Burich - Closing Thoughts

Well, our 2022 SWIFT adventure has (sadly) come to a close, but we were fortunate to enjoy great success in the field--especially on our last two chase days in Texas!  I hope that everyone has enjoyed reading of our exploits as we've traveled through the Plains and Midwest enjoying local food, local culture, beautiful scenery, and, most importantly, learning about and observing the wonders of our amazing atmosphere through storm chasing!  This year marks my fifth and final time co-leading/leading SWIFT as I will be retiring from the Navy this summer and entering PhD study in severe storms this fall at North Carolina State University.  I could not think of a more fitting or enjoyable way to conclude my time at USNA and 20 years of active duty than being on SWIFT!

The "dusty" tornadic supercell that SWIFT 2022 chased west of Lubbock, TX

As I reflect on the five years I've been privileged to be a part of this internship and "mobile classroom" experience, there are a number of individuals and groups that I would like to thank:

(1) The amazing students who have eagerly participated and engaged with SWIFT since my first trip in 2017.  Their enthusiasm for severe weather and willingness to endure two weeks traveling thousands of miles in a van (with lack of personal space) has been the reason for the existence of SWIFT.  I thank them for their constructive feedback on the training, helpful suggestions through the years, and (mostly) good taste in music!

(2) The staff, teachers, and students of the various Tulsa-area schools in Oklahoma who have invited us to outreach with them each year and share our passion for science with the next generation.

(3) The professionals at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma--especially Mr. Bill Bunting--for graciously hosting our group each year for an in-depth brief of their mission/responsibilities and tour of the National Weather Center facility and University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology.  The forecasts and products they produce not only help inform government entities, the private sector, and the general public of severe weather risk and safety, but also have been instrumental to our own situational awareness and decision-making in the field.

(4) The USNA STEM Center for their dependable financial support of SWIFT through the years and the training and supplies they have provided for our school outreach.

(5) The leadership of the Oceanography Department at USNA for their support of our training and trust in us to safely execute our trip each year.

(6) The support staff of the Oceanography Department at USNA for their expertise in setting up our van power supply each year.

(7) The other USNA entities who have provided support to us through the years (Prof. Joyce Shade for travel issues, IT for providing mobile mifi units for our van, transportation for accommodating our van request...and giving us their best!, and any others I have failed to mention).

(8) My co-lead from 2021 and 2022, Frank Carmody.

(9) My wife, Corinne, and son, Andrew, for putting up with my two-week absence every May.

And last, but perhaps most importantly...

(10) Dr. Brad Barrett whose vision and leadership first brought SWIFT to life in 2010 and who led/co-led the trip nine times--including three times with myself in 2017, 2018, and 2019.  His enthusiasm for severe weather study in general and SWIFT in particular was instrumental in not only making SWIFT one of the most challenging/rewarding summer internships at USNA, but also in launching the now permanent USNA course SO242: Tornadoes and Severe Storms.      

Again, a hearty 'thank you' to you all!

For all prior SWIFTers, please keep in touch (matthew.burich@gmail.com).  I'm always happy to have a good chase partner (or partners) in the field...or just meet up for a drink!  I look forward to hearing of your exploits and successes in the coming years.

Thanks for reading, and farewell to all!

Matt Burich

Emily - Closing Thoughts

Being a part of the SWIFT team this year has been one of the most remarkable experiences of my Naval Academy career. Having the opportunity to travel and chase severe storms throughout the Midwest has been something truly special.

I learned a lot about the formation (and lack thereof) of supercells and tornadogenesis, building on the material I learned in SO242 this previous semester. Having the opportunity to see firsthand how a lack of moisture, lifting, or insufficient insolation can affect storm initiation allowed me to better understand what I learned in the classroom through application.

My favorite moment on this trip was in west Texas, when we rode just southwest enough to evade the dusty inflow of the storm we were following. The sun hadn’t quite begun to set, but was low enough in the sky to provide a warm glow (almost golden hour!) for the dust-wrapped supercell. What we didn’t know at that moment, was that we were looking at a wedge tornado. As beautiful as it was, it’s really awesome to look back realizing that we observed something even cooler than we knew at the moment.

