6/10/2010 Reports: CO

[Steve Miller TX]

Team Steve Miller (myself and Steve Miller OK) intercepted the Deer Trail tornadic supercell from its pre-tornadic stage west of Deer Trail. It was quite a treat watching this behemoth evolve. Narrowly escaped some tennis to baseball hail and then maneuvered to it's SW flank which though risky, rewarded us nicely with white tornadoes. We caught the first tornado mainly on video, but many stills of the second tornado with a very cool rope out. Forgive the image quality as I'm trying to process the RAW images on my inferior laptop screen.

 

[Tyler Burg]

Chilled in Ogallala for a few hours hoping something would go in SW NE, once stuff started to go off the front range we got on I76 towards the northern storm close to the WY border, it looked good initially while we were still about 20 miles from it, had a nice wall cloud and reported funnels, but as we got to it, it hit either the outflow of the storms to the north or some other boundary and totally died. Made a mad dash south on hwy 63 towards Anton and got lucky enough to see the incredible structure (but missed the tornadoes by about 20 minutes) Saw a brief gustnado or perhaps a tornado NE of Last Chance. The Structure with the sun setting and lightning was the highlight of the day. Shot lightning on this storm until about 10pm, then got dinner in Yuma and drove 7 hours back home to Omaha, the whole while witnessed some of the most intense lightning I've ever seen between Ogallala and Kearney. Awesome day. More images on my website: http://www.tonightssky.org Soon.

 

[William Reid]

A write-up and some pics of the fabulous Last Chance storm are here:

http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2010/06/10/june-10-2010-last-chance-co-tornadic-supercell/

Bill

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

Kathryn just posted some photographs from the June 10 Storm near East of Deer Trail, CO and a short video clip on her website and on her new youtube site. Wow, this was such a beautiful storm. http://www.twisterchasers.com/TwisterChasers/JUNE_Storm_Photos.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/TornadoAlleyVideo

 

[Brett Roberts]

Having started the day in Big Springs, NE, Brandon Lawson and I meandered the CO/WY border area from Greeley to Pine Bluffs for most of the afternoon waiting for upslope convection to sustain itself after coming off the Front Range. Like most everyone else, we jumped on the supercell which developed near DEN and moved to a position SE of Prospect Valley:

And then dropped S to the Deer Trail structure of the year, viewing it from W of Last Chance:

During tornado #1

During tornado #2

 

[Dick McGowan]

Amazing day! A couple of photos here: http://www.stackedplates.blogspot.com

 

[Steve Miller TX]

Hail & 2 tornadoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9IJZx-gaLI

Timelapse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XtHUapZS1g

 

[Dean Gill]

My last day on the Plains, but what a day!
Here is the video.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Full report is now online including time lapse tornado video

What a great chase!

http://aerostorms.com/061010-last-chance-CO-tornado.php

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Just finished editing a couple of photos from this day. Please enjoy... Was sitting on a hill ~15 miles north of Limon looking WNW.







It was a great turn of events after rushing from my target ~3 hours away, and got lucky when passing through construction. Made it just in time to watch the tornadoes develop. Followed the storm until dark then stayed in Limon.

 

[Phil Kurimski]

First tornado near Deer Trail, CO:

First tornado zoomed in:

Second tornado of the day:

The storm starts to chase us:

Full chase account:

http://www.mesovortex.com/Storms/june10-2010.html

Youtube video of the tornado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10UjRT2YgpM&feature=player_embedded

 

[Matt Gingery]

This is one of those days where each little frustrating event that took place played a part in us scoring the first ever images of a tornado on a Cinema Red Camera. First of all had been sick for the past 3 days and I think this was one of the worst mornings that I felt bad. We wake up and Annette knocks on the hotel door, I open it, the conversation starts out ok until she explains we have a flat tire. So, here we go, myself and Ted Keller going out to read the manual on a 2010 Yukon to change a tire. This is something I hate doing because I am really fealling like crap. Trust me they make it pretty darn complicating to change a tire on these rides. That obstacle is hurdled and we are off. One of those days where you have a 10% hatch over NE Co./SE Wy./SW NE/NW Ks. and everyone, his brother, and 2nd cousin half removed is chasing. I don't think anyone truly knew where to go. We drove out to Holyoke passing Reed who headed back west on the Denver cell. We figured that might be a bit elevated due to the temp spreads, so we decided to head south on the road construction mess of hwy 385. We detour west down hwy 34 in the town of Wray to go after a southern super cell that fired out ahead of the initial line. Well. . .that cell puked out and we continued west after a dynamic cell hooking like a beyatch and I wasn't watching my speed. You know how you wish you had a star trek transporter to get you to the cell like a.s.a.p, but instead you forget your foot turns to lead. Well. . .I get pulled over by the state patrol and that is part 2 of our crazy day, fortunately he gave us a warning and also said "I don't think any tornadoes will happen today guys." After he said that, we knew that he jinxed himself, so we were pretty confident on seeing a tornado after that point. We arrive on a beautiful tail end cell near Last Chance, Co. with an unbelievable lowered base. As we approached we could clearly see amazing rotation with a RFD gust front tail cloud that tailed back every bit of 100 miles to the SW out over the front range, (never seen anything like it before). We stopped to the east of last chance and decided to film and shortly after we shot the 1st high contrast tornado with pinkish backlighting, we then moved within 3 miles and shot #2. There were several points where it appeared as if there may have been 2+ ground circulations on the ground at any given time. I counted 2 high contrast tornadoes, a 3rd not condensed but funnel with ground circulation, and multiple low contrast tubes. The story of our luck didn't end there because near the intersection of hwy 71 and 36 we were filming the approaching "insane RFD push" and we got into some large hail. Annette was trying to get into the vehicle and hail had pelted her pretty good and while buckling she had dropped her IPhone on the side of hwy 36. We had a developing funnel to our west with a surge of 3" hail moving our way so we bolted to the east. After a few minutes Annette sais "Oh No! I can't find my phone!". Yup, part 3 of our crazy day we had this happen and couldn't turn around. We continued to the east ahead of the push for about 15 miles. After things stabilized we decided to head back to the west to see if the phone may have survived the hail and possible circulation crossing the road. Believe it or not, after driving for 15 miles very slowly we spotted the Iphone on the shoulder. I think we were just as excited to find the Iphone as we were to see the tornadoes, ha ha. So, the day ended on a good note. On another side note, that trooper that said it wouldn't happen. . .well, that cell tracked into his area continuously putting down tornado reports, and I am sure he ate those words as the caravan of chaser convergence flooded him. He was a very nice guy, and treated us kind by giving out the warning so I hope he stayed safe. Just goes to show you how a chain of not so good events can all be a part of the big picture and eventually great things will happen. Below is video of our account, and pics.

