2012 Storm Chase 3 - March 19th - Leaving The Devil's Garden

I've debated for some time as to whether to make this into a storm chase log or not.  Technically, we really didn't chase the storm; just inspected its remnants. 

It all started on a hike through the Devils Garden, which isn't a metaphor, by the way.  I've you've not read the previous few entries of this blog, my cousin was in town for the weekend, so we spent a lot of time outdoors, exploring the area. 

While hiking around the Devils Garden area of Arches National Park, I was frequently distracted by convection on the area.  A storm system had moved through the day before leaving us under the cold, upper level trough.  Though there wasn't much if any expectation of thunderstorms (see SPC's outlook), the lapse rates were good enough for rain/snow showers early and thunderstorms in the afternoon. 

Highs only topped out in the upper 40s that day, but when the sun came out, it was beautiful.  As we neared the end of our hike, I was reasonably captivated by a decent looking storm which was billowing over the Moab area. 

I was able to pull a radar scan and noted its intensity.  When we got back to the car, we discussed what to do next. 

I would have dropped everything and chased the storm were it not for two factors:

1) I was driving a borrowed vehicle while mine awaited repair. 

2) I hadn't planned on making Brad come storm chasing with me. 

So, I did my best to monitor the situation while we took in a few more of the park's features.  The first storm dissipated as moved into the La Sals, but a second developed to the west.  They were moving south-southeast.  The second storm seemed to be producing some hail and developed a decent anvil.

Looking WSW across the Salt Valley.

Stormy skies behind Balanced Rock.

Anvilling

I continued to keep an eye on the storm as we toured the Windows Section, stopping briefly to take a photo or two. 

It was getting late and we were trying to decide what to do next.  We had done what we could via car in the park and did not desire to embark on another hike.  I suggested we head over to Dead Horse Point State Park for the sunset, but that seemed a little far.  The second suggestion as to check out the Potash-Lower Colorado Scenic Byway.  The state highway (UT 279) leaves US 191 near Moab and follows the Colorado River to Potash where it essentially ends. 

Brad seemed up for exploring the highway and I was happy that the heaviest core of the storm was passing over that area.  I aimed to see what it had laid down.  We stopped briefly on the way out of the park to witness the storm as it began to die off, just west of Moab. 

The drive through the canyon was fairly uneventful.  We found some small hail... perhaps 0.25" in diameter, which I unfortunately neglected to take a picture of. 

I'll detail any non-weather-related observations in a separate post. 

Unfortunately, we never really enjoyed the glow of sunset, but the light tried to poke through a couple of times. 

A small mesa in Jackson Hole near Potash.

So, like I said... hardly a storm chase, but I would say that I deviated from my normal path in pursuit of a storm, so it loosely qualifies with my definition. 

We did find some amazing sights in this canyon, though... so check back soon for my next post!

STATS
Mileage: 42
2012YTD Mileage: 121
States: Utah
SPC Risk: None
Max Hail: 0.25"
Tornadoes: None
Other Phenomena: None
Chase Partner: Brad Pascoe
Applicable Mesoscale Discussions: None
Applicable Weather Watches: None
Storm Reports for March 19th

Detail Map:

Dann.

2011 Storm Chase 15 - July 8th - Desert Disappointment

Catching up on a few 2011 entries since I'm still backlogged on 2012 imagery...

This entry details a storm chase from July 8th, 2011.

I was at reporting at work on this particular Friday afternoon.  We had been in a Monsoon pattern for a while and that was keeping thunderstorm opportunities more frequent.  

 I was downtown shooting a story (or attempting to) with my co-worker PJ.  My phone was blowing up with text from Eddie and Drew about storms in the area, which I could see to the west.  I was trying to ignore them to the best of my ability as I couldn't exactly do anything about it.  Winds were whipping through the downtown area as outflow from the storms passed.  The strongest cell was north of town, heading into the desert. 

 
I talked with my boss and he told me I could make a pursuit, so I headed off to the north side of town, cursing traffic in the mean time.  Drew, who was also out chasing, met up with us and jumped in the car.  The storm was on its way out of the valley at this point, but I wanted to see what it had put down since it was carrying a decent amount of reflectivity.

