Various Shots from the Great Plains
On this page you'll find an assortment of shots I've taken while out chasing on the plains. Some of them are storm or weather related from days that I didn't feel warranted their own page. The rest are just a bunch of things I found kind of interesting.
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| A supercell thunderstorm over St. Louis taken from the air. | The Badlands in Southwest South Dakota. | The Big Texan, home of the 72 ounce steak and common chaser convergence point. | Eat everything you see in this picture in one hour and its on the house! |
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| The SLT caravan chases through a wind farm in Southwest Minnesota. | Clayton, NM, the place where "Black Jack" Ketchum was hanged! | I guess they had dinosaurs there too? | We got cows! |
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| Getting buzzed by a crop duster in Southern Nebraska. | The new DOW truck featured in season 2 of "Stormchasers" at a hotel in Colby, KS. | And of course the tornado intercept vehicle (TIV), or is it the CIV (camera intercept vehicle)? | A very nice LP storm with lightning in the precipitation core near Enterprise, Kansas. |
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| Iowa farmland in May... Smelly! | Major tornado damage in Moore, Oklahoma after the May 9th, 2003 tornadoes. | More tornado damage in Moore. | Nicely sunlit rain shaft where the "deer and the antelope play" on the range in New Mexico. |
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| The road to... nowhere? In Northern Kansas. | National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, OK. | A common sight on the Plains, an oil rig doing it's work. | Palo Duro Canyon, southeast of Amarillo, TX. |
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| The Silver Lining Tours lead van in the farmland of Eastern Colorado with high based storms off in the distance. | The Mount Capulin Volcano in New Mexico. | A mobile uplink truck from The Weather Channel. | A weird duck thing near Wheaton, Minnesota. |
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| The York, Nebraska water tower. | A great plains classic: Windmill out in the farm land. | "Stacked plates" storm structure illuminated by lightning near Holly, KS. | Shelf cloud rushed out of a multi-cellular storm between Wichita and Salina, KS |
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| New Mexico landscape. | Mine shaft museum in Madrid, NM | Panorama in the Sand Hills of Cherry County, NE |
Old farm house in Devil's Lake, ND |
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| Accas clouds over Goodland, KS. | The Doppler radar at NWS Goodland, KS. | Dr. Tim Samaras explains the deployment of his tornado probes to our group. | Mullinville, KS political satire in the form of metal windmills. |
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| Grain elevator near Fargo, ND | Plains sunset | Entering Colorado from Kansas. | This is what "Big Sky" is all about! |
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| The Wizard of Oz Museum in Liberal, KS | Old buildings out on the plains of Western Kansas. | The Colorado Green Wind Energy Project south of Lamar, CO | The next 4 shots are from the top of Mt. Evans in the Rockies. |
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| Looking east towards the Denver foothills | Looking West | Mt. Evans is the highest elevation paved road in the United States. | One of the locals at the top. |
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| Echo Lake at the base of Mt. Evans | The Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota | Mt. Rushmore | Prairie dog |
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| Kansas wheat field and water tower | Hail on my deck in Southborough, MA | Awesome coloration in the roiling above us as the Sun starts to set near Burke, SD. | Eerie sunset and lightning, also near Burke, SD |
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Teddy Roosevelt National Park in extreme Western North Dakota.Teddy Roosevelt National Park in extreme Western North Dakota. |
The Wichita Mountains in Western Oklahoma. |
Mesa on the Nebraska Panhandle | TIV II, aka "The Evil TIV" |
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Old abandoned church west of Alliance, NE |
Driving along the Rockies, near Trinidad, CO | The Sierra Grande volcano in northeastern New Mexico | The locals in New Mexico are always happy to see you.. |
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| The old railroad station in Marathon, TX | Large mesa down near Big Bend National Park in Texas. | Deep south Texas cactus. | Twisters Bar and Grille in Colby, KS |
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| Interesting marketing tactic in Gettysburg, SD | The prize for winning the SLT word contest! | A couple of curious locals stop by to say hello! | What are YOU looking at? |
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| A common plains sight: Grain elevator in Watonga, OK | That's right, a BARBED WIRE museum! | Amber waves of grain! | Locust on the Texas scrublands |
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| Texas Flower | Adair, Iowa is a friendly place! | Coal train heading for Omaha in central Nebraska | The Great Platte River Road Archway in Kearney, NE. |
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| One of the best parts of chasing is that you can get Shiner Bock most places on the Southern Plains! | Taking a ride on Sinclair! | The aptly named Omaha Stormchasers, the KC Royals AAA team. | Awesome tail cloud right overhead near Waterloo, NE. |
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| Don't want to get hit in the head with this! | Haboob, Texas-Style! South of Floydada, TX. | Mammatus on the back-shear of an anvil cloud, near Grant, NE. | Under the shelf cloud as a squall line passes over south of Erick, OK. Great roiling motion! |
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| Probable land spout tornado near Dumas, TX | Good to know that the Wendy's is willing to serve aliens! | Veterans Memorial in downtown Roswell, NM. | The National UFO Museum in Roswell, NM. |
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| Drilling operations in the west Texas oil fields. | Closer look at a drill rig. West Texas and southeast New Mexico are completely dominated by oil and gas operations. | Interesting piece of Americana as we entered Carlsbad, NM. | Historic marker near Eunice, NM. |
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| Driving on "Bob's Road" near Nocona, TX | Deep south Texas desert flower. | Getting run over by a squall line in Bowie, TX. | Braum's, my favorite burger and shake place in the Plains. Gotta make the obligatory Braum's stop! |
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| The leaning water tower along I-40 in Groom, TX | The mother of all shelf clouds on the Texas Panhlandle north of Amarillo. | Sierra Blanca on the road to El Paso in West Texas. | Watching storms east of El Paso. Yup, that's Mexico in the distance. |
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| The Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX on a down day in 2016. | Wall mural in Post, Texas, in the southern Panhandle. | A classic "Main Street USA" Texas town. | This would be good for those quick getaway moments! |
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| Buc-ee's near Temple, TX. Typical Texas tourist trap. | Clever prairie monument near Jal, NM. | Descending into the caverns in Carlsbad, NM. | Fantastic rock features in the caverns. |
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| ..and more of them. | Old-west style buildings at the Buffalo National Museum in Jamestown, ND. | Albino buffalo at the Buffalo National Museum. | And the "World's Largest Buffalo" too.. |
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| Wanna buy a bearskin coat? | Texas Tech's research team out with us in South Dakota. | Climbing some cool terrain in eastern Wyoming. | View to the horizon east of Chugwater, WY. |
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| An appropriately named beer for the plains! | Awesome shelf cloud near Madrid, NE | Precipitation core in southwest, NE. Don't want to go in there! | Some neat Americana east of Buffalo, OK |
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| Two of my favorite things: Coffee and tornadoes! | Artsy... Kansas wheat and storms. |
All pictures (C) Richard Hamel 2020.
