May 21 Travel Day

Several Updates will be posted within this post, the posts will be in chronological order with the most recent update being first. The time of the posts will be shown in bold for ease of use (All times are CDT).


8:15 PM Update: We have arrived in Goodland, KS at the Super 8 which features only 2 more rooms left (both smoking). Lady at the front desk shared that Colby, KS hotel rooms were booked with various chasers so it was wise that we kept moving west and arrived here. Several severe thunderstorms just 50 more miles to the west, however no need to drive another hour to get to them and another hour back to a hotel room so we've stopped here and will likely spend the rest of the night looking at tomorrow's prospects and watching some television. This will likely be the last update until tomorrow morning when the May 22 chase post can get underway. Here are the details thus far from the trip:

May 20/21 Miles: 711
May 20/21 Time: 11 Hrs, 10 min

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5:15 PM Update: Although some thunderstorm activity has initiated along the dryline, we don't feel like a chase taking us further north is worth our time. With tomorrow's target likely be in northwestern Kansas, we've hopped off of I80 and are zigging and zagging down to McCook, NE where we will then likely continue into Kansas. Although this is likely to be a fairly long drive, this should set us up for nearly no driving for tomorrows' target. Both Tony Laubach and Verne Carlson have headed out today and are around the northeastern Colorado storms. We will be keeping an eye on storms as they continue to develop along the dryline, maybe a good show can be along our route?! Next update likely to come once we've reached our destination for the night.

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12:50 PM Update: On the road, getting all settled into our Cobalt, and enjoying the 200-some XM Satellite radio stations. The SPC expanded todays' risk in the far western regions with an increased hail threat as well. We should reach Ogallala, NE before 6 PM MDT and thus have time to view any storms that are in extreme southwest Nebraska and vicinity. The day 2 outlook from the SPC upgraded to moderate risk and had some nice wording in place, thus tomorrow looks like a great day for chasing in Kansas! Next update will likely be when we reach Ogallala, NE.

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8:15 AM Update: The ISU crew (Chris Karstens & Jayson Prentice) will depart today from Ames, IA and begin our journey out west for a several day event of severe weather. TWISTEX doesn't look to become operational until Thursday, with others arriving in Denver this evening. The ISU crew will treat this as a travel day, and a potential chase day if storms can fire along I80 in southwestern Nebraska or in extreme northeastern Colorado. Previous departure was expected to be around the current time, however with the severe threat being limited the departure from Ames has been moved back to ~Noon today. We may just leave slightly earlier than that, as the SPC has expanded the slight risk and latest RUC forecasts have some favorable parameters within our target area of traveling.