Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Blasting Frontlines!






Passing through Denver!

The Midnight Supercell






just before the start of a new day a cell in the mountains near Boulder came roaring off the mountain.....at first look it wasn't very impressive on radar...than 2 minutes later it was a whole new story.....
Pretty much the whole life cycle went grazing east just north of Denver than headed in a southeast direction....it was one heck of a CG storm....structure even played out once it got further east....Dann & I noticed that NWS was asleep or something, but this sucker had TVS, meso written all over it...no severe thunderstorm warning....no tornado warnings....notta....
Maybe I still have lots to learn or what I was seeing is a figment of my imagination.....
Here are some vid caps......

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Denver & CG sunset show!






Tonight was awesome to have front window seating 9 floors up watching this storm slowly move across the Denver Metro Area....catching some awesome Cloud to Grounds (CG's) and a beautiful sunset peeking through the rain curtain!



Today looks to be setup from a midlevel shortwave making its way.....will see severe activity if daytime heating permits....will have to get a seating on the southside with chances I will be outside for the show....

Sunday, July 26, 2009

"Storms That Have Been Chased"------Episode 8: July 14th



Sunset beauty!

"Storms That Have Been Chased"-------Episode 7: July 12th







In this episode yet another new comer will get to experience storm chasing....Kainen Thomas tagged along with me to get the awesome front seat experience with Skinner in the chasing world.....This severe thunderstorm would give off to be an amazing outflow dominate storm...when I talk of outflow, I mean outflow! While out there Shep, Becca Mazur, and Tyler Rugh ran into us on a random dirt road....the first picture was taken by Becca....good stuff. The last time I experienced an outflow was from a supercell in NE of 2005, but of course not "as" intense but it was fun getting blasted by dirt, rain, and hail! Usually CG's are of concern on the backside but there was very little CG's so I took my chance and stood outside during the outflow chaos! BRING IT ON!.......than finished off with the classic hail curtain rainbow.....

stay tuned and High Pressure might please you in the next blog "Storms That Have Been Chased"

"Storms That Have Been Chased"-------Episode 6: July 11th








Northern Colorado expected to be an active day with upper level moisture in place and southeasterly flow giving surface level moisture....daytime heating and Cheyenne Ridge helped to bring a beautiful collection of convective towers east and northeast Weld County. I was doing a little Need For Speed Most Wanted when I went out to check on the conditions. I expected around 3pm would be when I would head out and when I went outside around that time....it was there.....beautiful startup initiation that would begin for future towers to take in the energy once it died. Being out again on the county roads is just pleasant in a sense there was no rush and it was quiet. Ben Heckel and I watched and waited till conditions improved in the dinner hours......this is when we intercepted the cell of the day just north of Kersey, CO......incredible shear environment.....all in all this was fun.......

Friday, July 24, 2009

"Storms That Have Been Chased"------Episode 5: July 7th






It was a calm day with the only thing on my mind was cleaning out my car. The mountains once again brewed a storm giving off an amazing base. Another note...this has to be the slowest moving storm ever and yet still hold its beauty through Evans/Greeley, CO........as evening weared on, many were able to see the International Space Station making its way in view as the sun set. As my friend and I headed a little east to get away from the Greeley lights, there was the crawling leftover storm from earlier still making its way east producing a flash of lightning every so often....as we looked to our south we watched the Space Station crawl across the sky and disappear behind the storm cloud tops.....i unfortunately don't have a pic of this, but video will soon reveal this in later episode of "Storms That Have Been Chased"

Thursday, July 23, 2009

"Storms That Have Been Chased"-------Episode 4: July 6th






It was a casual day but not casual enough to ignore how humid it was for July.....it's supposed to be 100 these days in Greeley, Colorado....not so much.....as we will see my car goes for a stroll nearby Greeley to intercept a cell moving from the northwest to southeast crossing over 85 passing through Eaton, CO. I left seeing the cell on radar in a blip form giving me and the storm time to be at it's full stage....this is when I went to kidnap a friend....Katie Wiseman was about to experience yet not an extreme chase, but her first local storm chase....it was a moments' decision because I just showed up, had some candy than said want to go for a drive....she knew it was a storm chase....I had planned on not being out for very long....
We drove out and intercepted a high based rain storm which was fun to get out and just be with the storm....later we saw cells develop south and east of Brighton producing quite a gusty outflow in the distance. Mammatus would soon be the last things both our eyes would see before heading back into Greeley for a nice bbq....chicken on the grill! next blog will not be as dramatic but this day has uniqueness in itself....come back for some more "Storms That Have Been Chased........."

"Storms That Have Been Chased"---------Episode 3: July 5th






It was another night to endure bangs and light shows...on July 5th it was an evening where daytime heating setup for adiabatic cooling to expedite storms....I remember watching a match to determine who would pull away with the Wimbeldon trophy....Roddick or Federerererererer.....flashes began to peek through the window giving the pull effect for me to get outside to watch thing rolling over Evans, Colorado....at first it was a spit of CG's than as it moved eastward slowly....the flicker show began with cc's and intraclouds to finish off the storm....as for the next day scroll to the next blog for a guest to experience her first chase on the next "Storms That Have Been Chased"......