| June 1st - Cheyenne Wells, CO | |
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CHASER: Bobby Eddins, Edward Cohen NOWCASTING: Michael Cohen |
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SUMMARY: After spending most of this 2nd chase week sight-seeing in the Colorado mountains we were just glad to have something to chase. After only catching distant lightning in western Nebraska the day before we drove south to Limon, CO for the next days settup in Eastern Colorado / Western Kansas. The next morning our target area still looked good so we headed east on I70 stopping at the rest stop near Arriba, CO to check data. A quick check told us that things were about to happen in eastern east of our location so we continued east on I70. Soon a tornado watch was issued and storms were firing to our SE so we picked up the pace. We were able to break through storms ahead of us and drop south at Burlington, CO on hwy 385 to get in position. We could see a lowering to our southwest as we drove south and stopped to watch for a while. When precip began to fall through this lowering we noted new storms just beginning to fire to our SE. We decided to continue south to Cheyenne Wells and then east to get in front of these but soon I noticed a dust bowl to our SE. It was quickly apparent that we had a very nice Land Spout forming. We stopped to film for a while but with the old storm approaching from the WNW we decided to shoot as we moved south. This Land Spout was beautiful and lasted until we entered the north side of Cheyenne Wells. We decided to continue south as the old storm merged with the new and turned into an MCS. It was nice to see something so beautiful occur in mostly open land. |
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Dirt from plowed fields lifts to our SE. |
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A wider view as we drive south. |
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Rapid rotation is visible where the funnel contacts the ground, lifting more dirt. |
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An inner cylinder becomes visible. |
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This dusty tube streches towards the cloud base as it's load begins to fall outward. |
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It gets into another plowed field for another load. |
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it churns on!. |
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As storms merge, an MCS is born. |