Scattered storms developed across the urban corridor dumping over an inch of rain in less than an hour in areas across northern Denver. I ran around town documenting some of the storms as they drifted north across the metro area. I gave a thought to heading up I-76 toward the Ft. Morgan area to document some of those storms, but the outflow from the west pushed then then stationary MCS east and out of my range.
Pea-to-marble size hail falling out of one of the popcorn storms.
A car plows through flood waters near 80th and Sheridan.
A car moves through the flooding near 80th and Sheridan.
A car slowly crawls through some flood waters near 80th and Chase.
Main street, Kiowa blanketed under several inches of hail.
Morning forecasts indicated a pretty active day across the region today and by all accounts, things verified. I took out Khara Lukancic on her first chase today and tried like hell to beat the snot out of her. We left Denver about 2ish and drove to within 7 miles of the Wyoming border after several tornad0-warned storms before I turned us around and made a direct shot down to the Palmer Divide to get the much slower and stronger looking storms moving along CO-86. We dropped down US-85 through Greeley, down into Keensburg, over to Prospect Valley, then south through Bennett into Kiowa where we made several intercepts of two tornado-warned storms, one of which had LCL’s so low to the ground south of Kiowa, it was tough to tell if a tornado wasn’t ongoing at times.
None the less, the hail was the big story which made for yet another chase of baseball or large hail. We were greeted in Kiowa to 8-inch deep hail that was at least 1-inch in diameter for most stones. We went east about 5-10 miles before getting blasted in the biggest hail we saw with this storm measuring up to baseball size. And for the second time in my chasing career, I took out the windshield of my own vehicle as we found an open garage to take cover in. Fortunately because of that, I was actually able to get some great shots during the storm while being well sheltered, even as a wind-driven baseball blew into my kidney leaving a very large welt which I anxiously await if a bruise will remain in the morning.
Khara holding hail up to golfball size; baseball size fell during the storm and took out several windshields.
Once the storm passed, it continued with its tornado warnings, but no verified reports came through. We backtracked into Kiowa again, then into Elizabeth where flash flooding was ongoing, but definitely dwindling given the large amounts of washed up debris across town. From there, we were homebound.
One of two circular hail cracks in my windshield from baseball size hail.
I wasn’t home more than half and hour before I shot back out again and took the bust out of today with a terrific lightning show. Sadly, I didn’t muster a ton of shots, but the first shot certainly made the night while the others followed up with excellent results. Definitely some keepers tonight as the best show of the day was just after dark..
Straight From The Camera, Shot Of The Night (and of the year so far)! Looking southeast from 84th and Federal.
Looking South From 84th and Federal; Too Close Given My Zoom For This Shot.
Another Would Be Anvil Shot, But Zoomed In Too Tight. 84th and Federal Looking South.
Another Decent Shot Looking South From 84th and Federal.
Wished I Was Zoomed In For This Trio, Looking South From 84th and Federal.
This Was Actually My First Shot Of The Night, Looking East From 84th and Federal.
Looks pretty quiet tomorrow, so not planning on heading out. Figure to return to normal operations for Nebraska on Monday and possibly Missouri on Tuesday. Meanwhile, major outbreak ongoing in the midwest including a deadly tornado in my homestate (near Toledo). Will probably talk about that tomorrow as things become clear in the morning.
Description: 05/26/2010 Hailstorm (Wiggins, CO) shot in 16x9 High Definition
A very intense hailstorm rolls from northeast Denver all the way up to near Fort Morgan. This video includes video from I-76 around the Wiggins area where large hail up to 2.25″ falls. Video includes large stones falling at a nearby farm with stones crashing onto the roof of the garage sounding like shotgun blast. Video turns to I-76 with smaller hail falling before going to aftermath shots of the very large stones.
Description: 05/26/2010 Accumulating Hailstorm (Hudson, CO) shot in 16x9 High Definition
A very intense hailstorm rolls from northeast Denver all the way up to near Fort Morgan. This video includes video from CO-52 on the east side of Hudson. Opening shots approaching the hailstorm followed by shots of nature unleashing the heavy hail. Up to golfball size hail came down on nearby vehicles and buildings. The storm moved north of the highway and was later caught again near Wiggins. Snowplows were called in to clear the highway after 6-12 inches accumulated on CO-52 and the video ends with a snowplow coming at me as it clears the highway of the hail.
