A massive amount of chasers were in the caravan in Southeast Colorado on yet another fun Memorial Day. We embarked from Trinidad and chased storms off the foothills along the chaser favorite Highway 160 between Trinidad and Springfield in Colorado. We had several funnels attempt to make it to the ground, but it wasn’t til close to dark when one of those funnels finally made it to the ground in front of a large audience of storm chasers. After saying my goodbyes, I had several close encounters with hail and even had to be pulled from a mud hole in the midst of one of those hail storms. I finally made it home to Lakewood shortly after 2am where I officially concluded Mayathon 2005.

A fine way to close out my Mayathon 2005; a tornado in my resident state! Took a while and some persistance, but we were finally able to score the beast! It was brief, but couldn’t have been more rewarding!

The day started off with car repairs with Amos Magliocco and Dave; Amos repairing a flat and Dave swapping out an oxygen sensor. Fortunately Trinidad was open on Memorial Day and both were able to take car of their respective car troubles. We then hung in Trinidad with friends til the first storms weaned us from Trinidad.

The second storm gave us a gorgeous wall cloud which teased us before it, too, went into the ass closet.

In route to the third storm coming up from Raton, New Mexico, we hear that Amos clobbered a deer back on the highway. He was behind us by a ways, so when we pulled off to observe the storm, we awaited Amos and his vehicle to limp in. Fortunately, Amos was uninjured and was still able to smile admist the ordeal. After some observation and a bit of cutting with some kiddie pink scissors, he was able to resume the chase.

Verne and I bailed on the Raton storm shortly after it gave us a semi-persistant funnel. We hauled eastward to developing storms in Las Animas and Baca counties. We stopped south of Pritchett, Colorado on Highway 160 and awaited the southern storms to pass over us. The rest of the crew joined us and danced around some Bob’s roads between 160 and the CO/NM border and ended up returning to 160 after the storm moved its way across the road. Verne and I pushed a bit west and briefly got cored by some decent sized before we stopped to watch INCREDIBLE storm motions; fastest I have ever seen!

As dark was falling, so did the clouds! Our tornado FINALLY touched down to the delight of all the chasers in the area. It was a brief sight, but a beautiful one!

We pushed to the next meso before I elected to sign off… I listened to many chasers congratulate me on today and wish me well as I was heading out. That was pretty cool! Thanks guys! However, my night didn’t end there. I got cored again on Highway 160 heading back to the west when I stopped to film the hail. As I went to turn around, I misjudged the shoulder and got my front wheels stuck in the mud less than 12 inches from the damn road! I rode out parts of the storm as my car was trying to slide into the very deep ditch. With no cell service, I was reduced to calling 9-1-1 for help. As I was on the phone with the dispatcher, several very large hailstones (close to baseball) pounded my car. The dispatcher asked what the noise was (the loud bangs); I then kindly asked her to rely my hail report to the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

Unfortunately, my cell phone died while on the phone with her, but I was quickly relieved to see an Ace Towtruck stopping behind me. I jumped out in the pouring rain and hail and asked the guy for a pull. He wasted no time jumping out into the rain and hail to tie a rope to my car and yank me the 12 inches to get my on solid ground. As quick as he stopped, I thanked him and we both went our separate ways.

Then as I headed north on CO-109 towards La Junta, I was thinking I was going to score some great lightning shots; it was more hail; quarters slammed my car and the road again as I stopped to film at the Bent County line. The storm was quick to move on, and I was finally left to a peaceful trip home where I walked in the door to a happy girlfriend and my own bed!

Many thanks to tons of people in the caravan today! Too man to mention, but I would imagine most will post their report. Jeff, Kersten, Chris Collura, Amos Magliocco, Verne Carlson, Jason, Scott Blair, Kurt, Dan, Bill, Mark, Steve, and Dan just to name a few. It was quite the gathering! Really a fun day!