As we make our way back to Annapolis, I’ve taken a lot of time to think about all of the opportunities we’ve had to chase this year, and I don’t have any regrets. Even though there were a few occasions where we weren't able to observe tornadogenesis, I managed to learn more about what failure in initiation looks like in the field, and gain an appreciation for the special few moments of something amazing happening.

I want to thank everyone who made this trip possible, especially LCDR Burich, the folks over at the SPC in Norman, as well as Caney Valley Elementary School, and the team of awesome individuals I was able to work with in the field.

~Emily

Siena - Closing Thoughts

This internship was a really incredible experience and I am so grateful that I got to be a part of it. I learned a lot about severe weather, and I am very interested in studying it more in the future. I also gained a better appreciation for why studying these storms is important, since they can have such a big impact on people’s lives. 

I think the supercell near Morton, Texas was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I was amazed when the light started to fade and we could see the towering structure of the storm lit up by lightning. Another one of my favorite sights was the MCS on our final chase day that had a beautiful blue-green color. I can’t think of many other things on Earth that are as beautiful and impressive as these storms.

Another experience that had a great impact on me was when we visited the tornado memorial in Joplin, Missouri. It was an important reminder that while these storms are impressive and fascinating, they can also be very destructive. This is another source of motivation to study storms because the more we know about them, the more we will be able to protect people from them. 

I’m also really grateful that I got to spend time with everyone else on the internship. I enjoyed everyone’s company and we made some great memories together.

Sam - Closing Thoughts

I cannot believe how fast the last two weeks went but how long ago our departure feels. It seems like just yesterday that we left the yard and set off to eventually travel through 24 states, see supercells I could never imagine, and take some of the coolest photos of my life. 

I was always excited to wake up and look to see where we would be going. Who knew mother nature would take us to Michigan! Driving around and seeing our great country was a gift that I did not expect, but thoroughly enjoyed. 

On the other hand, I knew I would love taking pictures but I did not anticipate the pictures I got. I hope that they convey what we saw as well as I had hoped. 

It has been a childhood dream of mine to chase storms on the plains and this has lived up to my dreams. I hope that through our experiences we can share a little of what it was like and inspire you to take a closer look at severe weather in the future. 

Ryan - Closing Thoughts

Hey everyone,

After nearly two weeks of storm chasing, our SWIFT journey is approaching its end. While we didn’t get much luck in terms of tornadogenesis in the first week, we still got to witness some great storms develop. It was amazing being able to see classroom topics unfold in person; the photos and diagrams don’t do justice to the awe-inspiring effect that the weather can leave on a person. Also, one can never fully appreciate the force and energy exerted by the atmosphere until they are standing in the 60 knot winds created by a storm outlow or they are witnessing clouds form before their eyes beneath a rotating mesocyclone.

Photo credit goes to Sam ‘NASCAR’ Ford-Dirks

Despite the incredible atmospheric sights we witnessed on SWIFT, my favorite moment was visiting Caney Valley Elementary and talking to the students. Their excitement and enthusiasm was far greater than we could have expected and their knowledge on scientific concepts caught us completely off guard. Many of those kids have the potential to become great meteorologists or scientists in their own field and it was humbling to have the ability to teach them a little bit about the atmosphere and the Naval Academy in general.

Photo credit goes to LCDR Matt (rescinded) Burich

With thousands of miles under our tires, I would say SWIFT was one of the greatest opportunities I have been afforded while at USNA. Not only did we witness classroom concepts come to live in real-time, we also saw nearly half of the United States in the process. This trip has allowed me to greatly appreciate the awesome power of the weather, the hard-working NWS teams that strive to predict the weather, and the citizens of the Midwest and central U.S. who are subject to the weather. Not only did we learn a ton, but two weeks in a van made us grow extremely close to one another. I hope SWIFT will continue for many more years to come so others can be afforded the same opportunities that we had while on this training.

Jack - Closing Thoughts

Good day SWIFT blog post readers.

