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This was not by any means a storm chase! These are pics that I took from work while being held hostage by a Tornado Warning. Because of liabilities, etc. etc. etc. I got chewed out pretty good for standing out back taking video and pictures of this storm as it rolled through.

There was a ton of hail that came down, lots of rain, some strong winds. It was pretty exhilarating! The storm formed tornadoes in Cass County, NE injuring 8 people total when an outbuilding flew into a car injuring 5, and a tree fell onto a truck injuring 3 both occurring in Eagle, NE.

During this time that it was over Omaha, Joey (my co-worker) and I were out back shooting video and taking pictures when Linda (our supervisor) just about had a fit with us. Mom called from WalMart saying that they were being held hostage, as well, and that WalMart was not permitting anyone to leave the premise. Moments afterwords, when the wall cloud was visible, I called her back and she said that they were just leaving. I thought that was a bad move on WalMart’s part, but, eh.

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Yeah, it was a bust, but very scenic. This is the first chase I have been on since, what, 2004? Wow, can’t believe it’s been that long since I saw that tornado in Waverly. I was listening to this AM station in Shenendoah (950 or something) and people kept calling in from Emerson saying that they saw the tornado, I say they were all b.s.ers. I never saw the damn thing. (Go figure, me, not see a tornado, no!) It wasn’t until I got home and saw on Channel 6 WOWT people who had NICE video of the touchdown. I saw, what I believe was a meso, definitely not a tornado. Possibly funnels, but can’t be too sure. This was the best shot of the, what I consider weak, wall cloud. But this storm started in Cass Co., NE and moved into Mills Co., IA in a 3 hour period. It was strollin’ along at a whopping 10 mph. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived in Glenwood, a 45 minute drive during rush hour traffic, and the storm was STILL THERE. No tornado, but it was still a very photogenic storm!!

This was my longest chase yet, from O’Neill to Grand Island. Got a speeding ticket on my way to O’Neill. These two photos were shot somewhere between O’Neill and Grand Island. Photo 1 is of some mammatus. Photo 2 is of a Truck and Trailer vs. the Wind. Guess who won. Aurora recorded record size hail. I arrived just before the hail hit so hadn’t been able to see any damage. I-80 fro GRI to OMA was just insane (pouring rain), so I wasn’t about to turn back.

This turned out to be a fabulous chase! After going down a gravel road which turned out to be mud and overheating my car… At least I got some nice shots of the rainbow and windmill.

Total bust here. All images were shot east of I-29, 1 and 2 were just before Rockport, the other two to the west of Tarkio. Storm was just moving too fast, I was never able to catch it.