14YumaCO1July2001

Date: 1 July 2001

Location: Last Chance / Akron / Yuma, CO

Chaser Partner: Chris Knauer

Summary:

After leaving home, I headed to Bennett, CO and decided to take up position there til storms started firing in the late afternoon. While sitting in the parking lot of a gas station off of I-70 I met Chris and we ended up at an ice cream parlor in downtown Bennett to discuss the forecast for the day. Things appeared to start happening E of our location and we decided to head E on Hwy 36 til we got to Last Chance. We ended up at the chaser famous Dairy King. So I traditionally went in and got a large chocolate malt......everytime I have done this I have had successful chases, including the Riverside Tornado of 2000. So why ruin a good thing? After we got our tasties, we headed North on Hwy 71 for a few miles and took up shop to observe 2 storms..........one near Greeley and the other near Brush. After some time we started North again and decided that the storm ahead of us was the one to go for. We lost contact with NWS Boulder on the SkyWarn net, so I used my phone to call for an update. The storm we were on had TVS and we were in business. We got to Brush and headed E on Hwy 34. Chris observed a brief landspout just before we got to Akron. After getting through Akron the tornado warning continued as the storm approached Otis and Yuma. We stopped to take a better look of what was going on to our SE, but we could see nothing. If there was a tornado, it was definitely rain wrapped. After getting to Yuma, we turned and headed South on Hwy 59 and got ahead of the storm. There was a gorgeous, 2 tiered shelf cloud ahead of this. We stopped to observe some gustnadoes to our W near Abarr and then continued south. After we got to Hwy 36 we stopped and watched the storm approach and took video and shot some stills. (When these were developed, they did not put the pictures on a CD, so I had to use some video captures of it for the web page). The TVS was long gone and the storms developed into a large squall line. We bolted back toward Last Chance to get away from the core. All in all, the Dairy King paid off again. We didn't see a tornado, but we got to the warning.........Dairy King is 3 for 3.

Just ahead of the Gust Front near Abarr, CO

This is a vid cap of one of the brief gustnadoes on the outflow

Hwy 59 & Hwy 36 Junction as the shelf cloud approaches from the north

CG in the back ground as you look NE