Thursday, July 03, 2008

2008 Storm Chase VI - July 2nd (Preview)

Went out for kind of an impromptu chase with Tony Laubach today. We drifted north to intercept storms firing along the southern 'slopes' of the Cheyenne Ridge. While they didn't necessarily organize into supercells, the storm we intercepted near Wiggins had some beautiful structure.



After "minesweeping" the core of the now line of storms, we decided to follow the storm east. As we were punching into the core a second time, a circulation developed in the line. Traffic on I-76 was horrible, however, and the precipitation made progress slow. Our route took us through Brush, but what we found there made us stay and survey.

We found that many of the streets in town were under water. Very strong winds associated with the line of storms (which appeared to bulge as it drove through Brush) knocked down large tree branches and several small trees. The streets were littered with tree debris and this possibly clogged the storm drains, preventing the radar-estimated 1.5"-2" of rain from draining away. Luckily, we didn't see any injuries, just a lot of weathered residents standing in their front yards, pulling tree limbs into piles.



I have plenty of video from the chase, but have run out of time to process it. Tony should have his up eventually and I'll try and link it if it's before I get mine up. All in all, very pleased with this chase. Full report coming eventually.

Dann.

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