2009 Storm Chase XXIX Report (Day Four) - July 6th (2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day Five) - The Long Way Home

I'm not going to lie. I sometimes have difficulties with self control. I suppose a part of me fantasized about maybe intercepting a storm or two on the way back to Colorado. However, as the morning that I planned to leave Montana rolled around, it soon became apparent that the chances of severe weather were actually really decent. SPC seemed to agree (it's not often that you see a 5% tornado risk in the MOUNTAINS of Montana).

As my time for departure neared, there wasn't a cloud in thy sky anywhere in Western Montana. I got anxious and spent a good deal of time debating the situation, counseling with my cousin to whom I was responsible for driving home on that day. The ever-agreeable Brian was of course on board for storm chasing if that's what the day called for.

I realized that I had only seen my grandmother once on the trip so I figured it would be a good idea to see her for lunch. So, along with my parents and cousin, I had lunch at Mackenzie River Pizza Co. and watched the storms blow up around us. The explosive cumulus development was impressive to all parties including my parents who remarked about the intensity of the storm. As we finished lunch, I watched an updraft over the city begin to lower before ascending Rampart Mountain on the northwest side of the city.

It was time to go.

Road options are not easy in Montana and I didn't want to get too far away from the route home, so after fueling up, I elected to take I-90 east over Homestake Pass. The storms were moving to the northeast and unfortunately, nothing developed south of my line. I knew the best chance of tornadoes would be some place between Great Falls, Helena, and Lewistown, so I made my target right in the middle, that being White Sulphur Springs.

As we approached my north option (US 287), a supercell northwest of Helena went tornado-warned. Unfortunately, I was completely out of position to intercept. By the time we reached Townsend, a nice storm was beginning to take shape over the southern portions of Canyon Ferry Lake (Reservoir). In fact, I found a nice vantage point and got a shot of a sweet meso:

I wanted to stay ahead of the storm, fearing I'd lose it due to road options and actually get an intercept, so we headed up into the Big Belt Mountains on US 12 where I lost data for more than a half hour. By the time we emerged into the next valley, I saw that the storm had basically stalled and been overtaken by the fast-moving shortwave squall. There was more convection popping in the mountains in the vicinity and the best tornado parameters were still near Lewistown, so we kept on, ahead of the storms.

After passing the Castle Mountains and fueling up in Harlowtown, we were northbound on US 191 and headed for Judith Gap (between the Little Belt Mountains and the Big Snowy Mountains). The western sky became increasingly dark as the storms approached and on radar (when I finally got a scan again as I had lost it outside of WSS), it had all become one linear mess. Already through the gap, there was no real point in turning back. I figured we could at least core the line on US 191 or possibly at the junction with US 87.

As the line moved out of the Little Belt Mountains, a nice shelf cloud began to set up. We stopped briefly for pictures and then again for a good deal longer as the outflow passed by.

And from our second stop ...

Brian takes a picture of a bit of a lowering in a kink in the line.

The line passed without much incident; basically only a wind shift. The CG's were impressive but I was mainly focused on the shelfy outflow structure. I wanted to get back ahead of the line, so we continued north and then east on US 87. Though there wasn't much precipiation at this advanced portion of the line, there was a lot of dust beginning to get kicked up. I tried to get ahead but unfortunately was hampered by road construction. 87 was compltely dug up and we were on dirt for a good length of time.

We soon found ourselves a good ten miles behind the outflow line and just west of Lewistown. I noticed some interesting structure to our north, so I pulled off and had a look. It was a very strange, laminar feature which appeared to be rotating in place. It was very cool to see the clouds racing overhead while this feature stayed completely stationary to our northwest. I'm still not exactly sure what to think of it ...

I was actually able to intercept the feature on dirt roads and sat under it for a while as it slowly dissipated. I do have some video but that will have to wait until later. Anyway, we returned to US 87 and saw some more interesting structure over the Little Moccasin Mountains. The coloring was gorgeous and because of the precipitation, I was unable to break out the tripod and had to settle from a hand-held low-light shot. Damn, I wish I would have tripodded it ... I think it would have been stunning.

Back on US 87, we were in heavy precip and the leading edge of the line was becoming distant ...

