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2014 Short Term Severe Weather Disco


Chicago Storm

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Ian, that is definitely a tornado on your Twitter. Congratulations! I always feel a great sense of relief once I've booked a tornado on a chase trip. Pressure is off and now one can really enjoy their time on the Plains. Agree it is not all about tornadoes, but I definitely want to book 1-2 tornadoes if traveling. Then goto DQ and play Ice Cube singing Today was a Good Day. That hail was also awesome.

 

Regarding herd convergence, I'm a little surprised that far up on the High Plains. Is it because Denver is a large metro? Wow! I'm eying the northern Plains after Memorial Day but I hope herd convergence is not spreading up there now. Family stuff this week has kept me out of the field, so thank you for letting us chase vicariously!

 

And finally on thread topic: Today is probably structure, with the peaceful mind that one already booked a tornado yesterday. The Adams and Arapahoe counties northeast Colorado special is probably a good play again. Feature similar to the Palmer Divide is also along the CO/NM border, sometimes setting up supercells southeast of Pueblo. However there is less research on that. Also, high-res models seem to like the Dever Cyclone again. I don't know if we have enough speed shear, but the structure should be good. Just have to hope it does not go HP so darn early on I-25 again. Only in 2014, lol!

 

If eying the West Texas target, one might have to go all the way to Big Bend country. Little more deep level shear is noted down there. High-res models have supercells down there too.

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A million+ people live within 30 minutes drive of the action here, so it wouldn't have surprised me if people took a late lunch break to go chase for an hour or two. I thought seriously about it but had too many mid-afternoon work commitments. And (deflector shields up) drivers here tend to be pretty bad anyway when compared to those schooled in the craziness of the congested East. If there are typically half a dozen accidents on I-70 between Denver and east of Aurora on a normal day, imagine what adding a bunch of chasers will do!

 

Few storms popping in the foothills and down near Castle Rock, but moving SLOW. Pretty typical today as compared to yesterday.

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Just passed an Extreme Tornado Tours or whatever they're called van on the side of I-70 with its wheel about 1000 feet away in the median.  I bet that isn't the "extreme" that those tour-goers signed up for...

 

Keep rollin rollin rollin

 

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I'd expect at least isolated severe storms near the NM/TX border into west Texas/panhandle for Saturday and Sunday.

The main limiting factor that may hold back this setup is if there's a lack of destabilization from a more solid shield of precipitation. Where there are breaks and pockets of greater instability, a few storms could produce large hail and some damaging winds. I wouldn't rule out a tornado or two IF the higher end instability forecasts are realized.

The 12z 4km NAM seems bullish with a line of discrete cells firing Saturday afternoon. The SPC WRF is oddly dry and is late to the game with a few cells only firing by about 00z Sunday. Both focus on west Texas.

From roughly Midland south to the Mexican border, the models seem the most robust with the severe parameters. Euro pushes SBCAPE to >2000 J/kg with the SREF increasing STP values over 1 with most of the members here.

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I decided to go north, catch some consolation prize storms in WY/SD tomorrow and ND/SD Sunday, and then sink back south to Sioux Falls on Monday.

 

There were just too many possible caveats to the severe weather threat in the Big Bend region to justify driving from Denver to Midland, only to have to come all the way back north after only one chase day (since I need to be at FSD Tuesday morning and we can't really pull off a 14+ hr drive Monday from MAF to FSD).

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Tomorrow (Sat 5/24) looks promising enough for a chase along the TX/NM border, at least by this year's standards. The 18z NAM-4km indicates widespread 2000-3000 J/kg SBCAPE by late afternoon over the Llano Estacado and Permian Basin with veering wind profiles and regionally-impressive BL moisture. Although SRH is not forecast to be impressive by most of the NWP before dark, pattern recognition will probably get me out the door (I'd be kind of excited if this year hadn't pushed me to the point of assuming failure as the default outcome). Preliminary target is a Lubbock-Clovis-Hobbs triangle, though I'd be happy to see the most impressive storms farther N closer to home.

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Two beautiful supercells in SE NM today. Structure out the wazoo this trip.

Glad to have Brett aboard tomorrow. I never believe till he does.

We are staying in Hobbs tonight.

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Will take it with a grain of salt, but the 3z RAP is awfully bullish, especially from SE NM into about the Midland area and a bit further south.

The high CAPE values of 3000-4000 J/kg are likely overdone. Bulk shear is in the range of 30-40kt for much of west Texas with some >50kt flags flying back in NM.

Either way I think things will be active on either side of the NM/TX border Saturday afternoon/evening. Right now SPC is going 2/15/15 hatched (hail), but I could see that needing to be upped if near-term trends can narrow down an area tomorrow of enhanced destabilization coupled with some stronger shear.

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So much rain.

You can always chase a good old Texas Flood event. 1981 offered a Major flood event across much of Texas during the Memorial Day Holiday period. Slow moving long wave trough with a tap to an EPAC Hurricane in a stagnant upper flow tends to spell flood across our Region. Can we thank you for ending our drought or the +PDO regime with a developing Nino?

 

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I'm happy to take credit. ;)

It is good news overall of course. Drought may be fully wiped out by Niño. Maybe next chase season will be a big one.

Gotta think this mass of rain screwed much of the tornado potential today tho.

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I'm happy to take credit. ;)

It is good news overall of course. Drought may be fully wiped out by Niño. Maybe next chase season will be a big one.

Gotta think this mass of rain screwed much of the tornado potential today tho.

That it did. The good news is areas that sorely needed a good soaking are getting it and that bodes well for any potential drought feedback issues going into summer.

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Have to say down south is looking prime right now. HRRR initializing fairly well and shows very strong shear (70-85kt!) coinciding with >2000 J/kg CAPE. Keep a close eye on those outflow boundaries. Things could really light up later this afternoon. Good luck to all who are chasing!

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