Without a doubt this has been the best summer training I have participated in. Hopping in a cramped van and driving 7,784 miles (and counting) all to watch severe weather has been an incredible experience. Each day there was a new forecast with new failure modes and a plethora of things to learn. Over the past two years I have been in the classroom learning the theories and mathematical applications of meteorology and atmospheric science. However, in this training I was able to directly apply and experience in real time the knowledge I have previously learned in these classes. Being able to see a forecast come to life, and understand its success or failure has been the most valuable part of this internship. My favorite weather moment was easily witnessing the supercell that formed west of Lubbock, Texas. As I stood in the inflow, I could feel the sheer power that formed the updraft of this storm while I watched it form, and I was in utter awe.

Supercell west of Lubbock, TX

I felt as though I grew more as a person as well, not just as a student. Being able to use technology and available meteorological resources to achieve a mission with this team helped me to become a future leader. It showed me how to communicate better, and how to make informed decisions based on scientific understanding. Additionally, It was incredibly fun to be in this van driving across the country with seven other like-minded people. I had never been to the Midwest before, and virtually every state was a first for me. One of my favorite moments was driving through Kansas and Nebraska through the flat plains and listening to old country music. We also had some amazing food, and some not so great food occasionally, but it was all for the experience.

Cows in Kansas - taken by Samuel Ford-Dirks

While our officer in charge, LCDR Burich, is retiring, I hope that this experience can live on at

USNA and provide others with the same opportunity that I have had.

Thank you!

Jack Volinsky  

 

Thomas - Closing Thoughts

Good morning SWIFT readers, 

What an experience the last two weeks have been. Looking back, I've certainly gained a new appreciation for the beauty and power of supercells and tornadoes. The first couple days were a bit of a whirlwind. We were excited, almost giddy, to be starting the trip. Those first few meals together were filled with eager conversations about model products and SPC outlooks; where we should position ourselves the next day and what could end up failing. We focused hard on the weather briefs to give ourselves the most accurate information possible, and left the hotel with a spring in our steps and a sparkle in our eyes, ready to chase. 

Those early days were a grind. We drove for long distances in the van, listening to music, playing games, and of course pouring over model products and incessantly refreshing the SPC website. I won't forget the feeling of that first chase on Day 4 - we were gunning pretty hard to the west when all of a sudden storms came up on radar to the north. I was driving, and I got such a rush when my navigator told me to turn right down the next country road I could find - it was on! That feeling stuck with me every time we got into a chase, no matter what role I had that day. I think that's one of the most interesting parts of chasing. We know that there is a low chance that we see a tornado, or even the beautiful structure of a supercell - but our hearts start racing nonetheless for the hope that we do get to witness such power and beauty in the environment. But what stands out to me even more is the juxtaposition of that beauty with the destruction that can come with it. From the Joplin memorial on Day 2, to the Gaylord tornado that we missed on Day 7, there was always the underlying threat of something terrible happening in the beauty that we were out there searching for. It underscores the need for more research in early warning systems and really diving into why a supercell becomes tornadic in order to warn people more effectively and ultimately save lives. 

I think the trip really started to come into fruition the moment we stepped outside the western wear store that Ryan bought his hat in. All of a sudden there were towering cumulus all around us, and once again the chase was on. That day and the next day of chasing were the cherries on top of an already awesome trip. We worked incredibly well as a team to put ourselves in position to perfectly see the storms and witness some pretty awesome displays from the atmosphere. That's what we came to see, and after a couple days of running hard, we were rewarded with great vistas. 

I'll be reflecting a lot about this trip in the next few weeks, thinking about the good times that we had together as a group and the awesome scenes that we were able to experience. The friendship, mentorship, and knowledge gained over the last two weeks has been so rewarding. A huge thank you to our two officer leads, the STEM department, and the other five mids that I got to experience the last two weeks with. 

Well, I've been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet

Had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet
And I'm still, willin'

Day 13/14: Carry me back to old Virginny...(and Annapolis)

 For our final full day, we steamed north from near Chattanooga, TN to Staunton, VA.  Along the way, we briefly checked one more state (North Carolina) off our list to complete a motivating total of 24 states (for the Class of 2024) in just 13 days! (I believe a SWIFT record!).  After so much driving, it was nice to enjoy a long hike to the top of McAfee's Knob on the Appalachian Trail near Roanoke, VA in the later afternoon.  Unfortunately, the fog obscured what would have been a quite nice view from the top! 

