Start: Antonito, CO
Brunch: Dutch Mill Cafe in Antonito
End: Santa Rosa, NM/313 miles
Chase account by TT guest Lesleyanne
The weekend of June 3/4 was a good one for a change of tours (from Tour 5 to Tour 6), as the weather pattern was poor for severe weather on the Plains. The first day for Tour 6 was Monday, June 5, and the only slight risk area for severe was in Deep South Texas. We did an easy 180 miles from Denver to a little town called Antonito, which is on 285, south of Alamosa. There were some afternoon clouds over the high terrain.
The chase outlook for the 6th wasn’t particularly good, but at least there would be some storms on the high plains of New Mexico. Instability would be weak-to-moderate, shear would be so-so at best, and low-level moisture was just okay, with dews in the mid-40s around Santa Rosa mid-afternoon. Low-level winds were nice, easterly at 10-15 knots. I liked the area down towards I-40 around Clines Corners. We stopped first at the NM/CO state line, and then continued south.
Our first look at a storm was near Moriarty. This one was having problems getting organized — no surprise there. Eventually we were on some stronger updrafts a little farther east, near Clines Corners. A cell not too far to our northeast sported a low base and a ground-scraping lowering. Hmmm. There was little or no rotation evident, though. Some decent low-level shear and instability made things interesting for a little bit, though. As darkness fell we lumbered into Santa Rosa in the rain.
iPhone images below
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