Tornado #1 near Last Chance, Co.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOiBl9RiGCw

Video Of Finding Phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFCF0_mevg


We ended the evening at the Village Inn in Sterling Co. Everyone else decided to eat at the same spot. We enjoyed a great conversation with Reed, Joel, Chris, and Terry and checked out their awesome ride. We also found out that we made a good move reserving our rooms one more day because V2 and everyone else had booked out our hotel and those nearby that night .

SRV Photo

 

[Bobby Prentice]

Deer Trail-Last Chance, Colorado Tornadoes

2010 June 10 Deer Trail-Last Chance, Colorado Tornadoes - Direct YouTube link

I love it when a plan comes to fruition. Filmed two tornadoes from US36 in eastern Adams county, CO. Storm was the tail-end Charlie of a short line of supercell. In the process of blowing the storm off when Matt Crowther called to report a twilight tornado. We returned in time to see the highly occluded meso still producing a funnel cloud halfway to the ground. V2 was all over it from the beginning.

The first non-tornado supercell had fantastic classic/LP structure, but became high-based as it tracked east and then got seeded by the supercells to its south. So we dropped south after the Charlie. It had classic structure and promptly produced its first tornado when we got to US36 somewhere west of Last Chance. Got great tripoded video and stills of the entire structure. Lasted 5-10 minutes.

After a 5-7 minute break the next occlusion produced another 5-10 minute stovepipe tornado. Didn't film this very well because we had to bail due to marble hail.

The storm apparently found the returning warm front and was able to ride it for awhile. Not sure why there was such a long break between tornado 2 and 3. Perhaps the V2 folks can shed light on this.

 

[Chad Moore]

Encore from Last Chance

Finally getting to post this after forum membership was approved. We singled out the Deer Trail meso early on and luckily stayed on it through a ratty phase. When it started looking good, there were only 2 teams on it on the north side, and I gather two teams on the south side. Once it shaped up it quickly produced a rope tornado, then the classic cone nado as seen in most of the pictures, and then finally a stovepipe. Once nightfell the storm crossed Hwy 71 north of Last Chance. With nightfall upon us, most of the now 200 count chasers (including V2) headed north on 71 and either punched through light hail or waited on the southern edge until it passed. I did the latter, and while waiting on the side of the road something caught my eye above. I took several wide field time exposures looking straight up and this is what I saw- two funnel clouds, one of which looped back into the cloud. This was happening right above about 100 chasers along the roadside, and no one saw it. I'd estimate that the funnel got within 1000 feet of the ground.

My 6th chase and second tornado. It all came together for me on this chase.

 

[Dann Cianca]

Finally getting to post this after forum membership was approved. We singled out the Deer Trail meso early on and luckily stayed on it through a ratty phase. When it started looking good, there were only 2 teams on it on the north side, and I gather two teams on the south side. Once it shaped up it quickly produced a rope tornado, then the classic cone nado as seen in most of the pictures, and then finally a stovepipe. Once nightfell the storm crossed Hwy 71 north of Last Chance. With nightfall upon us, most of the now 200 count chasers (including V2) headed north on 71 and either punched through light hail or waited on the southern edge until it passed. I did the latter, and while waiting on the side of the road something caught my eye above. I took several wide field time exposures looking straight up and this is what I saw- two funnel clouds, one of which looped back into the cloud. This was happening right above about 100 chasers along the roadside, and no one saw it. I'd estimate that the funnel got within 1000 feet of the ground.

My 6th chase and second tornado. It all came together for me on this chase.

Hey Chad, assuming this was just north of Anton, I saw several funnels there as well. They were all over the place on the somewhat elevated occluded meso. Visibility was really good with that portion of the RFD being quite dry.