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Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Great Plains trip #2 preliminary recap

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

As it became increasingly clear that Monday's event (June 12) was going to have high-end tornado potential (and therefore be worth the marathon drive), I ended up packing up and leaving Sunday afternoon (June 11) for Plains trip #2 for the season. I returned home from the 2,200-mile, 4-day chase today (Wednesday the 14th). As usual, I have a lot of photos and material to go through and edit, including the full-event dashcam timelapses. All of that will probably come this weekend, as I have to return to work tomorrow.

A detailed account of each chase with photos will be posted eventually, but here is a quick summary (Days 1-4 were logged during Trip #1):

Day 5 (Sunday, June 11): Travel day from St. Louis to Grand Island, Nebraska.
Day 6 (Monday, June 12): Monday's event lived up to the expectations. After a chance meeting with Union Pacific steam locomotive #844, I witnessed and captured at least five tornadoes in the Wyoming-Colorado-Nebraska tri-state region, including a photogenic one at very close range. Several baseball-sized hailstones were collected and brought home in a cooler for close-up photos!
Day 7 (Tuesday, June 13): Marginal severe storms in central Nebraska. This previously-primary day of interest turned out to be mostly a dud in my target area.
Day 8 (Wednesday, June 14): Travel day from St. Joseph, Missouri to St. Louis, including a few marginal storms in the STL metro on the way home.

Here is a quick collage of images from Monday:

And video from the day:

This likely wraps up my 2017 Great Plains storm chasing season, but I'll hold off on declaring that until I make my final Trip 2 detailed summary post (again, most likely coming this weekend). Stay tuned!