A rare treat unfolded shortly after midnight on Thursday when a line of autumn storms moved off the high country and moved swiftly across the metro area with some small hail, lightning, rain, and wind. While the lightning was intense, its lack of consistency mixed with the rain and wind prevented much imagery of this rare event.
Another gentlemen’s chase with Ed Grubb, Dann Cianca, and Jon Skinner as we ventured up into Nebraska on what was a promising day that didn’t evolve into such. While the chase featured some okay storms and a brilliant show of the full moon, the biggest take-away of this venture was it putting me over 179,000 miles for my chasing career.
Headed out with Dann Cianca and Ed Grubb for a nice September chase into the Nebraska Panhandle and nabbed a storm within 20 miles of our Scottsbluff target that produced some severe-criteria hail and amazing structure during the “golden hour”. Prior to the storm, we encountered a small brush fire along I-25 we called in and documented.
It was eight years in the making, but I finally destroyed the Colorado curse that has plagued me for years! After many Colorado misses, I finally nabbed some beautiful Colorado tornadoes and the footage of my career to top it all off! It was a perfect Colorado day shared by many Colorado chasers and one that’ll top off a very busy 2010 season!
A daytime bust gave way to a nighttime severe-warned storm with some nickel-sized hail and some terrific lightning. A cap held storms at bay til after sunset when one finally broke through and rolled east-southeast from Erie to Brighton to the eastern plains.
I documented several pop-corn storms across the metro area that dumped over an inch of rain in less than an hour and spat out some pea-to-marble sized hail. I gave some consideration to shooting northeast to chase the storms near Brush, but opted not to. The chase put me over 30,000 miles for the season.
Storms were still a bit too wet for good lightning, but I managed to capture a few decent shots near Cuyamungue, north of Santa Fe. Shot for about an hour and change as these storms drifted north and eventually weakened after passing overhead.
The first day of a monsoonal trip down to New Mexico where lightning was the main goal. Leaving early afternoon from Denver, I intercepted a few slow moving storms that dumped enough rain to spill into some streets in Las Vegas, NM. The nighttime lightning was hindered by heavy rains late.
A gentlemen’s chase with Dann Cianca resulted in the intercept of several marginally severe storms with the big show being the torrential rain-producing tornado-warned storm on the east side of Colorado Springs. We documented a lot of urban flooding across the east/south sides of town.
Heavy rains create flooding issues across metro Denver. Storms were slow moving and dumped about 3/4 inch of rain in less than 30 minutes creating flooding issues across the northern suburbs of Denver. This video was shot near 80th and Sheridan in Arvada at the tail-end of rush hour.
I intercepted a pair of tornado-warned storms southeast of Denver, both prolific hail producers. Hail up to 8-inches deep fell in Kiowa while baseball-sized hailstones battered cars along CO-86 and took out several windshields, including my own.
I targeted southeast Wyoming to stick with the trends of the last several days, but ended up racing back to Colorado after a severe storm blew up literally over my apartment and moved east where I eventually intercepted the storm near Prospect Valley.
A terrific hail day that could’ve been a good tornado day had we positioned ourselves a bit better. None-the-less, the tornado-producing Wyoming storm also produced some gorilla hail that hit the 4-inch mark!
On a ferry day back to Colorado from Nebraska, I ventured east of Denver in hopes a few of the growing towers would break the cap. Unfortunately the cap held and storms struggled to get going.
Day 2 of a frustration double-header thanks to a flat tire leaving us 20 minutes late in leaving and us missing the show by even less than that. We caught one tornado on our way into Wadena where we stopped to assist after a very large tornado tore the town apart.
This day will rank up there in terms of most frustrating day of the season, but the story surrounding this chase and how it evolved in the evening may keep it from the top of that list. An amazing storm exploded in an area that a few people were lucky enough to be in and tornadoed its brains out. We came late to the show and have a crazy story to tell.
