So Close But No Cigar

After the weather brief at 8:30 am, we left our hotel in North Platte, NE and traveled on down south to Colby, Kansas. In Colby, we ate at a local burger and shake joint called J&B Meat Market, and the folk more inclined to vegetarianism ate at Subway.On the outskirts of Colby, our GoPro expert, Anthony Borrego, began directing and filming our very own SWIFT commercial (coming soon, get excited). Once the cumulus clouds started forming, we officially entered storm mode.

In storm mode, we first traveled to Menlo, Kansas to monitor the forming storm. From Menlo, we then went to Dexford, Kansas where we witnessed rotational funnel clouds and precipitation. At this point, the storm became a cluster of storms. In Dexford, two rotating funnel clouds came down a little way but ended up not forming into anything tornadic.

While monitoring the clouds in Dexford, we ran into a hail storm where we were able to measure and call in hail. With 1.25 inch hail, we definitely ended up getting core-punched. Once we drove our way out of the core-punching hail storm, we were able to witness a couple of huge rotating funnel clouds close to the ground, transpiring right at magic hour.  

Now we are headed to dinner and lodging in Hays, Kansas. After many almost tornadoes today, we're all rather excited to start chasing again tomorrow.