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In the Clouds Photography
Gallery - 29 May 2001
We started the day like many others perusing current and forecast data in a motel room (in Trinidad, CO). Our primary concern was time of initiation since there was a shortwave trough moving across central CO in the mid-morning hours. We knew we had to get our data and get started early with convection beginning by roughly noon. The only real tough decision was which road to take east as the target appeared to be the CO/OK/KS border intersections. I pushed hard for the US Highway 50 route which put us along the Arkansas River which had a good deal of clear skies and moderately strong winds in backed flow. Other options took us farther south to Springfield, CO or Clayton, NM. This turned out to be a very key decision because of timing of the first tornados.
As we drove past La Junta, CO, small towering cumulus began percolating
along a north-south oriented boundary which we surmised was the
dry line. The southern portion of the line was producing turkey
towers which were quite vigorous while the cumulus over the Arkansas
River valley were surpressed and unimpressive. I kept my optimism
that our immediate east horizon would begin to convect like the rest
of our horizon — the river valley simply had cooler surface
temperatures than the higher terrain on either side. Within the next
thirty minutes we had equally strong updrafts due east of us not far
from Lamar.
Multiple landspout tornados
We arrived at the dry line just in time. The main line of updrafts
was nearly overhead but slightly east when Jason noted the first dust
circulating to our southeast behind a feedlot. Moments later a funnel
was spotted at cloud base. The funnel slowly grew and I called the
National Weather Service in Pueblo immediately to report a landspout
tornado just outside Wiley, CO (a handful of miles west of Lamar).
This tornado lasted
roughly 10 minutes moving quite slowly toward the northeast. When it
dissipated, we moved slightly east to keep with the updraft region and
soon thereafter another landspout tornado formed. With the second
landspout on the ground, the town sirens began to blare and a
third landspout
swirled on the ground while the previous one started to dissipate. We then
relocated to a fast food chain parking lot for the next few landspout
tornados each of which was closer to town. Movement on all the tornadoes
was quite slow — perhaps only 5 mph and we never felt threatened
except by hail and lightning. Numerous times a few large hailstones would
thump the ground nearby and send us scattering for cover in the car.
A few stones reached roughly 2 inches diameter. Upon the demise of the
final landspout close to
1300 MDT we drove through town wanting a better viewpoint for any subsequent
tornados.
Light rain and a few large hailstones started to hit the center of town and locals were standing outside viewing the tornadoes. Most activity in town was subdued and calm though the sirens had been blasting for nearly an hour by now. A few drivers were clearly rushing to get past all the traffic lights and onto the open highway for quicker departure. We drove south on US Highway 385 to get beyond town limits and try viewing unobstructed by trees and buildings. Moments later a new tornado was forming south of town and slightly east of other tornado initiations. We pulled over and set up camera gear just south of town among a host of emergency vehicles, spotters, and travelers smart enough to let the storm pass harmlessly ahead of them. This tornado was the seventh and had the appearance of a supercell tornado with a clear slot wrapping in from the south. The cone-shaped funnel cloud grew downward while a dust swirl rotated more quickly below. Eventually the dust column grew taller to meet the funnel cloud at the midpoint.
The pictures show the tornado progress from a cone shape into a narrow
and thin pencil shape. The condensation cloud barely touches the surface yet
the debris cloud is rotating quite rapidly. The blue skies and garden-variety
cumulus clouds behind the tornado were a stark contrast to the violent
rotation in the foreground. This tornado lasted a total of 25 minutes and
moved slowly northeast, then north, then northwest and clipped the corner
of town. Driving back through Lamar to go east again, we heard radio reports
of moderate house damage to one house and destructon of a mobile home but
no injuries. This was a close call and we were happy to hear no injuries
and relatively little damage considering the duration and location of the
tornado.
We left Lamar after filling the gas tank and saw some minor street flooding along with some large hailstones. We were headed east into Kansas for additional tornadic storms. We turned south in Syracuse and intercepted a newly-forming mesocyclone. We drove within a mile of the feature which appeared to begin falling apart into outflow. There was a lot of chaotic motions on the leading edge and dust swirls were numerous and very nearby. It still had tornadic potential briefly but this did not last as the storm was obviously becoming dominated by outflow and racing out in all directions. We kept ahead of the dust among decent county roads until we decided it wasn't worth running from and let it hit us as we turned back north toward Syracuse. We decided to take Wednesday off and drove all the way back to the Front Range after eating a normal dinner in Lamar. Life was pretty normal in Lamar though they had a very close call today.
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Suggested reading & related info:
Book: Tornado Alley. Monster Storms of the Great Plains
Book: The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm
Magazine: Weatherwise
Web: Storm Track
Web: TESSA Weather Bulletin
Web: Storm
Chasing with Safety, Courtesy, and Responsibility
Web: SPC Tornado FAQ