May 17, 2002 Storm Chase

Today was a long drive with very little payoff. With a cold front pushing rapidly to the southeast, our challenge was to get to the warm sector, hopefully in air that had some shear. We ended up driving all the way to San Antonio and then west, only to witness a rather lame lightning show. Then we spent the night in San Antonio.

May 18 Storm Chase

Today was the start of the storm drought. So Linda and Kathy went to The Alamo and the San Antonio river walk. Beth and I drove to the outlet mall halfway to Austin, where Beth did a bunch of shopping. We then met up with L & K and drove to Lubbock. Ho hum.

May 19th - Lubbock to Lamar

Still no weather. Target Lamar, CO in hopes of some upslope storms for the next couple of days.

As we drove through the Springfield area of far SE CO, we passed through some weak thundershowers. When we got farther away, we pulled up radar through the cell phone and discovered that the cell had gone severe! Oh well... we just went on to Lamar for the night. No excitement.

May 20th - Lamar to Sidney

Another day with low expectations. And theywere justified. The most exciting thing of the day was waiting 30 minutes at a one-way road construction north of Lamar. The storms refused to even fire at all. Stayed at a cute little hotel across the street from the steak-house in downtown Sidney.

Hopes are high for tomorrow. The big, monster super inverted-trough was coming out! But it was coming out way north - through Montana. However, there were chances for rotating storms in SE Wyoming, so we were at least in position.