Eastern Colorado Tornado Magic | May 21, 2026
Updated: 2 hours ago
On May 21, 2026, the SPC issued a Slight risk with a 2% tornado risk for Eastern Colorado — essentially in my backyard. The day was going to have a couple of isolated supercells, potentially producing a tornado or two.
Heading To The Target
Our target area was to the north of I-70. We started the day at around 2 PM. The SPC issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch. On our way down, we saw a small line of weak storms with some rain, but they were strong enough to warrant a Special Weather Statement.
The Main Cell
Eventually, that short line of storms begins to organize into the main supercell of the chase.
We drove north to get to the storm. We arrived, and we had the perfect vantage point of the storm — the main area of possible tornadic development right over a ridge.
We sat and watched the storm for a while. It didn't do anything yet, however we could see it develop in front of our eyes. Eventually, we get a lot of scuddage that looks weirdly like a large funnel.
The storm continues moving east. We were paralleling the storm to the south, making sure to stay south of it to avoid chaser convergence and hail. We were stopped at a fork in the road watching the storm when Steven noticed an outdraft punch out ahead of the storm. From the past, when he chased Akron, that same outdraft punch brought large hail onto the vehicle. So we decided to begin driving south. Unbeknownst to us, the 360 camera on the roof recorded something happening behind us.
In the above timelapse, notice the rotation near the outpunch. While we were driving south, people began reporting softball-sized hail a mile to our north.
We hit a small pull-off area and pulled in. After pulling in, we looked to the north, and we saw a little noodle. From our perspective, it didn't appear to be on the ground, but multiple other people reported it as a tornado with visible ground circulation. It also appeared small, but other angles posted online showed it as a super-long trunk.
Before I could get my DSLR out, it dissipated, but at least the 360 camera caught it!
Continuing to Parallel
The storm recycled many more times as we continued to parallel it to the south. Our pattern was going down to I-70, then coming back in to the north. We did this multiple times.
One time, we went in near sunset. By then, it was much colder, and the entire area around the storm was essentially overcast. Off in the distance, my chase partner Steven noticed a tornado to the west; however, I didn't, and I didn't have any cameras running.
I don't think I've seen a supercell recycle this much in a while. Some successfully produced a tornado, and others didn't. We kept going up into the storm, checking to see if anything was happening, dropping south, heading east, and repeating.
At this time, the storm was once again producing massive hail. This was taken on the RFD of the storm, and there was a possible funnel cloud, but it didn't touch down. At this point, it was approaching blue hour, so we decided to head home—chasing a storm like this after nightfall wouldn't be fun (thanks for that, March 14th!)
On our way back, we ran into another line of storms. They were just rain and lightning—no hail—but the lightning was constant. When we got behind the storm, we planned to take pictures of the lightning; however, clouds developed behind the line and made it hard to see it. We then got home at around midnight.
On this day, I saw one tornado. It's not a top chase for me, but it was still fun, and the fact that it was only a couple of hours from home makes it even better. One of my favorites from this year, but it's not the top.
Comments