The setup for severe weather was not especially clear cut, but a weak low pressure area associated with large values of CAPE was forecast from north-central SD northward into central ND. 

A very rewarding chase was had in northeastern Colorado, courtesy of a magnificent supercell that tracked east-northeastward right over Last Chance and through Washington County.

 This Baca County supercell had been in progress for four hours at least, but it had not produced a tornado in the previous two-and-one-half hours. Low-level rotation in the updraft base continued quite hard. I knew that the cell might indeed produce another tornado, but I certainly was not expecting one.

Today we woke up pretty much where we needed to be — in Midland, TX.  A boundary was oriented WSW-ENE a little north of I-20 from Monahans to Midland.  With plenty of sun, instability and moisture, it appeared that tornadic supercells might develop near the front during the afternoon. 

This was the second-to-last full chase day for Tour 5, which up to this point had been quite successful, with supercell intercepts on seven consecutive days.  We had yet to be close to a photogenic tornado, and today offered a decent chance at that. 

Crazy, crazy, crazy chase period from May 22 to May 24!  I saw five tornadoes on the 22nd in NW KS, two on the 23rd in SW KS, and then ten or more in NC OK on the 24th.  On the 24th we picked up the Tour 3 folks in OKC, got on the road northbound at 1 p.m., and were on the prolific tornadic storm in Garfield County (east of Enid) in one hour.