So, here are a few more pictures from the Memorial Day supercell that we chased across SE Colorado and the Western OK panhandle. We actually missed an EF2 rated tornado just prior to our arrival to the target area, just near Springfield, CO. Upon our arrival to the storm we saw this funnel cloud develop, a satellite of the longer duration tornado that we had just missed.

We repositioned farther south and east and got to enjoy a long view of the base of this monstrous supercell that slowly jogged SE along a surface boundary, a feature that helped keep rotation going with this storm.

The storm kept cycling, and lowering wall clouds and rotating scud.

It was so close to dropping a tornado at this point, but the rotation just wasn’t quite strong enough. Rain-cooled air also seemed to keep getting ingested into the updraft.

After another cycle had ended and another wall cloud and funnel had dissipated we decided to make the jaunt 15 miles north back to Springfield for a much-needed pit stop. On our return back to this relentless storm we had to encounter the associated rain and hail, partly due to limited road options and partly due to some sub-par navigation on my part. Most of the hail stones were pea to penny sized, but unfortunately a few quarter to golfball sized stones also fell and scarred up our jeep.

When we finally got through the rain and hail, we came upon the view below.

It then crossed U.S. Highway 385, and fortunately the sheriff was able to stop all traffic from being impacted. As it moved east of the highway it briefly began to chew up a bit more dust just off of the surface.

I believe this is looking a bit more west northwest, but we were greeted with a double rainbow while the tornado continued east. The lower half of the tube became difficult to see; the condensation funnel only extended about halfway down to the surface at this point, and little evidence of a dust or debris whirl were evident over the recently rain-soaked fields.

Somewhere about this time the tornado became obscured with the backdrop of rain and hail farther east, and a new tornado developed as a more dominant mesocyclone took over. This new tornado took on a white color throughout the condensation tube which only briefly extended all the way to the surface.

After the second tornado became more obscured and seemingly dissipated, we continued on farther south and east into the Oklahoma panhandle. About 2 or 3 miles west of Keyes, OK we observed this third tornado that also exhibited a white, and seemingly dust free tube over green wheat.

This third tornado had cycled far away from the dominant mesocyclone which you can see to the right of the below image.

The storm continued to jog southeastward to the Cimarron and Texas county border in the OK panhandle. Rotation remained evident right up until dusk, but no wall cloud or any other lowerings developed. I took this shot before the sun set with striations and rotation visible.