22 June 2019
“We need a wheat field.”
Denver to Ulysses, KS (810 km)
We gathered at eight for an early departure since they were expecting storms in Texas. We had a quite briefing an introduction and headed out. Half the tour was made up of a photography course on time-lapse that was being conducted by Ron Risman. They took the new van and the six of us in the old van were a regular tour.
We left before nine, and as we headed south, Bill noted the forecast was favouring southeast Colorado and that we’d head for that area and decide when we got there.
We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Lamar.
And then hung out in Hasty, Colorado where we overwhelmed the local store.
From here, we headed west, targeting a discreet cell moving off the mountains. We drove towards La Junta and then south towards Springfield where we stopped to watch one develop. As we got out of the van, we scared a fox sitting in the ditch.
We made a couple of extended stops to watch this beauty develop.
At one point, it was like a waterfall from the sky.
The time-lapse group split off and went to do their own thing while we kept up with the storm.
The structure was phenomenal.
We drove past Pritchett and found ourselves under the anvil just west of Kim.
And also we got a rainbow.
We turned around and headed east with the two systems following on our heels.
The lightning started in earnest as the sun went down, and at one point, I was watching the low clouds being lit up by lightning. Then I realized that there was a straight stovepipe formation under one. I watched it for about two minutes waiting for the lightning to light it up to be sure when it took on a classic twisted tornado shape with a lot of debris under it.
You want to see a van go from 60 to 0 in 2.3 seconds?
By the time we got out, it had dissipated. We saw it out of the left side of the van while the time-lapse group drove directly towards it. No one got a clear photo of it but most everyone saw it.
We kept going east and got rooms at the Corporate East Hotel in Ulysses.
My room was so large, I had to take a panorama to get it all in.
I did nothing and went straight to bed.
Go to Day Two
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See also: Bill Reid’s entry for 22 June