Year in photos - Week 4

Old school house near Steele City, NE.

 

Snow plastered trees on Christmas. Wausa, NE.

Cows get into the Christmas spirit! Wausa, NE.

Evergreens look better in the snow. Wausa, NE.

Snow tries to invade the indoors. Wausa, NE.

Day after the storm. Wausa, NE.

 

A subzero morning. Wausa, NE.

Winter's fury, ice and snow. Columbus, NE.

A barn's halo. Fairbury, NE.

 

Year in photos - Week 3

Numerous cranes start work on a new NBAF (National Bio Agro-Defense Facility) at K-State. Manhattan.

Crescent moon pokes through the cranes. Manhattan.

Christmas lights ill-hung, cars drive by unnoticing. Manhattan.

Last light of the day. Manhattan.

Mothership baby storms with virga dance across the landscape at sunset. Tescott, KS.

Dynamic sunset behind an abandoned school. Tescott, KS.

December moonlit landscape. Tescott, KS.

Mammatus-esque virga over Rock City park. Minneapolis, KS.

Year in photos - Week 2

I made it through a second week! Ha, had some help from some epic sunrises early week! 'Tis the season as strong storm systems usher in great high cloud setups for great sunrise/sunsets. Enough talk.

First sunrise of the week! Monday! Waxing cresent moon at top too! Manhattan.

Waning cresent moon with Venus in close proximity (to the bottom left of the moon). Zoomed version of previous photo.

Even better sunrise on Tuesday. Manhattan.

Can you spot the hawk? Neighbors front bush! Manhattan.

Doesn't look much like December... winter wheat is green (typical) and the star is up on the nearby silo! Manhattan.

Manhattan has a hill... actually several (it sits in a valley). One has its name on it, but is hard to get from a distance... Foggy night!

One of my favorite bridges on a foggy night. Expect to see more of it! Manhattan.

Drive by this bank on a daily basis, they added some green tinted lights for Christmas. Manhattan.

Only 50 weeks to go!

Chip

A year in photos (by week) - Week 1

Everyone always does a yearly thing where it is day by day. I have wanted a reason to pick up my camera more often (when there aren't storms around) so I decided to try this. The only twist, I don't have time to post a photo a day. Therefore, I have decided to do weekly recaps from the previous week of photos. Goal is one a day. I will try to keep out the family photos, but as I get into the swing of things, I needed some starter material. Here it goes!

On our way back from Ohio, Alexander reaches for the camera. Effingham, Il hotel room.

Ice storm during Thanksgiving greets us when we get back to Manhattan.

Wedding center piece flowers have a neat shadow on the curtains.

Geese fly north, then south, then west... they are confused at sunset! Manhattan.

Rather dull sunset provides 10 seconds (literally) of excitement. Manhattan.

Kathy gave me this lego set to make while I waited for her to get prepared for our wedding. Unpacking I found it today in the state of where I left it to get married (step 24/31). Finished it! Manhattan.

Alexander is always observing... Manhattan.

There is the first week! Let's see if I can keep at it....

Chip

5/9/15 Colorado Tornadoes

Was going to try to post each chase log as it came this year... well-already 6 chases behind! Here is a start.

Started the day in Wichita Falls, TX and blasted northwest into southeast Colorado to play along the low. Unlike most, this was our target area (Lamar, CO) mostly because we had the best chance at making a play on numerous storms. Also, with weaker moisture than previously forecasted (due to numerous MCS's through the warm sector) the elevation would help overcome that. Development stared early on the NM/CO line and gradually moved northward. We got on it SW of Lamar and watched several attempts at organization. Finally it got its act together and a gorgeous cone/needle tornado developed (tornado #1).

 

After tornado #1, the storm had some great classic supercell structure just before producing again.

After roping out after about 20 minutes of being on the ground, another RFD cut around the base and a large cone tornado developed (tornado #2). A second satellite simultaneously developed and roped around the main circulation (tornado #3). The cone grew quite a bit (tornado #2).

 

Once the large tornado picked up, another rope tornado developed (tornado #4).

 Once the previous lifted, the storm tried several more times to develop a large tornado west of Cheyenne Wells, CO. As it moved north a very quick rope tornado developed and died after about 20-30 seconds (tornado #5).

 

 After some steak, we shot east to catch the long lived supercell producing tornadoes by Oakley, KS. We decided to watch it from the distance and got an awesome lightning timelapse.

Great chase! That makes 8 tornadoes on the year thus far with another setup coming this weekend! Thanks for checking out my page!

Chip