Date: June 6, 2015
Time: 4:30 - 8:30 PM CDT
Place: O'Niell, Creighton, NE
Distance: 1298 mi (343 positioning, 85 chasing, 870 to home)
Camera: T3i, GoPro3 Silver
Warnings: SVR
Rating: S4

The Chase

10:30 AM: We have a long drive ahead of us today, starting in Colby, KS and targeting northeast Nebraska. This will be furthest from home we've ever been on a chase! I hope it'll be worth it and I'm not making decisions out of desperation for a tornado.

11:10 AM: Found a neat little abandoned farm house with a classic pickup truck by the highway. Had to get some slider shots. It's really fun to imagine who lived here.

12:15 PM: Gassing up in Norton, KS, there's a storm chase tour group also here getting gas. They have two fancy European-style tour vans - never noticed these before but they look really nice.

12:43 PM: The drive from Colby to Alma, NE was very picturesque - always fun to see a new area. Now we are back on familiar highways headed towards Kearney.

2:11 PM: In Grand Island for a quick lunch. There's lots of flooded fields in the area, but that's nothing unusual for our 2015 chases. #Chaselantis

3:04 PM: Woohoo!! SPC just upped the tornado probabilities to 10%-hatched in northeast Nebraska - my favorite! Looks like moisture and shear are coming together better than expected. The 20z outlook even mentioned the possibility of "significant tornadoes."

4:07 PM: We've almost arrive in my target of Norfolk, Nebraska. Thankfully storms have not yet initiated, although the cumulus field to our north and west looks very agitated on satellite.

4:16 PM: Blips on radar to our west, one near Chambers and another near Bristow.

4:31 PM: Storms are a go! The blip near Chambers is really taking off. Flying west on Hwy 275 for the intercept!!!

5:06 PM: Our cell has continued to mature over the last 30 minutes. We are headed north out of Neligh to get in its path. Just entering the anvil shadow now!

5:26 PM: Found a quiet little spot near the Hwy 14/59 intersection where I'm gonna get some timelapse as the supercell heads this way. We are just east of the forward flank precipitation, and as the storm moves ENE over the next hour we should get a great view of the updraft.

5:40 PM: Been getting lots of nice timelapse. The base is still quite a few miles distant, but we have good visibility and can get closer if needed. For now I like being just outside the rain.

5:55 PM: Severe Warning! Storm might be taking a right turn. Base has great rising motion.

6:12 PM: Just repositioned about a mile closer, and we now have an absolutely stunning view of the updraft overlooking the Merriman Creek valley. One of the best vantage points I've ever had. Now if we can get this rotation cranked up...

6:25 PM: Major new storm development blowing up to our south. This storm better produce soon or it's going to get run over.

6:31 PM: A beautiful little area of rotation swirled up right in front of us, but it's starting to look outflowish now.

6:46 PM: Moving east to Creighton to stay out of the rain. That won't last long though, as a left-mover is closing in from the south. Or storm is in its last few minutes I'm afraid.

7:10 PM: Our cell went totally outflow dominant and gusted out, sending us south out of Creighton to escape. We are in a unique little lull only a few hundred yards wide between the rain from our original storm and the rain from the left mover coming up from the south.

7:34 PM: We are now about 4 miles south of Plainview. We cored a maturing cell to get here, and now we're watching it move on to the northeast. All these cells are really getting too closely spaced. I think the day may be ending soon.

8:33 PM: Stayed in the same spot for the last hour watching the cells push northeast in the fading light. A little backbuilding action kept them close this whole time. Now a new cell is blowing up a couple miles southwest of here. Gonna dodge it to the west and start the drive to our hotel.

9:22 PM: We found that amazing sweet cinnamon smell in the fields south of Neligh! First time we've smelled it all season. Brings back such good chase memories.

11:06 PM: Got to the Grand Island Hampton Inn. Gonna make a late night Buffalo Wild Wings run!

11:24 PM: Whatdaya know? The tour group with the fancy European vans is here at BWW as well.

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned