Date: 28 May 2001

Location: Mattheson, CO -----Tornado was 2 N of Bennett, CO

This took a couple of days to confirm, but this is a tornado N of Bennett.   The photo was taken near Mattheson, CO, approx 30 miles away.   It was confirmed by a pilot flying near the area.  The only thing that I could confirm visually was that this storm was rotating.  This was taken at about the same time the Ellicott tornado warning was being issued.   We were going to try and chase this one down, but shortly after we started to head north to intercept, it looked as though it was dissipating.   So we headed back toward Ellicot and intercepted a storm near Punkin Center after dark that had a rotating wall cloud that was dropping small funnels for about 20 minutes.   Then we also came across a very large wall cloud near Calhan later that night.

Here are some lighting shots taken near Punkin Center shortly after the Ellicott tornado.  This was one of the most electrifying storms I have seen to date.

28 May Confirmed from SPC

Photos Copyright © 2001 Eric Treece