joel ewing
EF5
I'm sorry Adam, but the only thing Colorado is good for is the salt water taffy at the in Limon. Other than that... just kidding. Personally, the guys I chase with and I LOVE chasing Colorado, and it doesn't matter if it's southeast, east central or the northeast portion. Personally, I honestly look forward to chasing Colorado each season! You mentioned there was a stat that said that the highest frequency of tornadoes in the country might be in Colorado. I remember hearing that too years ago, and as I remember they pointed to the area around Yuma and Washington counties. For years I've said "if you want to make sure you bag a tornado each and every season, just pitch a tent around Last Chance or Cheyenne Wells, then hang out and wait...and you WILL get your tornado". If there were a case to be made about the possibility that Colorado tornadoes normally aren't as powerful as their neighboring states, the only thing I might pin that on would be that perhaps there isn't normally quite as much moisture in place as Nebraska, Kansas, etc. Regarding the notion that Colorado might have the highest number of un-reported tornadoes in the country, I would tend to think not. Perhaps there was a time when that was so. There are so many chasers out there covering most storms in Colorado during potentially tornadic days that not too many occur that don't get recorded. Don't forget, besides chasers, every tourist and homeowner has a camcorder anymore, and once they do capture one, it gets put up on YouTube within hours. You want remote / under-reported ??...try the Nebraska sandhills or the Western Dakotas. A LOT of those Nebraska sandhill counties have a total of 750-950 people in them...the entire county! But even those areas have chasers thru there anymore for the most part. Oh for sure, some tornadoes will occur without ever being seen and/or reported, especially after early June when there are less chasers out. But not enough to pad the stats to any large degree for one state or another. Obviously, that's just my opinion. My bottom line, I LOVE chasing Colorado. Colorado can and does get some monster tornadoes, and I see no reason why EF-4 or EF-5's could not happen under the right conditions. The cool thing about hanging out in Colorado and playing the upslope for several days in a row is that on blue-sky days, when there isn't going to be a chase....there is so much to do within stabbing distance. Heck, you can be breathing cool, clean Pine-scented air in just a matter of a few hours drive. Or fish, (I always have fishing equipment with me on board) or hike, etc. It's a lot different than having to spend your blue-sky days in....say.......Liberal, Kansas (no offense, Liberalites)...but there IS a big difference. You are lucky to live there, imo.
As previously discussed the potential for higher end tornadoes may be low but the frequency for tornadoes rates among the best anywhere and the storms can be gorgeous. The Last Chance supercell back in June 2010 exhibited some of the best structure I’ve ever seen!