We drove through Lewistown and up into the Judith Mountains where we encountered some strong wind and heavy precip, but no hail. On straight roads in the flat eventually, I hoped to catch up to the edge, but by the time we reached the south option at Grass Range, we were just behind it. At this point, I was pretty much determined to leave the storms behind and begin the trip to Denver ... it was early evening and we still had ten hours to go.

We did encounter a very strong storm north of Roundup. The wind was absolutely insane and completely perpendicular to the road. I would estimate it at at least 50mph ... hard to say, though. The lightning was fantastic as well. Took some video ...


Anyway, as we approached Billings, there were two cells staggered back to the west (obviously behind the line) ... just found them pretty in the late evening light.


We met my cousin Brad in Billings for dinner and then headed back to Denver, arriving just after 5AM. All in all, it was a long day, but a fantastic home state chase.


Chase mileage: 369
Chase partner: Brian Macumber
Highest Wind: est 50mph
Hail: None
Structure: Mesocyclone, shelf cloud, other


Dann.

2009 Storm Chase XXIX Report (Day Three) - July 5th (2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day Four) - Big Hole!

Sunday, the 5th of the July was the day it was "okay" for me to chase in Montana. I had been watching the setup for weeks beforehand (which is out of character for me ... I usually don't look past 180 hours). There was a time that the day looked great for severe weather in North Central Montana and I was already planning on making a trip up there. However, a few days out, the GFS slowed down the approaching system and had it arriving on Monday or Tuesday.

The night before, I was pretty damn sure I was not going to chase. I had made plans to maybe to check out Skalkaho Falls as though it is within an hour or two of Butte, I had never been there. (I have a secret love of waterfalls). As the early afternoon approached, however, I liked the chances of seeing some storms form to the west of Butte. The Pioneer Mountains lit up with convection, so I hit the road, fueling up in Rocker.

As I rounded the bend and could see south, I found myself looking at a strong storm exhibiting what looked like a bit of a wall cloud. I got excited and blew south on I-15.


The closer I got to it, however, the worse it looked. When I arrived at Maiden Rock (Moose Creek Road), the storm had all but crapped out. Unfortunately, without a lot of dynamics, you live and die by the terrain. The mountains push up the storms and then the bottom falls out on the lee side.

Unsure of what to do at this point, I continued south on I-15 hoping something would pop up. There were a good deal of storms over the Centennial Mountains to the distant south so I continued in that direction.

The cu field that was overhead soon began to thin out and the storms to the south started to die. As best as I could tell (I didn't really have any data), we had some subsidence move in.



I was supposed to meet my family for dinner in Divide, MT at 5PM so I decided to head west on Montana 278 over Big Hole Pass and into the Upper Big Hole Valley. I knew I'd have a good view to the Beaverhead Mountains to the west from there.

Looking back east on Montana 278 to the dying cu field.

Looking north at the Eastern Pioneer Mountains.

Looking to the north-northwest just south of Jackson Hot Springs, Montana. Visible is the Upper Big Hole Valley and the distant Beaverhead Mountains.

By the time I got into the Upper Big Hole Valley, the skies had completely cleared. It was, however, astoundingly beautiful. A testament to the amount of moisture that has fallen this year, the area was exceptionally green. This area is farmed mostly for hay and is also known as the Land Of 10,000 Haystacks. I figured I'd head west out of Wisdom and get up on the divide to see if anything was coming up over the mountains of Idaho, so I turned left on Montana 43 past the Big Hole Battlefield National Monument and up to Cheif Joseph Pass were I passed into Idaho. I turned north onto US 93 over Lost Trail Pass to peek into the Bitterroot Valley but found no appreciable storms. I'm not sure if this venture was actually to see storms but to say I had been in Idaho on the day, but it served both purposes.

At this point, the chase was pretty much over. I hadn't had cell coverage in over an hour (welcome to Southwest Montana!) So, I turned back and drove back to Wisdom. There were a few showers to the north over the Anaconda Range, but nothing too exciting.

I met with my grandma at her cabin in Divide as well as my dad and cousins Brad and Brian who had all just returned from a fishing float trip on the Big Hole River. They were all exhausted and covered in mosquito bites ... not to mention the fact that they got rained on pretty good from that first storm I had decided to chase.

