Interocean Boulevard (Holyoke, CO)

Good evening from the Super 8 here in Ogallala, Nebraska. In 2006, my good friend Neil Garrett and I spent approximately 48 hours broken down in this town, as my 1997 red Jeep Cherokee decided to develop substantial problems on nearby I-80, effectively rendering the car undriveable. The exact cause of the problem at the time was unknown to us, so we sought the help of a local mechanic, a grizzled 60 year old man named Dan who had clearly lived a life of substantial excess, and was now displaying the aftereffects. After several consultations, Dan suggested we run a can of "Sea Foam" through the vehicle. Amazingly enough, the Sea Foam masked the underlying problem long enough to allow Neil and I to miraculously travel 1500 miles back to our then home just outside of Washington DC. Within a week of returning to the DC area, the Jeep's problem recurred, eventually turning out to be a bad oxygen sensor which my father replaced a short time later. Anyhow, today marks my 4th or 5th visit to Ogallala, far more than anyone should ever make in their lifetime. There are plenty of Plains towns of which I have fond memories of, but this place is definitely not high on that list.

You're probably wondering why today's blog entry has begun with a fairly boring recount of car trouble years ago? Well, that's because absolutely nothing happened today. Zero. We drove, ate, sat parked for a long time, drove some more, then ate again. That sums up the day. The general idea of the day was to hope that upslope flow developing into the Cheyenne Ridge of Northeast Colorado would spark off an isolated storm or two as moisture slowly streamed back into the region. Several attempts at thunderstorms occurred for much of the afternoon and evening, but a sustained updraft was never able to get going. I'll add one or two relatively uninteresting photos later of a "muffin cloud" as it was dubbed, that was about as close as we came to an actual sustained storm today. 

Tuesday will likely be the best overall chase setup of the trip, and should have a high potential for intense supercells and several tornadoes across southern or central Nebraska in the vicinity of a warm frontal/dryline intersection. Our plan is to head east toward North Platte tomorrow, or wherever the intersection ends up aligning itself. Goodnight for now.