We’re up at 8:00 mountain time so essentially 9:00 central. I’ve not had a great sleep since I’ve been here, last night was no different. The hotel room was of its time and half the electrics didn’t work.
Breakfast was at Becky’s in Lamar, a small Mexican American diner and after scaring off some of the locals we had the place to ourselves. Breakfast was fine though the bacon was more crunchy than crispy. It all go wolfed down.
Today the SPC has a fairly large slight risk area stretching from western Texas north to western Nebraska with a 2% tornado risk covering eastern Colorado, western Kansas and western Nebraska.
We’re heading to north east Colorado, back up the US287 we went up and down yesterday. Initial target is the Fort Morgan/Sterling area, we’ll reassess when we get there. Supercells are likely to drift into western Nebraska so I think we’ll end up staying in North Platte, a place I’ve visited countless times over the years, ditto for my old mucka Liam.
So quietly confident of a a good day, tomorrow has a slight risk over Nebraska then our final day has a marginal risk over Oklahoma so it’s not inconceivable we’ll be chasing every day: storms 10-0 tourist days? We shall see.
SPC lunchtime update has added an enhanced risk further south, essentially for wind, the tornado risk in our locale is unchanged with a 15% hatched risk for hail in a similar area.
We have a pit stop at Limon, the brightly coloured trucks dazzling in the bright sunshine against blue skies and cotton wool cumulus clouds.
We head north on Colorado 71 towards Fort Morgan where we stop for some picnic provisions at Walmart. I can’t remember seeing any real alternative to this behemoth. Toying between a sandwich and a salad a notice some of the boys are at a chicken counter so I get what Alex picked…battered deep fried chicken wings and battered cheese tots. Mistake, they were revolting, deep fried sludge. Bloody awful. Meanwhile oily boy strikes again, how I’m not sure…the inside of the fridge is now covered in oil from his supposedly secured pot of olives and it’s also run all over the back of the vehicle…
We eat our picnic at Riverside Park in Fort Morgan, a sea of lush greenery replete with a large lake and numerous ducks. Really pleasant. With that out of the way, and the major pollution incident under control we head north east on I74; we’re under a severe thunderstorm watch.
A quick note on watches and so on: watches are issued a few hours prior to when severe weather may be possible, such as severe thunderstorm, tornado or flood. It does not mean this is going to happen, liken it to a forecast. Warnings happen in pretty much real time when the threat is occurring or likely imminent. Both watches and warnings can be prefixed by PDS or “Particularly Dangerous Situation” where the threat is really serious. In exceptional circumstances where a violent tornado is on the ground heading for a population centre a tornado emergency may be declared; this is what happened the other day when we were in Texas, there’s video taken from inside Midland Airport with a large tornado approaching as staff were ushering people to a safe space. Really bad things can happen during a tornado emergency. Damage potential is usual labeled as “catastrophic”.
We continue on I74 towards Sterling, north, then onto Colorado 14 west. We stop near Stoneham to look at a severe warned storm that promptly loses its severe box. We retrace our steps back towards Sterling. It’s nearly 16:00. A quick pit stop at Sterling is thwarted as the facilities are out of order, me and Alex get a cold coffee drink to ward off a sleepy moment. A second stop is more successful. And we have a storm; it’s 16:50.
We head east from Sterling then south on a proper dirt road between Galien and Fleming. A severe warned storm is to our south, This dirt road is perfect for viewing our storm. We stop, take photos, get wet, go south and repeat this a number of times. As we progress south the storm gets more organised, the base sharper with a clear wall cloud and scud dances around a tightening circulation. Surely it’s going to drop a tornado?
As has become annoyingly frequent during this trip another storm appears and interferes with the inflow. We take another dirt road east and as we do so cold air belches out of the interloper and undercuts our storm. Splat, and within 10 minutes our storm collapses. Damn!
We head north to Haxton then west on US6 to Holyoke. There are storms in better air to the north but they’re out of reach, a massive anvil has spread far and wide acting as huge fire blanket suppressing any chance of convection where we are. Game over for today. There were no tornado warned storms anywhere in our risk area.
We head north into Julesburg which looks shut. I saw a fabulous supercell just north of here in 2008, a print of which hangs on a wall at home. We need some food and find the Julesburg Tavern. The sign says open but it looks anything but. We venture in, the women serving comes to life; we are her only customers. A grilled cheese sandwich, some fries a bud, a couple of games of pool and we’re on our way to the Super 8 in North Platte east on the I80.
A frustrating day in many ways, but we did have a storm to chase and it looked great until it didn’t. Notwithstanding, that’s 8 days and 8 chases, an exceptional return. Will we make it 9 from 9 tomorrow? We’ll still be in Nebraska for what’s currently A slight risk so hopefully less travelling.
Total miles: 496
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