Day 8: June 3, 2014

Total Miles: 310

Total Driving Time: 8 hours and 0 minutes

Today was an intense day for the storm chasing team! We met at 9:00 am CDT for our daily weather discussion. The forecast was looking positive for supercells to form with a high chance of tornadoes. After driving not too far from our hotel, we stopped at an open area at the intersection of I-80 and Route 183 for a weather balloon launch at approximately 12:20 pm CDT. The sounding recorded data up to 650 mb, but then lost signal. We packed up the vans fast to head north on Route 183 to Ansley, NE. While waiting at a gas station in Ansley, DOW 7 and DOW 8 arrived and we got a tour of the vehicles.

At 3:45 pm CDT, we left to head to a supercell north of us (the storm was moving southeasterly). We stopped at 4:15 pm CDT to briefly observe a storm that soon fell apart. After we headed towards a tornadic supercell near Ord, NE. There was a confirmed tornado on the ground but we could not see it because it was rain wrapped. As we continued to follow this storm, tornado sirens could be heard. We had to stop suddenly and turn around because clouds were rotating in front of us and picking up dust at the surface. We were worried that a gustnado was trying to form. We kept getting caught up in the rear flank downdraft (a very strong outflow from a supercell), causing driving to become difficult. Due to these strong winds, dust was getting picked up and reduced visibility. We tried to catch up with this storm for a few more hours, but failed to do so. We stopped for a quick break in Lincoln, NE to get gas and then headed west to go after another supercell.

We travelled west on I-80 to head towards Kearney, NE where our hotel was for the night. The supercell that we were approaching while driving was moving quite fast. We thought that we were going to make it to our south route before the storm came, but that did not happen. We had to stop at a rest area (~8:30 pm CDT) near York, NE because the storm caught up to us. At first, we only encountered heavy precipitation and strong winds. Soon after, baseball sized hail started to hit our vehicles. Van 1’s front window got cracked and some dents on the roof. Van 2’s rear view mirror came off, the front window cracked and a side window shattered. No one was injured from this storm.

 

 *Photo from Dillon Ulrich*

 

We had to make an emergency stop in York, NE for the night because the glass kept shattering in Van 2. We arrived at our hotel and waited for the next storm (which had a tornado warning) to arrive. We all stayed on the first floor in the hotel to watch the storm pass over us. There was rotation and a debris ball could be noticed on radar. This storm produced pea to half-dollar sized hail and had winds up to 62 mph. Once the storm had passed, we went outside to assess the vans to see if any more damage was done. The only damage was that the shattered side window in Van 2 was worse. After this eventful day, the team went to get some much needed rest.