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Storm Chase Discussion
Issued : 5:11 PM Friday May 30th

I left my house to be picked up by the Derrick at 12:00 AM. We drove around to pick up some other guys as well as this Air Force Weather Meteorologist. We then drove off to York Nebraska, and stopped for Lunch at Dairy Queen. The Current sky then was beginning to clear up and the sun was starting to come out. What we needed was some sun and it did come out. Mean while, we got done with lunch and headed off to Grand Island or a bit best of that and Stopped at Bosselmons Truck Center for about 45 minutes to see where we were gonna go as well as Charge up our lap Tops. We then saw on the laptops that a Tornado Watch was issued sometime near 1:30-2:30 PM for the area. Then we looked at radar and storms were beginning to fire just west of us. We thought about just staying their for a while for the storms to hit us then build in our area, but we just jumped in the car and head a bit west to catch up with the storms. The sky at that point was looking extremely ominous with Mammatus Clouds up ahead, very cool clouds. We then continued to head down the road when the skys continued to darken and the sky started to swirl as well as a a low Wall Cloud formed. We stopped on a side road and was greeted by at least 4 other Storm Chasing Cars. We got out and took pictures and video the the rotating Wall Cloud. Their was extreme inflow wind towards the storms which was very good. Then we jumped back in the car as the storm was getting to close to us. As i looked in back of us, i saw tons of dust, like a dust storm forming and swirling, it was no Tornado, but it was Extreme Outflow winds and we high tailed out of their. We continued to drive. Our next stop would be in Kearney somewhere. We stopped on the side of the road to see where to next. Then as i was looking in the distance, we saw, Power Flashes, Yes, the Tornado had touched down and was blowing up Transformers and power lines. We then high tailed down a road and stopped over a over pass and got out and saw more power flashes as well as a Rotating wall cloud. Their was several and i mean several other storm chasing off of the road. We met up with a couple Forecasters from the Storm Prediction Center that were chasing the storms and they headed East, then we thought we should follow them. So we followed them and the sky's were darkening once again and this swirling dust cloud swirls about on the ground over the road like no where and winds were Gusting 60-70 MPH with VERY Heavy Rain. We pulled over to meet up with somebody we knew then took off once the Cops asked us what we were doing. So, we thought we might as well head into the storm. We continued driving and we slowly started to realize we were in the wrong spot. Suddenly the sky turned pitch black over the area and 60-80 MPH winds blasted the interstate as we were driving along with Flooding rains. We could not see anything ahead of us and were driving 10 MPH on the Inter state. This occurred for about another 45 minutes and when the rain started to let up. Their was damage. Their was trees down. Their was roofing tin wrapped around overpass polls and other tin was scattered about. I counted over 6 semi's tipped over on the Inter state. Then we came across Tons of power lines across the road. We saw that this guy had his car parked on the side of the road just near the power lines. So the drive got out to see if he was ok. Turns out the power lines hit his car and his car rolled with him in it. He was safe and sound! So we continued down the road and continued to see this with cop cars pulled over. Then we suddenly realize. This was no wind storm. While we were trying to get ahead of this storm and out of the rain and wind as quickly as possible, turns out a Tornado was on the ground ahead of us by about 1 mile. We then continued down the road and the rain ended once more. Our chase was winding down and we pulled over to look at one last cell that had some rotation. It was dying so we got back int he car and headed back and arrive in Omaha around 9:30 PM.

Location : Somewhere near Kearney
Damage : None



Location : Near Grand Island
Damage : No Damage, Downburst creating dusty conditions



Location : Near Aurora Nebraska
Damage : Semi's Over Turned




Location : Near Grand Island
Damage : Power Flashes from Power Lines and Transformers blowing up from the Tornado



Location : Near Aurora Nebraska
Damage : Semi's over turned, power lines down, good amount of damage