John Farley
Supporter
Was not sure where to put this, as it involves largely winter weather (2 thundersnow storms) but also a couple hailstorms. And part of a pattern that produced quite a bit of severe weather, including supercells, in parts of CO and NM. Even one of the thundersnow storms I viewed had pretty clear evidence of storm-scale rotation. So I am putting it here, but if this is wrong, mods please feel free to move it to the winter section.
Anyway, I intercepted two thundersnow storms on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. And on the way there, I drove through a hailstorm, then after the chase documented another one at home. Here is a picture of the first thundersnow storm, looking down the valley from the scenic overlook at the hairpin as you come down the west side of Wolf Creek Pass:
Pretty good structure for a wintry thunderstorm; this is the one that exhibited some visual indications of storm-scale rotation. Soon it produced graupel (snow pellets) and snow with lightning. Here is a short video clip of that:
After this passed over I headed up to the pass, where a lot of heavy, wet snow had fallen. Enough to get Wolf Creek Ski Area ready for daily operations, beginning tomorrow. And some snow still falling when I got up there, but no more thunder. I headed back down, but when I got a ways down I could see that another storm was moving in. So I stopped again at the overlook to get more video. Started with thunder, lightning, and some big graupel, then gradually transitioned to a mix of graupel and ordinary snow. As it began to pass over, I moved back up a couple miles, where it was entirely ordinary snow when I made my next stop, with more thunder and lightning. Here is video of this second storm:
After this I headed home, but could see that yet another line of storms had formed and was backbuilding to the west of Pagosa. This produced a short but heavy barrage of small hail at my house. My full report with a detailed account, more photos, and longer videos of the two thundersnow storms, along with the hailstorm at home, can be found at:
Anyway, I intercepted two thundersnow storms on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. And on the way there, I drove through a hailstorm, then after the chase documented another one at home. Here is a picture of the first thundersnow storm, looking down the valley from the scenic overlook at the hairpin as you come down the west side of Wolf Creek Pass:
Pretty good structure for a wintry thunderstorm; this is the one that exhibited some visual indications of storm-scale rotation. Soon it produced graupel (snow pellets) and snow with lightning. Here is a short video clip of that:
After this passed over I headed up to the pass, where a lot of heavy, wet snow had fallen. Enough to get Wolf Creek Ski Area ready for daily operations, beginning tomorrow. And some snow still falling when I got up there, but no more thunder. I headed back down, but when I got a ways down I could see that another storm was moving in. So I stopped again at the overlook to get more video. Started with thunder, lightning, and some big graupel, then gradually transitioned to a mix of graupel and ordinary snow. As it began to pass over, I moved back up a couple miles, where it was entirely ordinary snow when I made my next stop, with more thunder and lightning. Here is video of this second storm:
After this I headed home, but could see that yet another line of storms had formed and was backbuilding to the west of Pagosa. This produced a short but heavy barrage of small hail at my house. My full report with a detailed account, more photos, and longer videos of the two thundersnow storms, along with the hailstorm at home, can be found at:
