27 Tornadoes, One Storm: The Akron, CO, Supercell of June 21, 2023

[@paradoxicalpoet1525]

I'm always fascinated by the events that only have one supercell that's producing most of the tornados. This was a very interesting day. I'v been eagerly awaiting the Abilene Chapman KS tornado analysis video as well. Great work as always!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@runt9]

Seeing over 4k MLCAPE, 200+3CAPE in Colorado is astounding. That's upper-echelon plains thermodynamics, to see that combined with almost 70 degree dew points in the higher terrains of northeastern Colorado is nothing short of incredible. It really makes sense why that radar went from 0 to 100 so quickly with incredibly robust updrafts. That much instability is sometimes too much of a good thing, that messy storm mode almost completely killed the chase. But the line has to stop somewhere and where the line stops, there will be open air inflow into the bottom storm, and that's exactly what happened here. It got to feed off the flat out ridiculous thermodynamic profile while not getting shafted by other updrafts for a good length of time, perfect place to be if you're a tornado-producing supercell.

[@thevernsweatheroffical]

The supercell literally caused a tornado outbreak

[@Joshua429]

Fr

[@JIBruning]

Really appreciate the super overview of this event explaining it at each layer. And it was a bit under the radar, at least to me. I remember looking at the models the night before thinking what a great environment it was around here for the front range of Colorado and overlooking the potential further east. Most of the convective attempts closer to the foothills didn't get going until the storm that hit the Red Rocks concert, but the area in eastern Colorado that just gets it done time and time again did it in incredible fashion that day.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! Yeah, I thought those storms closer to the Denver metro would get it done, but nothing was able to really get going until the evening.

[@keatonterry]

Small update on this event: one more tornado was recently confirmed by NWS Boulder using my footage, a satellite occurring simultaneously with Tornado #30. This means that now 28 tornadoes were produced by this one supercell.

[@TallyTechandTroubleshooting]

This is FANTASTIC, Trey! Always grateful for your analysis and I hope all is well...

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much, Tal! Hope all is well with you, too!

[@SuperCellChasing]

Is this what they call Colorado Magic?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Absolutely

[@sherrychumack9495]

Fantastic Trey!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you, Sherry!

[@badathcr6369]

Honestly watching this day and being impacted by the Red Rocks hailer in the night was just phenomenal having that Akron supercell producing numerous tornadoes some being strong and then Matador tornado was another thing that was insane a crazy day in meteorology for sure

[@cowboyupland]

Great synopsis. Glad I couldn't chase that day as I likely would have picked wrong regardless.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! It was a tricky setup...would love to have that one over.

[@myria9644]

Amazing video trey! Thank you!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much!

[@MightyMuffins]

Like the Matador tornado this event happened not even a week after we were done chasing for our trip for June. The Beaver, OK non-tornado storm was our last storm of the 10 day 2023 chase. My friends and I were so ***king pissed about this day cause we didn't get any tornadoes during the 10 days were were out there this year even though we were on the right storms. Just had terrible luck in positioning and having to drive North and West around hail cores that had 3 inch hail. This set up had us so bothered because we would have guaranteed to have seen at least ONE of those 27 tornadoes. Like we almost for sure would have been in NE Colorado and likely would have easily caught up to the Akron supercell at some point and seen one of the tornadoes. I mean the set up for the day was pretty damn good as the day went on....I mean practically every chaser was bunched in WY or Colorado and that's where we would have been on this day. Trey, what's that rule of thumb....."Fu** the set up, Colorado will always produce something anyway.". :P I mean that usually seems to be the same as Colorado is just Colorado with all the crazy micro-dynamics that go on with supercells. Just like the Springfield, CO supercell which was the 2nd to last day of our trip and that was just pure Colorado fun. The 12z frontal boundary was really well established and you as you described could see it really well. Pretty much was a dry line if I do say with how strong the dew points were. The 10-20 kts winds as it progressed throughout the day was a lot of good surface inflow and dragging in those upper 60s and 70s dew points into NE Colorado too. The soundings really show that cause that moist layer got stupidly deep. I mean that's just stupidly high dew points for CO cause that is just asking for a top tornado day. Also I think that Fine Line that you were talking about I think was more of a dry line. I think that you may have had some quirky micro-scale dynamics that were going on that wasn't totally apparent on the surface data as time went on. You probably had the outflow of the ongoing storms forcing the dry line out to the West so it was some wonky stuff going on too. Still amazing how discrete the Akron supercell got. Like it's really interesting how long that stayed all by itself and nothing else formed to kill off the inflow for a good little while. I mean yeah that did form later but it's pretty remarkable having a new stationary storm stay that discrete without anything forming to really cluster it up. That one thing near the end on a small mid-level jet was interesting. Obviously, never would have considered that though I do remember the SPC going into that happening during the Moore tornado but so that is pretty damn hard and probably fairly rare to see as there's little data on it and the Moore tornado being the best case of "yeah this can happen, but it's incredibly tricky to see and damn near impossible to forecast" type of thing. Those mid-day jet streaks like the Moore tornado probably are so quick to form and influence a storm that you almost have to see them like the GR2 product showed and you only really can see them using real time radar scans. Even then it's too quick to compile and influence a warning or for a ground chaser obviously to spot cause pretty much once you see that, it's already influencing the tornado genesis that then turns to become the immediate focus of the tornadoes ongoing from it likely. Like a bang-bang scenario. I do wonder Trey that while it's mostly a dew point thing, there seems to be several examples of these near ground skirting wall clouds with incredible spins like the Moore tornado and this supercell had that I do wonder if there's some mid-level dynamics these micro jets are having on influencing the stretching and spinning of these storms to really crank them even more to suck in even faster inflow rates and have more odd dynamics at play for the wall cloud and tornado formation into either a fat monster tornado like Moore or the shear number of tornadoes and satellites cause there's so much evacuation of air and spin above the wall cloud and into the meso itself. Like a diffluence enhancement on the microscale, if that makes sense from, SFC to Wall cloud and just above like 3-5kft. 3CAPE enhancement if you will just almost on a real time level for as long as that small jet streaks lasts till it gets fully sucked into the storm or whatever storms pop up around it to stop the pure feeding of it.

