This was a chase that was targetted for Kansas, but high winds created a dust storm near Stratton, Colorado that closed I-70 and prevented me from making my Kansas target. Fortunately the storms in KS never materialized, so I went home with a better show in the dust than other chasers in Kansas.
Wrapping up the lightning venture back home in Colorado on some marginally strong storms east of Colorado Springs. The storms did little to make up for the last few days of frustration, but fortunately found us back home in Denver by night’s end.
Another lightning day down the drain as we chased storms along US Highway 60 from Phoenix, AZ into Socorro, NM. I did muster a few shots east of the Very Large Array before wrapping up operations for the night.
Had I chased this day on my own, I would’ve driven the extra 60 miles west just to say I chased in southern California. But we stopped off I-10 about 60 miles east of the border to attempt to shoot lightning on a beautifully backlit storm. Unfortunately, the good lightning never materialized.
A travel day brought a couple storms in northeastern Arizona where we attempted to shoot some lightning. The storms never lasted long enough to get any shots.
Ed Grubb and I chased a series of hailstorms across eastern Colorado along US Highway 36 and I-70 between Bennett and Byers. At one point in the late evening, the temperature dropped to 37 degrees cause of all the accumulated hail.
Another incredible night of lightning across eastern Colorado as we got on some storms near Deer Trail. This night got even more interesting when a rare nighttime severe thunderstorm watch went up until 6am the following morning.
I chased some storms out of northern Denver and into and around the Windsor area. Hail and heavy rains accompanied these storms as they drifted northeast across northern Colorado between Loveland and Windsor.
Storms moving off the front range late in the evening produced some amazing lightning along US Highway 36 near Last Chance. Ended up getting home about 2am after a terrific night of shooting.
Ed Grubb and I drove 200 miles in a circle from Denver to Colorado Springs only to get on a storm 5 minutes from our house in Broomfield. We documented some 1-inch hail and heavy rains just after dark.
Chased some storms across extreme southeast Colorado and southwest Kansas and observed some nasty winds and very heavy rains. Also nabbed myself a stop-sign violation in Boise City, Oklahoma that capped off the trip!
Ed Grubb, his daughter Jennifer, and myself ventured out to eastern Colorado and got on a tornado-warned storm just north of Limon. We didn’t see a tornado, but observed high winds kicking up a lot of dust, as well as some small hail and heavy rains.
A very rare nighttime storm rocks the western suburbs of Denver with large hail, destructive winds, flooding rains, and several weak tornadoes. Extensive damage occurred in Wheat Ridge from a weak tornado and straight line winds. I documented this event from 10:00p the night of straight through until 8:00am the following morning.
A huge series of hail storms ripped across eastern Colorado and dumped hail up to 3-inches in diameter around and south of Burlington. I pulled on-scene of several vehicles that were heavily damaged by the hail, one of which occupied a woman and her baby that were treated on-scene for minor injuries.
Storms rolled across the metro area and dumped a quick couple inches of rain and flooded out several roads across the northern metro area. Several side streets were closed until the water drained later in the evening.
A local chase resulted in a marginal severe storm that dumped a ton of rain and hail! The main show was after the fact when I stumbled across a man who drove his truck off the side of a parking lot into a flooded area in an apartment complex.
A huge lightning storm late in the evening produced a ton of shots! I shot on this storm for nearly two hours and went through about 200 shots, many of which scored at least one strike!
The biggest tornado day of the season rolled out a grip load of tornadoes on a single supercell along I-80 in south-central Nebraska. Prior to the big show, a couple beautifully structured storms were intercepted in southeast Nebraska.
Kudos to Tim and Carl for digging up this little nugget when we were simply going to park ourselves in Kearney to position for the next day. Low and behold, we pulled an HP wedge and satellite and were the first research team to document the birth of an HP tornado.
Another wrong target day as we danced around with storms in northwest Kansas and missed tornadoes in southern Nebraska and near Elbert, Colorado. Our storms produced a few nice clouds and some small hail.
A huge hail day that was initially targetted in northern New Mexico ended up in southern Colorado along Hwy 160. We witnessed a landspout south of Pritchett before getting mauled by a storm producing up to 2-inches in diameter and half a foot deep.
