3-15-2025 - Dixie Alley High Risk Chase
Chase Log (1 of 3) 3/15/25 Dixie Alley High Risk Chase.
As the HRRR began to show the night before a more linear convective set up with a lesser chance of discreet supercells and an early storm initiation, CHASEcations woke up at 5:00am and we were on the road just after 5:30amish. Laura is now a "certified STORM CHASER" (but has not ranked yet) and has become a lifer and true storm enthusiast who asks a lot of questions throughout the chase and actually TAKES NOTES WHILE CHASING which is impressive and incredibly nerdy. Although we were on the road for 22 hours...it was well worth the trip. We are storm chasers after all. We started our chase EARLY with a severe thunderstorm right behind us at 5:53am as we darted East into the High Risk bullseye. Our target area was Jackson, MS, and the dual goal was to drive east on I-20 #1 Stop along the way to photograph anything chaseable & #2 Chase the southernmost squall line and ride it south to chase notches between cells and any strong rotations capable of producing tornadoes or photogenic anything stormy.
1st stop, Vicksburg, MS. It is a CHASEcations tradition to BLAST Don McLean's American Pie as we cross the mighty Mississippi and "drove our Chevy to the levee..." Lots of important history and photo ops in this location. We documented southerly winds whipping north at over 20mph and were treated to a moisture train of LLJ screaming north throughout the entire day.
We headed back east towards Mississippi, and after we crossed Jackson, MS, we decided to head south to catch the developing line of supercells below us that were becoming severe warned and later tornado warned. These storms were in a prime environment and several storms would develop into strong, long tracked, rain-wrapped circulations. Bumped into some of the best storm chasing LEGENDS on planet earth and all around GREAT PEOPLE: Max Archer Rusty Archer & Grant Leighty while we waited for storms in Mendenhall, MS. Chasecations finally made the call to head SE on US Highway 49 to intercept rotation from the approaching storms. We witnessed the birth of a tornado in the making in the town of Magee, MS that was short lived and quickly became rain-wrapped as it raced NNE. We tried to follow the circulation NNE since we were within a mile of the circulation, but it outran us as it was producing tornadoes thru several towns.
Magee, MS "Technically Tornado #1," not a "Steakable Tornado Tornado," but it counts.