We drove north into the desert, which was fine until we left the gravel road and got into the clay.  PJ and Drew seemed horrified at how the vehicle reacted to the road, but I was used to it and was drifting adeptly in all-wheel drive.  I don't think they've experienced the "cake batter" before.  Long story short, we didn't find any hail, though we did find a golf ball.  It fooled us at first.  Then, it was back to the station empty handed.  

Detail Map:

STATS
Mileage: 24
2011YTD Mileage: 1686
States: Colorado
SPC Risk: Probabilistic (Wind)
Max Hail: None
Tornadoes: None
Other Phenomena:  None
Applicable Mesoscale Discussions: None
Applicable Weather Watches: None
Storm Reports for July 8th

Dann.

2012 Storm Chase 2 - February 28th - Meanwhile, On The Other Side Of The Hill

I hadn't planned on chasing storms on this particular Tuesday, February the 28th, but somehow it just worked out that way.  I was indeed hoping that something would have happened the day before, but we were still in warm air advection mode, which is not a good place to be on the Western Slope in the late winter if you want convection.  It's simply too warm aloft.  Well, the cold front passed overnight and brought rain to the valleys, which was nice.  However, in the late afternoon as the upper level low was moving through, lapse rates increased dramatically.  Convection began to fire up around the area, complete with lightning strikes.  I left home and went in to work to consult with my colleague Eddie and take a closer look at the data from my work computers.  Here was the general setup:

SPC actually had is in a categorical risk for thunderstorms on that day.  20Z Outlook

As we were sitting there, strong convection began to develop along the northernmost edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau, just south of I-70.  There seemed to be some sort of line of convergence there, perhaps minor troughing in the ULL.  Suddenly, the radar lit up with lightning strikes and even a 0.25" hail marker.  I was quickly on the road and headed northwest.

I planned to head up to I-70 to do a little minesweeping of the core as they passed over the populated portions of the valley near Fruita.  As I reached I-70, however, I looked back to the east to see something that looked a lot more dramatic than it actually was. 

Keep in mind, the view is looking east.  Mid-level inflow to the convection was coming in from the northwest, however, so the bases of the storms were in fact on the north sides of their respective downdrafts.  After a brief photo-op, I got on 70 and headed west to the next exit, then dropped onto US 6/50 which parallels the interstate so that I could have more mobility.

I cored the first cell just to the southeast of Fruita and for the first time in a long, long time, I heard hail on the windshield.  What a glorious sound!

I'm not sure if I have shared my hail scale before, so here it goes:

Tinks - 0.25" to 0.5"
Dinks - 0.5"+ to 1"
Donks - 1"+ to 2"
Bonks - 2+ to 3"
Gonks - 3"+

These were certainly tinks.  In fact, after the first, initial blast of hail, it became soft very fast and definitely more into grauple territory.  I stopped in a pull-out and opened the window, turning the inside of the vehicle into a popcorn machine.  Then, I got out and experienced the core. 

(mobile phone image)

After the initial wave passed through, most of the activity began to fade.  A burst of convection occurred the north, over the desert and I headed toward that initially, but I realized I wasn't going to catch it before it reached the Book Cliffs, so I turned back and decided to re-immerse myself in weaker convection firing along the original line back to the west of Fruita.

Just east of Loma, I got into a nice rain/snow shower with grauple mixed in and found a nice place to stop and enjoy the precip.  It turned out to be reasonably photogenic too. 

As the storm passed, the sun tried to come out a bit.  This led to a grauplebow.  Boom.

After it cleared, I decided to head north and look for a good position to take advantage of the lighting conditions.  I knew that sunset would soon be approaching, so I explored a bit to find and area worth shooting.

Finally, in full sun, the back side of the departing storms looked absolutely stellar.  There's something about winter convection that is unique and very pleasing to the eye. 

Looking northeast from 16Rd

And due east...

East-southeast...

As I reached the periphery of the desert, the Book Cliffs looked fantastic and weak convection was firing off to my northwest again.

