I was out the door a little past noon targeting the I-70 corridor, particularly Deer Trail as a convergence boundary was bright as day on radar and figured a storm or two might fire there.  Well, it did and almost immediately put down the first tornado I saw.  I had pulled over just E of town to take a look and noticed some dust swirling in the field next to me.  Figuring it was just a dust devil or gustnado, I didn’t think much of it until I looked up and saw a well defined funnel right above me!

Very photogenic!

It was probably only on the ground for about a minute but as you can see in the photo another funnel formed virtually right next to it.  I filmed this long rope for about 5 minutes and finally it dissipated.  Another cell had formed behind it which also went tornado warned very quickly.  I raced back across I-70 and went to the other side of Deer Trail where I was able to film another quick touchdown.  No photo’s on that one, only video.

Both cells quickly absorbed together and lost steam.  I punched through the core of the now single cell on 70 and got back ahead of it near the Cedar Point exit.  I got off 70 and observed it as it moved E for about 10 minutes to see if it would recycle.  It looked like it had gusted out and was weakening.  Not really paying attention to what was happening elsewhere in the state, Dann sent me a text pointing out a new convergence zone near Ft. Morgan where a new cell was forming.  I could see it from the Cedar Point exit and it looked like a beast.  So off I went.

I went back through Deer Trail and hit highway 36 E to Last Chance and then N on CO71 toward Brush.  Just as I passed through the town of Woodrow, I saw a funnel slowly making it’s way toward the ground.  I pulled over and filmed what ended up being my third tornado of the day.  Again, no photo’s only video.  This tornado appeared to stay on the ground a little longer than the first I had seen in Deer Trail.  Once it lifted, I continued N and saw Dann, Michael, and Kendell on the side.  After a very brief “Hello, yeah that was amazing” we decided to continue toward Brush.  As I was driving behind Michael, Dann started pointing out the back of his car.  I took a glance in my rear view and damn near soiled myself.  Another beautiful, long rope had started dropping behind us!  I pulled off the road again and started filming tornado #4 on the day.

Another beautiful tornado...

This tornado only stayed on the ground for a minute tops but had a beautiful rope out phase.  I then continued north through Brush to try to get on a new tornado warned cell that was moving southeast toward my position.  I crossed I-76 and jaunted a little further N to see if I could get lucky #5.  Nope, all the cells congealed into a big linear mess so I decided to call it a day.  As I was driving back through Brush I noticed Tony Laubach’s van sitting in a gas station parking lot, so I decided to stop in and see what awful turn of luck he had this time.  If you don’t know the story, to put it delicately he’s had some bad luck with seeing tornadoes in Colorado.  Well, I’m happy and proud to say that today Tony’s Colorado curse has been lifted!  He got some amazing footage of both Brush tornadoes, so congrats my man!  Hahaha…

After that, I decided to head home to get some video cut up and uploaded where it will hopefully see some air time on the nightly news.  Good day for me and it appears every Colorado chaser is going home happy tonight!  Youtube of today’s highlights below:

Chase Stats

Miles Driven – 285

Tornadoes – 4

Total 2010 Miles – 11,458

Total 2010 Tornadoes – 18

Album of the Day – Gorillaz – ‘Demon Days’

After much deliberation, test driving, and flip flopping I finally pulled the trigger on a new car last night.  This baby was not cheap either and will have me living on the ‘mayonnaise sandwich’ diet for a minute but it is totally worth it!  This is my first ever brand new car as well.  I love the color and it’s got all the options I wanted.  It is such a relief to be back down to one vehicle and one that is under warranty to boot.  Driving around that BMW the past few weeks has been like driving on egg shells just praying something doesn’t break.  Speaking of the BMW, she went in on a trade as I had absolutely no interest from anyone regarding the various ads I put up.  It’s regrettable that I wasn’t able to sell it on my own but I feel like I tried everything I could do.  So I definitely took a hit on that price but they sold me the Subaru at a price where they probably didn’t make much more than what the car cost them so I suppose it evens out in the end?  Eventually I will start getting all of my chase equipment installed in the Subie but I’m in no rush.  The sunroof on this thing is gigantic so I am going to look into getting it reinforced with Lexan.  Also, at some point this winter I am going to have a professional install my inverter which will run off a separate battery that will be mounted in the trunk somewhere.  But again, no rush on any of this stuff.  Time to enjoy this car!

