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…

Popularity: 24% [?]

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

Popularity: 17% [?]

Wow, what an amazing past 4 days it’s been!  I figured it would be easier for me to just do a big sum up post of the past 4 days instead of writing each of them up individually.  The first 2 days will be in this post and then the past 2 days in the next…

May 23, 2010 – Leoti, KS

Myself, Dann, and Michael Lachendro met up around noon at the rendezvous point and headed to W KS where a 5% tornado area was hatched.  We reached Goodland, KS right across the CO border and decided that we needed to head S where a front was moving up and the most unstable air resided.  We had set a target of Tribune, KS and sure enough, as we got closer we could see CU starting to build up into some towers just a little further S.  So we went through Syracuse and Lakin (for about the 20th time this year!) and got under our first cell.  It was tricky because 4 cells had started to form at the same time all in same general area.  We opted for the southern cell as it was ramping up more than the others and was also in the best atmosphere.  We trailed it E through Garden City and then a little bit further but it never was able to really do much.  We noticed a cell behind it back to the W that was starting to strengthen so we abandoned the cell we were on and raced back to intercept.  As we drove back toward our new storm, it became tornado warned.  Near Leoti, the cell had a lowering and wall cloud with it.  We pulled off the road N of Leoti and watched as it struggled and tried to put a tornado down.  There just wasn’t enough rotation to get it done however.  To add to the insult, a cell just S of Goodland started getting tornado reports on it which was tough to watch.  After a stop to refuel and about 30 minutes of taking sunset photo’s we all decided to head back N where one last cell had grabbed our attention.  We drove W out of Winona to a spectacular light show where we could see something odd to our northeast.  As lightning lit up the sky, we could see a very low hanging wall cloud.  It was difficult to see but at one point looked to have a tornado down.  I tried to get pics of it but was unsuccessful.  Dann however was able to get some decent shots and has a write up about it here.  We called it in to the Goodland NWS and they assured us there was nothing to worry about.  Hmm?  We then decided to call it a night.  We stopped one last time in Goodland to refuel and head home.  We met a very interesting character at the Goodland gas station who was trying to tell us about the tornado near his ranch.  I’ll do my best to reconstruct the conversation but you have to picture this in your best twangy, western accent.  ”Shoot buddy, yall shoulda been up here!  I was walkin down to ma’ gate and den der was a rattle snake in da pipe!  But the prairie dog was gone then!  Then the bull was down by the gate and dem sons of bitches is mean as shit.  So I grabbed my laptop from da trailer but it got rolled over.  Then da guy wit’ da’ metal car (he was referring to the TIV that was just down the street) shows up and that son of a bitch looks like it could roll 30 times and wouldn’t do a damn thing to it.  But my trailer gets rolled the hell over and da bull is mean as hell.  Crazy night!”  Dann doing his best prairie dog chirps over the conversation only added to the hilarity!

May 24, 2010 – Peetz, CO & Alliance, NE Close Calls

On about 5 hours of sleep I was again out the door to chase up in the Nebraska panhandle.  This day I chased with Jason Burns where we had decided to head up I-76 to NE CO where a tornado watch was already issued.  Some cells had already initiated on the NE/WY border right around 1pm.  They were flying north at about 60mph!  Knowing there was no chance in hell we would catch up with those we opted to stay the course on 76.  Not ten minutes later, a cell started to form to the S of us.  We pulled off the highway and watched on radar for a few minutes to see if it would build into anything.  It did, so we decided we were going to try to stay with it which we knew would be difficult because it too was moving directly N at 60mph.  We got off 76 at Sterling and proceeded N through the town of Peetz.  At this point we noticed a wall cloud hanging down and for a minute or two, a distinct funnel.  It didn’t last long and our brief pull off had put us behind the storm so we had to play catch up.  We passed the cell again near Sidney, NE where the funniest moment of the day happened on I-80.  The wind was so strong that my power windows would not roll up!  We stopped for a quick refuel (where I did finally get my window up) and then continued to head N behind the storm.  We passed through Gurley, and Bridgeport finally getting ahead of the storm again near Alliance.  This is where we witnessed another lowering on the storm that looked really promising for a second.  Then the storm screamed ahead of us again.  We started to drift a little bit to the E and got to the town of Rushville where we finally let the storm go as it moved into South Dakota.  At this point my stomach was screaming for food.  Because of my weird chasing schedule, I realized I hadn’t eaten a full meal in nearly 2 days!  So we got back to Alliance and feasted (well, I did at least!).  After that, all the storms had become a linear mess so we decided to head home.  It was a frustrating day in the sense that storm motion was so fast, but also a lot better than sitting at home!