A beautiful supercell rolled across the plains of southeast Colorado, forming in the foothills west of Pueblo and moving out to near Lamar. Amazing structure as it passed over John Martin Reservoir, then dumped baseball hail on Hwy 287 south of Lamar.
After leaving Oklahoma for southern Missouri, we turned ourselves around and drove to southwestern Kansas where we were one of the only ones to witness an HP embedded tornado.
Another frustrating day in the eastern parts of tornado alley as marginally severe storms lured us from another big high plains day. We wrapped up the day in northern Oklahoma.
A frustrating day across western Missouri as we missed out not only a tornado-less storm, but the HUGE hail it left behind. Meanwhile, Denver saw several tornadoes while we struck out in Missouri.
A photographer’s dream chase set in the gorgeous high plains of eastern Wyoming as a long-lived supercell dropped a tornado that lasted 30 minutes across the lush green landscape. With Vortex2 along with TWISTEX on this storm, it became the most studied single tornado in history.
A casual low-key chase with my good friend, Kim Insana across eastern Colorado on a very photogenic storm. We encountered some marginally severe hail and a couple rainbows.
Severe storms rolled across northern Kansas and southern Nebraska and dumped very heavy rains and did some urban flooding across a few towns in northern Kansas.
Chased some marginally severe storms from eastern Nebraska into western Iowa. Witnessed some beautiful cloud structure, some small hail, rainbows, and a lot of rain. Shot some lightning after dark in Iowa.
For a while, it looked like this was going to be the Commerce City tornado, but what was a beautifully rotating supercell turned to a linear mode of storms. It was a fun day given the surprise structure of this incredible storm.
Another day under the death ridge where more upslop storms formed along the front range and actually produced a long-lived funnel just south of DIA that was witnessed by myself and Dann Cianca.
Went out to document some urban flooding for my local news station and stumbled across a brief, weak landspout along I-76. Unfortunately was unable to capture any imagery on it, but it would be confirmed by other chasers in the area.
A very grungy chase across southeast Kansas that yielded very little in the way of good storms. A squall line went up almost immediately and killed off any real hope of getting a good storm out of the day.
This chase started within minutes of me walking out of my very last undergraduate final and thus was my first chase as a Meteorologist! This chase would be one of the featured chases in “Storm Chasers” on the Discovery Channel!
A chase that wasn’t! We ventured down to Lamar the night before to setup for what we were hoping would be a good day down south. Unfortunately equipment issues and the high potential for a bust had us turn around and return home before the chase even started.
This chase was a success due to a persistant outflow boundary near Plainview which gave way to a cyclic tornado-producing supercell! The muddy adventures, blown transmission, and a very sick partner made this a very storied chase.
The first tornadoes of the year came on this high-risk day in western Oklahoma. There is some debate whether this day deserved a high risk outlook, but regardless, it paid off as we bagged a pair of tornadoes near Roll.
Large hail and several tornado-warned storms greeted me with my first time out with Twistex and the Discovery Channel here in Western Oklahoma. Storms were close on several occasions to producing tornadoes, but none managed to make our view finders.
Char Moon and Kim Insana accompanied me on this chase where I really don’t think we saw a real storm. We ventured down through eastern Colorado to Lamar and eventually took an odd-ball route back into Colorado Springs before returning home to Denver.
Myself and Ed Grubb chased a few marginally severe storms across eastern and southeast Colorado and documented some less-than-marginally severe hail, a few lightning strikes, and several poop-inducing claps of thunder.
Eight Colorado-based chasers in two vehicles ventured out into southeast Kansas to chase a series of severe storms. Unfortunately this was more of a busted chase as the grungy storms did nothing more than blow us round a bit.
This was slated as a gentlemen’s chase where myself along with Dann Cianca, Travis Speakman, and Ed Grubb ventured out onto the plains on a very low probability day and ended up pulling a beautiful tornado-warned LP near the town of Akron.
Bailing on the rest of the National Severe Weather Workshop in Norman, Oklahoma, myself along with Tyler Constantini and Jordan Hamilton ventured into southern Kansas to intercept a handful of moderately severe storms.
Dann Cianca, Michael Carlson, and myself ventured out on a very early season chase across New Mexico and were rewarded well for our efforts with a nice series of storms that brought hail, some minor flooding, and lightning.