I was poking around on Youtube and found this video:

In no way, shape or form am I saying that I will be doing that, but this car can hold its own off the beaten path.  Yeah, it’s not an off-roading beast, but it’s got some muster.  Anyway, it will be tough waiting all the way til next year before I will probably get a real chase in it, but that just gives me more time to get it equipped properly…

Howdy folks, yeehaw, and all that good ol’ boy stuff.  Yuup, the one and only Justin McKee (Vs PBR announcer) stopped by the shop tonight to do some voiceovers and he was kind enough to let me take a goofy picture with him.  Normally I would reserve this post to the Vegablog but me in a cowboy hat is front page material.  Yeah, I’m just about as un-cowboy as it gets.  Anyway, it was really cool meeting Justin tonight and he was super, super nice.  Hell he even let me wear his hat for this picture so that should say it all.  I even got to contribute a new McKee-ism for him to use on-air if he so choses.  It’s so good he even wrote it down!  After thinking it up most of my shift at work I’m proud to say when he uses the phrase “That bull kicked him around like a hacky sack at a hippie campfire!” the credit shall go to me.  Oh yeah, pure gold.  Hahaha, well it was awesome meeting him and I thank him for being a good sport and also to Charlie for letting me sit in on some of the session and for taking the picture.  Forget Alberto Contador, I’m the new ‘El Pistolero!”  Now where’s my Sasparilla?!

We decided to go by Purcell first since that is Brian’s last name.  Not abandoned and in fact it is home to the developing Purcell Estates!  We then proceeded E on Highway 14 where we came across the town of Buckingham.  This couldn’t fail because I’ve been here on a storm chase once and I had seen at least 1 abandoned building.  Well, 1 abandoned building is all there is because the rest of them burned down in a fire a few years ago.  Strike 2.  We then traveled N to the town of Keota located in the Pawnee National Grasslands.  Here we found some abandoned houses, barns and other outbuildings.  It wasn’t spectacular but we were happy to finally have something to photo…

Carl and Brian braved going in the first house.  It looked like an asbestos, bird shit ridden cesspool so I passed.  Plus I’m afraid of birds which had several nests in the house and they were none too pleased to have us poking around in there.

A few other abandoned buildings were down the street but they were pretty locked down.  So we loaded back up and continued north toward the town of Grover.  On the way there we saw one other abandoned farm so we pulled off to investigate.  Other than Carl shocking himself on an electrical fence and having an awkward moment with Brian (hahaha!  It was classic!) the farm was a lot like the houses in Keota.  Here’s some pic’s anyway…

Rattle snake fear rushed us out of the tall grasses surrounding the other abandoned sheds on the property so we continued on to Grover.  Grover was actually a reasonably sized town (again, not a ghost town by any means) so we stopped into the market and got some drinks and snacks.  After noticing that a stripper lives there, we also noticed that there was an abandoned mill down the street that didn’t look too locked up so we went and investigated but not before I saw a funny sign and had to immaturely post it.  Insert your own joke…

Yes, I need to grow up...

Anyway, here’s the mill

After this we decided to go to our northernmost target of Hereford but there wasn’t anything there worthy of photographing so we decided to start heading back via Nunn (nothing there either) and Pierce.  Hunger started to sink in so we decided to look for a local bar & grill type of establishment in Pierce.  We saw a place that looked like it would work called the Full Moon Saloon but the ongoing karaoke turned us in another direction.  We got back to Ault and settled on a place called the Bison’s Breath.  It was pretty awesome!  Totally a local dive drinking hole that’ll cook you a burger if you ask nice enough.  The bartender was a really nice girl who told us that it was a good thing we hadn’t stopped at the Full Moon because it’s full of drug dealers.  Literally the waitresses would bring you a line on a tray with your dinner if you knew the right people.  Wow, glad we avoided that place.  We had a burger and a beer and came home via I-25.  Disappointing photo trip but a fun road trip nonetheless.

So the day was off to a good start!  We then proceeded further up 285 and then took another road toward Mosquito Pass.  On this road is where we reached our first target and first abandoned mine, the London Mine.  As we pulled up and started unloading cameras, I noticed some wildlife was already keeping their eyes on us.

Yuup, three moose.  Image a little blurry as I had to go to the telephoto lens and didn’t have time to tripod.  They bolted as soon as we started making our way closer.  So here’s the mine!

Of course, as we got in to the building, it started raining.  We took shelter and explored a little more finding another interesting wildlife discovery.  A porcupine!  Err, well, a dead one that is.

It's just sleeping right mommy?!

With no end in sight for the rain, we decided to walk over to another abandoned house that was about 100 yards or so away where we got a few more photo’s.

And now the nomination for gayest picture taken of the day:

With the rain still coming down we decided to get back to Carl’s Jeep (no the top wasn’t off and no, a gasoline fight didn’t break out) and move on to our next target, the Paris Mill.

