The Opportunity of A Lifetime

As we drove toward the severe warned cell something incredible happened. It went tornado warned! So this was it, this is what we've all been waiting for. Jason said he had a good feeling about our position and this storm and we wasn't lying! We kept a close watch on our precious baby as we neared the position we needed to be in to intercept. With each passing mile bringing us closer to see the amazing structure of our cell, each of us became more anxious to get out of the van and just take all of this in.

They aren't too easy to make out, but the clouds on hanging off the anvil are mammatus!

As we came closer to the storm, we saw the beautiful structure appear before our very eyes. Thanks to Travis we got some very memorable photos of us pulled off to the side of the road savoring the beauty that was in front of our eyes. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

Our storm on radar. We are the blue cross-hair!

Shortly after taking these photos we moved to another position to observe the storm from a different angle. As we were moving to a new area, I'm pretty sure we witnessed another mesocyclone form right off to the left of us. Jason's face lit up when I pointed it out. He hasn't seen a structure like that in some time, so it caught his attention. We were like children in a toy store. Every last one of us. Put a bunch of meteorologist in front of a magnificent tornado warned cell and we all lose our sanity. I simply can't explain it. Imagine the most magnificent feeling you can feel, that won't even describe how we felt this day. For some of us, if not most, this was our biggest dream come true. I know for a fact, it was mine.

After repositioning we found ourselves in a field to view the magnificent structure that developed right in front of our eyes. The view from this field will be one that we never ever forget. The pictures speak for themselves! All the photos below were contributed by various members of our group. Thank you to every one who supplied these beautiful photos to post here on the blog.

Panorama of the group and the storm.

A stunning cloud-to-ground lightning shot.

Here we see Jason taking in the beauty of the storm before his eyes.

There are just no words to describe the pure beauty of this very photogenic storm.

You can see the rain shaft, if you look closely.

Cloud-to-cloud lightning.

Beautiful black and white shot.

Another panorama.

After the storm had withered away, we all went for dinner, then headed out on the road to find a hotel for the night. Ultimately, we ended up in Ogallala for the evening after driving for 147 miles and 2 hours 22 minutes. This night was a late one. We stumbled into the hotel around 1:53 am, and we were all exhausted. Thus concluded our chase trip, sadly. We went out with a bang! I plan to post a few more things on here about our trip, so don't be sad. You'll hear from me again soon, I promise. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve and still have to talk about out crazy trip home the next morning. Stay tuned for more blogging!

The route we took from Alliance to Ogallala. Took some very remote roads for a little while. A bit scary.