Update, May 30

Sorry it has taken me so long to update here. I had an unscheduled surgery which put me behind the power curve BIG TIME.

May 22: I caught three BEAUTIFUL supercells in Kansas, one of which produced two tornadoes not far from Hill City. One was a truncated cone and the other a small elephant trunk shaped tornado. Great chase and the storm structure was incredible!

May 23: I caught four photogenic HP supercells in the Texas panhandle that produced three tornadoes, one of which was very strong and lasted about 15 minutes. Due to poor anvil level flow, storms became high precipitation which choked the updrafts as they became tornadic. Beautiful storm in Hutchinson county, TX as the sunset produced the best tornado of the day.

May 29: The Elbert/Lincoln county storm was pretty for a bit, but also became a typical Colorado Ice Machine. It became outflow dominant and despite tornado reports near Simla, there were NONE! I was right on the spot where the reports came in. As the storm started producing intense hail, scud developed and was lifted up to the gust front. It appeared to form little condensation fingers that could be mistaken for tornadoes. THERE WERE NONE!

I am in Amarillo, TX tonight and will chase the Oklahoma panhandle area Thurs. There should be beautiful storms and possibly tornadoes. The long range models continue to advertise a potential severe weather outbreak by mid week next week. Time will tell!

It has also been a pleasure chasing with my friends Tony Laubach and Verne Carlson. Now if we can catcha nice tube together!

We are also making a program for the Travel Channel which will air late fall. Stay tuned!!!

Roger

May 20th

Caught a high based hailstorm east of Rapid City, SD today (May 20). Pounded us pretty well with hail to ping pong ball sized and even had nice rotation for awhile.

Monday looks better along the South Dakota and North Dakota border area. Could even be tornadoes. Tuesday is looking like a classic Kansas tornado day. The poor folks in southwest Kansas just don't need anymore tornadoes, and it looks like they will be under the gun again!

Roger Hill

Update

After a pretty supercell near Castle Rock Wednesday, we will stay around Colorado and chase Thursday. Should be a few marginally severe storms along the Palmer Divide later today.

After today, northbound we go! Montana and the Dakotas look to be the hot spot for the next few days as a strong trough develops and moves across the northern tier of the US. Sufficient shear, and lift will eb in place. The only question is moisture.

Roger Hill

Web site update!

If you would like to see photos and video from the May 5th Kansas tornadoes, please go to my web site at www.stormchase.net and click on the "2007" button on the left and then the May 5th link!

ENJOY!!

Roger

BLOG Update

After an active pattern, things have settled down for awhile. It looks like a northern stream wave and associated front will provide enough focus for storms, some severe on Monday and possibly Tuesday. I am still in Oklahoma City, heading back to Denver for a day after my tour is up Saturday. I wish I could make it to Montana for Sunday as it strongly looks like the potential for rotating supercells in southeast Montana. But commitments won't allow it.

By the middle of Tour #2, things should start getting active again. In the meantime, enjoy the fine weather and a chance for a few storms in Colorado!

Roger

May 9th

Whew, after a long past week filled with supercells and tornadoes, things are finally slowing down for awhile.

Thursday May 3rd - The so called "Colorado" tornado outbreak wasn't an outbreak at all. These storms were EXTREMELY high based and suffered from tremendous outflow problems. Many spin ups, or gustnadoes formed, but certainly were not connected to the cloud base. I have a very hard time believing the reports that these were tornadoes.

Friday, May 4 - Caught a rapidly rotating supercell east of Phillipsburg, Kansas. This storm was 60,000 ft tall and was tornado warned for nearly 2 hours. There were at times funnels, but nothing touched down. It appeared it moved onto the cool side of the boundary, thus sucking in cool, stable air. We saw the Greensburg storm but chose not to take the tours to it since it had a monster tornado and was after dark.

Saturday May 5th - Kansas tornado outbreak. We intercepted 6, and possibly 7 tornadoes this day, including three very strong tornadoes. The town of Mackville, Kansas came close to being obliterated from the map!! There were numerous tornadic supercells that raced northeast along the boundary and produced many tornadoes. Nearly 80 tornado reports came in this day from the Dakotas to Texas.

Sunday May 6th - We intercepted several severe storms in Oklahoma. Upper level flow was parallel to the dryline, causing storms to seed each other and become a huge squall line. Lightning was awesome, but the tornado threat quickly ended.

Tuesday May 8th - Very interesting day as we started in Lubbock and blasted south to Seminole as a tornado warned piece of a squall line/bow echo blasted through knocking down trees and power lines. It was quite an intense system! Later we approached Throckmorton, TX to find a RAPIDLY rotating supercell with a nice striated, bell shaped base. This storm had produced a tornado and tried to again several times!

Now time for a break!

Roger Hill

BLOG UPDATE

After a very active early spring so far with nearly 25 tornadoes intercepted, Friday and Sat look wild! Unfortunately there is the potential for very damaging tornadoes in western/central Kansas Friday and then from south central Nebraska through western Oklahoma on Saturday. The SPC has upgraded to MODERATE RISK Friday and Saturday and I would suspect a HIGH RISK update for Saturday as the time gets closer. This could be a historic severe weather event with numerous large and destructive tornadoes!! I am already out with my tours which began yesterday. We were in Weld county when the tornado reports came in, which I don't feel were very valid. Cloud bases were too high and things looked like gustnadoes instead of tornadoes. More updates as the days wear on!! Off to Kansas!

Roger