Storm Chase Details
Miles Logged: 399
States Chased: NE
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Severe Reports: Storm Reports
After spending the night in Sioux City, I woke up late in the morning and found myself the last car in the parking lot at the hotel.
Visible Satellite Loop
3pm CDT/20Z SPC Mesoanalysis
Dropping south towards Columbus
As the afternoon wore on, it became painfully clear that the complex along the SD/NE border would not break into supercells or spawn anything further east along the outflow boundary/warm front. I started the journey south on US 81 through Norfolk and towards Humphrey where I headed west to Albion and south on highway 14.
Stopping for Gas in Fullerton
The fatal blow came from a gas stop in Fullerton. I was down significant on the gas tank and decided it’d be best to top the tank off. The 5 minute stop killed the chances of witnessing the tornado.
As we dropped south of Fullerton, we started heading west on the gridded dirt/gravel roads towards Palmer. Bill had a stream up and they were screaming tornado on stream, but as we continued west we were unable to see it. By the time we got far enough west to see under the wall cloud, the tornado had lifted. We missed it.
Dust Whirl and Cold Air
The storm was shelfing out, however, there was still an area of very strong rotation evident. We witnessed a dust whirl underneath before being blasted in the face by cold air. My car was reading 72 degrees. We crossed highway 92 and continued south towards Central City. Whales mouth feature on this south end of the storm.
Dropping south to York
The cold air kept hitting us as we dropped south through Central City to cross the Platte river. Once south of the river, I headed east on Highway 66 towards US81. I’d get ahead of the cold air again on the eastward journey. Once at 81, I dropped south again. The goal was just to get south of I-80 and head towards the storms in Northern Kansas. Bill was having tire problems, with intense shaking of his tire. It’d turn out that he lost balancing weights that he’d get fixed the next morning in Salina. He had just done a lot of work on the back end of his vehicle, so he was worried something was going wrong.
Due to the tire issues, we stopped off at the Petro in York to check. Everything seemed fine, so we hit the facilities quickly.
Tornado Emergency in Hebron
As we were inside the Petro using the facilities, the NWS in Hastings issued a Tornado Emergency about 25 miles south in Hebron. Since I was heading that way anyway, we continued south on US-81. Coming into Hebron about 20 minutes later, we found a devastating amount of leaves across 81 in a spot with a twig.
I continued dropping south on US-81
