5/26/2010 REPORTS: CO/WY/NM

[Verne Carlson]

I wouldn't have necessarily called this rapidly rotating scud cloud a tornado except that right after this picture from west of DIA at 22:30z (1:30pm MDT) there was debris falling from the sky around me. Apparently it hit a dumpster or something because there were plastic bags floating down.

After this I tailed the storm up past Prospect Valley, CO where it was sampled by Vortex 2 and became a nice LP supercell. It made many attempts at a tornado but was too high based.

I shot down to cell near Agate, CO to give it a chance and it was also a very nice LP barber pole with a rotating wallcloud but no tornado touchdowns that I saw.

Was a fun local chase just an hour from the house!

 

[Erik Perozo]

Our target today was the Denver Area! Watched the nice billowing cu go up that eventually went on to become the Supercell of the day. Witnessed the tornado out by DIA and like Verne stated we also encountered the debris floating above our heads. Looked like tin, trash bags...etc. Then followed the cell out of the Denver area to watch it Mother ship out. Took out after the southern cell after seeing the reflectivity but when we got around 20 miles from it, it just fizzled out. Went back north to catch the storm I just left and it still looked organized. After watching it for a few minutes we decided to just take it into Denver for some good dinner. Not another bad off day chase. Pics to come soon.

 

[Adam Adkins]

Chased the LP storm from DIA to Fort Morgan. I saw some pretty big hail as well! It really wanted to put down a tornado at some points but really struggled. There were more chasers than I've ever seen!

 

[Eian Greene]

I wouldn't have necessarily called this rapidly rotating scud cloud a tornado except that right after this picture from west of DIA at 22:30z (1:30pm MDT) there was debris falling from the sky around me. Apparently it hit a dumpster or something because there were plastic bags floating down.

After this I tailed the storm up past Prospect Valley, CO where it was sampled by Vortex 2 and became a nice LP supercell. It made many attempts at a tornado but was too high based.

I shot down to cell near Agate, CO to give it a chance and it was also a very nice LP barber pole with a rotating wallcloud but no tornado touchdowns that I saw.

Was a fun local chase just an hour from the house!

I started south towards the Pueblo cell, and at Colo 94, saw it collapse.

Then, I started back north and came through Calhan and Ramah, seeing the Agate/Deer Trail cell getting it's act together...

I saw the LP cell behind the Agate cell's wall cloud come into view after topping a hill outside of Ramah and shot north on CR 125 & 129 out of Simla.

Then, I saw the whole thing just hail out about 10 SW of Deer Trail.

Seen penny to ping-pong ball sized hail covering a field in a NE direction towards Deer Trail.

I also encountered some 3-4" limbs down on the side of the road near a substation about 5mi out of Deer Trail. I suspect a microburst caused that light damage. After this storm dissipated, I headed back home.

 

[Bill Hark]

Here is my chase report from May 26 in Colorado. No tornadoes but nice storm structure.

http://www.harkphoto.com/05262010.html

A few images. More on the website.

Bill Hark

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

I got a late start yesterday, so I headed south for the Pueblo storm. No way was I going to punch through it by going down on I25, elected for one of my favorite back roads south to Boone instead. This is the road which goes by PUB's radar tower, so it's always a good route to set the scene

The cell was CREEPING along, and dropped some large hail in Pueblo. I set up east of it, and it put on a great show of structure even though it didn't produce a tornado. I had the opportunity to meet a couple of nice guys who were out chasing from Washington before heading back to C. Springs.

A couple hours later we had an ambitious little cell show up in our county, so it was off to play Skywarn. It put down a few stones measured to 1.25", but we escaped the big (and deep!) stuff they had up north and down south earlier in the day.

A quick report and pics are posted from my phone yesterday, and I'll get processed pictures up this evening...

http://tornadotimmy.wordpress.com

 

[Patrick Martin]

Chris Strahan and I also chased the cell near DIA. We had intended on heading further northeast, but the cell went up as we were headed east on I-70. We detoured back east from Bennet, and made our way to the northeast side of DIA and missed the tornado being on the wrong side of the storm. Hung tight in the Hudson/Prospect Valley area as the storm moved north and east. We were able to position on it via county roads south of hwy 52 to witness a decent funnel cloud.

From there moved east on hwy 52 and then north on county roads avoiding the largest hail and was able to capture some great views of the structure.

