Storm Print – McCook

This was my 2nd storm chase near McCook, the first being the incredible tornadofest on our first tour day back in 2019. This time our visit to the county of McCook resulted in another incredible chase experience. Though there was no tornado on this occasion, we were instead treated to this stunning low precipitation supercell gliding over a virgin wheat field. The setting sun casting god rays and gilding the edges of the storm with gold was an absolutely fantastic sight to behold.
The chase started at the site of arguably the greatest supercell I've ever seen and we waited there for what seemed like an eternity for storms to fire. After watching rain clouds to our west struggle to amount to anything on the site of that great event, a cluster of stout, well defined towering cumulus continued to strengthen to the north. Quickly maturing into the show of the day, we hauled north at speed as these towers congealed and organised into a fledgling supercell corkscrewing 10 miles into the sky.
Screaming ahead of it into its path, we watched and waited as it tried in vain to produce a tornado but the necessary dynamics just weren't there. Instead, we booked it west and south and let it come at us. It was here that its structure matured with the textbook description of supercell formation visible and observable in realtime.
Though somewhat short-lived compared to most storms, the visual imprint this supercell left will last a lifetime.