Trip Report: Storm Chasing: Supercells & Tornadoes - June 2024

During my time as a guide with Backcountry Journeys, whenever there’s a “we’ve never done this before” type of trip, I am usually the first one to volunteer to give it a go. I will be brutally honest in saying that storm chasing is something I had never done previously, but was very curious about due to my upbringing in Kansas. Whenever there were severe thunderstorms and tornado sirens blaring, and there were many, I was always in the basement.

This past June I had the incredible opportunity to lead the first ever departures of BCJ’s Storm Chasing: Supercells & Tornadoes photography workshops, and I was stoked. It goes without saying that a trip like this requires a decent sense of adventure and a large amount of patience to go along with it.

There are way too many details I could share so I’ll focus on the highlights from each of the departures in this trip report. Both began with our guests convening in Denver, Colorado to start their respective trip. Providing the forecasting and technical expertise was Steve Saviano, a local storm chaser with almost 30 years of experience. Each day our destination was determined by several forecasting models that Steve utilized to put us in position to intercept unstable atmospheric conditions with the hopes of it resulting in a supercell thunderstorm, and if we got lucky, a tornado.

The First Departure

We started the day in a small diner, reviewing the latest weather models. The forecasts predicted a high likelihood of severe thunderstorms developing in the late afternoon. Our route took us through rolling plains and small towns of Northern Colorado and Southeastern Wyoming, each mile bringing us closer to the storm potential. As we drove, towering cumulus clouds began to bubble up far off on the horizon and our anticipation grew.
Our first storm of the day came about just to the north of Lusk, Wyoming and it was our first crack at photographing a storm. The sky had this beautiful and eerie green hue to it.

We continued to “chase” this storm, which was more like trying to stay in front of it, into western Nebraska. Each time our group would file out of the van and set up along the side of the road, which was usually a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and fire off as many shots as we could until it was time to load up the van and continue driving. Near Rushville, Nebraska we managed to find an old, abandoned log cabin sitting perfectly in a wide open field, providing the perfect foreground for the storm that day.

Down the Road, Two Days Later

The previous day we spent driving across the state of South Dakota in order to position ourselves for favorable unstable atmospheric conditions that Steve had seen in several forecasting models. The part of storm chasing that most people don’t mention are the long days of driving without any action. Our group took full advantage of that to visit an iconic American tourist landmark, Wall Drug Store in the town of Wall, South Dakota. Sometimes it’s more about the journey than the chase.

After spending the night in Sioux Falls, South Dakota we bounced up into Luverne, Minnesota for some lunch to hold our position, waiting to see if any storms would start developing. As the day progressed, Steve started to see the beginnings of conditions ideal for a supercell thunderstorm. We drove south to Whiting, Iowa for another “hold and wait” stop. Soon the cumulus clouds began towering above 30,000 feet high so it was time to hit the road.

We followed a developing supercell mesocyclone near Onawa, Iowa and found other storm chasers in the area parked along the roadside. Steve navigated us to a dirt road just west of the interstate where our group had a few minutes to capture the storm. We could hear the tornado warning sirens going off nearby, all of our phones were receiving notifications from the National Weather Service of a tornado warning, and hail started to drop out of the sky around us.

Full of excitement as well as caution, we all hurried to get back in the van and began driving away from the storm. Later we found out this storm did produce a short-lived tornado, and most likely was located within the rain column of the mesocyclone pictured below.

Last Day of the First Departure

The previous day’s chase landed us in St. Joseph, Missouri. The forecasting models were showing potential storms to be centered around Ogallala, Nebraska. Much of the day was similar to previous days of stopping for bathrooms at various gas stations and waiting for the storms to develop.

From Ogallala, we headed south through Venango and then the small town of Imperial. There were a few other storm chasing groups in Imperial also stopped for quick bathroom breaks. We then drove through the supercell in order to position ourselves at the more photogenic side of the storm. The winds were gusting well over 50 mph, we even saw an overturned semi-truck on the side of the road. We were able to call 911 to notify first responders and continued down the highway.

The sky began to darken even more with the sunset around 9pm, and as luck would have it we were able to find a dry pocket and safe spot outside of the line of precipitation to pull over and shoot. Darker skies proved better conditions for photographing lightning strikes and we were positioned far enough in front of the storm to do some longer exposure shooting.

Second Departure

Jumping to the second departure and group, we had one of the most exciting days between the two trips on our fourth day. The previous day we were left empty handed driving through southern Kansas into the Oklahoma panhandle, skirting into northern New Mexico, and landing in Trinidad, Colorado for the night. Our group was getting anxious, wanting some action after getting skunked and rightfully so.

Departing Trinidad, we headed north through the Denver Metro Area, stopped at Buc-ee’s for some lunch and Beaver Nuggets, and into southern Wyoming. We pulled off the interstate in Chugwater, Wyoming for a quick bathroom break and admiring the swirling clouds that started to rotate in front of us. The sky was a beautiful aqua blue color and the texture of the clouds provided an incredible amount of contrast. Even I had a hard time walking away from it.

 As usual, it was time to load up the van and head down the road. Heading east out of Chugwater we saw probably the largest number of storm chasing groups between the last two weeks. At various points along the road other groups had stopped to photograph the developing storm as did we. When things started to really get going we were all in a line heading down Wyoming Highway 313, to include a Doppler on Wheels being driven by a University meteorology research group. It definitely looked like a scene out of the movie “Twister.”

We all then came to a stop at a T-intersection in the highway. There was one lane closed ahead for construction activities and a pilot car was escorting traffic on the road each way. As we were all waiting our turn to continue down the highway, tensions were running high knowing that time was of the essence. Then out of the blue someone yelled “TORNADO ON THE GROUND.” 

One by one, people began to exit their vehicles, cameras and phones out, and standing in the middle of the road taking it all in. I ran quickly to the back of the van to retrieve my second camera which had my zoom lens mounted. I wanted to get a closer look at Mother Nature’s spectacle. It was so surreal and lasted about 15 minutes.

As luck would have it, the highway opened back up shortly after the tornado dissipated. To think had we been further down the road and not stuck in traffic, we would’ve missed our opportunity to see a tornado on the ground.
Eventually this storm blew through Scottsbluff, Nebraska bringing with it wind gusts of over 80 mph. We continued to chase the storm past town into the early evening before calling it a day. The storm caused a lot of damage, electrical outages, and even our hotel’s computer system was affected. The next morning we saw many trees pulled right out of the ground by their roots.

Lessons Learned

These storm chasing trips taught us more than just how and why storms develop. We learned the importance of safety, respect for nature, and the value of community. Each chase is a reminder that while we pursue the thrill and that iconic photo, the impact of severe weather is always real and should be left for the professionals.
With each group many were already discussing booking their next storm chasing trip. Unlike wildlife and landscape photography trips, the experience during storm chasing trips are never the same from one day to the next. Just like snowflakes, no two storms are ever the same. Above all else, storm chasing isn’t just about the storms; it’s about the experiences shared and the stories created along the way, and I look forward to many more to come.