The rain finally let up and the sunshine came down which was much needed as I was completely soaked from trogging through the wet brush while wearing the ultra absorbent material of denim jeans.  Like I said before, not a smart combination.  We loaded up and gave Brian a few mulligans as his navigation skills weren’t quite getting us to where we needed to be.  He recovered nicely though and guided us to the town of Alma where a quick jaunt up Buckskin Road brought us right to the Paris Mill.  This building was incredible!  I couldn’t believe how well in tact it still was.  So here’s some photos:

Pardon the last two pictures of me being a loser!  Hahaha, anyway that was definitely the highlight of the day for me.  We decided to go back to the car and continue up to Kite Lake and it was uhh, well, a lake.  Not much to see there.  We then rattled our way up a decent 4X4 trail to Windy Pass (I think that’s what it was called?) where the trees up there get blown over by the high winds but still grow somehow or they get rooted differently…I dunno, it was kind of cool though.

After that we decided it was time to head home.  We went over Hoosier Pass and found our way into Breckenridge and ate at Rasta Pasta.  It was okay but was up against stiff competition compared to the awesomeness we had eaten earlier at the Brown Burro.  I couldn’t believe how lame Breckenridge was.  Tourist central, yuck.  After dinner, we came home on I-70.

Overall it was a pretty fun day.  Thanks go out to Brian and Carl for taking me up to see some cool stuff in ‘their world.’  I’m not big on mountain pursuits, or really going to the mountains at all for that matter but today was pretty fun.  I look forward to taking them out east where I’d really like to get back to the Buckingham area to check out all of the other abandoned towns out there.  Maybe next weekend!

I wasn’t getting any cell reception in the Scottsbluff valley, thus I wasn’t getting any radar updates.  The last scan I had showed this storm was weakening so I decided to head back to Scottsbluff to refuel and grab some lunch.  As I quickly got back into cell range, my radar updated showing me that storm had not died, but had re-strengthened and was looking impressive.  Another reason why next year I will be getting a proper data card!  After my 30 second freak out and swearing out loud session ended I blasted E trying to catch back up to it.  Minotare Lake got in the way of that unfortunately.  But no worries, another cell to my S and E near Bridgeport was going nuts, so I decided to head toward that area.  As I got into a completely flooded Bridgeport the cell responsible for all the water promptly died in front of my eyes.  I then decided to refuel, grab some dinner (never got a chance for lunch!) and give a new storm just to my S a chance to do something before I called it a day.  I drove E and S out of Bridgeport where I was able to get a good look at the new storm moving toward me.  Just like all the other storms today, this one was high precip too.

Seeing as this could possibly have been my last ever chase in my Pathfinder I decided to take a hero shot for her!  Hahaha…

This storm continued to look like a monster rain maker, so I decided to head back home.  I got tricked once as a tornado warning went out on the cell so I turned around and headed back.  The tornado warning lasted about 3 minutes haha!  Fool me once, shame on me…I got back to Sidney and found a pull off for a few last shots.

I also passed through my new favorite town name:

I got off I-80 and started my way back to Sterling via Peetz when I came across one hell of a dust storm!  Check it:

Lastly as I got closer to Denver via I-76, one last image revealed itself to me.  Not bad shots for taking them while driving 80mph down the highway!

Stats for the Day:

Miles Driven: 548

Total 2010 Miles: 11,173

Tornadoes: 0

Total 2010 Tornadoes: 14

Album of the Day: ‘White Magic’ by ceo

So anyway, I was pleased with the photo’s.  We then tailed this storm E toward Sterling hoping to get some lightning photo’s but it wasn’t in the cards.  So we got into Sterling and enjoyed our favorite chase fast food being burgers and tots from Sonic.  And that’s all she wrote!

Chase Stats:

Mileage – 365

Total 2010 Mileage – 10,625

Tornadoes – 0

2010 Tornadoes – 14

I hadn’t really mentioned this on the page because a few details were still being worked out but now that everything is in order, I am super, super proud to announce a partnership with ABC affiliate KRDO in the Springs!

I was contacted a few weeks ago by their chief Meteorologist Matt Meister regarding use of my live stream and exclusive local rights to my video.  After an exchange of emails and a few phone conversations, the rest is history.  What really pleases me about this is Matt and KRDO’s commitment to being on the cutting edge technology wise.  I’ve always fancied myself a techno geek as well, so this just really seemed to fit.  I know Tim Stoecklein of the Springs and Mike Phelps are also on board so I am honored to be their ‘team mates’ if you will.  I’ve met Tim in person and he’s a great chaser and really nice guy.  I’ve yet to meet Mike but I am very familiar with his successes over the season as well.

