Upslope flow

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.

20 minutes after arriving in Limon a potentially interesting storm popped up on radar to our North and West.

With our first storm of the day in sight we relocated towards Agate CO just up I-70 from Limon.

Our first storm, shortly before it was severe warned
Our first severe warned storm of the day on Radar

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.

One last view from our first storm

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.

First view of our target storm
This storm had a very strong core with lots of damaging hail present

While we stayed clear of the hail the strong rotating winds of the storm started whipping hail around towards us.

A video of us escaping hail being blown towards us, sound on!

After escaping the hail, we got in a good position on the storm as it produced lightning and continued to strengthen.

1 of 2 frames of a cloud to cloud lightning bolt, you can see the bolt being obscured by the hail from the storm in the image below
Lightning  being obscured by hail

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 white precipitation on the right of this image is the hail core we wanted to stay well clear of!

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.

Our storm rolling past us and spinning as it goes

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.

The storm on radar shortly before the funnel and spinning winds
To my eye, there is a funnel cloud above circulation on the ground in this image
Video courtesy of Linda Wilson, showing circulation on the ground and rotation above

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!

The storm continued to spin and look like it might produce a tornado
Lightning and the lowering wall cloud

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.

Local news racing past us towards the storm

With no more tornado potential on our storm and failing light, we let the storm rumble off into the distance.

As the sun set, it provided a fiery backdrop for the storms all around us
Lightning strikes as we drive through the storm
Queuing the music for one last exciting drive through a storm
The final stormy sunset our 2024 stormchasing adventure

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!

One thought on “Upslope flow

  1. Thanks for another storm filled trip across the MidWest. Brilliant!

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