Tornado at 6000 feet

Good evening from the Best Western here in Clayton, New Mexico. Today was our final chase day of the trip, and as it turned out, ending up being the most successful day of the trip. We began the day in La Junta, Colorado, and after a short lunch at the Copper Kitchen Cafe headed southward along Highway 109, passing by many local mesas/canyons. We intersected Highway 160 west of Springfield, Colorado, and traveled westward toward Trinidad, Colorado to intercept storms that had developed across the Sangre de Cristo mountains and were now pushing eastward and intensifying, becoming supercellular. Shortly before arriving at the intersection of Highway 160, a low-hanging blocky wall cloud came into view, and the wall cloud became more impressive as we traveled westward. We pulled over to watch the storm approximately 10 miles NE of Branson, CO, and were soon treated to an impressive atmospheric show. A substantial RFD cut developed into the wall cloud, followed quickly by a cone-shaped lowering, which then descended further into a high-contrast cone/stovepipe tornado. Depsite being a substantial distance away from the tornado, it still appeared quite large, and was likely fairly wide from a closer vantage point. The tornado remained on the ground for 15-20 minutes, slowly becoming obscured somewhat in rain, but coming out of the rain at times. After the tornado ended, the parent circulation associated with our tornado moved northward into rain-cooled air and died, with the parent thunderstorm merging into an outflow-dominant line, signaling the end of its life cycle (at least for what we're interested in seeing).

Chases like today are rare, and mark the pinnacle of storm chasing; observing a high contrast tornado from birth until death in good terrain. I've chased in southeast Colorado 3 or 4 times in my life, and 3 times I've seen tornadoes here, two of which were high-contrast and visually impressive tornadoes (today's storm, and my personal favorite tornado that I've seen, Campo, Colorado, May 2010). For whatever reason (likely a result of enhanced low-level shear due to the lay of the terrain and wind flow around it), storms really seem to overachieve in Eastern Colorado (granted, today's ambient storm environment was very favorable for supercells, and decent enough for tornadoes). I'll be adding some tornado photos tomorrow, as well as some excellent video that Renee took. Quite amazing to have observed an impressive tornado at above 6000 feet (elevation of the area we chased in ranged from 6000-6500 feet).

We then dropped southward into New Mexico toward Folsom to observe to 2 additional supercells near Raton, and another near Springer. It became apparent that the southern storm (Springer storm) was the more intense of the two, so we pressed southward to Des Moines, and then westward toward the Capulin volcano to observe the approaching storm. As the storm began to become clearer on the horizon, it was apparent that the storm was initially an LP (low precipitation) supercell, and then gradually over time began to develop more precipitation, taking on more of a classic supercell appearance. After observing for a while near Capulin, we moved back toward Des Moines to stay ahead of the storm. Around this time the storm began to rapidly develop a low-hanging wall cloud and a cone shaped lowering. Precipitation and terrain (local peak "Sierra Grande", 8400 feet) unfortunately began to obscure our view, and as the area of interest was hidden by the Sierra Grande, a tornado was reported by trained local spotters. Once emerging east of the blocking terrain, we observed several additional lowerings/wall clouds, and one fairly impressive funnel cloud just as the storm began to die.

We then pushed eastward Clayton, stopping at the Love's Travel Center parking lot for 30 minutes or so to decide our course of action. During our stop, intense winds developed (likely due to a dying thunderstorm nearby), and produced a brief dust-storm in town. Dust remains a continuing theme on this trip. After dropping the idea of traveling eastward into the Texas panhandle to chase new thunderstorms with tornado potential (much too far away), we dropped southwestward and eventually ended up on Highway 102, a desolate, remote, but very peaceful/serene stretch of road where modern society remains largely absent. It was here that we were treated to a beautiful LP supercell off in the distance to the west, while undulating mammatus clouds hung to the east behind crisp updrafts along the western edge of a thunderstorm complex. A double rainbow even appeared for a short time to add to the visual feast available from today's atmospheric buffet.

The final chase day appropriately closed with a virga-filled sky, laden with warm, pastel colours as the sun set over the mesas on the horizon, all the while our LP supercell slowly weakened and faded into obscurity. Some find their moments of peace, relaxtion, and reflection on hikes in the mountains, canoe trips down the river, or reclining in a chair on the beach. For myself, the High Plains on a day like today elicit the same feelings and emotions. Goodnight.