llllllllooooooowwwwww hanging shelf on the 4th!

Well, the 4th turned out to be a surprise.  No severe storms were expected due to a lack of shear and seemingly low instability, however, several subtle outflow boundaries from the previous evening’s convection were hovering around SW Nebraska and NE Colorado.  There was also a good source of moisture residing in this area and extending southward into W Kansas.  Slow moving, lower based storms initiated here in the late afternoon and began hurling out severe winds over SW Nebraska according to the GLD radar.  I quickly but carefully made my way N to St. Francis, KS about 30 miles north of GLD and parked along an unpaved county road.  I waited for the storm to come to me as it slowly drifted S at a sluggish 10mph pace.  After a half hour of waiting and watching other nearby towers struggle to lift, I caught a glimpse of a ragged shelf cloud in the making.  It wasn’t too photogenic at first, but I set up my video camera on the tripod, started filming, and got my SLR ready.  Click here to see the video. 

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