June 06, 1997 Boulder, CO

Home

Well, myself and 3 other co-workers where returning from our Friday margarita lunch on Boulder's Pearl street mall when I noticed the impressive line of towering cumulus to our east, my first thought was that gee I should take a half day vacation and go chase today. As we got out of the taller buildings of Boulder and onto a street with a clear view of the eastern sky, there it was. Looming large in the windshield and snaking from the RFB to the south down to Baseline reservior was an impressive rope tornado. I quickly turned off on 30th street and grabbed my only piece of chase gear on hand which was my 35mm camera. By this time the tornado was not well backlit and losing strength fast. I shot off the first picture of the final rope stage across from the car dealership. Hopping in to the car we quickly sped down Arapahoe road but were hit with an intense outflow blast and heavy rain as the tornado gave up the ghost. My friend Emilio, in the car with me, later gave me two of his wife's best pictures of the tornado looking to the west from nearby Louisville. The first image is from the formation stage and the second is at the maximum of the event (see Al Pietrycha's account of the same tornado). All in all it was an exciting thing to see.