One other thing I did want to mention about that day was that I saw numerous false reports showing up that were all sent in by 1 individual.  I will not say who because that’s not really what is important about the matter.  We were chasing very near this individual all day and we never saw any of the magical stuff that they were seeing.  I don’t believe these reports were made with malicious intent however it really brings home the point that making sure what you report is as accurate as possible.  The NWS takes every report seriously and issues warnings based on what us as chasers, report to them.  I think this was a matter of just “seeing what you wanted to see” in the heat of the moment but it is still not acceptable to place a report unless you are 100% sure about it.  Anyway, enough said about that.   I think the most rewarding part of the day was chasing a single cell that we saw initiate in CO and we stayed with it all the way up to the SD border.  Kind of like watching your kid grow up and turning into an adult.  Okay, maybe not.

Popularity: 17% [?]

The day started bright and early at 8AM (that’s early for me on a Saturday) not because we had an early departure time but rather because I wanted to look at the morning models to see if we would even be leaving to go anywhere.  The NAM still showed no instability anywhere over Colorado and continued to look not impressive as it had the night before.  The RUC and GFS lined up pretty closely that had areas of 1000 J/kg CAPE draped all across eastern Colorado.  The WRF also showed a few cells popping up down south later in the day so after half the team bailed, Dann and I decided to still have a go at it.  We got down to Pueblo and went east of town and sat next to a creepy graveyard that had random coffins laying around and tuned in the miserable Cubs game while we waited.  The wait lasted about 15 minutes as a cell started to initiate to the south of us.

The cell started to mature and began showing some hail markers on radar so we headed east and then south out of Las Animas.  We got out ahead of it in plenty of time where it promptly began to weaken.  Another cell had popped up behind it though and it looked better so we continued to dive south for intercept near the town of Pritchett.

We met the core on a gravel road off highway 100 where it put down mostly pea sized hail and lasted about 5 minutes (see video below).  Frustratingly, a cell we had noticed down by Springfield had pulsed back to life and had some significant hail markers on it.  It was too far from us but coincidentally, Tony and the Twistex crew were returning to Colorado from their chase in Texas the day before and managed to intercept it.  We saw another cell looming back up north near the Pueblo area and decided we could intercept it on our way home back to Denver.  Here’s what it looked like from a distance:

…and here’s what it looked like as we got pretty close.  Whoa momma, hahaha!

This is looking back west as we approached it from the east on highway 50.  We found a dirt road in between Fowler and Boone that went south right as it became severe warned.  This thing was a freaking beast.

The severe warning didn’t last very long.  Radar started to show some meso’s and an elevated TVS marker and promptly a tornado warning went out on the cell!  And we were in the absolute perfect position on it.  The layers on this cell were nuts with rotation on all levels.  A few times, a wall cloud lowered from the base and we both got pretty excited but it was never able to get it done.  Dann did a reading on his Kestrel as we sat in the inflow winds and got a reading of 59/44.  59 degrees, with a dew point of 44.  With lower 40′s dews ingesting into the cell, we both knew it was not going to produce.  Had dews been slightly higher in the 50′s, we could’ve been in business.  We ventured further south to stay ahead of it and found another good pull off spot to take some photo’s and video.

You can see that it went from unorganized, into layered mother ship in just a few minutes.  It was starting to get dark so I got off a few more structure shots because this was the most impressive mesocyclone that I’ve ever seen.  Most of the time, it was so wide that it didn’t fit into my viewfinder on my camera!

With the sun fading, the lightning show was just beginning.  And it was amazing!  Awesome repeater zaps, full sky bursts, some positive charges, you name it!  I know Dann got some good lightning stills, but I didn’t so I will have to rely on video.  We sat and watched the lightning for probably about 45 minutes before the precip actually got into our area.  We loaded up all of our camera’s and dove south again getting back on to pavement on highway 10.  We punched 2 cores on that highway as we got to Walsenburg where we refueled and finally called the day as our hunger was taking control.  We rolled back up to Pueblo and hit Denny’s.  If you haven’t been to Denny’s at midnight on a Saturday in Pueblo then you have no idea what kind of party you are missing! (sarcasm)  Anyway, we then shot straight back to Denver and I got home around 1:15AM.  I’m quickly starting to find that Southern Colorado is becoming my favorite place to chase.  Hardly any hills or obstructions anywhere and the road networks are extremely easy to navigate.  Even their dirt roads are mostly gravel, making them easy to drive on even after it rains.  Plus, it’s really beautiful down there with all the canyons and buttes as the backdrop.  I’ll gladly chase anytime down there and it doesn’t draw the chaser circus with it.

