June 10, 2006 NE Panhandle
Looking west towards Sidney NE here I believe. Yes this was just east of Sidney as I just left there. The storms coming out of se WY weren't that nasty looking but they had some pretty intense RFD action which was always kicking up a lot of dirt in areas. I love blowing dust so I was excited. The low levels out here weren't that moist, so you wind up with strong downbusts such as these. The precip falling evaporates and strong downward moving air forms. You can often see these areas of strong sinking in the patches of clearing around the storm bases. The main area of dust in the middle never seemed like it was moving all that quickly. The more intense motions were back closer to I-80 which is on the right side of the image. Plumes of dirt would start there and race southward.
This is still just east of Sidney at the same location as above. This is off the left side of the first image.
Still the same location, the dirt-train continues.
Same location with the area of blowing dirt on I-80 getting closer. It was now rather intense. A semi on the eastbound lane was blown over during this.
Same location, zooming in a bit. I was wondering why they weren't stopped and pulled over rather than driving right into this.
Same scene, same trucks. The front two can no longer be seen. The back two obviously vanish as well. Motions across the interstate in that dirt were very fast. I'm not sure what speed is considered the lowest threshold to tip a semi over, but I imagine 75mph could do it. I'd be surprised if say 60mph would tip over an empty semi which was parked. I should have sat where I was and filmed the flying dirt as it got to me but I didn't want to be stuck to the west if there were accidents with this once it was east of me.
I'm now flying east down I-80. This is looking to the south.
Who knows what exit I'm at now. I'm not to Ogallala yet is all I know. The storm itself still doesn't look all that nasty(by plains standards) but it was damn windy and blasting dirt out ahead of it as it leaped eastward. It was very hard to gain on this storm even being able to do 80 mph on I-80. Part of the problem was a big storm in this complex was pushing se from the north and the interstate was jogging ene.
Driving east on I-80 still not to Ogallala yet.
Maybe I'm east of Ogallala now, not for sure.
I kind of like the do not enter signs with the one way arrows both pointing away from the storm in this shot.
Ok, now I know I'm east of Ogallala. I'm still on I-80 looking west.
Jumped out ahead of it more, hoping to find some good structure before it overtook the location yet again. This is at the Southerland exit.
Not too terribly shabby, especially given the way this spring has gone on the plains. I love it when you can see the convection right above the shelf.
