Wasn't expecting much of a tornado chance this day with quite borderline shear typical of #2018. However ample moisture timed with a shortwave and just enough veering with height kicked up a nice line of long lived supercells from Boulder area starting around 5 PM, progressing up the I-76 corridor and into NW Kansas over the course of about 5-6 hours. Can't not go look at something like that after work only 1.5 hours from home.
Monster hail was allegedly seen early and late in the event, but I never encountered this personally. Only one storm I saw seemed to have persistent low level rotation, encountered near Roggen. Not enough LLJ or upper support to kick it into tornado mode, and proximity to neighbor storms was not a favorable relationship but competitive.
Some great structure was present and for me was one of the better days of the year. Leaving work late, was able to intercept the second cell in the line and then stair step down to each cell to the back of the line on the way home, seeing great lighting and structure with each cell.
Near Roggen, slowly rotating ground scraper.
East of DIA and North of Strasburg saw some great structure.
Monster hail was allegedly seen early and late in the event, but I never encountered this personally. Only one storm I saw seemed to have persistent low level rotation, encountered near Roggen. Not enough LLJ or upper support to kick it into tornado mode, and proximity to neighbor storms was not a favorable relationship but competitive.
Some great structure was present and for me was one of the better days of the year. Leaving work late, was able to intercept the second cell in the line and then stair step down to each cell to the back of the line on the way home, seeing great lighting and structure with each cell.
Near Roggen, slowly rotating ground scraper.
East of DIA and North of Strasburg saw some great structure.
