Yesterday provided the goods, but I let impatience get the best of me as storms out west eventually did fire, some packing quite the punch, but the storm of the day blew up around sunset about 90 minutes and change north of Kearney, becoming an impressive supercell that did carry a tornado warning for the better part of an hour or so. Unfortunately, it was far enough from me here in Kearney where I knew the likelihood of it maintaining itself as a supercell was unlikely, so I opted for the lightning consolation prize from about 40 miles or so south, which provided some great imagery. I had the thought that I could meet it in Grand Island, but it got pretty strung out as other storms began to develop across central Nebraska. I didn’t do much else with it after the lightning. I didn’t miss much, a few significant wind reports back west of North Platte (where I spent a majority of my afternoon waiting hours), but I basically found myself in the storm hole and was too far from any of the action areas to salvage the evening, so the lightning was it for me.
Today has fallen apart, tomorrow not looking so great, either. It’s up for debate how and IF I even play today. I could cut my losses and return home, which would still allow me the eastern Colorado play tomorrow. I could also lean into the long-shot northern Kansas play this afternoon, which would dump me on I-70, also giving me the Colorado play tomorrow. Few models are doing ANYTHING with today, and if you go by those alone, they would give more potential to western Nebraska (and that’s a low-bar ‘more’, BTW). Again, ending up in North Platte tonight would not be the end of the world for tomorrow, a simple two-hour drop into Wednesday’s target, so it’s a valid target to play out west today. But honestly, I could see today being down, maybe just point myself down to Hays, hunker down there this afternoon and if something fires in northern Kansas, you’re pretty set for positioning, then see how Wednesday shakes out.
That being said, today is a definite milk-the-checkout, which will include a shower and gear reset, then decide from there how to play today into tomorrow. Right now, I’m not completely writing off today, certainly ‘more excited’ about tomorrow, so I am leaning heavily into the position for tomorrow while keeping today’s slim chances a float.