Chased what started as some POS storms that eventually pulled in some help from a nearby outflow boundary and gave birth to quite the tornado near Elmwood, Oklahoma and a second quickie near Slapout.
A tornado from 10-plus miles away, insane amounts of HUGE hail, and amazing lightning after dark… yeah, just a terrific chase for all forms of severe weather, but the hail earns the prize for today as hail over 4.00″ in diameter was collected and measured near Sunray, Texas.
While not complete redemption, Colorado offered us some birdfart tornadoes northeast of Limon. In total, we bagged three along and just north of I-70. The storm was picturesque through most of its lifecycle and probably did more for us than the brief tornadoes.
A total pooch-screw day that resulted in us missing a classic Colorado supercell and picture-worthy tornadoes. An in-between target of Julesburg put us too far from the action that formed along the Front Range and ultimately put us out of position for the intercept. We arrived after the storm finished its tornadoes.
This was an overall fun severe weather day that featured some decent storms that we intercepted in Wyoming and followed into Nebraska where they did some minor flooding in Scottsbluff. We found an awesome hotel where we again took another round of 1.25″ hail after dark.
A fun all-around severe weather day that started with some huge hail north of Torrington, WY. Also bagged a very strong storm from the north side of Scottsbluff that blew in with very powerful winds and some large hail. We missed a few spin-ups on the southeast side of town as the storm moved through.
Had some fun in northeast Colorado with Dann Cianca and Ed Grubb roaming around the plains looking for bad storms. Picked up a few small hail cores, including a quickie golfball storm just north of Ft. Morgan after dark. Beyond that, a pretty relaxing, quiet evening.
After busting during the day, some weak storms formed over Denver and lit up the skies with quite a light show. After over an hour of shooting with only a few decent shots, I nabbed a career photo that was perfect straight off the camera!
Back-to-back bust trips, this time in western Nebraska where a few storms fired, but were sub-severe and very linear. Broke off the chase early in the evening to return ourselves back home to Denver.
We drove 800 miles to overnight in a town 400 miles away. Fixed a busted tire and had lunch in Montana, circled into North Dakota, then down to Spearfish on a clear sky bust.
Severe storms exploded in northeast Denver causing me to give chase. And while I missed the DIA scudnadoes, I happily traded them for the 4 successful core intercepts of his prolific hail producing beast of a supercell. Definitely a HAILuva day and one fun chase to be had across my backyard!
Nabbed a large number of tornadoes today, including my very first North Dakota tornadoes! Split today’s count between the Dakotas as we documented a variety of tornadoes from just southeast of Bison, South Dakota into Adams County, North Dakota. Few pics and a vid up now, much more to come later!
At least a half a dozen tornadoes were documented today in northern South Dakota including a monster violent EF-4 wedge tornado near the town of Bowdle. This amazing chase is the most epic of my career to date, hands down!
A pit stop to Denver was ultimately our undoing as our hope for the front range storms was gashed when none fired and put us completely behind the 8-ball for the rest of the day. When sunset finally set in, we finally got in front of the dying storm. Horrible day.
Another fast-paced, intense high risk in Oklahoma where chaser convergence reached its peak and was the most insane I had ever seen. Our efforts rewarded us with a embedded HP supercellular multi-vortex tornado, but hardly anything else in terms of imagery.
Hoping to break my Colorado curse today, but didn’t as we gave up on southeast Colorado and got on the DUmas storm that produced several tornadoes and very large hail in and just east of town. Bunked down overnight in Dumas where an overnight hailstorm dumped golfball sized hail.
On a ferry day back to Denver from Midland, a hail-of-a-jackpot awaited us as we passed through Campo, Colorado! An insane hailstorm dumping over half a foot of 1-inch diameter hail within a 20 minute span made for a very rewarded trip back home! Over 6 minutes of raw video, photos, and network broadcast of this event included!
13 years ago to the day, I bagged my first tornado! And I was finally able to celebrate that anniversary in style as myself and TWISTEX bagged a trio of tornadoes near the Notrees, Texas area on Friday afternoon. Full report coming, but few pics and videos online now!