Video below shows our first hail core intercept near Pritchett, and then the mother ship super cell near Pueblo and the light show that came with it.

My thanks again to Dann Cianca for being a navigator extraordinaire and great chase partner!  It’s days like these where you go out with low expectations and get rewarded for grinding it out in the end that I really enjoy the most.  No tornadoes, but we got a lot more than we were expecting!

Chase Stats:

Chase Mileage – 659

Chase Duration – 15:45 hours

Song of the Day – “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” by Radiohead

Funniest Moment of the Day – Ron Santo’s constant groans and incomplete sentences while calling the Cubs/Pirates game on WGN radio.  That or Dann struggling with a Peach Fuzz soda at Denny’s.

Quote of the day – “Do you guys want to take the ‘Denny’s Double Dog Dare Ya’ challenge?!”

Total 2010 chase mileage – 6057

Total 2010 tornadoes – 4

Popularity: 21% [?]

Looking at the latest forecast models for Saturday shows a potentially interesting setup in the SE corner of Colorado.  It’s a bit of a flyer but might be worth a drive down if the following can hold up…

Further south, perhaps all the way to the Pecos Valley near the TX/NM border could be interesting as well however that’s way too far out of my range.  I’ll be looking at Saturday definitely throughout tomorrow and on Saturday morning and might make the drive down.  We’ve been briefly discussing it in our email group so I might have company.  We’ll see!

Popularity: 19% [?]

I thought about writing this whole thing in French just so most people wouldn’t be able to read about our miserable day.  Then I remembered that I don’t speak french.  Let me translate the title of this post for you though; “We were defeated by the high risk in Wichita, KS.”

The day started with the SPC issuing a HIGH risk for a small portion of SE KS and NE OK and right away I had a queasy feeling in my stomach.  High risk days are like being dealt pocket aces in poker.  It sure looks good from the start but man, it is super disappointing when they don’t win in the end.  A metaphor I feel describes our day pretty well.

Myself, Dann Cianca, Jason Burns, and Ryan Kushner all met up at the rendezvous point at 6AM and set out E heading to an early sleeper target in SW KS.  We knew a strong nose of CAPE was going to be making it’s way up into the area from the south where it would cross paths with a quickly moving dryline.  We figured that if these elements could mix, we might be in business.  We reached Garden City where according to our mesoanalysis, CAPE values were nearing 2000 J/kg, the dew points had spiked up to 60 degrees, and the cap was starting to erode.  We saw cumulus towers starting to go up but they would fall apart shortly after conception.  I thought this might have been because the cap was still there but these didn’t have that wispy “capped” type of clouds on top of them.  These towers were being folded over because the upper level shear was so strong, they couldn’t build up into anything.

A few of these built but quickly fell over like chopped trees...

Still believing that the strongest instability was yet to come, we patiently waited while keeping an eye on a storm that was in SE Colorado that was slowly making it’s way across the border into KS.  With the dryline firmly planted where we were in Garden City, we knew the storm coming in was in bone dry air and would eventually die out.  We noticed a few cells finally starting to show up on radar near Scott City, and another near Dodge City.  We decided to head E toward the Dodge City cell since that was going to be the direction we needed to go to later in the day.  As we drove away, the storm we had assumed would die coming across the CO/KS border was able to get close enough to the dryline that it actually pulled some moisture in, strengthened, and put down 3 tornadoes.  Not a good start…

My novice breakdown of what I've decided to call "Bastard Cell"

So we went through Dodge City and noticed a cell that was starting to gain a little strength near the town of Kinsley.  We got through Dodge and started hauling ass toward it as it started to show a slight hook appendage on radar.  Ryan took care of a quick bathroom emergency and sure enough, a tornado warning went out on it just as we got under it.  We pulled off the highway where we got a good look at the storm and for a few minutes noticed a lowering that might’ve been a wall cloud.

Best cell of the day for us...ouch.

