This post will be brief — I will write a more detailed account soon, but for now here are a couple images of the partially rain-wrapped tornado I observed near the Colorado-Kansas border yesterday evening at around 8:00pm CDT (7:00pm MDT). The time stamp on the first image is 8:03:45 and the second image is 8:04:33. I was photographing this tornado using a telephoto lens anywhere from 80 to 150mm focal length at roughly 1/30 of a second on the tripod. My observing location was 4.5 miles east of Coolidge about a mile or two north of Highway 50 on an unpaved road. The view was looking due west in these images toward Holly, CO. I would estimate this tornado being very close to Highway 50 somewhere not too far from Holly based on radar data at the time. Even though the primary condensation funnel never fully made it the surface, there were occasional “whisps” of condensation very close to the ground beneath the funnel… as well as at times concentrated rain curtains beneath the funnel, which gave me confidence of at least low-end tornadic circulation at ground level. More later.
Great catch Mike! It was a fun little back yard chase for me and good seeing you out there even though we never got to say whats up. It took me Three hours to get from Limon, Colo. to Denver, Colo. the roads were terrible.
Comment by Michael Carlson — April 18, 2009 @ 9:02 am
Hey Michael, Yep I was observing your moves on SpotterNetwork as well as we leap-frogged each other around the Haswell area. Rather photogenic storms when viewed from the backside with the sunlight — kind of fun!
Comment by Mike U — April 19, 2009 @ 10:02 pm