The likelihood of chase-able severe weather is limited today, so I decided to start going through my screen captures during this year’s storm chase.
In the morning, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had issued an Enhanced Risk for severe weather.
Associated with the Enhanced Risk was a 10% Tornado Threat ring.
On the road, the visible satellite imagery shows cloud streets early in the morning over Kansas. These cloud streets show that there is shear present, at least over Kansas. Also notice how the clouds stop at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Upslope storm formation was likely today. This image was taken at 14:30Z.
By 21:30Z, storms had fired along the Front Range. To the east, the cloudcover had mostly faded away, leaving a large cumulus field over eastern Colorado. However, the storms along the Front Range were the ones I chased.
When we caught up to the Elizabeth, CO, storm, we could see a rapidly rotating wall cloud. I didn’t capture a velocity image at this time, but after we moved east of this storm, I did get a base reflectivity image, where you can see a hook echo developing.
Thank you for reading this post.
The Severe Weather Outlook is from the Storm Prediction Center website.
The satellite imagery is from the NOAA Satellite and Information Service.
The surface observation and upper level charts are from Unisys Weather.
High Plains Chasing 