Supercell and Tornadoes // Northwest Kansas & Southwest Nebraska // 18 May 2025

 I latched onto a supercell south of St. Francis, Kansas during the afternoon of May 18th. After a benign core punch, I placed myself northeast of a wall cloud that was showing major signs of imminent tornadogenesis. However, the RFD wrapped around the circulation and the wall cloud dissipated quickly. I then had to race north toward Max, Nebraska in order to stay within viewing distance of the next potential tornado. This involved a more significant core punch involving large hail, strong rear-flank winds and torrential rain. I eventually emerged out of the hook echo and was immediately greeted with what was likely an anticyclonic circulation and/or weak tornado that accompanied the development of a very strong cyclonic tornado forming to its north. I couldn't see the cyclonic tornadic circulation due to dust, rain, and poor contrast, but I did get clipped by the anticyclonic circulation, which pushed my truck sideways almost off the highway. I then raced north to Palisade and Hayes Center, watched a core of heavy rain that hid a possible tornado, and sampled another round of very large hail. The chase was essentially over at this point and I began the long journey east back to Omaha through multiple rounds of heavy MCS rain and wind.

 

Kentucky Storm Chase // Ultra-Long-Lived Deadly Supercell // May 16, 2025

 I chased a supercell across western Kentucky on May 16, 2025. This storm formed in southwestern Missouri and tracked east all the way to southcentral/southeastern Kentucky, which is 500+ miles during the lifespan of the supercell. Unfortunately, it produced a significant tornado that impacted London and Somerset resulting in ~20 fatalities. I gave up the storm at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, as road networks and jungle-like vegetation made additional chasing essentially futile. During the multi-hour period I was on the storm, I sampled the updraft base multiple times, as well as hail cores that produce large to very large diameter stones.  No rotation at the base of the storm was observed, and in fact, every time the storm appeared to take on a classic cyclonic reflectivity gradient in radar including a hook echo it would fizzle out the next volume scan, but for reasons unkown to me, the storm transitioned into a significantly tornadic phase several hours after I departed. No blog worthy pictures were taken, but some archived date is posted below. 

Supercell // Far West Texas // 5 May 2025

 I chased a Cinco de Mayo supercell in Far West Texas. The storm formed in a well mixed boundary layer airmass, where CAPE was moderate, deep-layer shear was strong, but SRH was minimal. The storm then crossed a stationary front, with structure becoming more interesting, and tornadogenesis seemingly imminent. However, tornadoes failed to occur, and the likely culprit was continued slight to moderate cold dry air advection via east-northeast winds. Not only did this cause the storm to encounter lower CAPE, lower moisture, and greater CIN on the cool side of the boundary, but hodograph structure also displayed large crosswise vorticity in the lowest couple hundred meters AGL. The MAF afternoon sounding launched a bit east of the storm is posted below, and displays the unfavorable near surface hodograph structure.