After the hike, we enjoyed our final full dinner together at Angelle's Diner before heading to final overnight.

On Friday (day 14), we headed back into Annapolis with just enough time to clean the van and finish our travel paperwork before a line of severe thunderstorms plowed across the Naval Academy (and nearly disrupted the Class of 2022 graduation)!!  At one point, as we were finishing our last debriefs, the "giant voice" system on the Yard broadcasted a tornado warning (thankfully, this did not verify!).  Nonetheless, a fitting end to SWIFT 2022 to have severe storms from the same system we began chasing in Texas on Monday chase us back home!

Thanks to all for following our adventures this year, and be sure to check out each of our six interns' final blog posts and reflections on a successful chase season!

Day 12: The SWIFT Team went down to Georgia

Today was a big day of driving. We woke up in Waco, TX and rolled our way east, ultimately ending up in Chattanooga, TN. That's over 830 miles in one day! 

We stopped for lunch at Trapp's cajun restaurant in Monroe, LA, for a taste of the south. The catfish po-boy was popular, although LCDR Burich urged us to try a real New Orleans po-boy when we get the chance. After a quick bite we continued onward and drove through Mississippi, played some mountain music and ate Jim & Nicks BBQ in Alabama, and cut briefly into Georgia. We still had Georgia on our minds when we got to the hotel that night in Tennessee. 

Today was a fun driving day. Many songs were sung and car trivia was played. 

We drove very far,

From Texas to Tennessee.

- Ryan Englehard.

Day 11: Show Me the Way (to San Angelo)

We woke up in Lubbock, TX this morning to the MCS that developed over western Texas on Monday. In an effort to get ahead and outside of the heavy precipitation, we set course for San Angelo, where we ate a delicious lunch at Paisano Restaurant. From there, we stuck around the San Angelo area and just east in the hopes of observing discrete storms south of the MCS we had just seen.

We crossed an east-west oriented outflow boundary laid down from the morning MCS and observed a stark wind shift from due north to due south over less than 10 miles.  Directly above the wind shift, we observed a line of growing cumulus clouds and some "attempts" at storm formation...however the early rising clouds were being diluted by dry air higher in the atmosphere.  While moving back north across the boundary, however, we finally got a sustained storm to form about 30 miles west of San Angelo near where the surface dryline intersected our boundary providing an augmented source of lifting.  We went full speed toward it and were rewarded with beautiful views of a rotating supercell (not obscured by blowing dust!).  We followed the storm into San Angelo and then bailed east to another storm forming along the old boundary that developed strong rotation and prompted the issuance of a tornado warning.  

As late afternoon transitioned into evening, the initially discrete storms forming along the boundary congealed into an eastward/southeastward moving line which offered some dramatic sky scenery to us as we made our way toward Waco, TX.

Near Goldthwaite, TX, in the early evening, we made a few stops on the side of the road to watch the storm approach, just before saying "Gimme Shelter" when the winds became too much to bear outside the comfort of our van. There's something really amazing about watching an anvil grow and spread across the sky just as the sun is starting to set.

We also, by the grace of LCDR Burich nearly losing his SWIFT ballcap, were able to feel the effects of a squall, as what had been rather calm conditions picked up to 60+ mph winds nearly instantaneously. This put us "Under Pressure" to get on the move!

Allowing the storm to follow us on toward Waco, we made our way to In-N-Out (I had no idea Texas had these!) and further to our hotel for some much needed rest.

This was our last chase day in Texas, and the SWIFT team could not be more grateful to have observed the beautiful sky we did this afternoon, as we reach the close of this adventure.

Day 10: Nothing Grows Near Morton, Except Friendships… and Supercells

Yesterday we woke up in Weatherford, Texas. We got on the road quickly to get over to our target area, which was towards the bottom of the Texas panhandle near Midland. The SPC had predicted a slight risk for severe storms extending into that region. We determined that this would be the best area for potential storms because the wind shear looked promising, and models were showing moist air flowing up towards that region. We knew that success or failure would depend largely on whether the moisture actually moved up into the region; moisture is necessary for both increasing the instability in the atmosphere and keeping the clouds low enough to the ground.

