April 23rd was a very disappointing day for me. I had two targets, one in southwest Kansas and the other in the Texas panhandle. I chose the wrong one, the Texas panhandle. A nice rotating storm that was tornado warned developed south of Amarillo and moved northeast. What I failed to anaylize was that earlier convection spewed out cold air that was pulled into this storm, thus never allowing it to become as intense as it could have. It stayed in the LP state for its entire life, while two other storms in western Kansas became tornadic. Just goes to show you that you win some and you lose some!
September 6th, 2007 South Central Nebraska Supercell
Good shear, great moisture and instability, and a boundary would set the stage for severe storms in Nebraska September 6th. I headed out to my target of Lexington, NE and arrived by mid afternoon. Cells tried and tried to form, each time getting choked by the cap. Finally early evening, several supercells formed. The storm shown above was tornado warned and at times ther appeared to be funnels back in the notch of this HP. One time a cone shaped funnel extended halfway to the ground, but I could not confirm any tornadic touchdown. We did encounter hail golfball size with this activity.
August 23rd, 2007 Colorado Supercells
August 23rd featured decent shear with upslope surface winds in Colorado and 35 knots mid level flow. My plan was to play the Palmer Divide and then follow storms as the built southeast. Morning stratus hindered surface heating. Cells developed in a cool surface environment where intense shear was coupled with good moisture but limited instability. Two supercells formed that I chased, both producing large hail. The first supercell was also tornado warned.
August 22nd, 2007 Wyoming Supercells
August 22nd was a day that showed promise. Two plays existed. You could either play the upslope where better shear was present in southeast Wyoming, or you played the front where better instability and moisture existed. I chose the upslope being much closer to home. By early afternoon, I headed out to play cells that were developing in the upslope regime along the Laramie Range. The first cell was a classic supercell, with rotation and golf ball size hail. Low level shear just wasn’t strong enough to produce a tornado. Late afternoon, another cell emerged out of a line and developed pretty structure. It was also severe with golf ball size hail. Scariest thing occurred as I was southwest of Kimball, out of my van and filming the second storm. While taking still photos a bolt of lightning hit a telephone pole about 500 feet away from me and literally jolted me. One of the closest experiences I have had!
August 14th, 2007 Southwest Nebraska Supercells
August 14th was a day that I was hoping would provide for a great nighttime lightning opportunity. A short wave was timed so that intense thunderstorm development would occur during the early evening. I was not disappointed. Great moisture and instability would couple with lift along a stationary boundary to provide intense supercell thunderstorms. The storm pictured here produced golfball sized hail, 75 MPH winds and two funnel clouds that I saw.
July 11th and 12th, 2007 Colorado Supercells
July 11th and 12th provided Colorado some much needed moisture, but also some very large hail. Many areas in northeast Colorado experienced crop devastation due to copious amounts of golfball and larger sized hail during this time period. Moderate northwest flow aloft, with upslope southeasterly surface winds would create decent wind shear, while moderate instability would develop. On July 11, storms formed along a convergence boundary over east central Colorado and became severe, taking on relatively high based supercell features. I caught one such beast just north of Limon that produced 1.5″ diameter hail. On July 12th, I wasn’t going to chase, but storms forming along a boundary over southeast Wyoming, and dropping into northeast Colorado, would give me a great reason to chase. I encountered hail to golfball sized north of Ft Collins along I-25 as the storm was rotating quite nicely, even in the lowest levels. Despite a tornado warning for that area, no tornado was confirmed. Although it certainly tried!
July 3rd, 2007 Kit Carson County, Colorado Tornadofest
Started the day contemplating a chase, but didn’t know for sure if I would. By late morning, strong and rock hard towers were developing south of my house . Just finishing our tours, I was tired, and was headed into town to take care of some mailings. But, seeing the convection south of me, I couldn’t resist. I blasted down I-70 headed for Limon around noon. Shortly after I got on 70, NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for the area southwest of Limon, CO in northeast El Paso county. Radar was pretty clear to see the boundary with various areas of interest along it. However before I even arrived in Limon, the developing cells dissipated.
I decided to go to the Post Office and mail my packages while I was there, and when I came out around 1:30 PM MDT I noticed a rather large area of towering cumulus off to my northeast, northwest of Flagler. More rapidly growing cumulus were developing along the boundary, which was as clear as day. What bothered me was my 91/44 ob at Limon, but noticed much better moisture farther northeast. So, off I went! I headed east bound of I-70 and watched as the towers developed into two young thunderstorms.
