6/22/06 NOW: CO

[Mike McDonald]

TOR warned cell in southeast Douglas County. Law enforcement and fire department have a visual on a definite funnel and possible tornado.

Mike

 

[Mark Farnik]

Tornado warning out for north central El Paso County; Pueblo WFO stresses the storm is rapidly rotating and could produce a tornado at any time. The storm is located over Black Forest and is moving east at 10 mph.
Peyton and Calhan are in the direct path of the storm. Things could get quite hairy in that area in the next half hour.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Tornado warning out for north central El Paso County; Pueblo WFO stresses the storm is rapidly rotating and could produce a tornado at any time. The storm is located over Black Forest and is moving east at 10 mph.
Peyton and Calhan are in the direct path of the storm. Things could get quite hairy in that area in the next half hour.
[/b]

I'm not sure radar obs would agree with "rapidly rotating". The mesocyclone looks rather broad and not entirely impressive, with about 60kts differential velocity over a 5-mile area. That said, it is showing on the 0.5degree scan, (~700ft above ground) and it is a cyclonic, convergence signature right along the Elbert - El Paso co. border region. Instability increases to the east in better moisture, but the best shear remains north of the boundary north of I70 per mesonalysis. The Limon CO ob at 19z showed a 29F dewpoint depression, so my hunch is that these are rather high-based, with a tendency to become outflow dominant as cold pools merge. Things may change later as the storms work into the better moisture, but it's tough to break up cold pools to allow for more discrete convection.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Jon Van de Grift and I were under each of those storms while tornado warned and cannot verify a single one of them. The closest thing to a tornado we saw was a funnel extending about halfway down from a wall cloud southeast of Franktown. Someone actually reported that as a tornado. We also drove beneath the main updraft of the storm which had a reported tornado 11 miles west of Limon. We were under that cell for about 20 minutes in which the warning was issued and the tornado "sighted". If it were there, we would've seen it (perfect views to west and south). I'm surprised with the number of tornado reports from these storms as Jon and I were on each tornado warned cell from Franktown to Kit Carson and didn't see a single one.

I will say that precip was extremely heavy and from Limon to southeast of Hugo, we were behind the main line, but as we moved southeast towards Aroya, our view of the base improved; still nothing.

Full report later including pics of the incredible shelf cloud, some hail accumulations, and local flooding in Lamar. We're currently in Fowler where I am using Sprint PCS to connect and catch up with the world today. Stopping for dinner in Pueblo before returning home.

 

[Stan Rose]

Jon Van de Grift and I were under each of those storms while tornado warned and cannot verify a single one of them. The closest thing to a tornado we saw was a funnel extending about halfway down from a wall cloud southeast of Franktown. Someone actually reported that as a tornado. We also drove beneath the main updraft of the storm which had a reported tornado 11 miles west of Limon. We were under that cell for about 20 minutes in which the warning was issued and the tornado "sighted". If it were there, we would've seen it (perfect views to west and south). I'm surprised with the number of tornado reports from these storms as Jon and I were on each tornado warned cell from Franktown to Kit Carson and didn't see a single one.

I will say that precip was extremely heavy and from Limon to southeast of Hugo, we were behind the main line, but as we moved southeast towards Aroya, our view of the base improved; still nothing.

Full report later including pics of the incredible shelf cloud, some hail accumulations, and local flooding in Lamar. We're currently in Fowler where I am using Sprint PCS to connect and catch up with the world today. Stopping for dinner in Pueblo before returning home.
[/b]

Tony: youre gonna cry when you see the video from near Black Forest. Im half glad i couldnt chase today--would have hated myself if i missed such a close event. Feel free to stop by and say hi if youre near the airport.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Photo taken from Channel 9 News - Denver

This was the funnel we saw, we were just north of this at the time. Channel 9 has photos of the tornado which damaged a house which I believe was on a cell to our south about the time we were in Franktown. I'll have to double-check my times with the tornado time to see which one this was. There were several reports of tornadoes in Elbert County, so that may've been the first tornado which was south of us (another storm away).