While the chaser convergence was underway for the first outbreak of the year in the panhandles, I chose to stay somewhat local; especially, after SPC put out a tornado watch (#74) for northeast Colorado. Left Loveland, CO at 11:30a. Storms began firing near Denver and east. First tornado warning came at about 3:28p (MDT) on a cell southwest of Deer Trail.

After driving to Ft. Morgan, I backtracked to Wiggins after seeing the storms taking a northerly track from just east of Denver. I headed south and set up on a farm road about 11 miles east of Prospect Valley. I observed what I thought to be a wall cloud to the southeast but it was easily 10 miles away and no good road options to it. Spotters in the area called me to report the same. That cell continued on a north-northeast path. I moved to about 1 mile west of Prospect Valley to await the Deer Trail cell which was still tornado warned. I was at the north end of the polygon.

A few minutes later, the cell I had been watching went tornado warned after a spotter called in a tornado near Leader (3 miles east of where I was earlier). The Deer Trail cell had built up some steam and was now moving in a north-northwest direction right to me. I watched as the base began lowering and scud was being pulled up into it. The whole cell was slightly rotating and it was obvious there was some serious hail and wind with this one. As the main part of the storm reached me, it started raining with pea-size hail.

Nick Walker with TWC contacted me and I did a live interview with him regarding the storm I was watching. I saw some lowering and further rotation but no tornado. Not long after, the torrential downpour began with lots of pea-size hail. I notified the NWS of my observations and returned to Prospect Valley to wait out the rain and hail (visibility was gone). As the rain let up, another tornado warning went out for the Leader area. A quick glance east told me if there was a tornado, it was rain-wrapped. I spent the next hour or so trying to find it in the HP mess but was not successful. Ended my chase with a drive through some hail-clogged roads and lots of wind.

Total miles driven: 255