2018-05-13 REPORTS: CO

[Hannah.Taylor]

Seeing a marginal risk on the SPC Outlook and knowing Colorado the way I do, about 12:45 pm MDT, I made the decision to go ahead and chase and began getting my gear ready. By 1:45 PM MDT I was headed out the door and off to get fuel and ice for the cooler. Armed with my only cell phone, radar app and camera bag, I headed for Bennett as the Denver Cyclone was in play due to the setup and Palmer Divide. Radar rewarded me by showing storms firing to the SE of Denver. As I reached Bennett the SW'ern most storm started to fizzle out as the storm to its NE was drawing all the energy into it. I quickly ran into hail and torrential downpour. Tried to go N on Prince Road out of Deer Trail but my car sits too low to go through the water that was flooding the bridge about 5 miles to the north of the outer rd, so I turned around and went back west to Byers where I caught US 36 east and chased it to Last Chance before heading N to Brush where I planned to intercept again, but it faded into a rain shower about halfway to Brush. That storm sucked all the energy out of the atmosphere and it was pretty much the only play of the day north of I-70 before sun down, but it sure didn't disappoint. What a beautiful storm and a wonderful welcome back for my first chase in over 3 years. Currently, storms are beginning to fire again near Denver but with the sun down, my day is done.

Intersection of Prince Rd and Outer Rd in Deer Trail, CO

I stopped in between Byers and Last Chance for a few photos and was rewarded with nothing but beautiful shots of the tail of this supercell.

My car is better at bird hunting than I am. [emoji23]

Picture perfect day in Colorado (sans landspout of course, but I'm not complaining)