Omaha Tornado Chaser: December 2008

Well it finally snowed here in omaha today. It had snowed before this winter but nothing more than a dusting. In fact before today, New Orleans, LA and Houston, TX had had more snow this year than Omaha had! It was a nice fluffy snow that fell lightly most of the morning into mid afternoon. Luckily there was no wind so not much blowing occurred and that was a good thing too because it was only in the lower teens today for a high. About 2"-2.5" of snow fell around town today, but there were some 5" reports in NW Iowa. I love snow, but hate driving around town in it, especially here in a large city that has so much traffic, and thus many more moron drivers out there! This Thursday/Friday is looking real interesting. There could be a major icing event somewhere in the midwest including Omaha, with destructive ice amounts over 1/2" possible. Then on Thursday night, the precip should change over to snow with several inches possible and very strong winds. We'll see what happens, as there is some question to where the freezing line will set up.

This chase was more of a chase, "just to go out and chase", chase. There hadn't been the usual fall season for severe weather in the area that normally happens in September and into the first part of October, the last time I had been out chasing was back in June. At one point the models were more promising for this day's severe weather potential, more importantly the chance of tornadoes. Ultimately though the moisture return wasn't as good as needed. There was a possiblility of a cold core setup across northeast Nebraska, but the clouds never really cleared there enough so I decided to head down towards the Kansas border south of Lincoln. I was heading south on Highway 77, towards Beatrice when finally the low clouds cleared out and the cumulus clouds had a little more of a convective look to them. The cold front was crashing eastwards so I was hoping something would pop ahead of the front as the forecast was saying everything would become linear very rapidly. I made it to Manhattan, KS about 230 p.m. and decided that would be the furthest south I would go. I checked the radar and perfecto! The first cells of the afternoon were forming about 20 miles west of me. The line filled in rapidly however with the individual cells moving northeast while the line moved more slowly east. I waited in Manhattan and took a few pics and finally decided to go west of town to get closer. The cells never would quite get severe before the fell apart. Finally there was a cell that looked a little stronger on the south end of the line. I dropped back to south of Manhattan to intercept. On the way back through town, a severe tstorm warning was issued for 60 mph winds and up to quarter sized hail. I found a hillside and watched the storm roll in. I ended back in town when the storm was moving through and experienced probably nickel sized hail for about 3 minutes or so. This was the best storm on the line, and so after it passed I decided to head back towards Omaha. On the way back, I experienced a beautiful double rainbow, and then a nice sunset that underlit the storm anvil and mamatus clouds. Overall not a bad chase for the last of the season. I can't wait til next spring as hopefully I will have even more tools for chasing to use!