The April drought ended in style today on what turned out to be one of the most fun chases I’ve had to date. Ironcially enough, this day ended exactly where it started, and not on purpose either. After getting out of work at 11:30pm Saturday night, I picked up my friend, Kyle, and we outran the incoming blizzard to get into Kansas. Our initial goal was to make Goodland, Kansas and sleep for a few hours before heading into Hays to meet with other Colorado-based storm chasers. When pumping gas in Goodland, the cold wind gave me MY second wind, and we drove straight through to Hays where we woke up Verne at 6:30am CDT and napped on the floor for 2 and a half hours (yes, I ran this day on 150 minutes of sleep). We left from Hays shortly after 11a and headed into Dodge City where we were aiming for the low. After busting the Tuesday before, we wanted to make sure we stuck to the low. That didn’t happen; we bailed after watching 3 cells go up and die, so we shot north along a series of dirt roads where the fun began. We intercepted our first storm in Trego County and watched 3 tornadoes drop from that cell, including a WATERSPOUT in Kansas! After getting separated from the Colorado gang, Kyle and I flew east on I-70, punching a storm to find a 4th tornado on the other side. We nabbed a 5th tornado north of Russell before calling it a day from Waldo. And incredible day and a top 5 chase!

Filling up with gas in Dodge City, Kansas

Jet Streaks from outside Dodge City, Kansas

Sitting beneath sheared apart towers in South-Central Kansas with Mike Umschied and Fritz Kruse.

Tom Dulong posing for the camera with his camera.

The Storm Tracer back in action as the Colorado-based gang mourns over another dying tower.

We opted to abandon our southern target after watching three towers go up and get sheared apart. We fled north following Mike before shooting west and back to the north.

Firing north towards the better building storms. The left pic is the storm, the right is the radar of the storms we chased.

The first tornado of the way was actually a waterspout. Yes, a waterspount in Kansas! The highlighted area shows the funnel in the sky and the circulation on the water’s surface. Taken as we crossed the bridge over Cedar Bluff Reservoir where the tornado touched down.

The tornado lifted as it made landfall, but the funnel remained. It passed directly over the highway and directly over the car. This was shot looking straight up through the windshield.

A funnel cloud teases us north of the reservoir but lifts into the clouds.

A chaser convergence with

target=_new>Melanie Metz, Doug Kiesling (who’s so stressed storm chasing, he lost ALL his hair *LOL*), and our gang from Colorado. Lovely parking jobs, eh!

The day’s biggest tornado touching down in a field east of K-147 north of the reservoir. This was a beauty!

I met up with Amos Magliocco after passing him on the bridge and he cameos in my vids and pics!

We picked up a third, rope tornado a few miles up the Highway as we approached I-70 in WaKenney. That tornado was on the ground for less than a minute.

Punching the core of storms near Russell on I-70 and I have my closest encounter with a rainbow.

This one is touching the ground right in front of the car!

When we punched the storm, I was on the phone with Scott Roberts from

href=”http://www.kwch.com” target=_new>KWCH 12 CBS News in Wichita as he was informing us this storm had a report of a wedge on the ground. Initially, I didn’t even see anything that looked tornatic. I was informing Scott that there was in fact NO tornado. As we climbed the ramp, Kyle pointed out the tornado, our forth. I thought he was full of crap. All of a sudden, I find myself immediately retracting my earlier report. “Holy shit, Scott! There actually IS a tornado on the ground!” Scott set me up with a live phone report; 1 of 3 live reports I did via cell phone during the course of the afternoon’s events.

A couple of scenic shots as we returned to Russell on southbound Hwy 281. Low on gas and the sun setting, we elected to return to the interstate where we remet with our Colorado gang and celebrated our incredible day!

Special Thanks to Scott Robers of KWCH 12 in Wichita for his nowcasting assistance and help with getting me live on the air with phone reports, one of which was given as a tornado was on the ground. Also, thanks to Scott for getting my video on air!

Special thanks to Verne Carlson for allowing me use of Baron WX in my vehicle. Baron was reponsible for getting Kyle and I the 4th and 5th tornadoes in Russell County.

The Colorado Blizzard Evacuation Club

Verne Carlson, Jon Merage, Tom Dulong, Kyle Kluge, Chris Rozoff, and several students from CSU! All of which are still sitting in Kansas Monday morning hoping I-70 reopens this afternoon and allows us to return home where Denver will be digging out of as much as 20 inches of snow. Every school in town was closed.. except Auraria Campus.. BOOOOO on them! Hehehehe!

Also, it was great to see all my chaser friends in the field. Amos Magliocco (you see me wearing my jersey, you know we’re gonna score), Doug Kiesling, Melanie Metz, Mike Umscheid, Frtiz Kruse, and several others whom I passed but didn’t get a chance to chat with. Glad to hear everyone who played Northern Kansas scored well! And as you can see in the SPC reports below, it was the ONLY tornado action in the country

Video stills from KMGH Denver and KWCH Wichita