Look Kids, it's I-80...

I have to be honest (because all my other posts have been lies, lies, and more lies...), I am starting to lose track of days (and I am not even that old!).

The only thing I know for sure is that we have not left I-80...
But, after polling other Vortex2 crew members, I believe it is the 7th of June...

4 June: Hmmm...I think we chased the hotel this day. Our target area was near Kearney and our hotel was in Kearney, NE....fortuitous. After checking in and lounging around (we never really "lounge" because we are always on perpetual stand by for favorable changes in the weather, which means that we can sit in a given location for 5 minutes....or 5 hours), storms started firing up to our north. So at ~630, we left Kearney for the Broken Bow McDonalds. By the time we got to Broken Bow, it became clear that these storms were not going to be supercellar and we headed back to Kearney for a late (but very enjoyable) dinner. In all fairness, I should also mention that an NSSL vehicle out navigated DOW7 to Broken Bow (a crushing blow to the DOW7 navigator/prince).

5 June: This day was a bit different...(still on I-80, though). There had been some indications in the models for severe weather threat in Iowa/Illinois for the last day or so. As we woke up that morning in Kearney, it became clear that we needed to get east...fast (at safe highway speeds, of course!). So we abandoned the morning meeting and headed to Des Moines (Iowa). Convection (storms) started firing in the vicinity of the cold front. After some pursuit, it became quite clear that these storms were destined for linearity... In other words, a big line of continuous storms formed, which is not conducive to tornado formation (very little rotation). The real action was in central Illinois, where isolated supercells persisted and several long(er) tracked tornadoes formed.

6 June: After a lovely evening of fine dining and hoteling (not a word, I know!) in Omaha, we headed west (on I-80, of course!) for a potential target in Ogallala, NE. The storms actually looked pretty good for awhile (and just plain pretty), but no tornadoes were to be had.

And here we are...the 7th of June....still on I-80...
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Picture 1: A pretty storm near Grant, NE on 6 June. I actually got out of the radar truck during operations. The first time this season.