05/21/2024
https://www.facebook.com/share/vnCjVxGp5tU6WGyR/?mibextid=WC7FNe
I drove over 500 miles on the eastern plains last night while dodging reckless, irresponsible storm chasing enthusiasts, outrunning large hail cores, and at times being surrounded by some of the most vivid, and dangerous anvil lightning I've ever seen in my life.
This is my story.
*duh duh* 😆🥴
I staged in Brush, CO for awhile. Heller Brush!
There, I met up with some friends and colleagues of mine from MSU Denver, and our convoy began from there.
As the trough moved off the mountains yesterday afternoon, surface low pressure deepened in southern Colorado. The warm front associated with this cyclogenesis lifted northeastward and parked on the Highway 34 corridor. Thunderstorms exploded on this front and trained from west to east.
Training is exactly how it sounds. Just imagine sitting at a crossing while a train goes by. Each cart on that train represented a thunderstorm that "trained" across the highway 34 corridor yesterday afternoon and into yesterday night.
South of this front, temperatures were in the 70s and 80s. North of it, behind the cold front, by the time I got back to my house in Greeley around 12:30am this morning, it was raining with temperatures in the mid 40s!
Strong forcing along this front, combined with steep lapse rates (the rate at which temperature cools with height) and very cold temperatures in the higher troposphere (30,000-40,000 feet above the ground) contributed to producing severe thunderstorms with very strong updrafts. These strong updrafts supported hail growth that at times grew to bigger than baseball size.
Yuma, Colorado and folks in Yuma County seemed to be ground zero for the worst.
The training of storms caused tremendous flooding. The training also caused incredible accumulation of hail enough to bury and strand cars. The initial hail core contained baseball size hail that shattered windows in houses and cars, turned vehicles into golf balls, and peeled the siding off of many houses like a bandaid.
This same thunderstorm complex continued east as the triple point moved east where it caused a lot of damage in the town of Wray along Highway 385 near the Kansas/Nebraska state line. The triple point is where the cold front, warm front, and dry line all meet.
As storms blew up on the warm front, we moved east along Highway 34. Stopped briefly in Akron where the first cell became tornado warned. The anvil lightning this storm produced was quite the spectacle. Imagine sitting in your car and lightning is hitting the fields on both sides of you. Yeah that made my butt pucker. 🙋
From there, we drove east where we ended up in Yuma and reaccessed what our exit strategy was. By this time, supercells were training along Highway 34. We didn't wanna drive back west and core punch because of large hail and flooding. Our north options were limited plus with all the anvil lightning and heavy rain, it would have made driving at night really dangerous. Our only option was to drive south to I-70 to Seibert. Heller Seibert!
Sometimes storm chasing is not all about seeing tornadoes. Sometimes you get some great structure shots. Sometimes it's all about the fun you have and the memories you create with the people you're with, and sometimes exercising self preservation and knowing when to get the hell out of the way.
We were 20 miles south of Yuma when the baseball size hail started falling in town, and we followed the incredible lightning all the way back to Denver.
At the end of the day, it was a great forecast that deep down I was hoping would not verify. I shared a map yesterday of the dreaded oval circle shape thingy, and Highway 34 was in the bullseye.
To amateur storm chasers who pulled in front of our convoy almost causing an accident (yes I'm talking to you white passenger vans) - You don't know how close I was to forcing you off the road, and.............. exchanging a few words, and fists.
To those of you on the eastern plains who are cleaning up this morning, I'm sorry. You did nothing wrong. You don't deserve this. If I can help in anyway, please send me a message. I have sponsors who can help, and if they can't, we will get you connected with someone who can.
Deep hail in Yuma courtesy of 📸 Luke Geoglein
