2011-05-17 REPORTS: CO

[David Wolfson]

We headed out from Denver after noontime business toward the central CO/KS border aiming for the somewhat better backed flow and moisture. Got to Cheyenne Wells and picked up the tail-end of the line that had just produced the landspout further north . This feature had a very persistent junior-size flanking line and inflow tail -- all quite elevated. As it began to get dark we headed west on I-70, and just as we passed beneath the wimpy-looking line it unloaded west of Stratton with an inch of mostly marble hail. The tail-end we'd been tracking also blew up, with some very nice sunset views of the blooming supercell that went on to produce large hail.

All in all a better than expected day, and two more lessons learned about Colorado chasing: all things equal, respect the higher altitudes above 5k as storm promoters in marginal situations; and watch for storm intensification at sunset due to increased instability of upper diurnal cooling.

 

[J Allen]

Had a good day in Colorado, things fired pretty much where I initially suspected, however unfortunately found myself somewhat further east due to moisture concern. Managed to get on to the Akron HP, and saw a number of funnels/attached wall clouds within the hybrid structure that spanned between this and the Anton storm. Got hailed on in Burlington for the second time, mostly small stones up to around golfball size.

Full chase report and pictures at:
http://www.huntersofthunder.com/2011/05/may-17-colorado-supercells-and-super.html

 

[Zack Hargrove]

What an awesome surprise chase in Colorado on the 17th. We were heading for the first big storm that went tornado warned and a little annoyed because it was heading towards right where we stayed the previous night. On our way, we noticed a little green spot on the upper tilts and looking at the clouds, it was obvious we had an LP supercell developing right in front of us. So we decided to wait and we were the first chasers to see the Anton, CO landspout form and we watched it on the ground for about 5-10 minutes. The cell turned into a gorgeous supercell. Here's our video of the spout:

Watch video >

Afterwards, we got some excellent lightning and structure shots:

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

after forecasting this, and convincing my chase partner Jeremy Holmes to chase in Eastern Colorad based on a "hunch" with only a 2% tornado probability, this actually turned out to be one of the better days of my chase tour, and the most photogenic of them all. There were several landspouts reported, but we just caught the bad end of the stick on this one as we weren't in position to see it (but Zach Hargrove's team caught a beauty of a landspout on the ground for 5 minutes near Anton, CO).

Full chase account and pics here
http://funnelsrus.blogspot.com/2011/05/5-17-2011-eastern-colorado.html


Very well organized storm near Ft. Morgan, CO with good rotation, several needle funnels were produced but none touched down.

2" of hail covers the road in Ern CO.

Rainbow on Ern CO Plains

wicked looking clouds with a rainbow and a gorgeous sheet of rain

The sun sets slowly behind a curtain of rain in Ern CO

This hail covered the road and made driving treacherous and slow, it was like driving on sleet/freezing rain!
Watch video >