Show chases Panhandle storm

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — The spring of 2009 brought plenty of storms to eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. One of them, a large cell that passed through the area in early June, made for perfect weather for the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers.”

The “Storm Chasers” crew — Reed Timmer, lead storm chaser and meteorologist; Chris Chittick, photographer; and Dave Holder, the driver of the SV Dominator — were scouting for tornadoes. They picked up the storm on radar and headed out to meet it.

“We look at the weather models every day and kind of predict where the intense storms are going to be,” Chittick said. “Eastern Wyoming was looking the most promising, and we headed that way.”

Several other weather agencies also were tracking the storm moving into Wyoming and Nebraska, including the National Weather Service.

“What was happening was a very deep area of low pressure was moving up from the south, producing a very strong southwest flow,” said John Griffith, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne.

The system carried an abundance of warm moist air and upper-level disturbances moving through the area from southwest to northeast. Conditions became prime for the severe weather outbreak that would occur late in the afternoon of June 5.

Storm chaser Chittick and the group were already in the area when the severe storm began to build.

“We were out in the open, and it began hailing,” he said. “Chasing the storm we happened to fall into a ditch, and as the storm began to close in on us, we were panicking to get out of the ditch and the storm’s path.”

The tornado was reported around 4 p.m., 11 miles south of LaGrange, Wyo. Griffith said winds along the ground were recorded at 130 mph in the upper level, a Category 2, or EF2. The storm chasers were able to get even more data as they were in the middle of the storm. The SV Dominator has an armored shell that it can drop to the ground, making it hard for winds to pick up the vehicle.

“When the storm hit us, it was an EF3,” Chittick said. “We deployed straight down to the ground, and it moved right over us with winds at 150 miles an hour. The downward force of the winds helps keep us on the ground as well, so we are pretty safe.”

The SV Dominator has a roof-mounted HD camera, durable single beam radar to measure wind velocities near tornadoes and a remote controlled aircraft that also collects data from around the tornado. The crew collected some impressive information.

The tornado passed from Goshen County into the Panhandle of Nebraska by 5 p.m. and was losing its momentum.

“Storm Chasers” will air Sunday on the Discovery Channel, and footage from the Goshen County storm will be the focus of episode 7.

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