About 10 miles west of Flager, and about 5 miles north of I-70, a small tornado developed. This tornado quickly became visible to cloud base with a fairly transparent tube of dirt. It lasted only 4 minutes from 3:14 -3:18 PM MDT. The young thunderstorm farthest west developed a flared base, cork screwed updraft and even a clear slot, so I pushed east to get on it. At 3:21 PM, another debris cloud formed and by 3: 26 PM was completely to could base where a small funnel appeared. By 3:29 PM, the tornado had a rather large pear shaped debris cloud and was simply gorgeous to watch. At 3:31, the next tornado formed just west of it under a new tower. It persisted for 4 minutes before dissipating. Meanwhile the original tornado was continuing to strengthen. At 3:34 PM, a long slender grey funnel appeared just east of the clear slot and at 3:36 PM it touched down. At 3:38 PM two tornadoes criss crossed each other and made for a wild photo op!!! At 3:41 pm the one tornado lifted, while the supercell tornado continued. At 3:45 another tornado formed west of the supercell tornado, and another tornado formed southeast. Quite a wild shot with 3 on the ground at the same time! The farthest west tornado diminished and lifted at 3:49, while the supercell tornado persisted until 3:51. The farther east tornado lifted at 3:53.
Now is when the real fun begins! At 3:57 PM, I was near the junction of Kit Carson County Roads AA and 13, northwest of Siebert. A debris swirl formed about 100 yards to my north. Thinking it wasn’t much of anything, I pulled over and got out of my van to watch. As I turned around, a coal black debris swirl formed about 300 yards to my south! I grabbed my cameras and them up. By 4:03 PM, the southern tornado became VERY strong with debris to cloud base and was the most photogenic nonsupercell tornado I have ever photographed! At 4:07 I turned around to grab another lens and saw a HUGE tornado just to my north. I couldn’t believe my eyes! This was only about 200 yards away. It had a 300 yard debris cloud with a fat grey funnel directly overhead and extended from a very pronounced clear slot on the east side of a beautiful circular updraft! The wind speeds at the surface were QUITE strong around it as you could see multiple vortices rotating in it and inflow jets streaming into it. Gorgeous site! Meanwhile at 4:13 PM the tornado to my south diminished and lifted. I decided to head north on CR 13 and see how close I could get safely to the large tornado. I came within literally 50 yards of the debris cloud and stopped, filming every precious moment. The noise was horrendous!!!!!!! I saw pieces of tin flying around the base, along with fence posts and barbed wire. Soon, a telephone pole snapped off. I could see what looked like a couple dead animals in the field it had just crossed. This tornado moved northeast, then north and finally northwest, just missing the county sheriff’s farmhouse, while his horses totally panicked trying to escape. At 4:22 PM, it dissipated, while yet another tornado formed to its west under a new tower. This fairly thin and snaking tornado lasted from 4:29 – 4:34 before giving in to developing cores.
As I headed south on 59 to Seibert hail to quarter size starting falling on me.
What a crazy day!
June 28th/29th, 2007 Montana and Alberta Supercells
June 28 and 29 took us to the far northlands of Montana and southern Alberta. June 28th’s storms developed near Glacier National Park and moved north near Conrad, MT. These storms were quite electrified and produced nickel sized hail.
On June 29th, we decided to head across the border to Canada and play supercells developing off the higher terrain west of Milk River and move northeast. We intercepted the prettiest supercell I have ever witnessed in Canada! It pummeled the border crossing with golfball to tennis ball sized hail and damaged many vehicles.
June 13th, 2007 Ashland, Kansas Tornadic Supercell
June 13th ended up being a better chase day than I thought it would be. We started in Valentine, Nebraska after our South Dakota chase the day before and had to blast south quickly to get into position for this day. A boundary, decent shear, decent moisture and instability would set the stage for what we thought would be landspouts this day. Instead, we got a northwest moving supercell that produced baseball sized hail and a brief tornado near Ashland, Kansas.
June 12th, 2007 South Dakota Supercells
June 12th was the worst of nightmares weatherwise. Great shear was all the was present this day, as too many overnight thunderstorms would not allow much instability to form. Storms formed along a boundary, with no cap, and became outflow dominated quickly. Too many storms would form from Nebraska, northward through North Dakota. Despite several tornado watch boxes, no decent tornadoes developed this day. The images here were taken within 50 miles of Murdo, SD.
