May 25, 2010 – Sheridan Lake, CO & Tribune, KS

After getting a good night’s sleep and recharging, I was ready to go again.  This time the action looked to be in E/SE Colorado.  I checked the models that morning and decided that my target would be Kit Carson, CO with a probable drop to the S or E.  I got out the door around 11AM and made my way down to Kit Carson.  Dann was helping out with some nowcasting which was a huge help, so thanks man!  He told me a CU field was developing down south near Springfield.  Knowing that storms would be initiating further N closer to where I was later in the day, I thought I had at least another hour or so before I would start seeing some action.  A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for my area and storms took off right on the CO/KS border.  Like yesterday, they were moving almost directly N but at a very manageable 10-20mph.  One cell had fired just N of Holly and quickly became tornado warned.  I went E out of Kit Carson toward Cheyenne Wells and encountered to Vortex 2 crew for the third straight day.  I continued E into Sharon Springs, KS where there were now 2 tornado warned cells.  I was well ahead of both, so I decided to head south out of Sharon Springs toward Tribune.  The northernmost tornado warned cell became very outflow dominant and shortly the warning on it was dropped.  After I got past it, the southern tornado warned cell had a very pronounced lowering on it so I found a dirt road that went W and found a good hill to see all the action.  I witnessed (granted it was from a distance) what looked to be 2 tornadoes on the ground at the same time while the cell was near the Sheridan Lake/Towner area.  A very large, possible wedge was on the ground with a land spout tornado next to it.  After both lifted, what appeared to be a large tail cloud scraped the ground for at least a few minutes.  I’d never seen anything like that!  Video below:

This cell was creeping along at about 10mph, so I figured I had time to get back further W to get a closer look.  That wasn’t a good idea because the dirt roads I was on had just previously been rained on by the first cell that went through.  After damn near sliding off the road into a ditch a few times, I crawled back to the pavement at about 7mph.  I was never so happy to see a paved road!  It did however, make the timing perfect.  While I was crawling along at a snails pace, the storm had moved it’s way into KS and I had a pristine vantage point where I witnessed 2 more quick tornadoes.

The cell kept getting closer to my location, so I decided to head just a little further S toward the town of Tribune.  I noticed a wall cloud on the storm again which at the moment appeared to be only a few hundred yards away.  Knowing the storm was moving away from me, I figured I was safe to pull over and film.  I’m pretty bad at guesstimating distances but this quick tornado formed in the field right next to me!  Easily the closest I’ve ever been…

After the adrenaline wore off, I went E to stay with the storm to see if it would produce again but my gas warning light told me that I should probably get back to Tribune to refuel.  After refueling, a look on radar showed the cell was losing strength and that my day was over.  I went back N to Goodland and made my way home on I70.  My first time out all year going solo and was one of my best chases ever.  I clocked in with an impressive 5 tornadoes on the day.  Not too bad!

May 26, 2010 – Lochbuie, CO Tornadic Supercell

It’s always weird chasing supercells in a major metropolitan area especially when you consider that metro area your home.  The day started with a completely blown forecast on my part which had me situated in Ft. Morgan as a cell rapidly intensified just N of Denver.  The dryline stalled out over the foothills and didn’t move east the way I thought it would.  Whoops.  I flew back toward Denver on I-76 muttering every bad word known to man and finally caught a view of the storm’s base near Prospect Valley.

I continued E on some dirt roads and noticed a wall cloud had formed.  It started sucking stuff up like a Dust Buster and came very, very close to being a tornado.

This cell was very slow moving at one point maxing out at a whopping 10mph!  I continued to track to the cells E and S staying out of the baseball sized hail that obliterated Commerce City.  Just W of Prospect Valley, it tried to tornado again but just never had enough in it to get it done.

I was able to track along with this cell all the way to near Ft. Morgan where it had gone LP and had some insane structure.  It reminded me a little bit of the mother ship cell Dann and I had captured near Pueblo a few weeks ago except this time there was no where near the precip, nor the lightning.  Beautiful nonetheless!

After taking some structure photo’s I noticed a cell down south was starting to intensify and had a tornado warning on it.  With no easy way down there, I navigated some pretty tricky and less than stellar dirt roads that finally lead me to Highway 71 toward Last Chance.  The Delorme saved me on that one!  I flew W on highway 36 only to watch the storm die a quick death right in front of my eyes.  After that, I called it a day and made my way home down I-70.  A very entertaining day for sure.

Chase Stats From the Past 4 Days

Miles Traveled – 2502

Total 2010 Miles – 8559

Total Tornadoes – 9

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