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Denver and the High Plains 2014

Entries in this blog

Stormchase 2014 - Day trip to Wyoming

[u][b]Tue 24th June 2014[/b][/u] Our final day of Tour 4 began in Sterling Colorado. Whilst todays risk looked to be a repeat of yesterday in NE Colorado, as we approached the target area so the whole system broke apart leaving us with nothing more than a Particularly Drizzly Situation. To our North, across in Wyoming things were starting to look interesting. A short hop on the freeway past Cheyenne and out on route 85 NE and we started to see 2" hail along the road. A beautiful hailbow stre

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Stormchase 2014 - Return to Colorado

[u][b]Mon 23rd June 2014[/b][/u] Today we left Nebraska crossing the state line into Colorado. SPC had a slight risk for the state as well as a 2% tornado risk which was briefly elevated to 5% and then dropped again. HRRR indicated development in the NW portion of the state so we headed west of Sterling near Jackson Lake State Park to watch and wait. After brief interest with the storms developing to the South of Denver, we returned and focused on the storm near the Wyoming state line which

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - Positioning Day - South Dakota to West Nebraska

[u][b]Sun 22nd June 2014[/b][/u] Given our far north location and the southerly risk area, we used today as a positioning day to head south towards the eastern Colorado state line ready for Tuesdays risk east of the Rockies. Heading south a developing cumulus field showed signs of development. As we neared North Platte the field became agitated and rapid convection was evident with tops soon reaching 40000ft+ We passed through some heavy rain on the I-80 West and stopped just west. The storm

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - Last South Dakota Chase

[u][b]Sat 21st June 2014[/b][/u] We began Saturday in Waterton South Dakota. SPC and HRRR were indicating a South Dakota Target today and with a boundary laying towards the North of the state this was prime territory for storm initiation later in the day. We headed to Redfield for Lunch. On leaving there and heading west the storm had started taking hold into the boundary layer and tops were were already climbing rapidly through nearly 60000ft into a classic supercell structure. As we appro

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - Minnesota Supercell

[u][b]Fri 20th June 2014[/b][/u] It's Friday and SPC have todays Tornado risk firmly in Minnesota; and as Paul quite rightly quoted Land of 1000 lakes and a billion midges! Nestling up on the Canadian Border, Minnesota is a beautiful green state with lakes covering much of the North and East. Todays chase would start at Wahpeton, following the development of an LP Supercell which we'd already seen the predictions for on HRRR and then watched its developent as we drove North from the Dakotas.

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Stormchase 2014 - Central South Dakota

[u][b]Thu 19th June 2014[/b][/u] Today was a waiting game. The risk further east was clearly a line event as depicted by HRRR so we remained in South Dakota hopeful for the SPC 'See Text' risk and HRRR development mid-state. We headed North then West towards Pierre. As we aproached the town of Bluff the storm started to develop rapidly on radar. Already it had dropped a couple of tornadoes and numberous funnels. Chasing it North East we witnessed numerous funnels but this was a cold outflow

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - South Dakota Tornadoes

[u][b]Wed 18th June 2014[/b][/u] We started today from Souix City, Iowa. Looking at the NOAA High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, it indicated late afternoon supercell development in the south eastern portion of South Dakota so we based our target on this and monitored both this and the SPC throughout the day to adjust our focus. We headed initially North then west on the I-90 toward Mitchell. Adjusting our final target as SPC issued their Mesoscale Discussion and watching for rapid c

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - The Night of the Twisters

[u][b]Tue 17th June 2014[/b][/u] After yesterday I didn't think we could possibly equal such sights. How wrong could I be. We left our hotel in Columbus with two targets in mind, one to the NW in SW North Dakota and one in Central Iowa. Based on the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model data from the SPC we eventually chose to go with the eastern option. As the day progressed and we entered Iowa with Temps of near 90F and Dewpoints aroundf 73F, the model was indicating a shift back to S

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HeadcornWx

Stormchase 2014 - The Day of the Twisters

[u][b]Mon 16th June 2014[/b][/u] A day of mixed emotions. Firstly one of awe in seeing the sheer power of nature and the very rare occurance of two large tornadoes so close together. Secondly immense sadness for those affected in the towns and settlements where this tornado hit here in Nebraska. My thoughts and prayers go out to those people and may I ask you each consider a donation to the [url="http://stormassist.org/contribute"]Storm Assist organization[/url] which directly helps the victims

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Stormchase 2014 - Kansas to Iowa

[u][b]Sun 15th June 2014[/b][/u] Leaving our hotel Colby Kansas, we decided to leave todays risk and head North to Iowa positioning for Mondays significant potential over Nebraska/Iowa. An all-day drive took us out of Kansas, through Nebraska and eventually along I-80 to Lincoln where we exchanged the rather battered and bruised Jeep following yesterdays barrage of Hail. Along the way we saw town after town severely damaged by the straight line winds of upto 115mph the previous night. Whilst

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Stormchase 2014 - Bonus Day

[u][b]Sat 14th June 2014[/b][/u] [b]Denver Colorado: 4am Mountain Daylight Time[/b] After a good flight and 5hr snooze thanks mostly to a cheeky upgrade, arrived in Denver in good shape. Wide awake at 4am thanks to the jetlag so am blogging. SPC moderate risk for Very Large Hail, Damaging Winds and Isolated Tornadoes today for the risk area so we're headed out of here around 9-10 mountain time. Batteries charged for some hopefully great photos. [b]Post Chase Update:[/b] Wow! What an amazing

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Stormchase 2014 - The journey to Denver

[u][b]Fri 13th June 2014[/b][/u] After months of waiting and watching some excellent coverage of the past 3 tours, tour 4 is finally here. Friday 13th has been kind so far with a relatively quiet journey up to Heathrow T5. Oodles of time to spare and a 10 hour flight ahead now, but already SPC have issued a moderate risk for Day2 so we'll be hitting the ground running on Saturday. See you on the other side...

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