Nebraska/Kansas Supercells 5/15

A supercell thunderstorm forming over Cambridge, NE. May 15th, 2015.

Friday was a long day. It started out in eastern Colorado and brought me into Nebraska and Kansas before the day was over. It was a challenging storm chase, as the tornado reports were fairly few and far between. Flooded roads in northeastern Colorado had me on at least three different detours and I finally decided to bail the area and head into Kansas. There had been one cycling supercell in the panhandle of Nebraska, but with a clustered storm mode and a mob of storm chasers, I did not want to go up there.

In Kansas, I felt that there was a possibility that a supercell could form in the central portion of the state. A few storms did form and they proceeded to move into adjacent south-central Nebraska before quickly weakening. Although the storms were not particularly severe, their structure was photogenic. These two pictures were taken not long before sunset, in the general vicinity of Cambridge, Nebraska. For a day filled with a lot of driving and no tornadoes, it was nice to at least see some great supercell structure. Not to mention that there were very few chasers in this area, so there was less overcrowding with other vehicles and bystanders.

A supercell thunderstorm continues to grow over Cambridge, NE. 8:31 p.m. May 15th, 2015.