![]() ![]() Along the way, this storm continued to organize nicely, eventually spewing out an ominous white scud cloud against the dark mass behind it. I wanted to get east to stay ahead of this, so I started taking more dirt farm roads east and north to Karval. ![]() This began the real chase! My first stopping location was about 6 miles south of Punkin Center where I photographed a nice updraft structure with the telltale jagged, scalloping appearance that is typical of strong Colorado storms. I got back to Hwy 94 then blasted east to Hwy 71 where I went south. All of a sudden, this storm rapidly gained strength right in front of me to the west and northwest. I tried to get out of the rain with some luck and captured a couple daytime CG’s with the lightning trigger. Before I did that, though, I drifted south about a mile or so to try and photograph some of the intense lightning that was barraging the location behind me back to the west. This was slowly moving north toward the highway, so my thought was just to get to Hwy 71 (Punkin Center). I took a couple photos of this.Īn elongated base was just to my south…just south of Hwy 94 from just south of Yoder to south of Punkin Center. ![]() The easternmost storm of the Palmer mess was actually a pretty little storm with a stout, compact precipitation core coming straight down out of the center of the smallish Cb. ![]() Meantime, I was noticing aggressive Cb growth well to my northeast…to the northeast of Limon, and I gave it some thought to just totally abort the Palmer Divide mess and reposition to the northeast. All this activity was still somewhat displaced from the good moisture, so I figured I had to give it some time to sort itself out. Eventually, though, numerous other storms developed to the south and southeast of this initial storm and it quickly became a mess. The incipient storm was small and had some shape to it with a precipitation core separated from the updraft area. I would love to live out here!! Anyway, as a young storm started to grow to my west, I ventured southwest to Calhan where I then began my journey on farm roads south toward Hwy 94. The landscape is just beautifu on the Palmer with wonderful wildflower growth and green rolling hills. I drove as far southwest as Simla before I decided to hang out on a farm road. By the time I reached Limon, I already noticed decent towers developing over the Palmer Divide, so I drove southwest on Highway 24 - “the highway to Palmer storms”. Moisture was still very good across eastern Colorado to the east of the Palmer Divide with dewpoints in the lower to mid 60s across far eastern Colorado, so once storms reached this moisture/high CAPE, they should thrive…given the marginal wind shear. Water vapor satellite was showing a subtle jet streak/mid level moist band moving into western Colorado, timed to come out into the adjacent high plains by afternoon. I began this chase in Sidney, NE with a target of the Palmer Divide (around and south of Limon, CO) in mind. I had very little choice other than to chase as close to home (Dodge City) as possible, seeing as I had to start day shift early the next morning. I must say, I was extremely pleased with how this chase turned out. …Long-lived severe storm complex with beautiful striated updraft/shelf cloud structures - from the Palmer Divide to Oakley, Kansas… ![]()
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