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Last Updated on Sunday, 10 January 2010 01:40 Written by Roger Hill

2001

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What a pleasant surprise this chase was!! An impressive vort max and stacked low were over northeast Colorado moving into western Kansas. By 10 am, storms were firing to the east of the vort max. I decided to blast out of Denver to get in front of this vort center and hopefully find a rotating storm. I found much more than that!!! First, a tornado occurred in Gove county, Kansas near the Castle R o ck state park. Nice small landspout. Next a rather large supercell exploded in the unstable air over Russell county, Kansas as I blasted east on I-70. Another landspout occurred near I-70 in Ellis county, Kansas. As I arrived on the now confirmed tornadic supercell, I saw a huge hail core that contained baseball sized hail. I headed east to get in front of it and southeast of the updraft. As I did a rather large stovepipe tornado formed under the rotating meso. Secondly, another smaller white tornado formed on the east side of the meso as the storm entered Lincoln county, Kansas near the town of Sylvan Grove. The storm soon went HP as I headed east towards Salina to get in front of it and watch the shelf cloud mature. But not before I was pummeled with golf ball sized hail and 70 mph winds. It was a beautiful sight!!! Please enjoy the video stills below.

Ellis county landspout!!	Debris cloud gets larger.
Base and wall cloud of the Russell county supercell (looking east).	Shelf cloud from a line of severe thunderstorms behind me (west).
Intense hail core with baseball sized hail and the flanking line of this mature supercell.	Large stovepipe tornado, looking north from I-70 near Sylvan Grove.
Another shot of the stovepipe shaped tornado.	Smaller white tornado on the east side of the meso (looking north). Sorry for the poor contrast, as I was getting hit with 65 mph RFD winds here!!
Another shot of the white tornado.	Tornado ropes out.
Intense CG strike under the occluded meso.	New meso takes shape (looking north).
Storm goes HP. This is a shot looking back at the notch. Notice the forward flank precip core and flanking line extending to the right (looking southwest)	Very intense and close CG strike makes me retreat a bit.
Another CG as I look at a tail cloud forming in the notch of this HP.	Awesome shelf forms as a distant CG strike occurs.
Another shot of the shelf as the storm lines out.	CG in the shelf with a field of milo in the foreground (looking west).