2014-05-07 REPORTS: CO, OK, TX

[ericjkelly]

What a fun and surprising day on the front range!

I am a somewhat newbie to Colorado chasing (just moved here a little over a year ago) and am still learning the upslope world!

I shot up from Monument, Co just hoping to see a cool super-cell. I didn't feel like the 5% tor prob area was going to work. I targeted Sterling, CO and knew I could either shoot NE to the Nebraska border if needed.

I caught up to the Akron supercell just as it went severe warned. I sat with it for a while until it produced a small funnel. I moved east then caught the a very cool rope tornado that was on the ground for about two mins.

The storm slowed to 15mph which allowed me to get extremely close to two landspouts.

All in all, it was an amazing first Colorado chase for me!



Rope--- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy1IBiB4NtM&feature=youtu.be (props to Ryan Kushner)

Landspout--- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AznnQvYNH0c

 

[Matt Ashworth]

I started in southern Denver with the other guys I was chasing with and as we were getting ready we saw a storm build and fire up over Deer Trail. We decided that, because it was so isolated, we would follow it. We followed it outside of Akron where we watched the town get hit with some hail. The following Akron rope was my first tornado. I also saw the brief funnel just before the rope tornado as well as the landspouts that formed not long after just to the east.

Rope - http://eon-krate32.deviantart.com/art/5-7-2014-Akron-CO-Tornado-452836453

 

[Sean Ramsey]

Mods: Can we add OK & TX to this?

Started out chasing just south of Lawton and got on a fast moving storm that moved north pretty quickly, then dropped down to a slow moving cell near Henrietta, Tx and got some amazing structure. After that moved to another cell that developed near Temple, OK and ended up catching a tornado warned storm west of Waurika, OK. No tornadoes again, but the structure was the best of the (very limited) year so far.

The Henrietta, TX Storm

West of Waurika, OK

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Started out this day on the initial rocket that took off to the north from near Olney, bailed on it just south of Wichita Falls as storms to the south gained intensity. Waited just north of Archer City and was treated to some decent elevated structure.

The core trapped me south of the storm as it right turned so I had to play catch up and made it just in time to catch the end of the structure fest on the Henrietta storm, but unfortunately I wasn't able to view the updraft until I was right on it.

Sped into the notch and blasted east and north into Waurika where I headed west to intercept the tornado warned cell there, was treated to some gorgeous structure before it gusted out.

Overall a rewarding chase but I blew my best structure ops by getting stuck south of the Henrietta storm, still felt like quite the treat after the dismal year we've had thus far.

 

[Ben_Jacobi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008e0...mUp5u8gaDrGKIg

GoPro footage from 5/7. What a day! We chased the cell that formed outside of Scotland that became the Heniretta beast, followed it to Terral, OK and abandoned the dying storm for the tornado warned cell north of Burkburnett. Intercepted that storm in Byers and followed it to Waurika, OK.

 

[Jason Clerkin]

I got out for my first chase of the 2014 season. Have been patiently waiting to go, and have nearly gone crazy without the chance!

I started out the day with an initial target around Hudson. I headed up I-76 at about noon, and as I approached Hudson some storms started to fire to my south near Deer Trail. I tried to decide if I should head south and play these storms, or if I should be patient and see if anything else fired further north. After about 30 minutes, and several radar runs showing increasing reflectivity, I decided to head east on highway 52, and then south to intercept the storm. After about 45 minutes, I approached the storm from the northeast, right before it became severe warned for hail. After about 30 minutes of hanging out with the storm, it started to get it's act together a little more and began forming a slightly lower base. As I continued to stay in front of the storm, I began to notice some very broad rotation overhead (timelapse in below video).

As I continued to watch the broad rotation, the wind and dust started to get more intense and started getting sucked up into the storm. A small spinup occurred:


I continued east, and about 10 minutes later this feature appeared and exhibited some rotation for about a minute, and then dissipated. About a minute after, the storm went tornado warned.


I watched the storm and it looked like RFD started to cut into it. As I took some pictures, a truck pulled up to me and talked to me briefly -- he was the emergency manager for the area and was watching the storm. I then headed north and noted a few new storms about 50 miles east near the Kansas border that were severe warned. My storm was heading for a possible collision with those storms over the next hour or so. 15 minutes later, a rope tornado formed to my west:


You can see the old meso and dust from the old rope tornado:


The tornado only lasted about 2 minutes. The storm briefly tried again to produce another funnel. It can be here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ZjnazsMe4&feature=youtu.be. I continued my north and east zigzags and after a couple minutes a big dusty landspout formed to my north (video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNgOFqAwEHY&feature=youtu.be):




Could this be classified a tornado? There was apparent rotation in the clouds above, and an RFD notch can be noted. I believe this was reported as a tornado on SPC, as well as one that popped up a few minutes after this one dissipated, further to the north. I got an okay picture of the second one, but not much different than the first landspout so I will skip that picture. Several more storms began firing to the northeast, and suddenly about 60 square miles of NE Colorado was tornado warned. The storms to the northeast slowly fizzled..so I figured this storm would follow the same pattern as it entered the same air. I followed the storm and watched it's demise over Holyoke. Only a few more pictures to be had, but they were nice:





I then began the 3 hour trek home to Littleton. Overall, a great way to start the season. I can't wait to see what the rest of May and June bring for Colorado in terms of severe weather.

Thanks,
Jason