June 7th was a tough choice. We agonized between the Platte river valley north of Chugwater or the Palmer Divide. Since we started in Denver, we chose the Palmer Divide. Of course, by mid afternoon a VERY nice tornado and supercell occurred in the northern target, which made us even more ill. Finally towers and eventual storms went up on the Palmer just southwest of Deer Trail. This storm intensified and right turned moving due south. It did produce several tornadoes, most of which were brief or rain wrapped (as seen below!). It also produced softball sized hail and intense lightning.
June 6th Elizabeth, CO Tornadic Supercell
June 6th was an interesting day. I didn’t feel all the ingredients were present to the extend needed for strong supercells. Moisture was a bit marginal with temp/dew point spreads near 25 degrees. By late afternoon, the Palmer Divide lit up. An intense supercell eventually formed northeast of Elizabeth. This storm was nearly anchored in the upslope flow and produced copious amounts of hail to baseball size and nearly a half foot of rain. As it back built to the southwest, just northeast of Elizabeth it produced a substantial cone/elephant trunk tornado that was on the ground for 10 minutes. Fun storm to watch and even better when the tornado stays in open terrain and does not cause much damage.
June 5th Denton, MT Tornadic Supercell
What a day June 5th turned out to be! We were anticipating intense supercells to form and they indeed did. A strongly worded tornado watch was issued for central and northern Montana by mid afternoon, with shear, instability and moisture giving the potential for strong tornadoes. Several storms formed off the higher terrain south Great Falls. As they moved north, cool and stable air banked against the mountains would cause these cells to weaken. Another cluster of storms formed in the Judith Basin area and congealed into one monster supercell. This storm had insane structure and produced about a 12 minute elephant trunk/cone tornado. It produced another tornado northeast of Ft Benson we couldn’t catch up to due to poor road options. We also got pelted with near baseball sized hail in the notch of this beast as it raced northward. Another gorgeous storm!
June 4th Montana Stunning Supercell
June 4th took us to central Montana. Great flow with a shortwave moving into the Pacific Northwest would help set the stage for storm formation. Ample shear, good instability and moisture, and convergence along the mountains southwest of Great Falls would allow storms for form by late afternoon. A tornado watch was issued for the area as storms formed and intensified near Helena. One supercell moved towards Great Falls and became quite photogenic as it moved northeast towards Ft Benson. This storm became tornado warned and also produced baseball sized hail. One of the prettiest supercells of the year!
May 29th Central Oklahoma Tornadic Supercell
May 29th, what else can be said. I have seen so many tornadoes in the past 20 years on this date. It is like the holy grail for tornadoes. This year would be no different either. We sat near Fairview, Ok watching a cluster of towers go up in a great environment. Good shear, good moisture, great instability and the triple point play. What could go wrong? A storm eventually emerged from the cluster of towers and became an intense supercell. We stayed in front of it from Okeene to Kingfisher and all the way to Yukon. The structure steadily got better and it became tornado warned near Kingfisher. Finally, with help from a left moving cell from the south, our storm produced a weak tornado north of the Yukon/Piedmont area. The best thing about this supercell was definitely its structure!
May 25th LaCrosse, Kansas Tornadoes
May 25th had tremendous potential. A warm front lay across central Kansas with a dryline intersecting it southwest of LaCrosse. By late afternoon, a supercell formed and moved along the warm front. It quickly became severe and tornado warned. Although reports of a tornado came in, we were directly under the circulation and only experienced RFD and TONS of dirt being kicked up. The storm moved northeast and became very high based and eventually died. By this time, we saw the tail end storm rapidly intensify and nearly anchor, so we blasted back southwest and arrived as the tail end supercell became intensely tornadic.
The structure was top notch with numerous inflow feeder bands wrapping around the north side of the updraft and a block shaped wall cloud with insane rising motion on the northeast side. I figured it was only a matter time before this storm produced and that was certainly an understatement. Just before dark and tapered cone tornado formed between LaCrosse and Hargrave and moved slowly east/northeast over the next 54 minutes! Frequent lightning constantly illuminated the tornado and allowed for some pretty decent photography. The tornado roped out northeast of LaCrosse where another tornado formed from the new mesocyclone. At one time there were actually 3 tornadoes on the ground, with the 3rd to our south actually going through LaCrosse. Fortunately no serious injuries or fatalities occurred from this tornadic supercell.
May 19th Southern Kansas Tornadofest
May 19th had some decent hopes of structured supercells. SPC highlighted the southern Nebraska area for higher tornado threat, but we chose to play further south along the dryline. Late afternoon, a line of towers rapidly formed and back built south as the boundary drifted southeast. A couple of these storms exhibited supercellular features, but it wouldn’t be until late afternoon that the boundary rapidly built south with each tower stretching the vorticity along the boundary and producing numerous non-supercell tornadoes. What a crazy day! We saw 5 tornadoes, with the final one being a strong EF3.
May 18th Nebraska High Based Supercell
May 18th continued the trend of decent shear and little low level moisture. We started the day in southwest South Dakota and drifted southeast towards central Nebraska. By the end of the day we would have a high based supercell, which was severe warned, that produced copious amounts of CG strikes, many quite photogenic.
May 4th Oklahoma Supercell
After a long break in the action, May 4th provided a high based supercell with decent structure near Walters, OK. This storm produced hail baseball sized and maintained a nice striated appearance for a couple hours before dissipating. I don’t have a lot of shots from it due to a malfunctioning CF card. Here’s the two I was able to grab.
March 29th Rockport, MO Tornado Warned Supercell
March 29th took us on a long drive to northwest Missouri. A warm front would be the focus for supercell storms and by mid afternoon SPC issued a tornado watch box for the area. Three storms developed along the boundary and we followed the southern one as it interacted with it and crossed the river into northwest Missouri. It soon became tornado warned. Structure on the storm was very nice, exhibiting classic supercell features. Another storm (followed by an explosion of storms mid evening) developed south of Tarkio, MO. It produced a couple quick spin ups, but none lasting more than a half minute. A bit later it became more organized and reminded me of the April 9, 2011 Mapleton, IA supercell after dark. It came extremely close to producing a tornado as a nice cone shaped funnel developed, but quickly dissipated as it was undercut by cold outflow from storms further north. All in all a fun chase, even without a tornado.