Anyway, I did just want to mention that and I am truly grateful for the chance to contribute what I can to KRDO.  Hopefully this will be a long and successful partnership!

We headed out of Denver right around 11AM and grabbed a bite to eat in Bennett.  We sat there for awhile and after some quick meso analysis we could clearly see that the more unstable air with better low level shear was making it’s way closer to the Limon area, so that’s where we went.  Limon was chaser central today as the entire Vortex 2 armada was there along with 5 or 6 tour companies and about 15-20 other cars of chasers staging for the afternoon.  We waited there for about an hour or so and were really tempted to make a play on the cell that moved through Denver and was heading up I-76.  That cell looked like a beast but I knew it only had a brief window to produce a tornado as it was moving N into a less than stellar atmosphere.  Sure enough, it sputtered out but not before littering the metro area with some gorilla hail.

Proud that I had resisted that temptation, patience finally paid off as a cell started to fire just N of Colorado Springs.  This was going to be the storm, I just knew it.  So we blasted out of Limon and headed back W to the Deer Trail exit where we were going to sit and wait for it.  At this point though, my patience was all worn out, so we went W out of Deer Trail and negotiated some dirt roads that took us S toward the storm.  At this point it had just gone severe warned.  After I saw this:

Jaggedy wall cloud...

Scuddy-ish...

I knew we had made a good decision about staying with this cell!  We got spit out of the dirt road network onto highway 86 in the Matheson area where the cell which was now tornado warned, had right turned and was on top of us.  We raced E on 86 beating the core of the storm back to I-70 where we decided to head back to Limon.  We got through town and headed out highway 24 where visibility of the storm which now had a hook echo on it, would be a little better.  This is where I believe we witnessed our quick touch down.

It was hard to be sure with the wrapping RFD...

Precip was wrapping around the whole thing, so visibility wasn’t the greatest.  We continued on about  a half mile more where the visibility was better…

We could see dust being kicked up under the base for about 30 seconds!

As it quickly lifted, you could still see some ground circulation.

Shortly after this, a few other chasers had made a report of a brief tornado so I’m inclined to believe my eyes weren’t deceiving me.  Anyway, merely seconds after this, the storm had caught back up to us so we U-turned and got back through Limon and jumped back on I-70 heading E.  We finally got out of precip and since the storm had gone back to it’s northeast movement, we were able to get off at the Genoa exit to have another look.  Typical of tornadic supercells, this one also had moments where it weakened only to retighten and look good again.  We went N of Genoa where their tornado sirens were blaring and found a good pull off to take some structure photo’s.  At one point we had 2 separate meso’s both with insane rotation very close to our position.  I had successfully scared Carl to death!  Hahaha…

Low hanging meso #1 to our left...

Mean, dark looking meso #2 to our right...

The Timmermobile flew by us on their way to intercept and that’s when we knew it might be time to reposition to a better place.  Seconds after we loaded up the tripods, the sky turned olive green and we got pounded by hail and some insane wrapping winds that reminded me a lot of my last drive near Scott City, KS back in April!  We got back S out of the circulation to I-70 where we were forced to refuel.  After the fill up, radar showed the cell had gone back into a weakening stage so we let our appetites guide us back to Limon where we eventually called it a day.  Not too shabby!  I do have some video of both meso’s near Genoa that I will review later and post if they are spectacular or something…

Chase Stats:

Mileage – 292 miles

Total 2010 Mileage – 10,260 (I eclipsed the 10k mark!)

Tornadoes – 1 (It wasn’t glorious or very long lived, but I’ll chalk it up anyway)

Total 2010 Tornadoes – 14

Eventually a few cells started to show a faint beating of their hearts back near Bennett on I-70, so off we went.  By the time we got to them, they weren’t anything to write home about.  So Dann and I decided to get some chow at Wendy’s near the rendezvous point and while we were eating, a cell finally did go up near the dirt road we sat at all day!  And isn’t that storm chasing for ya?  It was a bit too far away for us to intercept, but we did find a good pull off to take some structure photo’s at the least…

Here’s a few I got from the Wendy’s parking lot believe it or not:

And then here’s a few decent sunset shots.  The colors were actually quite good at the time!

Later that night as I got back home, there was a ton of lightning happening in the Denver area.  I briefly debated heading to my lightning spot on top of the DU Light Rail parking garage but I passed out on my couch 5 minutes after I walked in the door.  I was exhausted from not much sleep the night before.  Anyway, not a horrible day by any means.

Stats:

Chase Mileage: 204

Total 2010 Mileage: 9968 (so close to 10k!)

Tornadoes: 0

Total 2010 Tornadoes: 13

Album of the Day: Guilty Simpson – ‘OJ Simpson’