USMA Severe Weather AIAD

 On May 30, the pattern looked calm yet again, and severe weather could've popped up anywhere in Eastern New Mexico. We were unsure of our plans for the day, but decided over Dunkin Donuts in Roswell to head north. Although everyone was pretty tired and took a nap on the bumpy ride to Fort Sumner, it was nice to get out and explore the local landscape. In Fort Sumner, we visited the grave of Billy the Kid and the Bosque Redondo Memorial. This site of an old Army fort and Native American internment camp was fascinating and we had it to ourselves. There were also a few goats outside, which brought everyone (especially Olivia) some joy. Afterwards, we ate lunch at the only restaurant that was open in Fort Sumner - and tried our best not to appear so much like outsiders. Before leaving the town, we stopped at an oxbow lake to skip rocks and talk to the people fishing, and Dr. Kalkstein sang his favorite song about the formation of oxbow lakes, a true masterpiece. But radar indicated so...

 The past 6 days of searching for severe weather left us a little worn out, so on May 29 we had a chance to relax and enjoy some time off. Few storms were predicted to develop in the Texas/New Mexico area, so Dr. Kalkstein and MAJ Hughes thought we should go to Roswell, NM for the day. We would visit some local attractions and possibly see some desert storms fire up. After breakfast, we drove 3 hours west from Midland to Roswell and the scenery changed even more. We were now in the arid desert of New Mexico, the birthplace of thunderstorms that would move east across the plains. We ate some authentic Mexican food outside town for lunch, and the went to the city center to check out what Roswell is known for: aliens! Dr. Kalkstein loved the souvenir shops, we visited the UFO Museum (which was far from convincing), and realized that the entire town is built on the alien tourism industry. MAJ Hughes was not so excited, being the extremely scientific man he is. After our fill of extrate...

 We didn't know it in the morning, but Day 6 turned out to be pretty exciting. Surprise storms and a change of scenery in Texas on May 28 marked the halfway point of our trip, and things were settling into a rhythm. We ate a fast breakfast at the hotel in Chickasha, and drove south to Lawton to visit Fort Sill. As the first Army base we stopped at this trip, all of us were excited to see the difference between Air Force and Army weather prediction. Their team was comprised entirely of civilians, and monitored conditions from New Mexico to Eastern OK, in order to keep the units at Fort Sill safe and able to conduct training. It was a calm day for the most part, so the forecasters weren't too busy yet. After the visit, Dr. Kalkstein chose a target area in West Texas, where some promising dry lines were setting up. This was a long drive away, and we passed the time in the van by watching Twister -- appropriately themed, but we also laughed at its Hollywood exaggerations. For lunch...

 After an unfruitful day in Kansas, we hoped that May 27 would be our chance to catch some great storms before the Midwest got swept clean by a cold front. Emerging from our hotel bright and early, we had a great breakfast in a diner where Dr. Kalkstein briefed the atmospheric conditions. Today would see a cold front push across Oklahoma and lift a lot of storms, but it would also remove all the moist air that fueled them. So we headed south immediately to get in their path.  After crossing the KS-OK border, we stopped at Vance AFB to interview their prediction team. They were tracking the storms in the area, but were only concerned with the potential for high wind speeds, and didn't think that any significant hail or tornadoes would arise. Dr. Kalkstein urged us on and we thanked them for their time, plus we were hungry for lunch. However, the storms that we thought would be tame soon came between us and El Reno, and one cell showed a strong rotation signature. As we darted s...

 We started May 26 with high expectations, but predicting the weather requires a great deal of patience and acceptance of failure. Day 4 proved difficult and frustrating to say the least. At our breakfast brief, MAJ Hughes and Dr. Kalkstein pointed out that all the ingredients for a large storm outbreak were present near us in McCook: wind shear, instability, and some air mass contrast. We were optimistic that large thunderstorms and tornadoes would develop from Wyoming to Texas, but we couldn't decide where to go exactly, as the patterns were hard to read. Eventually, after deliberating in the parking lot, Dr. Kalkstein decided that Western Kansas would be our target area. We all had different ideas of where to go (although we have no experience, so we just guessed), and nobody agreed with the SPC's zone. However, we found it ironic that we had driven to Nebraska the previous day only to return to Kansas immediately, but that's the nature of hunting weather. On the way sou...

 Our third day, May 25, shaped up to be a calm day with little storm activity. We decided to use it for some local sightseeing and repositioning for the following days. From our hotel in Garden City, we headed toward Dodge City after breakfast with no rush to get anywhere. In Dodge City, we visited the downtown area, toured the Boot Hill Museum, and learned a lot about the role that the city played in the Old West. We all enjoyed the opportunity to get some cowboy souvenirs and learn some local history.  After a lunch of some amazing local beef burgers, Dr. Kalkstein brought us to the Dodge City NWS station and we looked at the large radar dish. At this point, it was almost 4 PM and we needed to head North to prepare for the next day's storms, which we thought would be promising in Nebraska. We drove for a few hours to the town of Selden, KS, where a small tornado hit on the previous day, part of the system we tracked. This tornado overturned a train, destroyed some grain silo...

  Day 2, May 24, began with an early breakfast at an IHOP in Wichita. We were excited to get our trip really started and visited McConnell AFB and their Weather Prediction Center. There we heard from their team and how they coordinate storm responses with base command, and overall we were very impressed with the team's sophistication and professionalism. They also showed us one of their portable weather stations (shown above) that the Air Force uses in tactical environments. The visit gave us insight into how meteorologists integrate the civilian and military fields to make effective judgment calls. After McConnell, we headed westward to where the NWS and our fearless experts predicted the storm action would be. Dr. Kalkstein explained the basic structure of a supercell and how we would approach and view the storms that day. Along the drive, we stopped in Dodge City, Garden City, and saw some of the caps of the first storms breaking in the early afternoon. We continued north to int...