I received a call from the NWS in Dodge and the guy told me that the cell we were looking at had a pretty unorganized broad circulation on it, but that the warning was issued in case the cell tightened up.  After assuring him I would call him back if anything hairy started to happen, we promptly watched the cell fall apart in front of our eyes.  Another cell had ‘absorbed’ into it cutting off all the energy.  It was at this point that we decided that our early target was done and we needed to get E for the big show later in the day.

In all honesty, the rest of the day was kind of boring.  We drove across southern KS toward Wichita via Hutchinson watching the cells down in OK start to get going.  We were never discouraged seeing the tornado reports coming in down there because we still thought we were in great position for tornadoes in KS as well.  Finally one cell that was a little to our SE started to make a right turn and got hooked.  Below is the radar scan where you can see the hook and couplet on the velocity scan.

The race against this cell was on! We lost...

You can also see on this scan that I was to the NW on the diagonal road racing to beat it to Wichita.  We lost this race as we got into the Wichita area and tried desperately to get E out in front of it.  Visibility was horrible and it was probably one of the hairiest drives I’ve made as a chaser.  Even though I knew the tornado was well ahead and south of us, it still is an uneasy feeling driving through the storm with no visibility.  Eventually we did manage to get ahead of this thing E of Wichita near Andover.  We pulled off the highway on an overpass to take a few pictures before the monster ate us up again.

The cell was moving E at us/with us at 65mph!  Also at this point, the tornado warnings on the cell had expired and it turned into a high precip blob of awfulness.  Finally deciding the day was over, we went back into Andover and had dinner.  In the Applebees, Randy Wing came up to our table and told us he was the Wichita NWS Skywarn Coordinator so we all had a beer and rehashed the day’s insanity.  We headed out for the long drive home and on the north side of Wichita came across an unusual amount of fog lining the roads.  Obviously the dryline had stalled out finally in Wichita.  It made for some interesting photographs since it was right at sunset, so we all got out again and snapped a few shots for fun.

We rolled home via 35/70 and arrived back at the Park & Ride at about 3:15AM.  The trip though frustrating at times was still a nice venture out.  And I adamantly believe that we did all we could do to see tornadoes that day.  I suppose we could’ve woken up and left even earlier and just sat in the high risk area with the hundreds of other chasers but ultimately, and I think I can speak for the rest of the guys that were with me, that kind of chasing doesn’t really do it for us.  I don’t learn anything that way.  We were constantly checking real time data the whole day and I find that much more rewarding than just going to an area, sitting there, and asking “when does this shit start?”  And that’s no offense to anyone who does choose to chase that way because that’s entirely their right.  And this day, it paid off for them, so well done.

Anyway, I shot a few minutes of video while we were out but it was nothing spectacular compared to what some others caught, so I’ll just post this as a good wrap up of our day and feelings…Hahaha

I’d like to thank Dann, Jason, and Ryan for being great company as usual!  I know we didn’t score like a lot of others but I am convinced we will get our redemption soon.

Stats for the Day:

Total miles traveled – 1118

Total trip duration – 20 hours

Tornadoes – 0

Album of the Day – Monolake’s ‘Silence LP’ (although I think I might’ve been the only one who heard it since everyone else was asleep)

Funniest Moment of the Day – Ryan trying 5 different pumps for gasoline in Oakley.

2010 Total Mileage – 5398 miles

2010 Total Tornadoes – 4

Popularity: 20% [?]

Well, this day proved to be my most successful day as a chaser so far.  All week, our email discussion group was addressing three areas of interest; Eastern Colorado, Southwestern Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle.  I was firmly in the panhandle crowd and was fully prepared to head down there.  Wednesday night after I got home from work, the models started to show the Colorado target had improved and needed a second look.  Dann Cianca, forecasted a freaking gem on this one and I was glad to have him as my chase partner for the day.  The low level shear, great helicity values, and a present warm front put a lot of ingredients in eastern Colorado that we liked a lot!  He had suggested we play the eastern Colorado target where storms might fire earlier.  Then depending on how that went, we could dart over to Kansas and get storms there that were supposed to fire later in the afternoon.

