June 6th - Fried rice with cashews, tornadoes and a Colorado classic

After dropping a subdued John at Denver airport and checking the models and SPC forcasts, it was very clear I would be targetting the front ranges of Colorado the next day so I headed for Fort Morgan for the night and some Chinese fried rice with cashews.

The morning of the 6th saw me in a 5% tornado risk area before I even got out of bed!  There was a Denver cyclone developing and combined with upslope flow and the potential for storms to fire off both the Palmer Divide and the Cheyenne Range, the day was looking full of promise.

So, as you do when you are already in your target area at 10am, I headed off for fuel, food and a Maccas to pass the time until storm initiation.  After several hours of not seeing any other chasers in town, the convergence began including several doppler on wheels radar units and research teams.

Eventually storms fired to the west nd were moving slowly NNE.  I held back within view and watched radar as others raced north but I was unimpressed by the storm motion and what I was seeing.  I was waiting for a right mover or a cell to break away from the NNE motion and feed on the easterlies being pulled in by the Denver cyclone.

After following the initial cells slowly north I decided that the only sure bet for supercells this day would be to take a punt on cells developing an hour or so south off the Palmer Divide so I turned my attention that way and drove south for an hour.....and what a decision!  As I approached my revised target area and had a slowly south moving storm in view, I was alerted to a tornado warning to my SW near the southern outskirts of Denver and another chaser convergence was underway including the Dominator tornado intercept vehicle and support vehicles.

Soon I was in position to see the solid base features and dynamic nature of this supercell which persistently produced funnels and lowerings on the forward flank as it was really getting ramped up.  I captured a possible brief and distant tornado (perhaps a landspout) in this early stage as the storm structured up, developed a long inflow tail from the east and went nuts on the moist easterly inflow. 

The first view as I head south onto the near stationary supercell with solid RFB and forward flank lowering.  Photo: Brad.

This possible tornado (or landspout) was persistent & one of several early features on the forward flank of this storm.  Photo: Brad.

Not long after I noticed a large wall cloud area organising to my west and a clear slot was evident cutting around it. 

Structure!  The storm was barely moving but had impressive inflow from the SE as a wallcloud forms.  Photo: Brad.

Sure enough, a tall elephant trunk tornado formed right next to the wall cloud (but not from it) and was on the ground for over 5mins. Interestingly, as the tornado roped out and lifted the wall cloud area seemed to grow larger, take on a cone shape and lower toward the ground. To me it appeared to be a large cone tornado and perhaps even a wedge. To further enhance my thoughts on this being another tornado, the entire area finally lifted and what I thought initially was a wall cloud went through a significant rope out and I have never seen a wall cloud rope out before........... interesting.

The storm produced tornadoes, flash flooding and then simply ridiculous amounts of hail as it moved ever so slowly over the next few hours.

A tornado is forming as a clear slot cuts around the dark wall cloud area.  Photo: Brad.

A tall elephant trunk tornado persisted for over 5mins to my west as I was driving south for position. Photo: Brad.

The tornado begins to rope out but is still quite large while the clear slot is cutting further around the adjacent wall cloud.  Photo: Brad.

Spectacular structure as the entire wall cloud area is now roping out which leads to a few questions..... Photo: Brad.

Wow!  Mammatus clouds on the forward flank of the storm were persistent like this for over half an hour!  Photo: Brad.

Large areas of dust/dirt were lifted into the storm base to my west.  In this case a large funnel is curving back into the storm.  Photo: Brad.

I eventually core punched the storm into southern Denver and had fun with the crazy hail drifts for a few hours before chasing a new tornado warned storm through the SW suburbs at midnight! I saw the wallcloud and obvious signs of rotation on this storm lit up by city lights and constant lightning before this storm turned into yet another slow moving hail machine that turned the suburbs into a land of white ice like i've never seen before. At one stage as I core punched the hailer through a technology and business park, I came across rescuers who were pulling other cars out of several metres depth of ice and they told me they had already rescued 7 others. There was nothing I could do to help as the roads around me became rivers so I turned around and called it a night.

Later that night, Denver's SE was smashed by near stationary severe storms and ridiculous hail quantities.  Photo: Brad.

After chasing all day, how about a tornado warned storm in Denver at midnight?!?!  Photo: Brad.

A quick check of data for the next day showed that I wouldnt be going far.  Could Colorado do it two days in a row?  Of course it could!  ........and even better :)

May 29th - Oklahoman Wonder

After a bit of a disappointment in Texas the previous day, we set our sights on Oklahoma where a good environment for supercells appeared to be in the offing. With strong deep layer shear, and moderate to strong instability combined with reasonable dewpoints, tornadoes were a chance and structure would hopefully show itself. We targeted El Reno, OK, and sat in the incredibly oppressive conditions - 100F (38C) with mid 60 degree farenheit dewpoints for some time waiting for the southernmost storm to get its act together. Eventually the storm transitioned from a more multi-cellular appearance into a nice supercell, which we closed in on as it structured up.  Wide angle lenses were the order of the day from here on in!

'The first view' as we approach from the south and then flank the storm to the east to get into prime position.  Photo: Brad.

'Barrel Ahoy' - The structure reveals itself from the murk as the supercell begins to structure over the fields near Loyal, Oklahoma. Photo: Brad.

And what a structure! 3 tiers and exposed to the world with the fields of Oklahoma stretched out below it. One of those simple wow moments that you just love to have when chasing!

'Wedding Cake' - A classic 3-tiered supercell mesocyclone reminiscent of a wedding cake floats like an impossible creation over the plains. Photo: John.

Wow!  Says it all really.  Photo: Brad.

