April 6:
There was good vertical windshear and moderate CAPE across northeast TX. Got on a supercell that quickly turned HP near Detroit, TX.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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April 23:
I thought The vertical windshear would be better ahead of the dryline east of the cap rock. A storm that went up west of Guthrie became a big HP supercell. Followed it for a while but it kept its big HP form.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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May 3:
Thought this day would be better with good vertical winshear and moderate instability ahead of the dryline across the eastern TX panhandle. Intercepted two supercells one southwest and northeast of Esterline, TX. The storm southwest of Esterline was a nice classic supercell that had a rotating wall cloud, then a left split slammed into and the resluting storm was a big HP supercell.
Supercells: 3
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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May 9:
The dryline pushed east into central TX. Both vertical windshear and instability was good for tornadic supercells. We got on a nice supercell near Seymour, TX. This supercell looked good for about an hour but weakened, so we headed north of Binger, OK that went north of OKC. This classic supercell transformed into a big HP supercell.
Supercells: 2
Tornado: 0
Chased with Ed Calinese.
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May 10:
I could not make it up to the best area of shear and instability where tornadic supercells developed across northeast MO and central IL. I played farther down the front where an HP supercell developed near Joplin.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with Ed Calinese.
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June 3:
Chased an early afternoon HP supercell southeast of Lubbock. I gave up on it and went to my original target along the dryline towards the NM border. I intercepted a nice classic supercell. The low-level meso never really was rotating that rapidly. I left the storm after sunset.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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June 4:
Got on a supercell northwest of Clovis that moved south-southeast to Portales, NM. The inflow on this storm got so strong that walls of dirt were being sucked into the updraft. Along the RFD there were plenty of gustandoes. It was difficult to see the updraft on this storm due to all the dust!
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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June 13:
Chased an HP supercell north of AMA. This storm did not have much structure and was filled with rain and hail.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased alone.
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June 15:
On the first day of SLT MC tour we drove all day to reach southeast ND to see a nice supercell thunderstorm that had a wall cloud and two funnel clouds. The storm had nice structure and was worth the long drive.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 16:
Chased two supercell over southeast MT. One had nice storm structure and the 2nd one was a big HP. The road network was rather sparse. There was a small Indian town we stopped at that had a food truck with awesome tacos.
Supercells: 2
Torando: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 17:
Chased a supercell north of Gillete. The storm had nice structure at times but weak vertical windshear prevented any tornado development.
Supercells: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 20:
Chased an HP supercell across southwest NE that moved west and northeast of Ogallagla, NE. Once again the vertical windshear was weak.
Supercells: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 21:
Finally the the mid and upper level flow increased to generate a classic supercell northeast of Aberdeen, SD. This storm had rapidly rotating wall clouds and looked like it was going to produce a large tornado at one time. Even though it failed to produce a tornado the structure was that of a classic supercell.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 22:
Intercepted an intense supercell southeast of Grand Island, NE that moved southeast across south central NE. We got north of the storm and blasted south through the eastern half of the core while the storm was producing the largest hail in NE history northeast of Aurora, NE. We came around the south side of the updraft, hoping to see a tornado. We saw a funnel that never made contact with the ground then the big storm went totally HP!
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
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June 23:
The big upper trough was missed time, much slower but we headed west on I-80 to play the dryline in western NE. There was not a cloud in the sky for most of the afternoon. Finally TCU went up farther east near North Platte, NE. A storm finally developed except there was one problem, the storm was elevated above the capping inversion. There was no boundary layer parcels making it into the storms updraft. The storm got better looking but remained elevated after sunset as the L0wlevel jet fed 850mb moisture into the updraft. The better vertical windshear improved the structure of this storm after night but it never produced a tornado. We left this storm after it passed south of York. We had to take the guest back to OKC. I would have chased the next day but the government movers were coming to my house for my new NWS job in Topeka, KS, so I could not chase. Well the main upper trough lifted northeast across western NE and caused a tornado outbreak across eastern SD.
Supercell: 1
Tornado: 0
Chased with David Gold and SLT.
This was a strange season. I got to see plenty of supercell thunderstorms but no tornadoes! Work caused me to miss some good days, such as 5/4/03 west of KC, MO, 5/8/03 across east central and southeast KS and of course the big eastern SD outbreak on 6/24/03.
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Supercells: 19
Tornadoes: 0
Bill’s count: 75.