Well in the Wells
Cheyenne Wells to Akron, CO
14 Jun 13
SHORT: High-based, outflow-dominant storms.
LONG:
Starting our annual Great Plains vacation the day before, we drove from OUN-ITR–a long haul. Morning this day found us in our favorite Burlington motel, the Chaparral Inn, realizing fully well that moisture was scant with the strongest deep shear located N of a slow-moving to stationary front over NE CO and NW KS. In short, it looked like a day when early towers might yield spouts, then it would be an outflow fest afterward. Hey, when dealing with the atmosphere, you can’t take more than you’re given.
First, however, there was some unfinished business to attend at the increasingly derelict “See Six States” tower, antique shop and very outdated tourist attraction near Genoa. The place, despite its schtick, is packed with history! Elke had spied a particular old bottle there last year that she regretted not buying; and sure enough it still was there, sitting on the same spot of the same shelf. The eccentric old man that ran the place, Jerry Chubbuck, was more than happy to sell it to her; he saw maybe one or three vehicles a day stop in, while thousands passed by on the nearby Interstate. [Sadly, Jerry died in August. What will become of that old place and its thousands of antique items?] I also had a little compositional photography in mind there (with permission) of some old bottles and the inside of the tower area upstairs. As we left, in early afternoon, convective towers began to build along the front to our ENE-SE-SSW.
Gradually and in stepwise fashion, we headed back E on I-70 then S out of ITR toward Cheyenne Wells, driving beneath the now high-based line of showers and storms. We never saw any spouts (updrafts were fuzzy, not firm, thanks to meager CAPE), but we did see a weak gustnado to the SE. In Cheyenne Wells, we had a great late lunch/early dinner at a small storefront cafe staffed and patronized by very hospitable people. My red-blooded, patriotic t-shirts, and the sociopolitical slant behind them, go over well in the Wells and in other small towns all over the Great Plains.
Several miles W of town, we stopped to observe and photograph an interestingly chaotic sky, before proceeding N toward lodging that would put us in position for the next day’s target area near the CO/NEb border. Also, on our way through the rain (coming into Cheyenne Wells), in town, after we headed E out of town, and in a second round of (heavier) storms near Anton, we PINGed the rain too. The green dots show our PING trails; we were the only PINGers in eastern CO for those storms. Finally, near AKO, we stopped to photograph the late-afternoon light with a background of dark clouds from the small Anton MCS.
It was a stress-free way to get into the swing of the trip. We had low expectations meteorologically, so this was a casually pleasant day of storm and landscape observing, food consumption, and visiting the old man’s fading attraction near Genoa, and for what may have been the final of several visits over the years to the See Six States tower.