We eventually met with my mom and sister as well as Brad's parents for dinner. Originally, we planned to eat at the Blue Moon Saloon in Divide, but it was mysteriously closed. So, we had a delicious dinner at the Hithcin' Post in Melrose. I had a fantastic t-bone steak (I owed myself a storm chase steak after the June 7th Elbert County tornado) and we all went home.





Kind of a bust of a chase, but it turned into a beautiful outing for exploring Southwest Montana.

Mileage: 236
States: MT, ID (lol)
New counties: 3

Dann.

2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day Three - July 4th - Lewis & Clark Caverns

For whatever reason, the big Fourth of July in Butte, Montana is more exciting for me on the Third when all of the fireworks go off. The Fourth is usually a day of sauntering to the parade (this year completely infested with pro-labor union entries) and enjoying a leisurely grill-out (according to my dad, I can't call it a "BBQ") at my grandparents' house.

We did all of those things but then spent the afternoon at the Lewis & Clark Caverns, one of my favorite places in Montana. This would mark my sixth trip through the caverns (one of them was by candle light!) ... and I hadn't been through in almost 10 years.

Though no one came right out and said I *couldn't* bring a tripod, it was suggested to me that it would be a bad idea when I called ahead. So, I decided to bring my tiny snake-legged tripod. I tried the best I could to get some shots of various parts of the caverns and luckily our tour group was small enough that I wasn't holding anyone up. The guide was nice enough to let me stay on the tail-end of the tour and set up my camera (usually on the floor or a stair since you cannot touch the "formations") and take a few shots. I ran into a few problems shooting including seemingly constant movement of the camera on longer exposures. I would attribute that to movement or settling with the tripod, but I am unsure. After a while, I think I was able to do a good job of judging exposure times and the proper f-stop, so I did get a few keepers.

The following series of images chronicles that journey:

Mom and dad resting on the "hike" up to the cave mouth.


The view of the Jefferson River and the distant Madison Mountains from the cave mouth.


The tour guide briefing us and going over the rules and regulations of the tour.


One of the first main rooms, looking back up the stairs.





The "Chocolate Waterfall"

The final, "Paradise Room" (if I remember correctly).




BONUS PHOTO!
Caught this little gem coming into Butte during the grill-out earlier in the day.

Dann.

2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day Two - July 3rd - Butte, Montana Fireworks

Two sets of images here ... one from the what I like to call "small arms fireworks" displays that are common 'round these parts. The second comes from the big display from Big Butte later that night. Yes, Butte displays fireworks on the 3rd of July and not the fourth ... and I'm not sure why!









Dann.

2009 Storm Chase XXIX Report (Day Two) - July 3rd (2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day Two)

I sat at my parents' house early in the afternoon on July the third, fully intent on spending as much quality time with my family as possible. My dad had risen earlier and gone fishing with my cousin Brad, leaving me and my cousin Brian (whom I traveled to Montana with) to hang out with my mom.

With some daytime heating, storms began to pop up around the area. I thought to check some parameters and saw that things looked better than I had originally expected. In fact, the wind shear wasn't too bad at all ... CAPE was fine ... and moisture was actually very plentiful (relatively). I threw the idea out to Brian and he was game to head out on a chase.

As we left, a strong storm had gone up south of the city (Butte) in the Highland Mountains. I planned to intercept the storm in the Upper Jefferson River Valley, so I took Montana 2 over Pipestone Pass and then drove south on Montana 41 to Waterloo. The storm looked pretty strong and looked great in contrast to the mountains.



It was also interesting to see some nice towers going up to our east over the Tobacco Root Mountains.



I was a little dismayed, however, at the fact that the winds were out of the north, coming up the valley. Given the wind profiles, I actually had a hope to get something rotating at the surface. Instead, the storms weakened off of the mountains but still gave us a good show. I continued south on Montana 41 to just north of Twin Bridges before turning back to the north as our storms died.




I had to be at my grandmother's house in Butte for a BBQ at 6PM, so I couldn't go much further. There was a boundary to the north that storms seemed to be riding, so I gave up on all of the southern storms and drove north to Whitehall and eventually getting onto Montana 69 and continuing north in the Boulder Valley. I did stop to take a shot of the storms that had formed off of the Tobacco Root Mountains (see the pic of the towers above).



