Storm Chase 2019 Blog (6/2) - Day 1

DENVER, Colo. (WAVE) - We’re packing up and heading out to chase for the first day this week. I will be giving a weather briefing to the guests with us on Storm Chasing Adventure Tours - Tour 6 at 9:30am MDT and then we’ll be off to pick up a few supplies before we begin chasing for the day. Our travels today won’t take us too far, likely to parts of Eastern Colorado. There is a secondary target for chasing today, in my mind, in Southeast Wyoming too, but I believe the upper level wind support won’t be as good up there. The Storm Prediction Center has placed much of the High Plains under a Slight Risk of severe weather today. The could be a lot of hail in these storms due to the instability and elevation out here.

A Slight Risk of severe weather is in place across much of the High Plains on Sunday.

It looks like right now that an area of enhanced moisture in the air at the surface will try to gather in Southeast Colorado this afternoon. That’s key. Dew points will be in the lower to middle 50s down there, which isn’t a lot by Kentucky and Indiana standards, but when you factor in the elevation out here that is plenty for severe storms.

Moisture will be gathering across Southeast Colorado this afternoon. Some will also be pooling... — Moisture will be gathering across Southeast Colorado this afternoon. Some will also be pooling in Southeast Wyoming, a secondary target area should Southeast Colorado's potential decrease later today.

The HRRR’s simulated radar output (below) for this afternoon continues to advertise a big bunch of storms forming closer to the Rocky Mountains and then moving into the flat plains to the east. A more discrete supercell continues to show up in Southeast Colorado mid to late this afternoon as you’ll see in the image below. While the reality on the radar this afternoon may look different, this may be pretty close what will happen based on the moisture and wind support that’s down there.

Simulated radar output from the HRRR model at around 4pm MDT today.

Be sure to keep up with my storm chase today by following my social media accounts...

And of course at select times during our evening newscasts on WAVE 3 News this upcoming week I’ll be streaming video of our chase when possible. Daily (shorter than this post!) updates right here on the WAVE 3 Weather Blog (bookmark this link) will be available as well.