August 31st 08

At 1100 AM EDT the center of Hurricane Gustav was located about 325 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Maximum sustained winds are near 120 MPH with higher gusts. Gustav is a Category Three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Some restrengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours and Gustav could regain Category Four strength later today or tonight. Fluctuations in strength are likely but Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane until landfall.

August 27th 08

Beautiful Sunset today!

August 26th 2008

Lightning in Greeley tonight!

August 25th 08

Not letting this day go by without missing what we did yesterday. Going to watch the boundary, so were hanging out in Bennett near Elbert and Arapahoe counties waiting for initiation. NWS is wording severe storms, large hail, possible landspouts today. Get SOM!

August 24th 2008

Did not make it to these Landspouts, we were chasing north on the line, we didnt have live radar so we couldn't see the boundary that created these monsters, a few changes to our equipment this next season will change all of that. Wx Worx will be reactivated, and a broadband card will be added to the chase vehicle, also an HD cam and a Ham Radio. We did however get into a hail core, observed some minor wind shear, and got some nice shots of rainbows and lightning. Next post will show the video and pictures.

August 23rd 2008

Image from the Denver Post

Wow dew points are high today, and there was a mountain super cell today that was near woodland park! It was freakin sweet, large hail and reported tornado. Apparently there was a waterspout on the reservoir in Park County Colorado today! That drives me crazy because Ive always dreamed of seeing a waterspout on a reservoir in Colorado!!! ahhh! We may chase tomorrow in Northeast Colorado, and Nebraska there is a slight risk. It looks like there may be a chance for super cell structure but mid level wind shear isn't looking good so stay tuned.

August 15th 2008

August 14th 2008

This was a fun day, we almost went southeast clear down to liberal ks, but instead we decided to stick around for the storms in Weld County. We saw some good structure for a brief period on an isolated cell near Kersey, CO but then things became more clustered. We saw what may have been a gustanado or landspout forming southwest of Greeley. We got some pea sized hail and some neat looking storm photos is about it this day. Later on there was some pretty sweet lightning. Along on this chase was Johnathan Skinner, Corey Green, Kyle Darnell, and Ariana Shelley.

August 10th 2008

Today we chased a clustered line of storms with ample moisture and high energy. High 60s dew points, and cape values in the 4000 area. The wind shear was low today limiting most severe weather, but we still got some heavy rain and pea sized hail today in northeastern weld county creating problems for farmers.

August 9th 2008

Something caught my eye this evening. I was driving in west Greeley when I saw a column of air with smoke being pulled into the updraft of a developing thunderstorm west of Greeley. I had to know what was going on, so I drove west on 34. Around 8pm off Hwy 34 and 94th Ave in Greeley there was a fire with 120 bails of hay on fire. Windsor and Union Colony Fire rescue responded to this fire. The fire department said the cause was unknown, they had trouble finding water to put it out but a blessing came as it started raining. Their concern for the fire went down because of the precipitation. I thought it made cool pictures as the smoke was being pulled into the updraft.

August 6th 2008 Flash Flood Greeley

Very heavy rain today caused flash flood problems for drivers and for basements in houses. Many roads were later closed to flooding due to cars getting stuck in the water. Earlier in the day around 7pm a tornado warning was issued, the wx alert system went crazy in my living room and i saw a tornado warning so i was already out the door by the time it got done beeping. I called skinner to get me the situation report and turned on the wx radio for information on the warning. Skinner saw two boundaries colliding and therefore created weak rotation leading to the warning, no tornadoes reported. People in Lodo heard tornado sirens going off, a friend of mine called to let me know.

August 5th 2008 NE Colorado

Skinner was my now caster in the hospital once again. After work I saw the explosion to the south of Greeley and it caught my interest. Skinner sent me after the cells moving through Northeastern Weld, I started east of Greeley and went through some very strong Outflow boundaries and chased a strong cell moving through the Pawnee Grasslands. I got into nickel to golfball hail, 65 mph winds, and a few areas of rotation from the outflows basically gustanadoes.

VIDEO WILL BE POSTED SOON!