Prechase for Father's Day Teaser

My dad and I went out and about east of Greeley and caught some nice looking Garden Variety Thunderstorms. Fun day!

Full Write-Up June 11th 2010

In the case of the last two days very similar patterns of severe weather seemed to follow the same pattern. Looking at the storm reports this would turn to be a very long day! The reports that came in were all through the night given activity in NE and KS.
Colorado would once again start off the show given its spectacular mountains for lifting and forcing mechanism. I would once again only get to see the start of the show and would miss another classic supercell. This supercell would not be another LP but instead an HP formed given the increase in moisture from the leftover storms the day before.
Honestly I think on June 10th following Highway 36 was just too slow for supercells to follow. So for today as the two severe cells popped north of Denver and another farther south just east of Colorado Springs it would decide to take both I-76 & I-70.
The pics above show the developing supercell that actually developed in the mountains and finally moved off creating amazing shear meso skies over the city of Denver. This was not the main interest if a tornado were to develop because to the north was where the greatest concern of a wall cloud would be as it came off the foothills into Thorton.

I could only make out fun little scuds as it moved NEasterward towards Brighton than following I-76.
In summary this was one HAIL OF A TORNADIC CELL. The reason why this storm would continue to be tornadic is due to the remaining HP rotating meso.



As these two tornadic cells dominate the Interstates, I got a phone call from Corey Green another friend also a meteorologist. He called to excite me with the severe warned cell moving into Bennett, CO, his home town. As the cell went over his house, he sent me a pic of hail which is quite humerous as he measured it with imagination.


This velocity grab was pretty sweet given multiple mesos grinding up the shear with hail wrapped up inside giving a phenomenal green nasty color looking sky in the supercell.

This satellite imagery is fascinating given the non-moving supercell in Kansas sitting and convecting over Hoxie, KS. This would result in numerous tornadoes reported in the area.
All in all, again congrats to all that had an amazing day this day!

Full Write Up for June 10th 2010

This would be the first severe thunderstorm facing south towards Littleton that would eventually merge with another severe thunderstorm north in Thorton. Switching sides often I kept an eye on rotation from mesocyclone development. These storms were very low precipitated which gave me an indication that development had intense inflow and updraft to keep these storms long lasting and non-precipitating. As these cells merged east towards Byers they converged into what I have seen from other chasers blogs and pics a beautiful classic LP supercell. One that many dream of specially with tornadic development. It was tough watching this on radar and not being out there, but life goes on. I congradulate all that were able to enjoy this wonderful opportunity that happens only every 5 years. The last supercell of that magnitude that I remember was June 2nd 2005, but no tornadoes were reported which makes this day even harder to get over.

Seen in this picture is intense updraft shear and rotation on the south side facing the north cell over Thorton moving east towards Brighton.

Notice the very low precipitation as you can see the sunlight all the way to the north.


This radar shows the two severe cells making their way out east on the Palmer Divide along with another cell up farther north along the Wyoming/Colorado border.

I am very thankful that a friend of mine Jon Meyer called me that day to be a part by nowcasting for them. They drove down from Rapid City, SD to catch some action in Nebraska, but things weren't turning out the best for them. I did my best to bring this bust to a fun chase day. Before the cell popped along the Wyoming/Colorado border, I saw an area of moisture convergence as very weak development was popping along the Cheyenne Ridge, but not fully converged. I told them their best chances would be to drive west and intercept clouds in all reality. This convergence was bugging me though looking at Mesoscale Analysis, I told them to drive to Kimball, NE as they were waiting in Sydney, NE. Just down the street (I-80). Let me clarify, Jon Meyer is a meteorologist and is very knowledgable. They just lacked radar because laptop could not get plugged in due to a broken power converter in the car. Fuses suck. He knows what he is doing....so I just kind of guided them that's all.


As they were driving towards Kimball the severe cell finally developed in Weld County, Colorado and began moving towards Kimball. While they sat just north of Kimball some cells fired up along the frontal passage but quickly lined out as it sheared out.

Here is a photo from Jon's cell sent to me.
This was the point I warned that the cell down south had gone tornado warned and I told them they had plenty of time to get down there. Pretty much I said go now! They left to intercept the cell south of Kimball moving east parallel to the Wyoming/Colorado border.

This made the day all the more greater as they intercepted and I was able to be a part of just a little thing called nowcasting. Again another cell pic was sent and all I could do was smile.

This summarized the north tornadic cell which was eventually choked off by the dominate tornadic cell to the south which lasted for hours following highway 36 parallel putting down 2 tornadoes and gave a very photogenic day. Breathtaking to say the least.
Back in Aurora, CO another cell popped off the mountains producing a beautiful night thunderstorm.

Teasers for June 10th & 11th

I will have full updates on these in future to come....

The rest of the CG Clan from June 8th

It was fun to hear the faint thunder grow bigger and bigger as it grew closer and closer. Enjoy them....

A little taste of CG lightning today in CO

This is one of many still captures I got from the video. Amazing CG's cored south of Denver. This eventually grouped into a nice looking severe storm which eventually went to tornado warned east of Kiowa as it moved southeast in between Limon & CSprings. Will post the rest of the lightning in a little bit....