On our way we stopped in Big Spring, Texas for some lunch at Woodshack Burrito (Burritos and More!). We had a little time before we needed to keep moving, so we also stopped in Ward’s Western Wear so that Ryan could get a cowboy hat. A 200 dollar investment, but hey, he looks pretty snazzy. The second he walked out of the store with his hat, a storm popped up on the radar right near Big Spring. Coincidence? I think not. The hat is now dubbed “Stormbringer”. Then Ryan dropped it in the dirt at the park. It’s alright though, it still brought on the storms!

We tracked the storm out of Big Spring for a few minutes, but we were really hoping for some storms to initiate to our north in better air. Soon we left the Big Spring storm behind when we started to see storms initiating on satellite. We headed north towards Lubbock, and cut a little over to the west to get closer to the storms as they moved eastward. 

As the storms came upon us, we saw two supercells that had formed and were slowly moving east. Making a decision on which storm to follow was difficult because the northern one began to display a classic supercell shape on radar. However, as soon as we started to move, our southern storm began to take on a beautiful shape. Our somewhat due east position to the updraft put us in the inflow, and we got caught in a massive dust storm. We got a real taste of those red dirt roads. Everything was dust in the wind. At one point when we were watching the storm, we saw a sharp vertical edge to a wide, dark column. We thought it was a precipitation shaft. LCDR Burich agreed that it was probably precipitation, but half-jokingly remarked, “Unless it’s a giant wedge tornado!”. We later learned that it was, in fact, a giant wedge tornado, but in the moment it was too hard to tell because of the dust.

We moved back south to get out of the dust bowl and into a better position to see. From here we had an amazing view of the structure of the storm. As the light started to fade, the storm was illuminated by its own lightning. This massive storm was powerful enough to produce softball sized hail, which we could see on radar. Seeing the beauty and power of this storm with our own eyes was an incredible experience, and one we won’t soon forget.

By 2230, the storm had finally started to weaken. We drove into Lubbock, where our hotel for the night was, and got one final look at the storm before calling it a night, making a quick stop at Raising Cane’s for a late night meal before heading to our hotel.

Day 9: Driving that van through west Tennessee, Sam Ford-Dirks you better watch your speed

We woke up this Sunday morning with a spring in our step, ready to push eastward towards where the Storm Prediction Center said that there would be a chance for severe weather on Monday. We knew that today would be a dedicated repositioning day, so we quickly left our hotel and got on the road heading west.

Our first stop of the day was in Jackson, TN, famous for being the city where the legendary train engineer Casey Jones lived at the time of his death. The legend has it that Jones volunteered to fill in for another engineer who was sick and couldn’t make his trip. Jones was known for being punctual, so when he saw that the train would be late, he knew he had to speed up to make up the time. Unfortunately, as he got closer to the station, there was a train broken down on the tracks that he was not warned about. Jones used his expertise in conducting to slow the train and prevent the death or injury of anyone on the train - except for himself. They say that he was still clutching the train’s whistle and its brake when he died.  (Title of this blog post is a reference to the Grateful Dead song about Casey Jones).

Jackson was also our stop for breakfast, where we patronized a local Waffle House. It was the first time at this establishment for many of the crew, and we all left feeling satisfied. As Sam said, “There’s nowhere that you can get this good of food for five dollars.”

After fueling up on bacon, eggs, and of course, waffles, we headed westbound and down to Little Rock, AR. Little Rock was a cool town with a great little food joint called The Root, which offered healthy options for lunch from local farms. Jack Volinsky had a chicken salad sandwich which he claims he could have had 37 more of, but the jury’s still out. Just east of Little Rock was a great trail called Pinnacle Mountain, which provided vistas of the Arkansas backcountry. 

If you look real close, you’ll see that Jack’s eyes are closed. The gnats were abundant on the peak. 

The views were absolutely stunning, and worth the pretty vertical rock scrambling that we had to do to get to the peak. 

The climb took it out of us, so after a quick stop for water and snacks, we pressed onward towards Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. On the way there we stopped at a cute family owned restaurant called the Red Barn where we got some down-home Texas cooking. Chocolate pie was the appetizer for a few of the team, which Ryan devoured at breakneck speed. We had another two and a half hours to our hotel, so we settled in for a long drive though some wide open spaces to get to our destination in hopes for Monday’s events. 

