June 21 Update Part 2

Caught a beautiful striated, albeit fairly high based, tornado warned storm near Bassett, Nebraska tonight. It produce two funnels and also had hail to baseball size. Damaged the two vans from it. Then chased a line segment in Cherry county, Nebraska that was a spectacular lightning producer.

Back to Denver tomorrow to get ready for my North Land Lecture Tour.

Roger Hill

June 21

Crazy morning thus far! Intercepted a supercell producing 4.5" diameter hail near White Lake, South Dakota. The storm was spectacular! Now I am waiting for later convection to fire off the Black Hills. Stay tuned!

Roger

June 19

Well, June 19 was certainly an interesting day. I caught a classic supercell near Hoxie, Kansas that tried everything it could to produce a tornado, and failed. Another storm developed on its flank and that became our new target storm. We were in front of this beast as it morphed into one of the most incredible HP supercells I have ever seen, pummeling us with 4" diameter hail, high winds and a couple of funnel clouds. I even had a bolt of lightning that struck 100 feet from me. Quite intense.

Today, June 20, I am off to Valentine,Nebraska for what could be a wild afternoon of severe weather.

Roger Hill

Update, June 14

After a quiet few days, this past two days have been pretty exciting. We caught a briefly tornadic supercell near Murdo, SD on Tuesday, June 12th. A truncated cone funnel developed south of I-90 and briefly touched down as it approached the interstate. June 13th had some promise in the southern plains, and after a VERY VERY long drive to north central Oklahoma, we intercepted a tornadic supercell in Major county. We had to drive through one of the most intense cores I have ever driven through! We caught one tornado and a couple funnel clouds.

Today, Thursday, we will chase in the Red River area before heading back to Denver tomorrow.

Roger

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