Chase Log: June 11-12, 2010 –> CO and TX
Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Jesse in Jesse's Chase Logs, Uncategorized
On Friday, June 11th, 2010, I chased with Dr. Tom Williams from Western Illinois University, along with Steve Polley and Corey Sloan from Storm Chase Live. We awoke in Limon, Colorado and began reviewing mesoscale data, targeting that general area. When a cell erupted SW of Denver, we drove up I-70 and intercepted the cell, positioning ourselves east of the Denver Int’l Airport. This supercell had incredible structure and produced a tornado, which was also reported by the airport’s ASOS system. We followed the cell ENE for about 20 minutes, before chasing some additional cells that popped up to the south and southeast of Denver. Having an unproductive chase, for the most part, we were able to intercept another TOR warned cell just before dark in eastern Colorado before calling it a night.
On Saturday, June 12th, 2010, I again chased with Dr. Tom Williams from Western Illinois University, along with Steve Polley and Corey Sloan from Storm Chase Live. We initially targeted Dalhart, Texas as low level frontal convergence and dryline mixing was poised to spark another afternoon thunderstorms across S KS and the TX panhandle.
Initiation started early near Dumas, TX in the early afternoon as a supercell quickly erupted in the unstable airmass and became severe. As we approached the cell from the east side of Dumas, a tornado descended in an open field on the north side of SR 152 and traveled for several hundred yards before lifting. As noted in the beginning of the video, full condensation was not realized.
The storm did not produce any additional tornadoes from our vantage point, though we did continue to follow it ENE to near Perryton. Additional storms formed and moved across the same area, though tornadogenesis was hampered by persistent outlfow that seemed to interfere with the ability of the storms to maintain decent inflow from the unstable environment. A summary of the supercell’s hail production, along with damage to chaser Bart Comstock’s vehicle from 5″ – 6″ hail, can be found here on the NWS AMA website here.
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