Our original target was Limon, Colorado, which we thought was a nice middle ground in case we needed to drop south or fly north. We left Denver as convection was beginning to occur. We figured that any storms that formed that early (around 1 pm) would go up and die, allowing the real show to be later on. We knew it would be a mid-afternoon event, and didn't realize how early the storms would actually go up. As we were driving away from Denver, we noticed just in front of us a large cumulus tower going up. It didn't look great, and as we got under it it gave us a little rain and nothing more. We continued on past the "storm", still assuming it was just gonna die. We could not have been more incorrect. About 10 minutes after leaving the storm, we noticed on radar that it had acquired a hail signature, which with every subsequent scan strengthened. We got about a half hour away from the storm when we noticed it was beginning on radar to take on the presentation of a supercell. Still figuring it was gonna die, we continued on. We briefly considered turning around, but decided against it. What a mistake.
Just as the storm really fell out of our immediate range, the forest tornado warning was issued. Five minutes later, we found out that right over Denver International airport...roughly 17 seconds from where we began the day...we got confirmation of a tornado. Ugh.
We get to Limon and stop at a Flying J. The very same Flying J it felt like we spent 10 days at last year on tour. Off in the distance we notice the storm is just looking fantastic. We couldn't just sit around anymore...had to go after it.
We flew up highway 71 from Limon to I-76 to Ft. Morgan, Colorado. Off in the distance we watched in horror as the storm put down either a very low wall cloud or a huge tornado. We're really not sure. In either case we FINALLY got on the storm and it was VERY high based. Way too high to put down a tornado, although not for lack of trying. It cycled and cycled for no less than 6-7 hours, rapping up then becoming more disorganized, over and over and over. Finally we kind of realized that this storm was not ever gonna put one down, however the structure of this supercell was SPECTACULAR. Easily the best I've ever seen. It was a beautifully striated stack of plates (at one point I counted 7 or more "plates"), complete with multiple inflow jets, and the occasional wall cloud. It spat out all kinds of lightning, intra-cloud to cloud to ground, and there was a report of tennis ball and larger hail. We also heard that in some places there was so much hail on the ground it was being shoveled like snow. Not at all surprising considering this storm was moving only 10 miles per hour. The hail core itself was so dense you couldn't see through it. Just incredible.
(an amazing link to some images of today's hail storm:
http://www.tornadoeskick.com/2010/05/3707)
We finally blew the storm off after being on it for so long, having only seen it move about 40 miles. As we drove away we observed a gorgeous corkscrewing updraft and liberty bell type mesocyclone.
On the way back to Denver, where we are staying once again tonight, we were treated to more storms which also produced just brilliant lightning, some of which was incredibly close to the car.
As a small aside, this storm was literally in the EXACT same place as some storms we saw last year, which was kind of cool.
AAAAAAAnyway.....
After about an hour drive back we are now in the comfort inn and suites in Westminster, Colorado. Beautiful room for an even more beautiful price. So if you're ever in need of a nice economy room in beautiful Westminster, you know where to go. Tell 'em Alex sent you. Brandon at the desk will take care of the rest.
Tomorrow looks meh. ND and MT look alright but its a long and expensive way to go for a fairly marginal set up. Gonna see if we can eek out a storm in maybe the Nebraska panhandle.
Now for a couple of photos, again, courtesy of Adam Penney.
Notice the "stacked plates"
more plates
VERY dense hail and rain core
Mostly hail, some rain. The whiter appearance indicates the presence of significant amounts of hail. This was probably fairly large hail. We didn't want any part of that core.
Finally...added two more pizza huts to the count today, bringing the total for two official chase days to nine.
EDITED TO ADD: I don't feel quite so bad about missing the "tornado". Just saw pictures and it wasn't much of anything. In fact, the only way the initially reporting chaser "knew" it was a tornado was because debris...plastic bags...was falling in its wake. Weak.
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