The day started with pretty good optimism, not about what we ended up seeing, but more because we thought we would get some decent storms with the great landscapes that are down in southern Colorado.  I picked Dann up at 10AM and after briefly debating about chasing a sleeper target further N near Goodland, KS, we settled on the southern target, particularly Springfield, CO.  The NAM, WRF, and now RUC models were all showing a cell down in that area initiating at 21z.  Shortly after hitting I-70, we could already see CU towers starting to go up.  And they were right in the area we had forecasted, granted a little earlier than we thought.  The back building of this cell was amazing.  Just when you thought it was fizzling out, stronger convection would build behind it, reshaping the storm which kept it at a standstill.  As we drove through Hugo and on to Kit Carson, the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm watch for our target area and down into the OK panhandle.  We reached Lamar and that’s when the first tornado warning went out on the cell which at the time was pretty much stalled over Springfield.  We continued south into Springfield where we found a road W that took us right toward the cell.  We could see a funnel in the murk and a minute or two later realized that this funnel was on the ground!  We couldn’t see it very well through the precip and wrapping RFD but it was on the ground.  Already pleasantly surprised, we decided to get back to highway 287 and continue south so that we could get a better look at the storm.  We went about 5 miles south and found a dirt road that took us W giving us an unobstructed view of the cell, and it looked good!  This storm was moving so slowly that we were able to sit in its path for what seemed like hours and the thing never really got close to us.  Finally we started to see some really good rotation, and a lowering that was really starting to get its act together.

Building...

How this wasn't on the ground is beyond me!

"I'm meeelllltttiiiinnnngggg!"

After that close called fizzled, we repositioned south and a little bit further west to see if the storm could recycle and try again.  We had actually just crossed into OK by a quarter of a mile or so, when all of a sudden we noticed a wall cloud with this storm had really tightened up with some rapid rotation.  And then it happened.

As you can see in the last 2 photo’s a rainbow started to emerge right in the foreground of the tornado!  We waited a few more minutes where this scene revealed itself to us…

Wow!  After we had lost sight of the tornado and the rainbow showed up, Dann kiddingly said “Wow, what kind of a shot would that be if we could see the tornado again?”  Sure enough, it happened.  What a day…

We then lost visual on the tornado so we continued our way back Highway 287 where it had crossed the road giving some other chasers quite the up close and personal treatment.  We were now behind the storm and had completely lost visual on the tornado as it had finally lifted near Boise City, OK.  We decided to call it a day and started heading home.  Not bad!

A huge thanks goes out to Tony Laubach and Doug Kiesling who were able to help Dann sell video to Good Morning America!  Also a big thanks to Matt and Marty at KRDO Colorado Springs for getting my video some love as well!

Chase Stats:

Mileage for the day – 630

Tornadoes – 4

Album of the Day – ‘Antics’ by Interpol

Total 2010 Mileage – 9764

Total 2010 Tornadoes - 13

***EDIT***After reviewing some more video footage, we were able to determine that another brief tornado occurred that we witnessed.  At the time it was happening, we were unsure because we couldn’t see very well with the wrapping precip.  Upon reviewing the video carefully though, you can see a definite ground circulation, albeit brief.  Stats have been adjusted to reflect this revelation!  Pic below, not sure if Youtube video would be hi-res enough to see circulation…

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