We met up at the usual Park & Ride at 9AM and headed to our initial staging target of Eads, CO.  We got down there by around noon where we met up with Michael and Eric Carlson, Kendall LaRoche, and Tim Stoecklein.  About 10 minutes later, the SPC issued a mesoscale discussion regarding our area and a tornado watch followed shortly after that.  One cell started getting it’s act together a little to our west and south in Bent county.  With nothing else happening at the time, we decided to intercept.  We headed south out of Haswell toward Ft. Lyon where we encountered to brief and sub severe hail core.  Once we got through that, we noticed a very defined wall cloud that had rotation.  At the time, the storm was only severe warned.  Almost immediately, a funnel started to come down and dust was kicking up below.  Dann called it in to the Pueblo NWS and the tornado warning went out.  Our civic duties fulfilled, the cone went all the way to the ground.  A satellite tornado then revealed itself and danced around the main cone for a few minutes before becoming completely rain wrapped.  Both then dissipated.  The cell appeared to weaken, so we opted to head east to Lamar to refill on gas and assess what our new plan was going to be.  On the way east, we encountered our biggest hail of the day as it flung some 2.5 inchers at us as a parting gift.  My windshield survived but I’ve got some new dents to show off!

We monitored radar in Lamar for about 5 minutes and noticed a cell near Johnson City, KS starting to gain speed.  It had an insane amount of rotation on radar and looked like a good play.  The cell was moving to the northeast slowly, so we figured we could get ahead of it and intercept near Lakin.  We passed through Holly, and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about beating the cell to Lakin.  Dann reassured me and we went for it.  We got into Lakin in plenty of time but for a minute there I felt like Han Solo flying the Millennium Falcon out of an exploding Death Star!  We headed a little west of Lakin to get a better view of the storm where it was difficult to make any defined features out due to the high volume of precip.  Dann noticed the left side of the storm had what looked to be the left side of a massive tornado.  It couldn’t be could it?!  Once we saw the cell was going to pass south of town, we were able to get closer.  So we went back through town and then south to get a closer look.  This cell was massive!  The rotation we witnessed up close was crazy.  We couldn’t see very well but radar had a massive hook (see below), and later a report of a mile wide wedge showed up!  So we weren’t the only ones who saw this.  I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure but there was definitely something in there.

We decided to head further north and east to get out in front of the storm again.  And again, it put down another tornado we witnessed north of the town of Deerfield making that number 4 on the day.  Getting a good view of this storm was difficult as it was very HP and the RFD kept wrapping around the meso making any lurking tornadoes difficult to see.

Our next hairy moment came just south of Scott City.  We had gotten ahead of the cyclic cell again and had pulled off the road to see if it was producing.  We determined there were no tornadoes with it at that time, but the rotation was still very evident.  We got taken over by wrapping curtains of rain and basically ran north through Scott City as quick as we could.  Scott City’s tornado sirens were blaring as we moved through town.  We then headed east out of Scott City and got over taken by the RFD again.  Visibility was near zero but there was no way in hell I was going to pull over to see what was lurking behind.  The RFD damn near blew me off the road but we got through it!

We continued to track the storm north and east and finally called it a day north of Dighton.  We ran into Tony Laubach and the Twistex crew where they had called their chase as well.  Hopefully we didn’t ruin Tim’s interview with the Discovery Channel!  We chatted with Tony and Ed Grubb for a few minutes and then decided it was time to head for home.  We had to avoid a closed highway which caused us to detour back toward Scott City.  Not that big of a deal but a line of severe thunderstorms were in the way.  After the hail core punches I’d done in spades throughout the day, I wasn’t in the mood to do another one.  There was no other option though, and both our appetites were kicking in.  So we punched again just west of the town of Shields.  I had to slow to a 15mph crawl as sheets of rain and hail pounded us again for about 10 straight minutes.  Finally we emerged out of the precip and made our way home via Oakley and I-70.  We caught the Sonic in Colby with 15 minutes left before they closed and enjoyed tots and burgers.  I’m not a huge Sonic fan but that was the best burger I’ve had in awhile!  I was so hungry.

Anyway, that was our day!  Very successful and very rewarding.  I want to thank Dann again for absolutely nailing the forecast and being great company for the day.  I always learn a ton when I chase with him!  Youtube video showing the highlights throughout the day below.  We clocked in with a 781 mile chase putting me over 4,000 for the year so far.

Equipment-wise, everything worked pretty well.  A new mount for my streaming camera is desperately needed.  I have no way to pan the thing which is extremely frustrating.  So that will be my project for the week.  Good news is, my inverter issue is finally solved and it worked like a charm.

