2002 CHASE SEASON

An F-1 tornado hit nearly developing areas east of Denver and myself along with my chase partner, James, ventured out late due to work/school obligations and got on the storm from the north while the tornado was in progress. We came out of the core to see the damage, but missed the tornado.

A frustrating day across eastern Colorado where traffic in Denver held me up too long to make it in time to catch a storm out near Byers. More storms went tornado-warned later up by Greeley, but I again fell short as they weakened shortly before I arrived.

My very first LP literally right over my backyard near Morrison, Colorado. Slushy quarter-sized hail greeted me as I ventured over to near Bear Creek State Park and observed a tightly rotating wall cloud and RFD surge, but fell short of producing a tornado. The storm weakened as it moved off the foothills, eventually dying over Littleton.

Took my younger brother, Andy, out on a chase along the Palmer Divide for some late-night storms that contained some pea-to-marble-sized hail and a ton of very close and vivid lightning strikes.

On my way to a birthday party, I stopped and took a lot of shots between Lakewood and Wheat Ridge along Wadsworth of some amazing lightning from a storm moving east off the foothills. Some light rain followed, but this was primarily a brilliant lightning show captured on my 35mm film AE-1.

This was my first out-of-state chase and was the first of many early-career learning experiences. Today was the day of the deadly Happy, TX tornado which occurred south of my target location. I would later get on a tornatic storm and followed it into Memphis, TX after dark.