We continued north watching a storm fire up over western Jefferson County. I stopped briefly to photograph a church that I'd always want to shoot. It was sprinkling and we were limited by time, so I just took a couple snap shots from my open window before continuing on.



Unfortunately, the storm stayed too far south of I-15 over mostly road-less areas, so we just got back on the highway and headed home.



At the end of the day, I felt really satisfied at being able to chase in my old back yard. Though the storms were sub-severe, the scenery was unbeatable and it's always nice to be able to explore a bit (even if I've been on all of those roads before).

Total mileage: 140
Chase partner: Brian Macumber

Dann.

2009 Storm Chase XXIX Report (Day One) - July 2nd (2009 Montana Summer Vacation Day One)

I knew severe storms would be possible along my route while driving up to Montana for vacation. I left work around 3PM and got caught in horrible Denver traffic while watching storms fire all around me. My priority at the time was not to chase, but to pick up my cousin and make it to Butte, Montana as early as possible. Chasing would be conditional.

Not soon after I had picked him up in Thornton, I noticed this cell blowing up just to our east. This was one of those days that favored storm split and you can see in the photo below, the updraft is on the north side of this particular storm. It exhibited a lowering for a while before weakening (and becoming less visible) as it traveled to the east. This would have taken me away from my destination, so I continued north.



There were a few thunderstorms to drive through on the way north into Wyoming. A severe storm crossed I-25 well ahead of us at Chugwater and I was asked to investigate the hail swath on my way through by a friend at the Cheyenne National Weather Service. Brian (my cousin) and I were able to recover some 1.25" stones (which had probably melted to some extent in the 45-60 minutes since falling). The Chugwater area had some hail drifts remaining on the side of the road which extended about two miles along the highway.



Further north, we watched some storms come off the Laramie Mountains, some occasionally showing some lowered, scuddy bases. There was a very nice storm to my our north and east in Niobara County, but I determined that it was too far out of the way to intercept while still making it into Butte at a reasonable hour. We cored a couple developing cells south of Douglass and then stopped to grab some dinner. Unfortunately, the Taco Johns there had closed and suddenly another storm had my attention. There were two lowerings that I was watching and I drove to the west side of town to observe. We met another spotter there, actually, which I thought was kind of random.

Neither storm looked all that impressive on radar but they were rather distant from the radar site. I was surprised at how low the bases were compared to what I had seen earlier along the path. I set up my tripod and shot at F8 (as high as my camera would go) to try and get lightning. As luck would have it, the one strike I got was on one of the only blurry pictures. Oh well, that's how it goes I suppose.

Lowering on the southern base.

Lowering on the northern base (at times it looked like something was back in there).

When it began to rain, we packed up and left. We continued west on the interstate but looking over my shoulder, the souther base got really ... low ... again. It was too dark and wet to get out and shoot photos so I took some video of the feature, which persisted for quite a while.

We turned around to intercept but it faded. It was getting dark at this point, so I decided to continue on the trip (not actively chasing). I did spend a lot of time driving through rain, hydroplaining, and even getting a nice lightning show over the southcentral mountains of Montana in the middle of the night. It was a long, long drive and the only thing that kept me awake was the periodic adrenaline rush assosciated with the occasional deer standing in the middle of the highway.

We finally arrived in Butte, Montana at just a bit after 5AM local time ... and needless to say, it was bed time!

Active chase map. (235 miles)

Dann
Coming soon: Pics/reports from three additional chases on the trip plus photos from the 3rd/4th of July and a trip to Lewis & Clark Caverns.

July 1st - Denver Lightning

I was supposed to be packing for my trip to Montana tonight ... *sigh*


The plan was to go to City Park and try and shoot the Denver skyline with the storms coming off the mountains, but I've always wanted to check out the parking garage at Colorado Center, so I did that instead. It worked out pretty well, actually. When it began to rain, I was able to to go a lower level and stay dry. Even the security guard was chill with my presence. I took 106 photos and ended up with only 3 that actually had a stroke of lightning (two are below).



A zoomed view of downtown.



CG!




So, I have to be at work in less than 7 hours ... haven't packed yet ... so I better get to it! See you all when I get back ... if anything interesting happens, I may try and update.

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm working 8 hours tomorrow and then driving 12 hours to Montana? Should be a fun day ...


Dann.