Stats For The Day:

States Chased: CO, KS

Trip Mileage/Duration: 782 Miles/16 hours

Tornadoes: The 2 near Las Animas, and the one near Deerfield are 100%.  The wedge near Lakin is a 99% certainty as the report along with damage pictures are on the Dodge City NWS site.  Damage and report of a possible 5th tornado near Scott City where we were sitting on the side of the road was probably there.  I didn’t see any circulation on the ground but the wrapping rain curtains around us lead me to believe there was probably something there.  I’ll cash out with a total of 4 and leave the 5th off the record but there was probably something there.

Song of the Day: I’ll go with ‘Tribulations’ by LCD Soundsystem because I was doing the robot to it while we waited for the pilot car near Eads.

Quote of the Day: “All I’ve had to eat so far is Lucky Charms and that packet of Skittles.  I’m all over the mother fu*kin rainbow today!” – Dann Cianca

Funniest Moment of the Day: Dann pushing me out of a ditch near Dighton, KS while Randy Denzer streamed it to Tornadovideos.net.  Of course my parents were watching Randy’s stream at the time and made a hilarious phone call to us.

The “Ouch!” Award: My Pathfinder finally taking some hail damage east of Lamar.

Total 2010 Chases: 4

Total 2010 Tornadoes: 4

Total 2010 Chase Mileage: 4280

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***All Day of Updates will be on the Real-Time Chase Page!!!***

Wow, this just got a lot more convenient!  Our initial target of the OK/TX panhandle area is still certainly in play tomorrow and should see some supercells, but we’ve determined that while the storms down south may be more picturesque, the tornado threat is just as good if not better here in Colorado.  Winds will definitely be more backed up here and the CAPE values are just as good as the panhandles.  Also, we don’t need soaring 60′s dew points to get severe storms, 50′s will do just fine.  Helicity values are also better here in CO as well.  Add to the fact that both of us can only chase Thursday, and it saves us the marathon drive home and this almost becomes a no-brainer.

So the plan is to head out to the Eads/Lamar area or somewhere around there and wait.  This also gives us the chance to head E to KS if the need arises.  Anyway, that’s the plan for now.

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What a pleasant surprise this day ended up being.  I chased with Dann Cianca, Jason Burns, and Ryan Kushner and we all met up bright and early at 6AM at the good ol’ Park & Ride off I-70, none of us really having a solid target in mind.  I figured we would go to Dodge City, KS and sit there hoping for storms to fire somewhere near where we could race to intercept.  The SPC had most of KS as a 5% risk and after last Monday’s bust in the same area, I did not have a good feeling about the day.  Dann suggested we bail on the KS play and head to Amarillo where we knew storms would go.  Needless to say, it didn’t take much to convince me to bail on KS.  So that was the plan.  We got into Amarillo and grabbed some lunch and looked over the radar again.  It looked like some storms were starting to form on the TX/NM border to the SW of us.  We contemplated heading south and then west to intercept but these cells were losing steam the further east they went so we held off.  A few minutes later we started seeing towers going up just south of town, so off we went.  Below are some pictures from the first cell we intercepted.  It was a sight for sore eyes after last Monday!

This cell kept building in intensity and we eventually intercepted it just north of Tulia.  There were 1.5 inch hail markers on GR3 but we didn’t see much at all.

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ALL ‘DAY OF’ UPDATES WILL BE IN THE REAL-TIME CHASE PAGE!!!

I will be heading out tomorrow to chase and right now a target area is a bit hard to nail down.  Frustratingly the NAM and GFS have both been in the ball park of each other but definitely not in full agreement on some key elements.  There looks to be good patches of instability in SW KS and in W OK but which of those areas is going to be best is still hard to pin down.  Helicity values and lift certainly look better toward the OK target, so that is a factor.  Also a bit stifling to me is that the NAM has been back and forth on capping.  The 18Z run earlier today showed almost no inhibition across the whole target area, but the 0Z run says “whoops, just kidding!”  Anyway, I think we will set a preliminary target of SW KS and micromanage as the day goes along adjusting where necessary.  I’ve got a full car again so hopefully there will be something to see.  As always, the stream will be up if we get something stream worthy.  I will probably add another update once the SPC day 1 comes in just to see if they are picking up on what we are.  Also, I love looking at the experimental models just for kicks and last chase I posted the Davies Sig Tor forecast but for tonight I will go with Rich Thompsons Significant Tornado Parameter (STP) which also points us to OK.

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