6/11/10 REPORTS: CO/KS/NE

[Scott Hammel]

Started the day leaving Denver and drifted out to Limon where we waited around for an hour for cells to come off the foothills. Eventually noticed a cell starting to fire N of CO Springs. We were almost tempted to go after the Denver cell up I-76 but resisted and stayed with this cell which turned out to be the storm of the day...

Caught what I believe was the second reported brief tornado just W of Limon. Precip was wrapping so it was hard to tell but here's the photo's I got.

We got around the corner where visibility was slightly better...

There was definitely some ground circulation as you can see some dust getting kicked up under the funnel...

If this was indeed a tornado, it was extremely quick touching down for 30 seconds or less from what I saw.

Shortly after this we raced with everyone else out I-70 to the Genoa exit where we witnessed 2 meso's at once with very good rotation. A very pronounced wall cloud accompanied one of them and came very close to producing but we never saw anything drop or touch down. After that we called it a day. Great local chase!

 

[Adam Adkins]

Today is a day that will live in infamy. I came to a dead end in the road and had nowhere to go - the storm consumed me. I put hail damage in my dad's car and this was officially my last ever chase (until I go off to college). He was very upset. I was on the I76 storm and it had an incredible hail core! It sure explains the baseballs lol.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Very picturesque day in Colorado. After waiting all day in Limon I made a run for the storms coming out of Colorado Springs.

Dueling wall clouds:

Once that storm turned into an HP disaster I drifted south towards some more cells coming out of Colorado Springs. Not an impressive storm but great mountain scenery:

Then I finally ran south after the cells nears Las Animas and intercepted near the KS/CO border. Beautiful scenery with high contrast convection, rainbows, deep blue mammatus, and tons of lightning:

I'm camping out under the stars on the KS/CO border tonight. The weather is surreal, balmy with a breeze. I laid on top of the van for awhile counting shooting stars and listening to some distant coyotes. What a great chase experience.

Nice meeting Mike Scantlin, the Cloud 9 guys, Bob Schafer, and both Steve Millers!

 

[Adam Lucio]

Unlike yesterday today belonged to the mean green HP machine.

Hopped from storm to storm to storm. First the tor warned storm near Denver:

Had the coldest outflow Ive ever felt...

At one point I was very convinced I saw a tornado, but lost sight of it quickly as I fumbled for a camera, so I wrote it off in my mind as an HP mirage...a few moments later tornado reports came in so I am curious if any pictures or video will come from it to see if they match what I saw.

Ditched that storm and raced for the other beast heading towards Limon:

From afar...anvil/updraft/mammatus

In Limon...what a mess.

Raced ahead of it to Genoa where I watched the shelf move in for a good 20 minutes...decided outflow dominant was the main game today so I opted for some core punch action at which point the storm decided to spit out a weak tornado/gustnado on steroids. Not upset about missing that...

After core punching I left that storm to get on a new tornado warned storm north of that but it fell apart as I arrived so I then dove back south and core punched the remains of the Limon storm which was then a linear mess.

All in all a good chase. Storm colors were a real treat. I enjoy a good mean looking HP storm, especially after a day like yesterday. They're some of the most threatening skies you can see. Variety is good.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Chased the Limon HP monster along I-70 and saw a few of the birdfart tornado-whirlies near Arriba. At the very least, it offered a tiny bit of redemption after missing the previous day's tornadoes, but doesn't break this dreaded curse I have with my resident state..

MORE IMAGERY AND VIDEO HERE.

 

[Rob H]

We decided to stay on the cell that started in Denver and ended up out by Brush, since nothing looked too much more promising anywhere else. Our cell tried organizing many times but this picture of the wall cloud is the best it ever got. On the way back home to MN, we hung out in between the two MCS bows in NE and got some amazing lightning pics - definitely our highlight of the day.

