Last night the CoD group made a 5 hour late night push to Des Moines from Chicago, so we could have an easier time at setting up in the morning for the afternoon storms.
12:15am – In Des Moines, IA at the Courtyard Marriot. $65/night, no wireless, tiny room, Clint Eastwood movie on the tube. Target looks to be South East Nebraska / South West Iowa for tomorrow. We won’t know exactly until morning map analysis is completed.
7:15am – Up and in the lobby waiting for everyone else to wake up and get going. SPC has tornado risk for are area. Big risk area in the southern states but can’t get there. I’m sure we will stay were we are for the northern option.
8:45am – Map analysis has begun. I realize just how much I don’t know at about 8:46am. Struggling through 500mb map by watching Paul. One of my favorite parts of the trip is to watch Paul work. Nothing more beautiful than watching an expert do what they are good at.
9:20am – Maps almost done. Picture of Paul’s below. My piece of junk below that.
10:30am – Easy storm chase forecast for Paul today. Practically a “bullseye” scenario. Everything is converging on top of the southern IA/NE border. Triple point in KS at the moment and moving NE towards IA. Need to find the warm front and then pick a storm 50miles off the warm front and ride them until they hit the front. Heading to Omaha for now.
12:30pm – In Omaha. Moving on to Lincoln for lunch.
01:15pm – Stopped for lunch at Beacon Hills bar/grill
2:10pm – Lunch done. Good crab cakes. Hangin out for a bit to see how things fire. maybe head a bit west just to get out of town.
4:00pm – Storms are taking their sweet time. Just hanging out at a truck stop on the west side of Lincoln. waiting…waiting…
4:35pm – Towering Cumulus (TCU) trying to fire to the west. Let’s go check on it!
5:15pm – Quick Arby’s stop for food. CU’s are battering the cap. Should break and fire shortly. Paul is pulling us further north into more favorable atmospheric conditions as dry air is moving northward and dropping the dew points.
6:45pm – Bah! Storms have fallen apart. Paul hasn’t called it yet, but he will any minute now. We don’t chase at night.
7:00pm – Frustrating day. Storms now firing to the SW in Pawne county, Not far so flipping a U and heading west.
8:45pm – I guess we do chase at night. haha. Nothing but small hail. Even though there was a “wedge tornado” reported on SpotterNetwork. Since we were standing there and it was no such thing, I had to take time out of my chase to lock that persons account on Spotter Network, via my iPhone. *sigh*
9:30pm – Pulling into Des Moines for another night. Probably a “cold core” play tomorrow if anything.
…end…
Tyler, your site is fantastic. I’m enjoying the bee saga and wish you the best. I’m fascinated by your storm chasing. Praying for your safety. I will be following your posts. Thanks for sharing.