Today didn’t bring much by way of weather, which goes to show the importance of being flexible and keeping morale high throughout the entire trip. Today wasn’t a waste of a day by any means - we simply looked ahead to greater opportunities further west. We are motivated and ready for our last few days out on the plains and hoping to see some severe weather and continue to share our journey with you all!

Day 8: Got a Little Jingle on a Tennessee Saturday Night…

Good evening readers! 

This morning started earlier than expected in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The models and SPC convective outlooks for the oncoming day were looking somewhat promising. Upon this realization, the SWIFT team shot southward with a target area of Southeast IL/Northwest AR. This consisted of the best atmosphere for supercell and possible tornado formation in the nearly country-wide swath of the slight convective risk area. Of note, there were high values of instability in the area and minimal convective inhibition (suppression). Additionally, converse to yesterday, there was sufficient moisture in the atmosphere. However, the failure mode for today was a lack of strong vertical wind shear in the area. This lack of shear gave local wind profiles a less-than-ideal shape, although tornadoes still existed as a possible hazard type. 

As we shot through Indiana, we witnessed a line of thunderstorms form along the Mississippi River and Ohio River Valley. While booking down the Midwest, these storms caught up to the trusty steed that is our Chevrolet Express. During this, the team encountered a storm with hail exceeding two inches in diameter. Luckily, our driver LCDR Burich slowed so the majority of the hail passed in front of us. While attempting to get ahead of the approaching line of thunderstorms, we ducked into a Pilot gas station while tornado sirens were going off. While this got the team perky, it was without much evidence and no tornado was close to forming in the area. 

The weather and logistics team reconvened at this stop, and ultimately decided that the original goal location was no longer in reach. Model runs were increasingly doubtful of tornado formation. This was partly due to storms that formed to the East which organized into a large line and eroded away much of the available instability originally in the area. Additionally, higher values of wind shear were becoming less and less likely due to surface winds that were in the same direction as the upper level winds. Accordingly, there was an increasingly small chance that the original location would have an atmosphere conducive to isolated, discrete supercells. Instead, the team decided to chase along the line of thunderstorms that had formed along the Mississippi River and were traveling North-eastward. This provided the team with great views of the leading outflow boundary, its 50+ mph winds, and difficult driving conditions for our fearless driver Thomas Pearson. After stopping to experience the oncoming outflow boundary, the team decided there had been enough chasing for the day as we nestled into Western Tennessee.

Photos of the outflow boundary and the ensuing storm taken by Samuel “Wise Gamgee” FordDirks.

We were rolling down a backwood, Tennessee byway,

one arm on the wheel, 

holding our kestrel handheld anemometer with the other, 

a sweet soft southern thrill

Chased hard all week,

Got a little jingle (but no tornadoes)

On a Tennessee Saturday night

I’m together, with my SWIFTieland delight

Goodnight moon, goodnight stars, goodnight Ryan Engelhard, and goodnight to this delicious burger and loaded fries from LBOE in Dickson, Tennessee.

Day 7: It was Summertime in South-Central Michigan… (Kid Rock Reference)

The team woke up, and moseyed down to the hotel lobby on a dreary morning in Mauston, Wisconsin. After fueling up on a Cuppa Mudd (cup of coffee), we started on our long journey into Michigan. 

"Just find me coffee within 20 minutes of the hotel" - CDR Carmody

To LCDR Burich’s knowledge, this was the first time that SWIFT has been brought to either of these states, and it was the first time for many of our members. After a long drive the night before, our now-caffeinated crew kept truckin’ like the do-dah man around Lake Michigan and arrived in Grand Rapids. After a short lunch break, the team planned on intercepting a series of storms that initiated over Lake Michigan and worked to the northeast across Michigan where they made landfall in the Muskegon area. 

Radar capture of the cells that we were tracking

Although they did exhibit some rotation at a point, the environment over Michigan had too much inhibition due to cirrus cloud cover overhead that kept the sun from heating the ground. After a couple hours of tracking these storms, the team decided to bail on today's objective in order to set ourselves up for the upcoming days. We headed back through Grand Rapids, stopped for some great bar food, and made the 45 minute trek south to Kalamazoo. We just couldn’t get what we wanted, but our heads are held high as we go into the next section of our trip.

