06/05/09 NOW: CO, WY, NE, KS

[Larry J. Kosch]

SPC has issued a Tornado Watch for portions of CO, WY, NE and KS. Storms have initiated north of Cheyenne WY. Opening a NOW thread for current storms and chase strategies.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

There are two cells showing up on the KCYS radar. Both are SVR Warned. There's a bullseye of 0-3km SRH of 400 m^2/s^2 near the NW NE - SW SD border, according to the SPC Mesoanalysis and these two storms are moving towards that area, so I'd expect them to start taking on some super-cellular characteristics soon.

If I had my choice, I'd go after the southern cell that is SW of Wheatland, WY.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

That southern cell is now rotating and has a nice hook echo to it.

 

[David Reimer]

The storm on the southern parts of the Platte and Goshen, WY has really taken off in the past 15 minutes. It has also been attempting to develop an appendage in the past few scans. I'd expect if the storm can maintain itself, that it's going to go tornadic in the next hour.

EDIT: Better reduce that hour to roughly 5 minutes as it has just gone Tornado Warned.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

It seems like that cell is becoming a right mover and still has a really nice hook to it. It's TORN Warned now.

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

3.25" Hail Max

That southmost storm that Greg B referred to was listed on wunderground.com radar with the following specs:

D0 68 dBZ 37,000 ft. 61 kg/m² 100% chance 100% chance 3.25 in. 12 knots W (272)

That storm is topping out at 37 thousand feet with 100 % chance of severe hail measuring 3.25 inches. Current direction and speed is 12 knots out of the west.

EDIT: Torn Warn confirmed on wunderground.com radar. Storm has TVS signature.

 

[David Reimer]

Large Wall Cloud was shown on the Weather Channel about 5 minutes ago on the tornado warned supercell in Wyoming. Did not look like it was rotating extremely fast, but the velocities have picked up significantly in the past few minuets so that may have changed.

 

[Greg Blumberg]

That is a BEAUTIFUL storm. VERY well organized on radar.

EDIT: 6:04 EDT - Looks like the storm is beginning to cycle. Radar seems to show the RFD beginning to wrap around the main updraft.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Looks like it's wanting to do it live on TWC....beautiful!

 

[Mark Blue]

We are late, but we (wife and I) will be leaving Denver in the next couple of minutes and heading out I-76 to hopefully catch some action. Looks like a rotating wall cloud is about to put down a tornado on the Weather Channel live via Vortex 2. This is the storm in southern Goshen county WY. Very nice hook echo on GRL3. I sure hope we aren't too late, but I think other cells could erupt later in the next two hours further south.

 

[David Wolfson]

Roger Hill is streaming this at http://www.severestudios.com/cgi-bin/player.pl?username=roger.hill&uid=15

[Edit: Wow, on the 22:02Z scan. Monster meso!]

 

[Scott Lincoln]

Yellow TVS now evident on GRAnalyst in the middle of the hook. Spectrum width spike also evident in the center of the rotation at ~2800ft and along the associated RFD.

 

[Todd Beal]

Live tornado on TWC.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Fat stovepipe is live on The Weather Channel! Incredible...

Edit: changing shape to a larger cone tornado.

 

[Scott Lincoln]

Andy Grabrielson's camera is also showing the same thing. Looks like he is about to get cut off by the storm. His only road option now is to let it pass him to the south. Based on radar estimates, the tornado passed within 0.25 miles of his location (depending on storm tilt and meso angle, of course).

Look at the incredible 60-65dbz swirl around the rotation. I'd say the tornado might be becoming rain-wrapped.