{"id":4510,"date":"2010-05-31T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=4510"},"modified":"2010-10-13T19:26:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T03:26:13","slug":"may-31-2010-campo-co-tornadoes-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2010\/05\/31\/may-31-2010-campo-co-tornadoes-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"May 31, 2010 Campo, CO tornadoes Part 1 of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memorial Day 2010 was a big day for chasers in Baca County, CO.\u00a0 A supercell went up early in the afternoon, spit out a couple of tornadoes, dawdled for hours west of Campo, and finally produced a beautiful tornado just south of Campo late in the afternoon.\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to be on the storm early on and later be quite close to the Campo tornado, and I managed to get some decent stills and video.<\/p>\n

Since I have a lot to share, I am breaking this chase day into two parts.\u00a0 This first post will cover developments right up until the main event\u00a0 — the “Campo” tornado.\u00a0 See Part Two for the really good stuff!<\/p>\n

Our little chase team was comprised of myself, Dallas Raines, and Kirstie Johnson.\u00a0 Kirstie and I were in my X-terra, and Dallas followed in a rental sedan.\u00a0 He had flown out from L.A. to Denver for a chase trip several days prior, and today would be his final day to chase.\u00a0 Our group had no data while mobile—no radar, no satellite, surface obs, etc.—but we did have NOAA wx radio and a cell phone.\u00a0 We began the day in Enid and headed west on Hwy 412.\u00a0 Forecast models indicated an isolated storm in extreme southeastern Colorado by late afternoon, and instability and shear appeared to be good enough for severe weather.\u00a0 Tornado prospects did not look particularly good, as flow at mid-and upper levels was on the weak side.\u00a0 SPC was not keen on tornado chances—the 13Z and 16Z outlooks<\/a> drew a 2 percent line around the OK Panhandle, including Baca County, CO.\u00a0 Of course, it was May, and a supercell on the High Plains in May is one which needs to be chased.\u00a0 Dallas was excited about the possibility of seeing a tornado.\u00a0 I had my usual “we’ll see what happens” approach!<\/p>\n

Hwy 412 worked well to get us near the target zone.\u00a0 It bisected SPC’s slight risk area, so there was no need to wander north or south initially.\u00a0 We stopped in Boise City around 2 p.m. MDT with Brian and the Tempest group for a pit stop, and a decent cell had already developed in western Baca County.\u00a0 As we departed the convenience store, I said to Dallas:\u00a0 “Let’s go see the tornado!”\u00a0 My quip was quite prophetic.\u00a0 On our approach to the storm along U.S. 287\/385 from the CO\/OK border, it became wonderfully obvious that the Baca County storm was already a well-organized supercell.\u00a0 I figured that the storm was moving slowly to the east, and I wanted to be east of the updraft base.\u00a0 I led our two-vehicle group north from Campo toward Springfield, with the storm updraft in view some 15 miles or so to the WNW.\u00a0 And, lo and behold, a tornado started to do its thing as we reached about halfway between the two towns. The tornado was rather distant, about six miles south-southwest of Pritchett, and 15 miles to our west. Time was 3 p.m. MDT.<\/p>\n

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The tornado appeared to be somewhat intermittent.\u00a0 It struggled to firmly plant itself against the landscape, but there was the occasional dust swirl beneath a persistent and long-lasting funnel cloud. A second funnel (or perhaps tornado) developed south of the primary tornado, on the anti-cyclonic side of the RFD cut.\u00a0 We stopped along the highway for a few minutes to get some video and stills, and then headed west on Road W to get a closer look.\u00a0 After about four miles we stopped again, and by that time, around 3:18 p.m. MDT, precipitation curtains had enveloped the tornadic circulation.\u00a0 The first tornado event of the day had come and gone, but the first quarter had just ended and plenty of time remained.<\/p>\n

