6/20 - 1am MDT - Time to Go Home, Aurora Aftermath

As we made our way back to Denver today, we were able to stop by Aurora, NE to see the damage caused by the EF2 wedge tornado we saw there on Wednesday. We were shocked by the extent of the damage because we never could really grasp how severe the tornado was while we were chasing it:


We drove by that house you see in the first photo right before the tornado touched down. There was a barn there as well. I'm happy to report that the family living in that house, including four kids, escaped unharmed by staying in their basement. Only the edge of the tornado hit the house, but the barn next to it took the full force of the EF2 winds. Only a small pile of red-painted wood debris was left from the barn, which was less than a year old.

Here's the path of the tornado with our route and stopping points (orange dots):


Notice how one of our stopping points, the first orange dot, was right in the path of the tornado at its highest EF2 intensity. We were about 250 yards away from the tornado at this point and you can see how scary that looked in the video I posted on Wednesday.

For a complete survey report from the National Weather Service, click here.

I'm leaving Denver tomorrow to return to Louisville. It's been a thrilling two weeks with tons of supercells, my video of a supercell in Kiowa County, KS airing on Good Morning America, sightings of VORTEX2 and the Tornado Intercept Vehicle, hail covering I-70 east of Denver, and of course my first four tornado sightings on Wednesday near Aurora, NE.

By the way, I also just uploaded the brand-new website for Storm Chasing Adventure Tours at http://stormchasing.com. Even if you can't book a tour with us next year, be sure to get an official Storm Chasing Adventure Tours t-shirt at our store on the website!

It's sad to be leaving Tornado Alley, but I'm also happy to be coming home after two weeks on the road. It's been great chasing this week with our tornado-proof group:

11/29 - 9pm - No Snow, Weekend Schedule

It's been long enough and I'm ready to make my final decision on this weekend's storm system. There will be no snow, but we'll see some moderate rains. According to the QPF we'll see about a half an inch:



There is a small (and I do mean small) chance for some flurries on the backside of this system Monday morning. It's interesting how this storm went from a Kentucky snowstorm to a Michigan blizzard as the week went on. That tells you how accurate the models are a week out. Until then we'll 50 with sunny skies tomorrow and then we'll drop into the 30's on Monday after the storm passes.

Here's the situation for this weekend. I just completed a revamp of all the video graphics on my video forecast. The problem is, I've got a test to take on Saturday morning. So I'll either get a new forecast video out on Saturday afternoon or Sunday. I think you'll really like the new graphics I made and the new music I picked out.

Don't forget that the Ryan Weather Store is open 24/7 at www.cafepress.com/ryanweather.
There are some great Christmas gifts in there, with t-shirts as low as $11 and stickers at $5!