 

[Charles Kuster]

We chased the HP supercell that started near Black Forest, CO and tracked north of Seibert, CO. Due to the HP nature of the storm it was hard to see any of the brief tornadoes that the storm produced. We did observe one scud feature (possible weak tornado?) at 5:55pm MDT when the storm was southwest of Limon.

A cluster of storms fired just to the south of this supercell at about 7:08pm MDT. They eventually interacted with the supercell effectively ending its tornadic potential. However, one of these storms became tornado warned near dark and showed decent structure. It slowly spun down to the north of Stratton, CO providing the ending to good chase day. Congrats to all who saw storms yesterday!

Scud feature (possible weak tornado) southwest of Limon. Picture taken from 1 mile north of Limon at 5:57pm MDT and is looking west southwest.

Second storm that formed near dark. Picture taken at 8:55pm MDT from 1.5 miles north of Stratton, CO and is looking north northwest.

http://i50.tinypic.com/qohvd4.jpg (Second storm. Picture taken at 8:53pm CDT from 1.5 miles north of Stratton)

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Chased near La Junta, CO. Saw several funnels east of Las Animas. When we drove into La Junta after the storm's passage we got to see some hail still on the ground. A few stones were easily over 1.5". Overall, still lots of fun.

 

[Danny Wooller]

Shortly after this we raced with everyone else out I-70 to the Genoa exit where we witnessed 2 meso's at once with very good rotation. A very pronounced wall cloud accompanied one of them and came very close to producing but we never saw anything drop or touch down. After that we called it a day. Great local chase!

We were at the exit at that point also and witnessed the rotation. Tried so very hard to produce.

 

[Melanie Metz]

I decided to head out for a one day chase (from Telluride) and watched the cells down by Walsenburg, CO. I was still a little too far north for the most interesting lowering but did see a landspout on one cell and then some nice structure and large hail...and suffered some hail damage!

More photos from the day at:
http://www.metzphotos.com/Landscapes-Storms-Animals/WalsenburgStorms/

 

[Rick Schmidt]

Here are my views of the Limon storm on Friday. It sure was fun driving twice underneath that rotation! --Rick Schmidt

 

[Fred Dearborn]

6/11/10 Report



By far the best photo was after dark for me just east of Flagler

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

Chased the southern CO target along the Hwy 50 corridor. Saw several wall clouds, funnels, and managed to stay out of the big hail. I think I picked up the same handful of hail as Robert in La Junta, my picture looks exactly the same Chased 'em all the way up to Hwy 96 between Eads and Sheridan Lake before calling it a night. Stumbled upon Dick and Darin in Kit Carson on my way back to my in-law's farm, great to see you guys!

Full report HERE

 

[Jason Boggs]

A little late to this thread, but here it is. Decided to go chasing again in Colorado. I started off near Lamar, and ended up near La Junta. There were 3 individual supercells SW of La Junta, so I took off down US 350 to Timpas. Sat there for a while watching the cells, and saw a quick horizontal funnel from the most western cell. Stayed there for a while until the cell was north of me, and slowly made my way back up towards La Junta. Got to La Junta and saw golf ball hail on the ground. Took a few photos and made my way to Las Animas where I got nailed with hail ranging from pennies to occasional golf balls. Continued on US 50, and as I broke out of the precip and hail, I was right under a high based wall cloud. I stopped and looked straight up, and saw a cinnamon roll swirl right on top of me. I thought a tornado might drop, so I took off to try to get east. I eventually made my way in to Lamar and saw a nice meso to my NW. Sat and enjoyed the view until dark. Stopped and Mickey D's to eat, and then headed home. I never knew the area around La Junta was so flat. I'll definitely be going back.

Golf ball hail in La Junta

Nice base looking west from Timpas (SW of La Junta)

Nice meso between Las Animas and Lamar

Meso as it neared closer to Lamar

 

[Skip Talbot]

Just got my timelapse video up from this day. I intercepted between Colorado Springs and Limon before running after the storms coming out of Las Animas: