52 Wallace KS 31May2006

Date: 31 May 2006

Location: Limon, CO to Wallace, KS

Chase Partners: Joe Spencer and Fred the F5

Summary: Started out the day in Borger, TX after a somewhat dismal chase near Erick, OK. Targetted near Lamar, to Kit Carson, CO and headed out around 1000. Stopped in Springfield, CO and downloaded some data and kept on trucking North with same target area in mind. Went thru Lamar and half the Chaser World was there, so I knew we at least picked a decent target. Stopped north of town and got more data and found out about an MD and decided to head north toward Kit Carson or further north as a storm had already gone TOR in Arapahoe County and had read about a boundary near I-70. After getting to Kit Carson, headed North toward Seibert to avoid whatever road construction there was on Hwy 287 near Wild Horse. Headed west on I-70 to Limon and topped off the tank and rendezvoused with the storm. Heard reports of 1" hail 6" deep on I-70 near Agate and headed back East to Genoa to film the storms approach. Played "Cat and Mouse" with it til we got to Seibert and then headed back south toward Kit Carson. Stopped about 8 North of Kit Carson for about 20-30 min and pondered headed back to Denver as this thing was dumping outflow all over the place and just didn't seem to get its act together. More storms were firing up all along the boundary from Seibert to Burlington to Goodland and we thought things were going to turn into a mess of lined out storms. Decided not to give up so early and headed back to Kit Carson and then East toward Cheyenne Wells on Hwy 40. Things really got interesting as we entered Cheyenne Wells. The outflow from this storm was INCREDIBLE. The rain was blowing so hard sideways that all of our clothes and Fred got soaked in the back of the truck from it permeating thru the crack in the cap and the bed of the truck. This went on for what seemed like 20 min and our speed was barely allowing to get ahead of the storm. We finally got ahead near Sharon Springs, KS and what a sight to see. What a monster this thing turned into. INCREDIBLE structure!! We got far enough ahead of it to film its approach just west of Wallace and set up shop. What an AWESOME sight. This thing was kicking up an incredible amount of dirt. Wish I knew what the winds were on the surface as this passed. I am guessing over 60 mph easy. As we went back thru the core to head back to Denver, it was blowing and raining so hard, Joe couldn't see the road 10' in front of us. After about a mile, we pulled into someones driveway so we wouldn't get creamed by a cattle hauler on a mission. Enroute back to Denver we stopped near Aroyo and Hugo and took some awesome lightning pictures as well. All in all, this will probably be as good as it gets in 2006 with another ridge moving into the Plains this week.

Towers sneaking up along the boundary on I -70.