07/04/2010 REPORTS: NM/TX/CO

[Marcus Diaz]

Me and Steve Miller TX chased today. Our original target was in the NE TX Panhandle/OK Panhandle where all the parameters were setting up nicely. Unfortunately, nothing was being sustained in the area. We finally blasted west towards a growing and lonely supercell in Union County, NM. The storm had incredible textbook corkscrew updraft just NW of Clayton. We watched the storm for a bit off the highway as it really ramped up. The RFD cut nicely into the storm, really rotating the rain curtains around. I'm pretty sure there was something big going on, but couldn't tell with the rain interfering with our view. Though eventually, a nice stovepipe funnel appeared through the rain, halfway to the ground. But that was its last breathe, and the storm decayed after that. So we beelined south towards a cluster of strong storms near Dalhart. We ended up catching the furthest western storm, that came very close to tornadogenesis with a nice hook and some intense rotation. Unfortunately, the storm began sucking its own outflow in since it didn't move east or south much. It became an HP/outflow dominant storm. Called it a day after that.


Here's a panoramic of the incredible corkscrew structure:

Stovepipe funnel, after cranking on the contrast:

The storm near Dalhart, coming ever so close to tornadogenesis. Note: this pic was taken out the vehicle going highway speeds, pretty tough shot to do.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I continued my campaign to become storm chasing's new hail king as I documented my 8th storm with baseball or larger hail of 2010! Myself along with Khara Lukancic intercepted two of the tornado-warned storms along CO-86 between Elizabeth and Limon. At one point, the LCLs were so low, it was hard to verify whether there were tornadoes, but again, the hail took the cake. Baseballs fell during the storm and took out a multitude of windshields, including the second one of my personal chase vehicles over the last 3 seasons.

REPORT WITH PICS AND VIDEO HERE

Golfballs 10 east of Kiowa; baseballs fell west of here, but we took shelter and settled for these.

Hail covers the ground as we pull into Kiowa; 8 inches deep in places along with Flash Flooding.

Flash flooding in Elizabeth well after the storm.

 

[Zach Young]

Had various reasons not to get too far from home on the 4th, but I decided to drive around the Denver metro area near sunset to see if there was anything interesting. There were a few severe cells around, so I thought I could at least get nice structure! Unfortunately, everything severe pretty much died the moment I left my house...

I was about to give up and just go home, when I noticed something neat! The cold pool from storms dying up near Ft Collins and Greeley was rolling into town, producing a magnificent shelf structure over north Denver:

Incidentally, this is my first panoramic shot! Pretty pleased with it.