Topic: USA Trip 2006 23rd May, SE Nebraska - nthrn Kansas

[Dave Nelson]

hi Gang,

   Starting out in nthrn Missouri where we had spent a couple of quiet days with friends, we targeted the Hastings area of sthrn, cntrl Nebraska.   The stormline was already building from SW of Grand Is through to the NE of the state and into South Dakota.
 
   A group of us met at Pete McConnells' place in Hastings, to bide time and decide on a plan of attack whilst watching the radar.
This area saw the building of individual cells, rather than the long line of joint cells stretching to the NE of Nebraska.
  ~ 4pm we all headed SE of Hastings towards the Hebron area where the tail end of the stormline started producing some nice
photogenic cells.
   nearing sunset a group of some 10 chaser cars had assembled ~ 10 miles N of Hebron and witnessed a large striated cell with a
strong gust front.   the strong wind which had been from the S-SE all day, over 3 minutes turned to the outfloe from the gustfront
lifting lots of soil fron the farmland, having us all running for cover in the cars.

  Moving south to escape that outflow we were treeated to spectatular liteshows from that and several other large cells till we arrived in Concordia KS for dinner around 11 pm CDT.   We then travelled on to Salina KS for accomodation for the nite

 all in all a great day


   this morning, 24th  we are targeting SE  KS and into SW MO, Joplin - Springfield areas

   cheers
  Dave and Cindy  Nelson

[Michael Bath]

Hi guys,

Jimmy's photos for this date have been uploaded and are here:

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/new/jd2006052502.html
http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/new/jd2006052503.html











MB

[nzstorm]

We intercepted this storm at Crete (southwest of Lincoln).  The storm had developed a magnificent shelf cloud just on dusk.  The squall gust from this storm was something else, lots of dirt then torrential rain and a little bit of hail. I estimated the force of the wind to be in excess of 50knots. The report on SPC from our area was 80mph. The lightning from this storm was exceptional. 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

Yes for a day that was low on tornadoes, it did provide a little bit of fun. We had a strong gustnado develop to our right captured on video and the second vehicle was hit by it as it crossed. We were able to stay ahead of the line from near and SW of St Pauls.

We have just realised that the gust front gustnado may hve had a connection to the shelf with rotation. I will check video in regards to this being a possible tornado - in other words forward flank tornado where there is a connection of the vortex from cloud to ground.

As suggested by Steven, the lightning show was excellent. We observed in Fremont, Nebraska some excellent anvil crawlers from the system as it moved east!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Jimmy Deguara]

We chased the region south central Nebraska from just west of Cairo knowing well we had no chance to make the storms further north. A liner mode was more than expected given the wind shear dynamics as noted above.

Probably the best features observed were the lightning in Fremont and of course the strong gustnado near Archer. In regards to the evidence of a tornadic circulation, I am not totally convinced we have evidence thus far to prove we observed a forward flank tornado. Any comments are certainly welcome.

Nick Moir suggested he observed rotation on the gust front - the featured noted above the dust - something I was not aware of at the time.

Here is his photograph

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2006/0523nm01.jpg

A video has been provided though that I took prior to Nick's photograph:

smaller version:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/movies/2006/nebraska_dust_gust_23_may_2006_02.wmv

larger version
http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/movies/2006/nebraska_dust_gust_23_may_2006_01.wmv

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Geoff Thurtell]

After viewing the photos and the video, it is difficult to reach a conclusion. There does appear to be a brief visible connection between the gustnado and the rotating shelf cloud. Obviously, these gust front features do not have the advantage of available moisture to provide a condensation funnel.

Regards,

Geoff

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Geoff,

There were some true condensation examples on a storm further north with 2 tornadoes being confirmed along the gust front.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Geoff Thurtell]

Hi Jimmy,

Could that be explained because the northern storms were in a higher dew point environment as a result of outflow from the southern storm?

Regards,

Geoff