12WatkinsCO20June2001

Date: 20 June 2001

Location: Watkins, CO

Chase Partner: Lou Rohrbacher

After departing Denver, we headed to Kiowa, CO. We sat east of there for about 2 or 3 hours. Numerous storms began growing. Only one to our south went severe. It looked as though today was going to be a bust. We started headed back toward Denver and I decided to give Mother Nature a 2nd chance since it was still pretty early in the evening. We did not have long to wait. After about 20 minutes a tornado warning was given for a cell near Limon. We arrived in Limon while the warning was still active, however all we saw was high based clouds and very little precip. Nothing very interesting there. So we started to make tracks back toward home. Near Cedar Point, NWS Boulder was warning of a very large storm North of Denver International Airport. We kicked in the after burners to try and make an intercept. The storm was headed in a southerly direction, so we had a shot. All along the way we kept hearing that the storm had very strong rotation, grapefruit hail aloft, and was measuring 75 Dbz on the doppler radar. NWS also reported well in advance that the storm would cross I-70 near Watkins and what time it would be there. We would just make it. After rounding the corner near Byers you could begin to pick out some of the features of this monster. Near Bennett the inflow winds were blowing near 60 kts!! Dust was being sucked into the storm giving it a brown tint and creating a driving hazard on I-70. After sizing up the situation, we decided we would never get west of it, so we got off I-70 at Manila Rd and made tracks for the Total Gas Station overhang to avoid the hail. We got out and shot film from which these captions were taken. The pictures do not do this storm justice. There were roughly 30 damaged airliners at DIA, numerous car windshields smashed out on I-70 and in Watkins, plus Watkins was hit very hard with hail. After going through Watkins the storm continued on south and wreaked havoc in Kiowa and further south. There were some reports of a wall cloud and tornado, but by the time the storm got within range of us, it was so shrouded in dust that you could not make any of the features out nor whether or not there was a tornado on the ground, as reported.

Taken from I-70 near Strasburg

Taken at Manila Rd exit, 2 miles East of Watkins Exit.

Hard to tell, but if you look close you can see the dust

being sucked in across the expressway

This was taken from the overhang at the Total Station

as the storm crossed I-70.

Golf ball size hail here........2 miles west it was bigger yet.

20 June 2001 Confirmed Reports from SPC