Hey Arnold! June 8, 2020 Stunning Supercell and Tornadoes in Central Nebraska — Alex Goldstein

Published on June 8, 2020

After two largely disappointing chase days on June 6th and 7th, June 8th was shaping up to be a nice day for a few pretty supercells and maybe a tornado or two. We got far more than we expected with perhaps the best structure I’ve ever seen in my 15 years of chasing.

After busting pretty hard near the North Dakota/Canada border the day before, we definitely needed some redemption. We initially decided to target Ainsworth, Nebraska to start before adjusting toward Stuart. While sitting at a gas station there, we made a friend.

As we sat in Stuart — quite literally the most boring town on the planet — we became slightly concerned about the prospects of convective initiation. While the HRRR was remarkably consistent in developing a couple of monster supercells not far from our location, vertical development of cumulus appeared to be largely suppressed. We were confused; convective inhibition was gone and decent forcing was present. We sat and wondered about this for about an hour before deciding to drift south a bit, stopping about a half hour south of Stuart. Upon stopping, we were encouraged by noteworthy vertical development finally becoming evident. As if all at once, multiple robust echoes began popping up on radar with the most substantial storm taking shape near Arnold, Nebraska. Much like two days earlier, this storm took on a frustratingly northward component to its motion. As we moved towards Arnold, the storm shed a split and began to right turn and push east toward Anselmo, Nebraska. Radar imagery showed a beautifully structured supercell developing immediately in front of us.

Tornado warned supercell complete with hook echo immediately to the west of our location.

As we came over a hill near Anselmo, we spotted a monstrous, discrete supercell complete with visible streamwise vorticity current feeding into a rapidly rotating wall cloud. After days of some of the more frustrating chasing I’ve experienced, we finally had a good supercell thunderstorm.

Our first look at the storm near Anselmo, Nebraska.

We found a good place to pull over and watched as the storm cranked away in front of us. As if by magic, the rain parted near an older occlusion in the back and a pretty white cone tornado became evident next to a dramatic clear slot. The tornado lasted a couple of minutes before lifting and didn’t do any damage. Our whole chase trip was instantly vindicated.

View of the tornado emerging from the rain on the left side courtesy my friend Isaac Schluesche. I think this may have been a larger tornado than what we saw roping out.

After the tornado lifted, we decided to reposition to stay with the storm. Not long thereafter, we realized the storm had become outflow dominant and no longer posed a substantial tornado threat. A new storm that had developed (again) near Arnold, Nebraska became our target. After a short drive, we were treated to the most breathtaking structure and mammatus display I’ve ever seen.

As we watched the storm approach us, a few small dust whirls became evident along the gust front. At least one of these was likely a legitimate tornado. Simon Brewer captured some images and video of this.

#weatherpicofday
Small dusty tornado south of the community of Arnold, NE today, 8 June 2020. Impressive striations with mid-level supercell structure, cold outflow kept undercutting low-levels.
w/ @JustonStrmRider pic.twitter.com/xfcgRrCFNY
— Simon Brewer (@SimonStormRider) June 9, 2020

Tornado on the ground near Arnold, NE – 6/8/2020 https://t.co/LrNwr4tEp1 via @YouTube @SimonStormRider #NEWX #Tornado
— StormChasingVideo (@StormChasingVid) June 9, 2020

Soon after these brief tornadoes, the storm became outflow dominant and gusted out. We tried to chase a couple more storms but decided it was time to get back to the hotel. This was easily the best day we had during our 2020 chase trip, and not one I’ll forget any time soon.

Alex Goldstein

The short of it: I hold a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and have been chasing storms in the plains since 2006. The long of it: Growing up in Maplewood, New Jersey, its hard to become obsessed with the most extreme weather on the planet. Aside from the occasional burst of wind and clap of thunder, we don't exactly get much in the way of interesting severe weather. To understand my journey towards an obsession with weather is to start over 20 years ago (!!!) when I was in second grade. Every Friday we would get paired up with a third grader who would read us a book. The first week, the boy I was paired with came to me with a book about tornadoes. After having it read to me just once, I was hooked. Frustrating as it must've been for him, I made sure he came with that same book every week thereafter. A curiosity was sparked that has not faded to this day. Nearly ten years later I convinced my dad to take me storm chasing with a tour group called Silver Lining Tours after seeing a TV show about the tour leader, Roger Hill. My dad was initially skeptical, but we signed up and were ready to take the plunge. Being from NJ, we knew nothing about severe weather much less had the ability to chase it ourselves. The night before we were set to fly out to meet up with the tour in Denver, a video came to our attention that had been filmed by Roger the night before. We watched on our computer as the tour vans intercepted a vicious hailstorm in Montana that blew out all the windows in their caravan and left the passengers with large bruises. My parents, terrified, approached me to ask me what I thought of the video. They very much hoped I'd be scared straight to the point of wanting to cancel the trip. Much to their dismay, my enthusiasm was unwavering; I needed to experience Mother Nature at her fiercest. That first trip was in 2006 and was unforgettable even in a very forgettable year for storms. Looking back now with far more experience in my pocket, we didn't see anything particularly incredible that week. But it was more than enough to get both my father and I hooked for life. Since 2006, we've been out chasing every year save for 2018 when I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation. At the time of this writing, we are planning to head out next week to chase with fellow H&H chasers Travis and John. Since I started chasing, I've seen a host of significant tornado events, including the 2011 Joplin EF5 and the 2013 El Reno EF3 (El Reno was an EF5), amongst many others. I am also something of an amateur weather historian and collector, collecting a multitude of rare meteorological books and documents. I will write about these on occasion, and am most proud of my John Park Finley and Theodore Fujita collections. While my passion in weather is undoubtedly tornadoes, it isn't quite where my formal expertise lies. As a byproduct of falling in love with chasing, I was fortunate enough to pursue and complete a B.Sc in Meteorology from the University of Miami in 2014 and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2018. My Ph.D. research focused on using numerical weather prediction models to characterize the predictability of extreme large-scale weather events. Most specifically, I used NASA's GEOS-5 model to examine the dynamics and evolution of rapidly intensifying northeastern US winter storm events. A copy of my dissertation can be found here. To me, the atmosphere around us is about the most fascinating thing there is. It never fails to perplex, confound and humble us, even when we think we have the smallest shred of understanding. It is this that leads me to continue to head out to the plains each year in hopes that I'll get to take in Mother Nature's most explosive scenery. I'll do it until the day I die.

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