Day 6 - 1142 miles

Hopes were high and expectations low for what would be my first meaningful chase day of '05. We rolled out of Amarillo around 10:00 a.m. moving north through the OK panhandle and into eastern Colorado. SPC had a 5% over CO's eastern plains with a NW flow kicking stuff up off of the mountains. We had warm moist air moving up from the south so it seemed a good chance that storms would spark up in the foothills and get juiced by the air as they move east.

As we continued north around 1:30 p.m. we could see a large storm building west towards CO. Springs. Being the only game in town we decided to wait and let it move towards us as we sat and had lunch in Lamar.

We went after it around 3:00. first north and then west towards Haswell and Arlington, then bailed as a more promising storm fired to the north east, moving towards Kit Carson then Cheyenne Wells. It would be one of those days. Moving from one storm to another. Trying to position ourselves for the promise of a land spout or tornado. But it wasn't to be.

As the sun began to fall a handful of severe storms again fired towards the west. We were hopeful of a sunset storm with a backlit land spout or a tornado that would never come. The storms were beautiful none the less and gave us quite a light show after dark as we headed back to Lamar for a night's rest.

Among my most favorite places to chase are the plains of Eastern CO. Looks like another fun day tomorrow.