5/31/10 REPORTS: CO/OK

[Willoughby Owen]

We're driving into DDC so no photos just yet.

Got to the isolated supercell late in Baca county due to a bit of fatigue this morning in Enid. Got to the storm at around 2230Z and it started to form a stout and tight wall cloud after it weakened a tad. Investigated it a bit on a farm rd west and developed a funnel cloud possibly touching the ground.

That dissipated so we went back on the 287 and observed strong circulation above us about 1 mile SSW of Campo, CO.

As we were observing, a tumble weed came absolutely flying towards us and veered off and missed the windscreen. Then a little dust devil came around us at 0005z and disappeared after it crossed the road. We joked around about 'being in the tornado' (perhaps this lead to the tornado?). This thing was ready to pounce!

A couple of minutes later to our south a funnel cloud was observed with another chaser next to us saying he saw a bit of condensation near the ground.

What next happened had us gobsmacked.

In full N to S view, at 0009Z, a very tall, beautiful stove pipe tornado became established exactly 4 miles SSSW of Campo, or one mile away from us. Followed it and saw it cross the 287 3 miles north of the CO/OK border. We think it was on the ground for at least 30 minutes and was thankfully only crossing farms. We saw it dissipate in Boise City, 14mi to the NNW.

This thread will no doubt be filled with eye candy.
Wow. What an amazing tornado!

 

[Richard Dickson]

5/31/10: CO

Mods, Please combine this report with the thread posted a few minutes before mine. Thanks, Tank

Outstanding day today in Southeast Colorado west of Campo, Colorado on a perfect storm that remained almost stationary for about an hour. We observed two tornadoes from that cell. We then moved south and east of Campo where the storm produced a beautiful tornado that we watched for approximately 20 minutes total during several moves. Farther south and east of Campo, there were two additional tornadoes. Quite a day!

 

[Ian Miller]

The Campo Tornado Colorado

It was a great storm after seeing three funnels before it produced the first tornado and a couple more funnels after that it then produced the best one south of campo
it started as a thin tornado and morphed into a tremendous stove pipe .

 

[Chris Hovanic]

Witnessed the unbelievable tornado south of Campo from its birth. Also saw 2 tornadoes earlier in the day south of Pritchett.

 

[Mike Umscheid]

Not enough superlatives to describe this one. Tall, high plains tornado about as classic and beautiful as you can get. I was on the storm from very early on and documented the first tornadoes south of Pritchett, Colorado.

More on my blog...
http://www.underthemeso.com/blog/?p=1424

 

[William Reid]

I liked SE CO given the decent CAPE forecast, and the models broke precip out in Baca County and vicinity by 00Z. Upper winds were so-so at best, and models didn't seem to back the surface winds at all...but winds tend to back on the High Pains just east of a big cell. I wasn't expecting a big tornado day, but you can't rule out a little tornado day here in May.

This was an easy drive due west from Enid, and we got on the road by 10 a.m. This was almost too late, as we barely made it in time to see the first 2 or 3 weak tornadoes well WNW of Campo. The cell was nicely structured and nearly stationary for the next couple of hours. After numerous attempts at planting a big one, it finally did, with authority, just south of Campo. I viewed two other tornadoes with the same cell later, prior to sunset. I seem to have good luck when I chase without any data ---- I was in my own SUV and going totally visual! Thanks to Brian Morganti for the occasional guidance, and congrats to him and the other chasers who made it to Baca County on Memorial Day.

A longer account and a bunch of stills of the Campo tornado are on my web site:

http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2010/05/31/may-31-2010-campo-co-tornado/http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2010/05/31/may-31-2010-campo-co-tornado/

Bill Reid

 

[Jason Boggs]

Another slight risk and t-storm watch did it for me again! Boy, I'm still all giddy inside! Met up with friend Dan Skoff in Guymon, OK and he left his vehicle and jumped in with me. We actually targeted Campo, CO (believe it or not). Got west of Campo and saw a brief funnel (later found out it was a tornado). The storm looked ok, but never really looked like it was going to put down a significant tornado. We found out differently after we got south of Campo a few miles. We were actually looking at rotation SE of Campo. We pulled over and I happened to look to my NW and saw the long funnel touch down about a half mile or so to our W/NW. It was coming straight at us, so we had to blast south a little ways to get out of the path. At times, we got hit with RFD winds of at least 75-80 mph and maybe higher. We followed the storm to Guymon and saw at least 3 more tornadoes as we followed it back. In 12 years of chasing, it's the best chase of my life. Being a chief met in Fayetteville, AR, Dan hasn't seen a good daytime tornado in 10 years. That came to an abrupt ending today! Everything went absolutely perfect for us today. I took all stills of the event, and Dan took the video. This is the best tornado I've ever seen! Oh, and it's the first tornado I've ever seen in Colorado.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that is was absolutely great to finally meet Lou Ruh and Dr. Jason Persoff. 2 very genuinely nice guys that make a storm chase even better! Like I've said before...tornadoes are great, but meeting awesome people on a chase is something I'll always cherish.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Much the Same as all the others. Getting to like Baca County (Co) 2nd Big Tornado there in 6 days LOL

We were further back this time to get some of the Structure as well, and that was incredible like the Tornadoes (3) of them

Paul S

 

[Scott Hammel]

On the same cell as everyone else. We were slightly behind the storm which allowed us to get some great structure and this...

Congrats to everyone today! Looks like everyone went home happy!

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Everyone I think was on cloud 9 after seeing that!!

(Pics open to large)

 

[Brian A. Morganti]

A career day for many that will be talked about for a long LONG time---full summary and lots of photos here:
http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

 

[Robert Balogh]

Chased with Jason Persoff yesterday, and what a day it turned out to be!Just a beautiful storm that kept producing. After getting these pics, fended up following the storm to Eva Oklahoma. Got a few lightning shots at dusk but nothing real spectacular. Now in Dodge City getting ready to do it again (hopefully)

 

[Brandon Goforth]

I was on the Baca County storm from the beginning and what an amazing and long day it turned out to be! Everyone knows the story by now, so I'm just going to post a couple of videos. I will try to add some still photos later. Just an awesome day.

Tornado just SW of Pritchett:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDZFuAVS12M

Tornado south of Campo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49ZABAyw2R8

RE-EDIT: These videos are back up.

 

[Jason Persoff]

At some point in the near future I'll post a full account, but suffice to say this was the most amazing tornado I've ever filmed, witnessed, or savored. Everyone else above has pretty much summed it up well: this was unexpected and as a consequence was even more gratifying since expectations were low. The fact the tornado appeared to move <5 mph, lasted >25 mins, and occurred over a paved highway not particularly percolating with lots of traffic was...well...amazing.

I have a lot of pictures up on my site (http://stormdoctor.com/). But these two shots are genuinely my favorites (that's me, btw !). The latter photo I took specifically for structure and terrain and captured it exactly as I wanted...Best of all, I had plenty of time to tripod, relax, focus, set shutter speed, and try about 20 different shots until I found what I wanted...Wow.

 

[tarone]

Happy for you Doc. It was a lot of miles.
Our story not much different from everyone else. Started the day in Wichita after chasing rain in OK the day before. Though we got to the party late. We were wrong.