STORM TRACK: May 31, 1986 (Volume 9 Issue 4)

John Weaver writes: In last month's ST there was an account of an oil derrick fire that was mistaken for a tornado. I read the account with a strong sense of deja vu, and a lot of irony. We, too, had one of those "one in a million" occurrences in Colorado in June, 1984. In fact, it nearly cost me twice. I'll explain.

In 1984, Colorado State University conducted a storm intercept class for credit. The lab was actually a chase car! On June 13th, we misanalyzed the situation and had gone northward toward Cheyenne, WY, while the primary storm of the day developed over Denver, Colorado. However, we managed to recover early through a combination of visual observation, listening to the radio, and using the automobile to its finest advantage.

Entering the Denver area, we found ourselves approaching a very solid, very dark, rain free base. As we drove further, a small funnel appeared on the northeast edge of the inflow band and almost simultaneously, a dark column of "debris" began rising into the cloud base. I was surprised to find that such a small funnel had produced such a large debris column, but I was not going to look the Storm Gods in the mouth, and thus began the ritual of screaming into my tape recorder. The Weather Service had seen it too and a tornado warning was issued. Shortly thereafter, we learned that a local chemical company had chosen that particular moment to do a "burn off" in one of their cooling towers. Needless to say, this incident was significant since it occurred over a major metropolitan area at rush hour, and was being reported by a half dozen "on the spot" television and radio reporters. Things got worse for our chase team as we ended up getting totally bogged down in a major traffic jam, in the infamous Denver hailstorm.

How did it nearly cost us twice? And now for the rest of the story. On August 6th, our chase team was once again led to the same area. Again we found a very heavy rain shaft with a broad rain free base to the east. We were due north of the activity, and happened to be looking across the sky, when, all of a sudden, a column shaped "debris" cloud rose to cloud base. The column was so cylindrical (like a telephone pole) we nearly decided not to even photograph the event. But, why not a few pictures of another tornado look-a-like. So, for procedure sake, we photographed the smoke phenomenon (ha-ha) with a few 35 mm shots.

A few minutes later, the radio blared that a tornado had touched down and minor damage was occurring in the suburb of Aurora. At that point, the tornado was already losing its definition, and it was too late to start the video. We could only snap a couple of more stills, and enjoy the opportunity for visual observing. Live and learn.

(Editors note: This story sort of reinforces the ole adage: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!)