July 3, 2010 – High Based and High Precip in the Panhandle

It certainly did feel great to get out on a chase again. Having said that, it was a sloppy HP mess up in the Nebraska Panhandle. My expectations for tornadoes today were low as the shear profiles wouldn’t be anywhere near what would be needed for rotating storms. And as expected, there weren’t any. Or should I say, there weren’t any that I saw (there was a report up near the SD border). Anyway, I stuck to my original plan today and targeted Chugwater, WY and was out my front door at 10:30 heading up I-25. As I got close to the WY border I could see storms were already forming and moving E. I abandoned my target of Goshen County and flew E out of Cheyenne on to I-80. I reached the Kimball exit and went north up to Scottsbluff where I had finally caught up with my first storm. It was high based, but kept showing meso markers (indicative of a rotating storm) on my radar. I got a call from the Cheyenne NWS asking if I could see any rotation, to which my answer was an emphatic ‘no!’ Anyway, it was HP from the get go, so I skirted the southern edge of the storm and let it pass by.

I wasn’t getting any cell reception in the Scottsbluff valley, thus I wasn’t getting any radar updates. The last scan I had showed this storm was weakening so I decided to head back to Scottsbluff to refuel and grab some lunch. As I quickly got back into cell range, my radar updated showing me that storm had not died, but had re-strengthened and was looking impressive. Another reason why next year I will be getting a proper data card! After my 30 second freak out and swearing out loud session ended I blasted E trying to catch back up to it. Minotare Lake got in the way of that unfortunately. But no worries, another cell to my S and E near Bridgeport was going nuts, so I decided to head toward that area. As I got into a completely flooded Bridgeport the cell responsible for all the water promptly died in front of my eyes. I then decided to refuel, grab some dinner (never got a chance for lunch!) and give a new storm just to my S a chance to do something before I called it a day. I drove E and S out of Bridgeport where I was able to get a good look at the new storm moving toward me. Just like all the other storms today, this one was high precip too.

Seeing as this could possibly have been my last ever chase in my Pathfinder I decided to take a hero shot for her! Hahaha…

This storm continued to look like a monster rain maker, so I decided to head back home. I got tricked once as a tornado warning went out on the cell so I turned around and headed back. The tornado warning lasted about 3 minutes haha! Fool me once, shame on me…I got back to Sidney and found a pull off for a few last shots.