The first landspout tornado touched down near Wiley, CO at 1151 MDT; 5 more landspouts formed during the next hour just outside Lamar, CO.
WxTorn06b_01 		This is the last of 6 landspout tornadoes just south of Lamar, CO around 1245 MDT.
WxTorn06b_11 		Following the six landspout tornadoes, a more well developed supercell tornado forms only a few miles from the southern edge of Lamar, CO around 1300 MDT.
WxTorn06b_16
A more vigorous ground circulation develops with this tornado.
WxTorn07a_18 		The funnel elongates with time as the tornado moves slowly north - northeast.
WxTorn07a_21 		The dirt column shows signs of vortex breakdown after five or ten minutes but this tornado lasted fifteen or more minutes before dissipating.
WxTorn07a_22
The warning sirens blared in Lamar as this tornado approaches the town. We viewed it from the east on the southern outskirt of town about two miles from the touchdown location.
WxTorn07a_26 		The building in the foreground is not in danger as the tornado is over a mile farther away.
WxTorn07a_32 		Typical summertime cumulus clouds dot the sky behind this tornado. The funnel cloud narrows to a pencil while moving very slowly toward the town of Lamar, CO.
WxTorn07a_35
In the Clouds Photography
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    Weather Gallery (6 Pages)
  1. Cloud basics
  2. Cloud-specifics
  3. Optical Phenomenon
  4. Supercell Thunderstorms
  5. Tornadoes
  6. Lightning


© 2001 Gregory Thompson
All rights reserved

29 May 2001 near Lamar, Colorado
 We started the day like all others perusing current and forecast data in the motel room (in Trinidad, CO). Our primary concern was time of initiation since there was a shortwave trough moving across central CO in the mid-morning hours. We knew we had to get our data and get started early with convection beginning by roughly noon. The only real tough decision was which road to take east as the target appeared to be the CO/OK/KS border intersections. I pushed hard for the US Highway 50 route which put us along the Arkansas River which had a good deal of clear skies and very strong winds in backed flow. Other options took us farther south to Springfield, CO or Clayton, NM. This turned out to be a very key decision because of timing of the first tornadoes.  
 
WxTorn06b_04 As we drove past La Junta, CO, small towering cumulus began percolating along a north-south oriented boundary which we surmised was the dry line. The southern portion of the line was producing turkey towers which were quite vigorous while the cumulus over the Arkansas River valley were surpressed and unimpressive. I kept my optimism that our immediate east horizon would begin to convect like the rest of our horizon - the river valley simply had cooler surface temperatures than the higher terrain on either side. Within the next thirty minutes we had equally strong updrafts due east of us not far from Lamar.  
 
We arrived at the dry line just in time. The main line of updrafts was nearly overhead but slightly east when Jason noted the first dust circulating to our southeast behind a feedlot. Moments later a funnel was spotted at cloud base. The funnel slowly grew and I called the National Weather Service in Pueblo immediately to report a landspout tornado just outside Wiley, CO (a handful of miles west of Lamar). This tornado lasted roughly 10 minutes moving quite slowly toward the northeast. When it dissipated, we moved slightly east to keep with the updraft region and soon thereafter another landspout tornado formed. With the second landspout on the ground, the town sirens began to blare and a WxTorn06b_07 third landspout swirled on the ground while the previous one started to dissipate. We then relocated to a fast food chain parking lot for the next few landspout tornadoes each of which was closer to town. Movement on all the tornadoes was quite slow - perhaps only 5 mph and we never felt threatened except by hail and lightning. Numerous times a few large hailstones would thump the ground nearby and send us scattering for cover in the car. A few stones reached roughly 2 inches diameter. Upon the demise of the final landspout close to 1300 MDT we drove through town wanting a better viewpoint for any subsequent tornadoes.  
 
Light rain and a few large hailstones started to hit the center of town and locals were standing outside viewing the tornadoes. Most activity in town was subdued and calm though the sirens had been blasting for nearly an hour by now. A few drivers were clearly rushing to get past all the traffic lights and onto the open highway for quicker departure. We drove south on US Highway 385 to get beyond town limits and try viewing unobstructed by trees and buildings. Moments later a new tornado was forming south of town and slightly east of other tornado initiations. We pulled over and set up camera gear just south of town among a host of emergency vehicles, spotters, and travelers smart enough to let the storm pass harmlessly ahead of them. This tornado was the seventh and had the appearance of a supercell tornado with a clear slot wrapping in from the south. The cone-shaped funnel cloud grew downward while a dust swirl rotated more quickly below. Eventually the dust column grew taller to meet the funnel cloud at the midpoint.  
 
WxTorn07a_37 The pictures above show the tornado progress from a cone shape into a narrow and thin pencil shape. The condensation cloud barely touches the surface yet the debris cloud is rotating quite rapidly. The blue skies and garden-variety cumulus clouds behind the tornado were a stark contrast to the violent rotation in the foreground. This tornado lasted a total of 25 minutes and moved slowly northeast, then north, then northwest and clipped the corner of town. Driving back through Lamar to go east again, we heard radio reports of moderate house damage to one house and destructon of a mobile home but no injuries. This was a close call and we were happy to hear no injuries and relatively little damage considering the duration and location of the tornado.  
 
We left Lamar after filling the gas tank and saw some minor street flooding along with some large hailstones. We were headed east into Kansas for additional tornadic storms. We turned south in Syracuse and intercepted a newly-forming mesocyclone. We drove within a mile of the feature which appeared to begin falling apart into outflow. There was a lot of chaotic motions on the leading edge and dust swirls were numerous and very nearby. It still had tornadic potential briefly but this did not last as the storm was obviously becoming dominated by outflow and racing out in all directions. We kept ahead of the dust among decent county roads until we decided it wasn't worth running from and let it hit us as we turned back north toward Syracuse. We decided to take Wednesday off and drove all the way back to the Front Range after eating a normal dinner in Lamar. Life was pretty normal in Lamar though they had a very close call today.