Just a quick update from central Kansas here on Day 2 of storm chasing. I’m writing this while on the road (yes, we have “onboard” wi-fi!) near Great Bend, KS as we are headed south and east to see if we can get on a storm or two later this afternoon. If anything interesting happens, I’ll post about it tomorrow.
Yesterday (Day 1) was quite the way to begin the trip! We found ourselves a storm that developed over the Front Range just southwest of Denver, CO around 2pm and traveled over 250 miles to the east-northeast through eastern Colorado and into Nebraska over the course of the next 6 hours. We followed this storm for all 250 miles and saw 2 confirmed tornadoes (there was apparently another that we could not see because it was wrapped in rain). We did not actually see them touch down, as we were too far away, but other storm spotters who were closer were able to verify that the funnels were on the ground.
This storm was fascinating because the circulation within it kept regenerating as it moved eastward, allowing the multiple tornadoes to develop along the way. This was also the only storm in the area that did anything interesting. Unless you were chasing in southwest Kansas yesterday, where some people saw 10+ tornadoes, this was the storm to be on.
Here are a few photos from yesterday for your enjoyment!
Preconvective cumulus about 20 miles east of Denver, looking west
Waiting for storms to develop next to the Denver Terminal Doppler Weather Radar
A growing storm with beautiful striations
30-40 mph wind gusts here flowing into the storm
