Mike Umscheid
EF4
I intercepted and photographed a couple supercells in northeastern Colorado on Tues June 20. The first storm developed near Sterling and took on supercellular characteristics with a slowly rotating wall cloud...before getting massively undercut by forward flank precip outflow. It was tornado warned when it was near Sterling, but I never saw anything that really close to tornadogenesis. If there was one, it was likely a brief landspout type vortex. The massive outflow push really ruined the structure and integrity of this storm as I followed it through the Sand Hills of northeastern Colorado northwest of Wray. NWS-GLD issued a TOR for this storm when it was near Clarkville... but again, nothing remotely close to tornadogenesis... I'm pretty sure it was still severely undercut and ruined from the huge outflow rush when it was south of Fleming.
The structure of this Clarkville-Wauneta supercell (north of Wray) was really only mediocre at best, but apparently was producing 2" diamater hail. I blew this storm off just east of Wauneta with interest now on the new Yuma supercell to the southwest. This had more meat to it and was also tornado-warned. It was high-based with a little bit of a RFD cut/clear slot viewed from 30 miles away north of Wray... The lighting to the due east of this supercell was horrible along Hwy 34 between Wray and Eckley, so I optioned south to try and get due south of the main updraft region before the sun set. On my route south on one of the unpaved named farm roads, I passed the Bill Reid and the Tempest Tour group. I contined about 5 miles farther south until I stopped on a hill looking north with great visibility. I was rewarded with remarkable deeply saturated colors right at sunset with fairly decent supercell updraft structure. The colors were just out of this world, wildy vivid... you couldn't ask for better photography soft light. Probably the best color/soft light with a supercell this year for me, it was great! On my way home, I stopped a couple times for some nighttime CG photography...once east of Goodland, then again near Dodge City around 4am.
Supercell at sunset looking due north about 7 W Wray, CO:
Mike U
The structure of this Clarkville-Wauneta supercell (north of Wray) was really only mediocre at best, but apparently was producing 2" diamater hail. I blew this storm off just east of Wauneta with interest now on the new Yuma supercell to the southwest. This had more meat to it and was also tornado-warned. It was high-based with a little bit of a RFD cut/clear slot viewed from 30 miles away north of Wray... The lighting to the due east of this supercell was horrible along Hwy 34 between Wray and Eckley, so I optioned south to try and get due south of the main updraft region before the sun set. On my route south on one of the unpaved named farm roads, I passed the Bill Reid and the Tempest Tour group. I contined about 5 miles farther south until I stopped on a hill looking north with great visibility. I was rewarded with remarkable deeply saturated colors right at sunset with fairly decent supercell updraft structure. The colors were just out of this world, wildy vivid... you couldn't ask for better photography soft light. Probably the best color/soft light with a supercell this year for me, it was great! On my way home, I stopped a couple times for some nighttime CG photography...once east of Goodland, then again near Dodge City around 4am.
Supercell at sunset looking due north about 7 W Wray, CO:
Mike U
