened upon our friends and fellow chasers with stormchasing.com.
It’s always fun to bump into chaser friends, particularly when you are in the middle of nowhere and a place where few people ever have a reason to be!
Unfortunately, as the storms developed it was turning into quite a messy system, making forecasting very difficult and choosing a target almost impossible.
Unfortunately, as the day went on, more and more storms formed, which meant they were interfering with the development of each other. The overall effect was good air for storm development, was increasingly hard to find.
We kept moving in the hope of finding a storm with good air but ultimately couldn’t find much other than messy bases and scary looking but harmless clouds.
We headed South back to Texas, putting in some mileage to be in a good position for Thursday’s storms in the Southern Texas panhandle.
As has been a pattern on this trip, the lightning show on the drive to the hotel offered a great show to round off the day.
Overall Wednesday’s chase was frustrating but still delivered some brilliant momments. The ingredients were all present but unfortunately didn’t lead to the isolated super cell we are looking for, that is the nature of this hobby though and days like Wednesday are all part of the experienc. Thursday’s forecast looks promising so fingers crossed for another good day on what has been a very active week!
We had a much more leisurely start to the day on Tuesday, with the forecast predicting a later start, and the potential for storms along the Mexican border.
We had time for brunch and a bit of sightseeing in San Antonio.
After a leisurely morning, we drove West towards Del Rio, Texas, to get in position for the storms forming in Mexico that would have the best tornado potential of the day as they moved into West Texas.
We had to wait for the storms to get organized, so picked a scenic spot over the Pecos River to wait, a much nicer situation than our typical gas station hangout!
Unfortunately, as the day went on, the storms we were waiting for in Mexico were not looking like they would get organized in time to be chaseable during daylight. We decided to head North to put us in a better position for Wednesdays storms and catch the tail end of a few severe warned storms on the way.
Overall, we ended up with a very pleasant day with some nice photos and recharged batteries for what promises to be another exciting chase on Wednesday.
We started the day in Wichita Falls and targeted San Angelo TX as our initial area of interest.
Our initial set up drive took us towards Abilene TX with storms expected to get going around 2pm. Like our chase on Sunday however things started to fire earlier than expected and our leisurely drive to our target area turned into an almost immediate start to our storm chase as we left Abilene.
One of the challenges of Monday’s chase was the difficult terrain. This part of Texas has a lot of hills and trees and doesn’t have the typical grid of roads that we usually rely on to navigate to the area of the storm where interesting things will happen.
By the time we were on location the storm had received a severe warning and was starting to get organized.
We relocated trying to stay in a good position which was not made easy by the roads and terrain.
It was obvious geography was going to play as much of a factor as meteorology on Monday’s storm.
We relocated again in search of a view, navigating along gravel roads and farm tracks to stay in position.
As the storm developed the lightning strikes picked up pace, a sign of a strengthening storm.
We stayed on the storm and managed to stay in a good position to view tornado activity just as the storm received its first tornado warning!
We were in a great position as a rotating wall cloud crossed in front of us, with rapid circulation and significant lowering this is where a tornado would form if there was going to be one.
In the following videos, you can see the circulation on the ground caused by a tornado. While not the most photogenic its another one for the tally!
As the storm moved away from us we relocated through the town of Menard to the sound of tornado warnings.
With a fairly long drive, we found a great vantage point for one of the best lightning storms I have experienced. The photos that follow don’t really do the storm justice. As the storm approached, we were surrounded by lightning in almost every direction. There were several strikes per minute with many within a couple of miles, meaning the sound was like a cross between cannon fire and the rumble of a jet engine with its after burner running. Unfortunately, the microphone on my phone can’t compete with the wind to pick this sound up!
After enjoying the show for around 30 minutes as the storm approached we felt the tell tale cold blast of outflowing air and could see oncoming hail and rain heading towards us. It was time to leave and stay ahead of the storm.
As we navigated through the storm, we had to somewhat thread the needle staying ahead of the storm behind us, without driving into the hail core in front of us!
The storm was forming into a line behind us, so it was time to head for our stop for the night in San Antonio. The chase ended with one last pit stop in Fredicksburg, TX, and another intense drive through the storm.
Another successful chase of what is turning into a very active week of storms!
Sunday started in the aptly named Weatherford, OK with another fairly obvious target for Storms forming in the late afternoon in Texas. Our initial target was Childress, TX.
We started the day with breakfast at a route 66 diner and a brief stop by the Stafford Air and Space Museum, which was unfortunately closed until 1. But did have some pretty excellent aircraft parked outside.
After leaving Weatherford, it was on to our target area for the day, initially heading for Childress TX.
Unlike Saturdays storms, today started to get interesting early with our first target firing up by 2pm.
After an easy set up drive we stopped for our first look at the developing storm.
As the storm grew in strength, we relocated to a rather convenient picnic spot with a brilliant view of the storms updraft.
As we watched, we saw a whole convoy of storm chasers. Chasing storms on a weekend means you are rarely alone!
As the storm continued to develop we relocated to get a closer look
As the storm developed, we relocated again to stay on the right area of the storm should it show tornado potential.
Minutes later that’s exactly what it did.
As we relocated to stay in a good position, the storm moved into some challenging terrain that made it difficult to keep track of without running the risk of interacting with this storms 4-inch hail!
Dan did an excellent job forecasting and was able to make an early call to move on to our next target of the day. One of the hardest parts of stormchasing is knowing when to leave a storm, particularly one with an active tornado warning. Dan made the call at exactly the right time, allowing us to move to our next target, leaving behind the stormchaser traffic and to a brilliant spot to observe our next storm!
First stop for storm number 2 and it’s quite incredible structure starting to take shape.
After another quick relocation, we found a spot with a perfect view, and our storm moved at less than knots across the ground, allowing us time to observe at our leisure.
The following videos are all from the same location as the storm continued to evolve.
Dave was the first to spot what would be our first tornado of the trip!
After an incredible lightning show, at least one and probably 2 tornados, it was time to relocate as the light started to fade.
As the light faded we paused for one last photo stop.
After saying farewell to the storm, we had quite an eventful drive to our stop for the night in Wichita falls.
The drive back was one of the most challenging I have ever experienced, almost zero visibility, flooding, and constant lightning! It was challenging but a major thrill as well!
Sunday’s storm chase was one of my all-time favorites and embodied everything I love about this hobby!
Stormchasing 2025 has begun, and it was off to a good start with a very obvious target in Oklahoma, meaning an early start to drive over 500 miles to our initial target in Seiling OK.
We were definitely going to get storms but the big question on Saturday was when. Early models had the storms firing up between 4 and 5 pm but as the models were updated through the day it looked increasingly likely that they would get interesting after sunset.
Unfortunately, as we had feared, Saturday’s storms only got going after we had lost the light. The chance of seeing a Tornado was over for day one since we don’t want to risk chasing in the dark.
On the bright side, we had the perfect setup for a nighttime lightning show and the storm delivered.
As the storm tracked East we relocated South to stay in a good location to view the lightning show and stay out of the 2+ inch hail.
After relocating this slow moving storm put on a spectacular show and the following photos are my best captures!
It was a great first day, and we found ourselves in a great location for day 2, heading to Texas, and hopefully, storms starting much earlier in the day!
Friday marks the end of our stormchasing adventure for 2024. Fortunately there was a 2% Tornado risk in the right direction for our drive back from Amarillo to Denver.
We initially targeted Burlington CO, but as the afternoon progressed the data suggested that our best bet for supercell activity will be further West, so we selected Limon CO as our target.
Shortly after arriving in Limon our first storm of the afternoon appeared on radar.
With our first storm of the day in sight we relocated towards Agate CO just up I-70 from Limon.
While we focused on the severe warned storm to our North we kept a keen eye on the storm developing to its South. It looked like the Southern storm would move into better air and ultimately be our main target for the day.
After one last view of our first storm of the day, we headed South to get in position on our second target for the day and what would be our final storm of the week.
While we stayed clear of the hail the strong rotating winds of the storm started whipping hail around towards us.
After escaping the hail, we got in a good position on the storm as it produced lightning and continued to strengthen.
We relocated closer to the storm and got a brilliant view of the deep blue core of the storm as well as a safe vantage point on the area most likely to produce a Tornado and we’ll away from the precipitation.
The storm continued to strengthen and put on a brilliant show, with the vibrant blue of the hail.
As the storm rolled South East we continued to track it along a very conveniently located South road it was about to put on its most tantalizing performance of the evening.
Rotation continued to increase and strengthen, causing the storm to lower and create lots of scary looking clouds!
After relocating a bit further, South again to keep a good view on the storm and avoid the hail we could see some obvious circulation on the ground.
We’ll likely never know if this was a Tornado but, regardless of whether we can claim it or not, we got the thrill and excitement of successfully being in the right place at right time to view one of nature’s most spectacular phenomenon!
As the last moments of an obvious wall cloud on our storm faded, we settled in for one last ghtning show with the Colorado plains as our ampitheatre.
With no more tornado potential on our storm and failing light, we let the storm rumble off into the distance.
And that was it for another year! Once again we had a brilliant storm filled road trip across the MidWest watching the awesome power of nature.
Over the course of 7 days we drove 4000 miles across 6 states, intercepting severe storms every day! With one Tornado heard and the possibility we briefly observed another, this was a successful trip all around!
Thursday started in LA Junta CO and our target area was. Brownfield TX just south of Lubbock, exactly where we were on Tuesday!
After a 400 mile drive South, we intercepted our first supercell of the day just North and West of our initial target of Brownfield TX.
After our first storm started to weaken, we relocated to our second super cell of the day, just to our South and severe warned.
While relocating to our next storm we encountered many fellow storm chasers, including the armored Tornado intercepting Dominator and several vehicles from NOAA, including a mobile doppler radar.
This second storm was very messy, with precipitation obscuring our view while we tried to get in a good position to observe the area of interest.
As a new cell strengthened to the south we relocated again in time for a beautiful sunset on our penultimate storm chase.
In order to get in position for our final storm chase on Friday we drove North back to Amarillo through the storm and our stop for the night.