The rotation speed within the storm was insane, almost dizzying with multiple areas of strong rotation and a closely proximal anticyclonic rotation as well. We went in relatively close (at the expense of structure) for the chance at a decent tornado when the wallclouds came down, but unfortunately early on the storm remained relatively high based and only produced a few weak spinups that were confirmed by other chasers as 'tornadoes'.

'The First Attempt' - Strong elevated rotation but not with the wall cloud to match, the first strong attempt at a tornado manages to generate some weak surface circulations. Photo: John. 

'Another Lowering' - The supercell continuously cycled, with RFD cut being followed by yet another strongly rotating wall cloud a number of times. Photo: John

Racing south to keep position, this was the view from the drivers seat! Photo: Brad.

What was far more impressive was the size of the hail being produced by the storm, hailstones were reported to Grapefruit size (5", 12.5 centimetres), with some allegedly up to 6 inches! Fortunately we managed to keep ourselves out of trouble with the gorilla hail core (though 3 inch stones smashing on the road and bouncing over the car were a little close for comfort), and kept good position on the cell for a couple of hours, until it decided to go bananas upon collison with a left moving supercell near Piedmont, on the outskirts of Oklahoma city. The result was an incredibly structured new cell with strong rotation that produced a weak tornado and some pictures that I don't think we will ever forget. 

Tornado! Dust is raised as a dark funnel emerges near Piedmont north of OKC.  Photo: Brad.

'Wrapped In' - The tornadic circulation is quickly wrapped within the monsters precipitation. Photo: John.

'In full flight'. The beast is capable of producing tornadoes and at least grapefruit size hail. Photo: Brad.

'A Monster Unleashed' - With the impetus it now needed to go ballistic the new supercell quickly went HP and wrapped its core circulation while producing a tornado. Note the unusual filtered halo on the right. Photo: John.

'Greenage' - The sinking sun and the giant hail within the storm gave an interesting optical effect in producing the most eery green glow through the clouds. Photo: John.

Chasers become the chased.....by giant hail!  The view behind as we run.  Photo: Brad.

We then proceeded to play with the hail cores on the western edge of Oklahoma city as this cell and numerous others trained over the area. We encountered a few stones above tennis ball size, but unfortunately couldn't catch the grapefruit producer through the metro.

'Decay' - With the excitement of the collision now over the cell quickly ran into an unfavourable environment and fell apart in front of our eyes on sunset. Photo: John.

'A Certain Kind of Light' - The lightning didn't really happen for us on this day, but still offered some interesting photographic opportunities if you knew where to look. Photo: John.

 All in all a fantastic days chasing, and exactly what bring us to the states effectively the 'tail-end charlie' and amazing photo opportunities with a gorgeous storm. Still looking for that amazing tornado though.

May 28th - Texas Dust on New Rubber

The Memorial Day holiday started out with sunny skies in Pratt, Kansas and Brad's unlucky and now annual pilgrimage to Walmart Tire and Lube for a new tyre and a leak repair for another.  Thankfully it was quiet and I was first customer so by late morning we were on the road south through Oklahoma with our target being Vernon, Texas.

Parameters looked reasonable, with CAPE (instability) looking high for the day well into the 3000 J/kg range, with shear 30-40 knots over the 0-6 km range storms looked like going HP but there was the chance for some structure. The tornado potential looked relatively low with surface temperatures approaching 100F and 60F dewpoints meaning the spread was too large.

We intercepted the first storm of the day near Seymour, Texas and watched it form a solid rain free base and throw down some impressive daytime CG strikes, some pulsing enough to be photographed hand held.  The storm looked to be structuring up well but we were expecting it to go HP (high precipitation) and this storm mode can be hit or miss when it comes to being photogenic.

'Texas Supercell' - Red dirt, aqua hail cores and big as HP storms. Welcome to Texas. Photo: John.

A storm is consolidating it's rain free base and producing a CG barrage near Seymour, Tx.  Photo: Brad.

We repositioned south and east to keep in front of the storm as it was going HP and witnessed some awesome blowing red dust which made driving even more hazardous at times.

'Wall of Dust' - Punching into the unknown and through gustnadoes within the inflow and outflow dust  to try and get position on the now HP storm. Photo: John.

Red dust races across our path and at times cut visibility to 5m!  Photo: Brad.

Vorticity certainly was not in short supply as we stopped to enjoy an incredible view into the eye of a local area of rotation almost directly overhead. 

Rapid rotation directly above us was incredible to see.  Photo: Brad.

Several strong storms were now in progress with little seperation so decisions had to be made which one we thought would have the best chance to thrive. We continued to position east and south hoping the storms would answer that question for us as but they were playing games!  Two storms were producing wall clouds simultaneously with us located between them.  The one to our east produced the most convincing funnel of the day, albeit short lived while the original storm stretching from behind us and to our north tried and tried again but never really looked like producing anything more than a few half-baked funnels from several wall clouds.

Two storms were producing wall clouds within our view; this one to our east produced a brief funnel.  Photo: Brad.

A wall cloud to our north looked good, then didnt, then did and produced a brief funnel shortly after this.  Photo: Brad.

We continued to position near Graham, Texas but as daylight faded we positioned for hail and wind as the storms moved across.  

'Dark Squall' - When we positioned for wind and hail the storms weakened and offered little photographic opportunity. Photo: John.

As tends to happen on weakening supercells and after the rain has passed, we were treated to a great but short display of lightning including some crawlers and a rare opportunity to capture 'up lightning'.

'Up lightning' - a rare sight, this bolt was captured near Graham, Tx.  Photo: Brad.

'Twice the Bolt' - Lightning can get a little boring so it was time to get a little creative. Photo: John.

The next day saw us chasing in Oklahoma, hoping for the chance at another tail-end charlie storm in what looked like a nice environment for supercells.