Chased down in southwest Oklahoma and got on several tornado-warned cells. We saw one tornado that touched down near Clinton, but were 10 miles south of it and didn’t get a lot from it.
Forecast models hinted at a late show, but potential existed for a big day. We were the first to intercept the only storm to go up in Oklahoma and were treated to some very large hail southwest of Woodward. Our group measured up to 3.00″ hail, but I was only able to document 2.50″ stones.
My second high risk of the season proves much more eventful than the earlier Arkansas bust. Unfortunately this turned into a deadly outbreak across Oklahoma and Kansas where several people were killed and many of the reported tornadoes were damaging. I documented 4 of the day’s twisters.
Went out and spotted for my Wichita news station across northwest Kansas on a gentlemen’s chase of sorts. Intercepted the only two daylight severe storms in Kansas and while they produced a few 1-inch stones, my highlight video was the snow falling in Denver when I returned shortly after midnight.
Chased the third official high risk of the season (my first) and busted hard thanks to limited southeast winds from an over-forecasted surface low. Arrived in Redfield, AR and targeted storms around the Little Rock/Conway areas. We observed no severe weather. Stayed in Conway overnight before returning to Denver.
Chased our way into the Ozarks of southern Missouri and got on some tornado-warned cells at dark that produced a lot of wind and rain. The sights and smells of those storms were very reminiscent of storms I remember as a child back in Ohio, so it was oddly successful given the lack of any real chasing.
Got a lot more out of this day than we thought given the high potential for a daytime cap bust. Storms initiated several hours earlier than expected and we gave chase to three, eventually following a tornado-warned storm across the KS/NE border where we intercepted a developing circulation and possible tornado near Fairbury, Nebraska.
Chased a moderate risk setup where we intercepted tornado-warned storms on the Illinois side of St. Louis. Straight line winds and some marginally severe hail gave way to an amazing mammatus and rainbow display. We did not chase within the high risk down south.
Late storms formed in southeast Nebraska and saved us from the impending bust that was looming thanks to a dry punch scouring out some of the moisture across the region. Our storms went severe-warned, but we didn’t witness anything that made severe criteria.
Bagged the first tornadoes of the the season in southwest Kansas on a rather tough day overall. The three tornadoes are a bit deceptive given we saw them at great distances, fought hilly terrain (yes, in Kansas), or they were buried in rain.
A spotter chase enroute to an overnight stay for the real chase the next day. Observed a chilly, outflowy mess between La Junta and Kim, Colorado late in the evening on our venture south.
I ventured out east of town with my good friend, Jennifer Brindley, and we captured some gorgeous storm clouds, small hail, a brief rainbow, and a few good loud CG strikes.
On a scheduled trip to Oklahoma, Ed Grubb and myself took a detour across western Kansas to check on some storms that had developed along a boundary that was hanging out in the area. We had a few fat raindrops and dark clouds, but nothing all that exciting came from these storms.
Ed Grubb and myself ventured out into western Nebraska and intercepted a trio of storms that swirled up some dust, dropped sub-severe hail, and flooded out the Nebraska town of Ogallala. A fun, close-to-home chase to celebrate Ed’s birthday!
Myself along with Scott Hammel, Dann Cianca, and Ben Carr ventured out on a very conditional chase into southern Kansas and scored nothing but a suntan on this clear sky bust.
The first real chase of 2010 yielded some decent results even after a lunchtime analysis was spelling out doom for Tom Dulong, Scott Hammel, and myself. We braved the dying forecast and were rewarded with a decent hailstorm in northern Oklahoma in the middle of our 1,229 mile journey.
The breaking in of 2010 fell short of the previous years’ first chases, but I wasn’t alone as myself along with Travis Speakman, Mark Farnik, and Kyle Kluge ventured on a very marginal and quick windowed setup that ended up with us calling no joy just inside the KS border.