Waves break on the Book Cliffs, freshly painted with grauple and snow.

Weak convection north in the desert.

Looking northwest into Utah

Golden hour.

For the actual sunset, I headed back to Loma and stopped just south of the interstate.  A weak shower moving over the Grand Valley turned with the setting sun's light.

And the clouds out east looked pretty nice too...

Convection died off with the setting of the sun, so I stopped back at work for a moment before heading home.  Meanwhile in Nebraska, good friends were chasing tornadoes.  But for me, it felt absolutely fantastic to get out and chase something worth chasing.

One crazy note from the day:  The moment I left the station, the lightning stopped.  I did not see lightning nor did I hear thunder.  I swear, though, before I left, it was lit up!  Guess I'll have to wait a while longer for my annual viewing of "Twister".  For those not in the know, I always watch that terribly awesome movie every year after the first time I hear thunder.

Oh yeah, and my good buddies Scott Hammel and Eric Treece spent their day chasing the first tornadoes ever to be recorded in Nebraska in the month of February.  

Detail Map:

STATS
Mileage: 57
2012YTD Mileage: 79
States: Colorado
SPC Risk: Categorical
Max Hail: 0.25"
Tornadoes: None
Other Phenomena:  Grauplebow
Applicable Mesoscale Discussions: None
Applicable Weather Watches: None
Storm Reports for February 28th

Other Chasers' Reports:
- Scott Hammel - Stapleton Nebraska Tornadoes


Dann.

2011 Storm Chase 12 - June 30th - Blue Boxed In The Desert

Of course, for the first severe weather day of the year, I'd be at work.  Couldn't it have happened on my day off?  It was a Thursday and I was due to report.  I had spent the previous day on a couple of convective investigations (report here) and the setup was even better as the dynamics reached the area.

The Storm Prediction Center had the Western Slope under a slight risk for the day.  By late morning, a mesoscale discussion (#1446) had been issued.  A severe thunderstorm watch (#576) soon followed.  If I recall correctly, I had a quick report to take care of in the morning and then had convinced my news director to let me chase. 

As storms began to erupt over eastern Utah, Drew Wilkins accompanied me west in the news car.  A particularly severe storm was already to our northwest, so we drove north on highway 139 to get closer.  It was moving pretty quickly and I knew we wouldn't be able to get ahead of it, but I also knew that it was dumping hail.  As soon as we started to get close to Douglas Pass, the roadside was covered in hail. 

We drove all the way to the top of the pass where the hail had dropped the air temperature into the low 40s.  (It was in the 80s in the valley).  Snow plows were out on the road, clearing the hail and the small debris flows which had managed to make it across the highway. Here's a shot of the storm on radar (click for a larger view)

I would have liked to follow the storm farther, but we were limited by time, so we began to head back.  Once we got back out into the desert and had mobile reception, I got the first radar scan in about an hour and a half.  A nice cell was developing right over the city and there we were out in the desert.  We made haste to it and it had a nice, strong base; probably the most robust storm base I have seen on the Western Slope.  

 Mobile phone image:

It was moving rapidly and dumped some hail and heavy rain over the city before moving up onto the Book Cliffs.  We gave up the chase and headed back to the station as I had to be back and have everything put together for the 5PM news.  All in all, I felt very lucky that I could go do the thing I love most in the world during a normal work day.  Not many are so lucky!  Granted, the weather out here is tame compared to the plains, but this was a big deal for us. 

Here's the quick report that we put together (it contains some of the video we took): 
http://www.kjct8.com/news/28425446/detail.html

As an aside, it was awesome to take Drew storm chasing.  He got to experience the "hailshred" for the first time, which I was also excited about. 

Map:

STATS
Mileage: 115
2011YTD Mileage: 1602
States: Colorado
SPC Risk: SLIGHT
Max Hail: 0.75"
Tornadoes: None
Other Phenomena:  None
Applicable Mesoscale Discussions: #1447,  #1449, #1452, #1455, #1457
Applicable Weather Watches: Severe Thunderstorm Watch #576, Severe Thunderstorm Watch #577
Storm Reports for June 30th

Dann.