At one point we were parked south of Wiggins on some dirt county road, watching the structure and the cell trying to recycle, and a large black SUV decked out with antenna's parked next to us. After a bit, they approached us, asking us to take their pic in front of the storm. Turned out to be Mike Bettis from TWC along with his producer and camera guy. They were pretty friendly and we chatted it up for about 20 minutes before we blew off the cell and tried for an intercept on the cell coming up to I-70. It died pretty quick, and by the time we made it south, it was just a pathetic sprinkle, so opted to head back to Denver.

 

[Chris Hayes]

We left Grand Island at about 1030 and got to the Denver storm at around 3 or so. Not too long after we got it we observed the large scudnado that others have taken pictures of. Watched it cycle from LP to almost classic numerous times. No tornadoes but it was a fun day and nice to be on the same storm for hours on end rather than storm hopping. Kept watching the storm to the south and was glad I made the right decision to not go after it.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I was on the Weld / Morgan county supercell for much of its later life cycle. I started the day in Colby, Kansas, then intercepted in NE Colorado, then wrapped up the night in Denver with mild food poisoning

Above: Rotating wall cloud on the supercell storm north of Bennett, Colorado.

Above: This was rotating scud to the ground (weak tornado?)

Above: The storm had beautiful structure!

 

[Charles Kuster]

We also chased the LP supercell that originated on the east side of Denver and slowly moved northeast to near Ft. Morgan, CO. The storm had nice LP structure, but struggled to produce any tornadoes probably due to relatively high LCLs. As the storm approached Ft. Morgan, we decided to sample the hail core and experienced 1â€￾ hail near Weldona, CO and approximately 1.25â€￾ hail 9 miles north of Ft. Moran, CO. Overall, it was not a bad day and it was nice to deal with very slow storm motions especially after chasing in Nebraska on Monday.

Picture, showing LP structure, taken at 4:38pm MDT from 9 miles east of Prospect Valley, CO and is looking west northwest.

http://i45.tinypic.com/3151qfs.jpg (Non rotating scud feature. Picture taken at 3:14pm MDT from 2 miles east of Imboden Road and 144th Street (about 14.5 miles east southeast of Brighton, CO) and is looking west northwest.)

 

[John Farley]

Due to travel, I was not able to chase during the day, but in the evening when a nice storm went up over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Santa Fe and Las Vegas I did manage to get out to a high spot and get some pictures:

This storm was SVR-warned for hail, but due to its location in rugged, mountainous, thinly-populated terrain, I saw no reports. Earlier another storm 25 miles or so SE of this one produced copious amounts of quarter to golfball hail in an area from near Las Vegas down to Villanueva. Several cars reported off I-25 due to 2-3 inch hail accumulations.

 

[Scott Hammel]

Was on the supercell N of Denver as well. Witnessed 2 scudnadoes the first being near Lochbuie and the second near Hudson. Also got suckered on the southern cell and watched it die on Highway 36. Fun local chase though!

Youtubes:
Scudnado #1

Scudnado #2

 

[David Dildine]

Gillette

After bringing a four to five minute period of heavy 1.00" to 1.25" hail to Gillette, WY, watched this LP supercell boast some awesome structure over the northern side of town at dusk. Couldn't get the shutter open long enough to capture the IC lightning.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I got on the storm after the DIA scudnadoes and given the storm's high base, I figured anything that would spin up would hardly compare to the core, so I took my van in full steam, punching it 4 times and gathering up some pretty cool imagery and hail up to 2.25" up near Wiggins. I happily traded the tornadoes for the monster hail and enjoyed every waking moment!

VIDEO LINK: Hudson, Colorado Hail Core Punch

VIDEO LINK: Wiggins, Colorado Hail Core Punch

Oh yeah... windshield and the rest of my glass, all fine.. a few new dents, that's about it!

 

[Erik Perozo]

Our target today was the Denver Area! Watched the nice billowing cu go up that eventually went on to become the Supercell of the day. Witnessed the tornado out by DIA and like Verne stated we also encountered the debris floating above our heads. Looked like tin, trash bags...etc. Then followed the cell out of the Denver area to watch it Mother ship out. Took out after the southern cell after seeing the reflectivity but when we got around 20 miles from it, it just fizzled out. Went back north to catch the storm I just left and it still looked organized. After watching it for a few minutes we decided to just take it into Denver for some good dinner. Not another bad off day chase.

Pic of weak tornado confirmed with debris floating over my head!

Pic of Meso