Trentham Stormchasers 2010 USA Roadtrip

 

Day 1: 22nd April, 2010 Oh my gawd!!!!!!!! Thar she blows! 2 hours out of the airport at Denver, we drive into a spectacular supercell, 7cm hailstones (possibly larger), and 3 tornadoes.....!!!@ Not to mention flash floods......We drove around the Kit Carson area most of the afternoon, stunned by the rapidity of how quickly tornadoes can generate, not mention a myriad of funnels...

About 5m north of Kit Carson, we encounter a spectacular hail dump with level depths up to 6cm..most hail sizes were 3 to 5cm..a few were larger than 6cm. Accompanying this massive hail dump were powerful flash floods.

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The synoptic setup today was almost a classic...a deep depression was moving into western Colorado from the Rockies and its large scale cold pool aloft had generated unseasonal heavy snow across most of the Rockies including the ranges behind Los Angeles. The cold air spread all the way from northwest California through to the interior deserts of the southwest..the upper cold pool was advecting eastwards and the entire system was now digging into Gulf moisture. As we got off the plane today, our target was eastern central Colorado, but with jet lag and associated travel fatigue, our brains are not in gear. I couldn't wait to get out of the car hire place....there's a tendency to feel detached from your environment, so we were running on instinct, we hadn't even finished setting up our chase gear, so we were depending almost totally on visual observation, which was great until we passed into fog along the I70, so now, here we were approaching an area of high scale supercells with limited vision. We branched off the I70 at Limon and headed southeast along 287 for our target of Kit Carson. Within 20 miles we ran into gusty easterlies with drizzle and mist and then encountered road repairs where we were stopped for 10 minutes. Here in the states, road repairs would mean resurfacing of a 10 mile stretch in one hit, and you wait in line for up to half an hour...Jane noticed something large and white bounce alongside the car.....within minutes, out of the fog, came a barrage of large hailstones...we were trapped!! We could go nowhere and it grew darker.....the hail got bigger..as quickly as the hail started, it stopped and the mist cleared. I dived out of the car and grabbed a handful of hail which measured 2 - 4 cm with a few bigger ones....and at last the traffic started moving. If we were worried about that incident, our next encounter is almost beyond description!

We were 10 kms out of Kit Carson when we entered thick mist and drizzle..the worrying aspect of this highway was the number of trucks and only 2 lanes..it grew darker...a loud wallop on our roof got our attention! The wallop changed to frequent drumming...and another barrage of large hailstones. Visibility dropped to almost zero in torrential hail - we estimate some as large as 6cm! A large semi was right on our tail and then the windows fog up...we were literally flying blind under a supercell - it was obvious that the truckie behind us had no idea of our predicament...the wind was so strong now, our car was vibrating, not to mention the roar of the hail.

Unbelievably, the semi pulled onto the right verge and passed us on our inside while we struggled in the middle of the road virtually blind! Large hail turned to torrential rain and we managed to defog the windshield - the fog lifted and we could see a break ahead. We drove into the west side of Kit Carson and watched lowerings racing along and occasionally dropping funnels. A quick look to the north saw scud racing in the opposite direction...we had emerged from a nightmare hailstorm and rain wrap into a meso! We turned north at Kit Carson onto a side road and spotted our first tornado briefly...barely 500m away! The funnels and tornadoes that were developing here were rapidly dissipating. We pulled over on the verge, we were more or less stunned and disoriented. Pretty soon we realised that the meso was so large we could see the cyclonic rotation covering most of Kit Carson...huge bolts of lightning flickered, then a large wedge shape appeared from the swirling scud just east of our location - it didn't take long to register how dangerous a location we were in! We videoed and photographed for several minutes. Again, the setup was odd - fractus barely 100m above the ground was racing - we've never seen such speed or motion! We dived back in the car and raced north until we encountered golf ball hail...and a few larger ones!  The meso was shifting northeast - we could actually see the rain wrap in around the southwest side of the meso - we turned the car and headed back to Kit Carson, where tornado sirens were blaring. We drive east towards Cheyenne Wells, where we manage to pace the meso. Five minutes later, we view for the first time, a larger tornado dropping down from the wallcloud...this tornado appeared within seconds and was racing along at speeds close to 80km an hour. We spend the next 10 minutes invigorated by the sight before it roped out.

We drive back to Kit Carson, where we encounter another dissipating tornado on the edge of town with the sirens still blaring. We drive north again - within several kilometres, we blunder into an ice world - everything is buried, including the roadway. Our trusty Dodge Charger struggles, and we are forced to turn back. As we drive a km closer to Kit Carson, we come across a developing flash flood dragging mounds of ice along with it. The contrast between the brilliant white fields against the pitch black of the base of the flanking line - there's another loud boom on our roof.....we're in another hail barrage! This time though, the stones are much larger again, and pock mark our bonnet and car roof - we escape south......

Heading east again towards Cheyenne Wells we watch the supercell move rapidly north. From Cheyenne Wells we head north to Burlington. Pretty soon we encounter the flanking line again - as darkness falls we watch more funnels and brief tornadoes. We are out of adrenaline...literally!  At Burlington, we arrive with tornado sirens screaming, flash floods...we just couldn't come to terms with what we'd just experienced.....Day one finishes!!

 

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Travelling SE on the I70, the massive supercell anvil comes into view.

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As we pass under the anvil outflow, the structure comes into view.

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2204jon180t.jpg (60759 bytes)Our first encounter with large hail while stuck in a road repair traffic jam NW of Kit Carson 2204jon198t.jpg (42405 bytes)

Near Kit Carson, we are blinded by an horrendous hailstorm, some bigger than golfballs

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We emerge from the hailstorm to our first view of a tornado looking south from Kit Carson

 

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The huge meso kept generating brief tornadoes and funnels

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About 5 miles north of Kit Carson, we come across an area of incredible hail coverage

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Most hail was between 2 & 4cm - some were larger than 6cm!

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In some parts, hail measured as deep as 6cm level

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We've seen just about everything on the back of a truck in America.....

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There was so much hail that it crusted any watercourse

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The contrast between the hail and the ink black base of the flanking line was dramatic!

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In places, virtually all of the hail was 4cm or larger - these stones were rock hard!

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With sirens blaring, fortunately for Kit Carson, the tornado breaks apart on the western edge of town

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Dissipating tornado, Kit Carson

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Dissipating tornado, Kit Carson.

 

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After the tornado near Kit Carson dissipated, occasional swirls of fractus remain in the circulation.

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About 10 miles northeast of Kit Carson, a stronger tornado gets its act together

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This tornado lasted about 5 minutes and was moving almost 70 km per hour

 

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After about 4 minutes, this tornado started to break down and eventually roped out

 

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Tornado roping out NE of Kit Carson

 

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We followed the main core of the updraft to Burlington over the next 2 hours. Although we see many funnels and the occasional weak tornado they don't last very long

 

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We were astonished at the speeds at which ragged lowerings rotated under the main meso

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We arrived at Burlington with tornado sirens screaming and flash floods - the strongly rotating meso passed just east of the city.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode...

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