Friday marks the end of our stormchasing adventure for 2024. Fortunately there was a 2% Tornado risk in the right direction for our drive back from Amarillo to Denver.
We initially targeted Burlington CO, but as the afternoon progressed the data suggested that our best bet for supercell activity will be further West, so we selected Limon CO as our target.
Shortly after arriving in Limon our first storm of the afternoon appeared on radar.
With our first storm of the day in sight we relocated towards Agate CO just up I-70 from Limon.
While we focused on the severe warned storm to our North we kept a keen eye on the storm developing to its South. It looked like the Southern storm would move into better air and ultimately be our main target for the day.
After one last view of our first storm of the day, we headed South to get in position on our second target for the day and what would be our final storm of the week.
While we stayed clear of the hail the strong rotating winds of the storm started whipping hail around towards us.
After escaping the hail, we got in a good position on the storm as it produced lightning and continued to strengthen.
We relocated closer to the storm and got a brilliant view of the deep blue core of the storm as well as a safe vantage point on the area most likely to produce a Tornado and we’ll away from the precipitation.
The storm continued to strengthen and put on a brilliant show, with the vibrant blue of the hail.
As the storm rolled South East we continued to track it along a very conveniently located South road it was about to put on its most tantalizing performance of the evening.
Rotation continued to increase and strengthen, causing the storm to lower and create lots of scary looking clouds!
After relocating a bit further, South again to keep a good view on the storm and avoid the hail we could see some obvious circulation on the ground.
We’ll likely never know if this was a Tornado but, regardless of whether we can claim it or not, we got the thrill and excitement of successfully being in the right place at right time to view one of nature’s most spectacular phenomenon!
As the last moments of an obvious wall cloud on our storm faded, we settled in for one last ghtning show with the Colorado plains as our ampitheatre.
With no more tornado potential on our storm and failing light, we let the storm rumble off into the distance.
And that was it for another year! Once again we had a brilliant storm filled road trip across the MidWest watching the awesome power of nature.
Over the course of 7 days we drove 4000 miles across 6 states, intercepting severe storms every day! With one Tornado heard and the possibility we briefly observed another, this was a successful trip all around!