It is important to note that we were too far away from the more promising storms in the far northeast corner of Michigan which ended up becoming tornadic. Tragically, the storm left in its wake numerous injuries and a fatality. This underscores the importance of gaining more knowledge about severe weather in order to help our local disaster response teams more adequately warn their communities and prepare for storms like this, even when they are coming without much time to react. Our hearts go out to those affected by the storm today.

Day 6: Hey where did we go, days when the rains came? Minnesota! We went to Minnesota!

We have climbed the highest hills, and we ran through the fields, but we still haven't found what we’re looking for. But yes we're still running. While it may have been a day lacking in tornadoes, we still found some good views of some powerful storms. 

We began our day in Omaha, Nebraska, where we had driven the night before to put ourselves in a good position for potential storms the next day. When we woke up, we were optimistic about our chances to see some tornado producing storms, especially since the SPC had drawn a 10% hatched risk of tornadoes extending from southeastern Minnesota into northwestern Iowa. Unfortunately, the SPC quickly downgraded the risk to 5% in light of the fact that the moisture necessary for producing the storms was being used up by a mesoscale convective vortex to the south. Nonetheless, we were still hoping to see some action in the region and initially decided to drive to Howard County, IA. While driving in the van, we adjusted our target area to south central MN because we decided it would be a good idea to stay south of the warm front that was going to move through the region. 

As we were driving towards our destination, storms were already firing on the warm front, meaning the northward progress of the warm front would be slowed as the storms put down cold air. This made it possible for us to get to the warm front in time before it moved through, which was ideal for chasing. However, we were concerned that a lack of moisture in the air would prevent any impressive storms from forming. Moisture is key in creating instability in the atmosphere so that air rises, and it also is important for tornadogenesis by helping the bases of clouds stay lower to the ground. We continued to assess this parameter but had hopes that if we stayed south of the front, there would be enough pooled moisture.

After a morning full of making forecasts and trying to keep Thomas and his bad jokes in check, we were ready for some lunch! We stopped at a barbeque place called Cornbred, located in Ames, Iowa (Go Cyclones, Beat Army!). The food was fantastic. There was something in everything about it. Fueled up and ready to go, we blasted over to our target area.

As we approached the first two counties in MN near Albert Lea, we got out to look at the cumulus field now growing to our southwest. We noticed a few storms developing and quickly got in the van to go northeast to follow them. The storms were strong enough to form large hail, but they quickly moved into an area of cold air and out of the good environment, so we moved back south to look for more promising storms. At this point, lots of storms were forming, but they were so close that they started interfering with each other instead of forming discrete supercells like we were hoping for. However, they still produced lots of impressive lightning and were incredible to behold.

A little later in the evening, the tail end of the cluster of storms broke off and formed a more promising supercell. We stayed with this storm and got to see some great clouds. At one point we were right under the base of the updraft and had a great view of the clouds rising all around us. There were a couple of moments where we could actually see some of the rotation in the atmosphere through the movement of the clouds! We stayed with the storm until we realized that it was becoming a bow echo and not something with tornado potential. After this we finally called it a day and decided to wrap up the evening with burgers and great custard at Culvers. 

Day 5: Back to OK

 Wednesday brought us back to Oklahoma for a visit with the students of Caney Valley Elementary School.  Our six Midshipmen had a chance to teach several fun STEM-related (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math) modules to the third, fourth, and fifth grade including basics of electric circuits and conductivity, applications of air pressure, and building/testing straw rockets.  To say the students impressed us would be an understatement!  They were super excited for us to be there, and we thank them greatly for their hospitality!  Enjoy the pictures below!

Afterwards, we headed to Pawhuska, OK for a big lunch at Ree Drummond's Mercantile (the Pioneer Woman).    

We then headed north through Kansas toward our overnight destination of Omaha, NE which set us up for our chase target in northern IA/southern MN on Thursday.  More pictures from that day next!

Making a human electric circuit

Teaching the straw rockets

Air pressure demonstration

Testing rockets

The Mercantile

Kansas!