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Another large tornado developed beneath this airborne maelstrom as darkness fell, and we did not see it. Little did we care. Charlie and I had just completed the chase of our lives. Our last chance chase had become The Last Chance Chase; our Last Chance chase was a Gentleman's chase, an E-ticket chase from heaven.
Notes of interest concerning the tornados: These tornados of July 21, 1993 are locally referred to as the "Lindon tornados." They are among the largest ever witnessed and photographed in Colorado. The first tornado, the one Charlie and I videotaped, was rated F0 because no structural damage occurred. It injured some animals and tore up some fences, but otherwise hit nothing! The second tornado wrecked a farmhouse and was rated F3. There were no deaths or injuries. Another out-of-season tornado killed eleven people just east of nearby Thurman, Colorado, on Sunday, August 10, 1924. (I believe that that one still remains Colorado's only killer tornado on record.) The tornado that tore through Limon, Colorado, in 1990 was on June 6. Tornado season in Eastern Colorado is generally considered to be mid-May through June. The jet stream is typically too far north of the state during July and August for storms such as these.
There were perhaps a dozen or so chasers and spotters in and around Last Chance and Lindon that evening watching the storm. Apparently, most did not end up in very good position to view Tornado #1. Dean Cosgrove, a NWS spotter out of Fort Morgan, was in good position and saw the large wedge of Tornado #1 develop from Roads W and 7, three miles east of our site. Dean managed to stay safe, videotape the storm, and keep the Denver NWS up-to-the-second on the status of the storm and tornados. He was on the storm from about 4 p.m. to midnight, when it finally weakened near the Kansas border. Another chaser from Denver, Tim Samaras, watched the large wedge develop just to his north while along Road M. Tim's video of the tornado as it drifted to his east is spectacular, but he was fighting rain, strong winds, and poor contrast as precipitation wrapped around the west side of the tornado. Dave Thede and Dave Solomon caught the end of tornado #1 about eight miles east of where it roped out. From there they had a great view of the second large tornado as dusk fell.
Charlie and I called Channel 4 in Denver from the Scott's farmhouse south of Lindon and met their news van at Byers at 10 p.m. Our tornado footage was seen on the Denver news within the next 15 minutes, and Charlie and I began our happy trek west along I-70. When we arrived home in Los Angeles the next evening we saw our tornado footage again--on The Weather Channel!--which had been showing clips of the incredible storm all day long.
Photo copyright William T. Reid.
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