40 Eastern CO 24 May 2005

Date: 24 May 05

Location: Eastern Plains of Colorado

Summary: Moderate Risk Day for Eastern CO. Left home around 1400 and went to Bennett until initiation. Headed East on Highway 36 to Last Chance for a little while waiting for storms up in Weld County that were tornado warned to head SE in my direction. Headed north to intercept near Woodrow and then 2 tracked it on some of Eastern Colorado's finest back roads. Ended up back on 36 as new storms blew up to my east near Joes and Cope. One storm started to organize really nicely and put down a brief weak tornado, hardly worth noting, near Idalia. Meanwhile, Joe Spencer was relaying back to me a very nice supercell near Kit Carson. After playing catch up for about an hour I finally punched thru the core in Cheyenne Wells to the tune of some golf ball hail. After getting ahead of the storm another one blossomed West of Sheridan Lake. Shot video of first cell to my north and then proceeded west to Brandon to a very nicely organized surface based supercell. The mesocyclone was incredible! It soon went tornado warned after. Witnessed a really nice rotating wall cloud in close proximity but could not chase after as I was extremely limited on fuel. A couple of finger funnels emerged as it became wrapped in rain and headed SE into the plains. I called it a day and met Joe for dinner in Eads. As frustrating as this chase was at times, the Brandon cell was a great payoff!!

CAP being broke from a storm firing near NE of Bennett.

MONSTER storm coming south from Weld County. This was shot E of Cope on Hwy 36.

New Meso forming near Cope/Joes area.

Radar image near the time of next picture.

Tornado.......very short lived and poorly organized. Lasted about a minute......if that.

Punching the core in Cheyenne Wells. Notice the hail impacting to the lower right.

New storm N of Sheridan Lake

This one was west of the Sheridan Lake storm, just west of Brandon. This went tornadic about 15 minutes later. Saw a couple of finger funnels and then it became wrapped in heavy rain.

Sunset E of Eads.

Some smaller storms formed on the way home from Eads. Stopped and shot these near Boyero.