The #ChaseTo500 continues with two more tick marks after yesterday’s pretty solid Colorado chase. That puts the count to TEN tornadoes so far in 2026, leaving me 16 away from the 500 mark. But of those ten, the only tornado to really speak of was the Minnesota tornadoes back on April 13. Everything else I have seen have barely counted as tornadoes. The two I saw yesterday in Colorado, neither were slamdunk touchdowns; the first, a rather pretty funnel, was confirmed by others that were positioned a bit better as I had just enough of a terrain rise between me and the tornado where it blocked the ground. The second tornado was another birdfart, a low LCL fingers-to-the-ground type deal where a rotating lowering was just low enough where little clouds would occasionally dip down to ground level. This, at least visually, was more apparent, but still a pretty meh sighting overall. Fortunately, neither tornado were strong and did any damage, so yay for that.
Despite a solid outing yesterday, and even as the chase itself met, if not slightly exceeded expectations, 2026 thus far has been very lackluster, and sometimes frustrating for me. I’ve left a lot on the table, many of the big days either failed to reach their ceilings, or I botched up the day with poor decisions/positioning. There really haven’t been a TON of high-quality tornadoes outside the Braman/Enid day, so it’s not like I am missing out on a bunch, but the slim number of days thus far have not worked for me to this point. It’s the grind that is sometimes. Obviously I came into this season, #30, with the hope that I could hit the 500 tornado milestone in this season. While certainly well within range, I need to hope June offers some opportunities, or just dump a large majority on a day like Akron 2023. Sixteen is a large number going into the back third of the peak season, so I’m hopeful I can get back in the game for the opportunities that should present themselves.
The moisture return to eastern Colorado, while not drought-busting as I have said before, is very well timed. An El Nino tends to support an active pattern for us here locally, so the combination of the two should yield some opportunities in the weeks ahead. Yesterday, while lackluster in the tornado-department, did yield my first Colorado tornadoes of the season. But like the majority of the tornadoes I have seen this year, they are fence-scrapers.
Should be a quiet couple of days… some low-end potential exists early/middle of next week, but nothing I am terribly gung-ho for at this time. We’ll see how it shakes out over the Holiday Weekend.