We were in some light anvil rain east of the HP-ish cell, so we repositioned to the south a few miles on an unpaved section road, probably County Rd 20.\u00a0 We stopped again at Rd 17 and Rd Q, southwest of the nicely sculpted updraft base.\u00a0 I kept expecting the storm to move east, at least a little, but it was drifting south at 5 mph!<\/p>\n

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Images 2318 to 2326 above were taken from about 3:50 to 3:55 p.m. MDT.\u00a0 The supercell’s RFD continued to be quite wet, giving the updraft base an HP look from time to time.\u00a0 The storm seemed disinterested in tornado generation during this time frame.\u00a0 Lightning activity increased nearby and light rain became moderate in intensity, so again we were chased a little farther south.\u00a0 I figured that we may as well be south of the updraft base if the storm was moving to the south, so we went south a few miles to Rd M, and then west four miles to Rd 13.\u00a0 The last image above (2330) is looking north from M and 13 at 4:25 p.m. MDT.\u00a0 The RFD\/wall cloud area was looking less wet, so we scooted north a couple of miles to get a closer look.<\/p>\n

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The images above were taken from about 4:40 to 4:55 p.m. MDT.\u00a0 We were less than a half mile south of a tight and strongly-rotating low-level circulation.\u00a0 This was a prominent and well-formed wall cloud and funnel cloud, pointed right at us!\u00a0 From our perspective it was not entirely obvious, however.\u00a0 We did realize, though, that the storm was very close to putting a tornado down quite close to us.\u00a0 Dallas was ecstatic and nervous as we peered up into the wild rotation.\u00a0 These images are true 16mm wide-angle shots, so the action area does not look as close as it really was!\u00a0 An occasional hail stone fell and would chase us south one or two hundred yards, and then west winds kicked up and we experienced the “atomized rain” which chasers have documented near tornadoes.\u00a0 We also heard a hail roar, and later the “whooshing\/waterfall” sound sometimes heard near tornadoes!\u00a0 What a rush!\u00a0 The only thing missing was an actual circulation on the ground.\u00a0 It was perplexing (and a little frustrating) that the storm was unable to produce right then and there, a little north of M and 13 around 5 p.m.\u00a0 (Mike Umscheid’s posts for this event include some excellent shots of the storm and the funnel cloud at this time from the ESE.<\/a> Note that Mike’s times are CDT, whereas I am using MDT.\u00a0 See pics 14 to 18 at the bottom of Mike’s page linked above.)<\/p>\n

The lowering just to our north fizzled out.\u00a0 We found ourselves at the rear end of the updraft base, and it was now making a move to the east-southeast.\u00a0 After drifting to the south for about three hours, the storm was moving!\u00a0 Dallas and Kirstie and I went back south on Road 13, past Road M, and then east on Road J.\u00a0 After a few miles we stopped again.\u00a0 Along this stretch of usually empty Road J were numerous chasers, but there was plenty of room and traffic flowed relatively freely.\u00a0 The five images below were taken from 5:20 to 5:40 p.m. MDT along Road J, some 8 to 10 miles due west of Campo.\u00a0 The view is primarily to the northeast for the first three, and you can see Road J heading east in the final two.\u00a0 Rotation was occasionally very strong in the wall cloud which loomed nearby.\u00a0 Near 5:40 p.m. it appeared that the focused area of low-level rotation shifted southeastward quickly.\u00a0 The final image below shows a lowered area just slightly south of Road J.\u00a0 We needed to scoot east to Campo—fast!\u00a0 Most of the other chasers had the same idea, and a large caravan made its way to Campo.\u00a0 We motored beneath the updraft base and turned south on 287\/385.\u00a0 The second quarter was over, intermission would last two seconds, and now it was showtime! <\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Memorial Day 2010 was a big day for chasers in Baca County, CO.\u00a0 A supercell went up early in the afternoon, spit out a couple… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,13,11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-42","7":"category-chasers-and-friends","8":"category-supercells","9":"category-tornadoes","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4510"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4541,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions\/4541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}