May 28th, 2001, Ellicott, Colorado Tornado?

My second tornado of the year for 2001, ...I think. I must qualify my use of the "T" word though because of the distance away and the lighting level during my filming of the storm I could not personally see rotation . However, the storm obviously caused tornadic damage at Ellicott and a tornado was reported by the local Sheriff to be on the ground 8 miles south of Rush at 8:30 pm and this was the time I was filming and where I was looking. Also NWS warned of a possible tornado approaching Punkin Center after I quit filming and drove toward Punkin Center. Irregardless it was a beautiful cell and very electrified.

I left Lakewood, Colorado at 9:00 AM with Springfield, Colorado as my target. My target was just inside the early morning moderate risk area and the RUC indicated strong gusting SE surface winds to kick in about 3:30 pm. I was hoping this wind would raise the dew points to a respectable levels for a few isolated cells to develop off the mountains of New Mexico or southern Colorado. I arrived at Springfield at approximately 2:00 PM. I pulled down a satellite image and searched for any strong convection,....none was to be seen.

About 4:00 PM I resisted the urge to dive south in to the higher moisture air. My reasoning for this decision was not weather related but because I needed to be back home Monday evening so I could be at work Tuesday. A severe thunder storm warning was issued for a cell moving N.E, out of Colfax County in New Mexico, so I decided to drive east down Highway #160 toward Kim, Colorado and the New Mexico storm. After arriving at Kim, Colorado the cell from New Mexico had moved somewhere between Raton and Trinidad. The cell had potential and eventually produced funnels and possibly a tornado as reported by Dave Lewison.

However, since I was fighting the clock and hoping for storms to fire further to the north I decided to drive north to La Junta on Highway #109. Along the way the National Weather Service came out with a Tornado Watch Box for Southwest Colorado. My hopes were suddenly buoyed and my excitement for the chase quickly returned. I might at least be able to get some good lighting shots. At La Junta I downloaded the radar image shown below.

I had not heard about the about the tornado at Ellicott at this time but close examination of this radar image shows a possible hook within the radar image. The time of the radar image was 7:43 PM. I called my wife to let her know I was on my way home, when she told me about the damage at Ellicott the chase was on. I dashed up highway #91 as quickly as prudently possible. About 12 miles south of Punkin Center I stopped to film on a farm road west of highway #91. The picture below is what I saw at 8:30 PM. Click on the image to view full size. I've also have attached a short MPG movie to the right.

All in all another great chase. Total miles about 650 miles and the highest gas price $1.85/gallon.