I drove all the way west to Greeley, CO where I had lunch at a mexican
restaurant, since Weld County, CO was my target. I am disappointed
that the lower/mid 50s dewpoints had mixed out into the lower to mid
40s in my target. This is frustrating and led me to believe I was too
far west as the showers coming off the mountains were extremely
un-appetizing. I then noticed a congested Cu field some 80-100 miles
to my east… across extreme northeast Colorado. Since this was
closer to the better moisture, I figured this was now the best target.
As I was driving east on I-80, I had been keeping a close eye on this
cu field both with my eye balls and on 1km visible satellite. Looking
in my rear view mirror, cumuls was getting taller in altitude and
glaciating at a higher altitude as well…suggesting perhaps better
future development. So I am hedging both plays by hanging in between
the Cheyenne developing convection and the Julesburg Cu field. The
Julesburg cu field is in negligible surface convergence/forcing while
the Cheyenne stuff had the advantage of much better elevated heating
and closer to the nose of the mid level jet. Hence why the storms had
already developed… the problem is the crappy moisture with
surface-based CAPE less than 1000 J/kg. I’m gonna sit here in
Kimball, NE and just let the atmosphere tell me where to go next based
on my visual observations in the cumulus development.
–
Mike Umscheid Photography
http://gallery.underthemeso.com
mesomike@gmail.com
