Stormchasing: 1 June 2008

La Grange, WY - Venango, NE

First stormchase of 2008, and first stormchase in three years! John and I headed out on noon Sunday towards John's initial target of Burns, WY. After lunching west of Cheyenne, we saw the first towers go up to the north. We eschewed the remaining drive to Burns and rocketed north past Hillsdale to US 85.

By the time we got to the road to La Grange, the storm had set up and was looking good on radar. We followed the storm east of La Grange to the Nebraska border, where the storm fell to crap west of Scottsbluff. Continuing to follow the storm east, we watched as it reformed in the moist, more backed air in the Platte valley outside of Bridgeport, NE and started putting down menacing lowerings.

By this point, we were surrounded by chasers whose original target had busted and had hopped on what was now the best storm in the chaseable area. Staying ahead of it on US 26, we watched as the storm continued to cycle wall clouds and drop lowerings. We met up with Ian and YJ, and watched the Doppler On Wheels and Tornado Intercept Vehicle teams go swooshing by. We continued east past Oshkosh, and dropped south to I-80 west of Ogalalla, rocketed ahead of the the storm's path, and got into the clear-air side of the storm for the first time outside of Julesburg, CO.