May 21, 2010. Bust!

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Yep, the title says it all. I chatted with Adam Boggs the night before as it was looking like a very good day. We decided we’d head out and carpool and test out each of our systems. Adam brought his custom sofware and I used the Baron.

Headed to the Tornado Watch box and decided to continue to Kimball. Saw a radiosonde launched over I-80 just south of Kimball. Got some gas and headed just north of the city where we decided to hang out and watch the storms form. Looking up north we could see the convective beasts but we decided with storm direction we could easily end up in South Dakota and that wasn’t an option for our Friday commute home!

We photographed some “wave” clouds which was cool; but there was no convective “popcorn” anywhere to be seen other than the 2 storms way up north and west. We started to see a storm pop in Fort Morgan Colorado and started to get our hopes up. The air was ripe and the shear was great; we just needed initation as we were in what most people would call windy, great sunny weather! Moved to the south side of town for a better view of all directions. By the airport we watched the Colorado storm’s base get sheared off by the cap. At least it was a quick death. That was the extent of our structure; we ended up seeing no real new cumulous clouds form the rest of the day.

Hightlights was the forming cell that got clobbered. The many railcars on the I-80 train that had great graffiti–the art gallery came to us in Kimball, Nebraska one day! Great to get out with Adam and chase! Just wished for a cloud; not even a storm; just a cloud was our motto for most of the chase!

Biggest bust ever!