[@vivlund]

Excellent analysis. My relative got caught in a tornado the day after this happened in Highlands Ranch, CO. They were ok but their truck was not. I was texting them that there was a tornado when they were being hit, not knowing they were out and not at home, and they were like, how on earth does she know this? (I’m in NC) needless to say, I told them to follow your channel!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much! We chased the Highlands Ranch tornado, as well; my fellow tour guide’s mom lives in Highlands Ranch. Thankfully she made it out unscathed.

[@piconick79]

Omg great video!!!!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@kevinjoyce285]

This supercell is crazy as heck. In Colorado, you usually wouldn't see this because it feels like a Oklahoma supercell took a flight there! Some were significant but majority were weak luckily.

[@dragnflei]

Oh my gosh, that video is crazy. I seem to recall that a lot of chasers had opted side the southern threat area on this day because things didn’t look all that promising up north.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

There actually were only a handful of chasers on the southern storm; most (including me) stayed north in Wyoming.

[@PFA...]

learned something again!

[@jaredpatterson1701]

Had no idea winds would be going east into the mountains due to pressure differences! Almost sounds like sky osmosis lol but anyway thanks as always Trey, for teaching us something new! (At least new for me)

[@peanut4998]

Alternative title: Akron Tornado Printer

[@ryanranard5187]

Is the new video about Fall severe weather not coming out this week?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Just went live!

[@ryanranard5187]

@@ConvectiveChronicles okay 👍

[@kayeas716]

i actually had no idea that the chugwater cyclone existed, super intriguing actually. but awesome breakdown as always man! and woah got to the end, moore breakdown soon?! would love to hear more about the DRC and its implications on tornadogenesis, i know the moore storm was heavily assisted with that little jet-streak, mergers, and those DRCs. correct me if im wrong, but it’s thought that DRCs expand the RFD region and tighten inflow expanding the tornado usually correct?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much! I’m not super well-versed in DRCs, but I do believe their impact is something to that effect.

[@daryl0063]

Question. So when you see a wall cloud that means your LCL is getting higher? So that means you can literally see it with your naked eye correct?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

No, anytime the base lowers, the LCL is getting lower. You cannot always see the LCL with the naked eye; sometimes, the actual cloud base will be higher than the LCL.

[@daryl0063]

@ConvectiveChronicles okay alright I understand now. Thank you

[@paradoxicalpoet1525]

So does this supercell hold the record for most tornados?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I'm not sure but it has to be up near the top at the very least.

[@jamesrousculp1974]

I enjoy your videos would you ever do a case study of the 2019 memorial day outbreak that hit Indiana and ohio

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! It’s on my list!

[@boopshanaa]

Hey, Trey 👋

[@Twisted_WX]

what radar do you use?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

When I’m chasing, I use RadarScope. When I do these videos, I use the NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit.

[@Twisted_WX]

@@ConvectiveChronicles what do you use for this video?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@Twisted_WX See above

[@ericascali5427]

😢😢😢😢😮😮😮😮

[@slayer18726]

People I know in Colorado say they havent had a "Natural" tornado since the 80s because the colordaro government just makes tornadoes at the push of a button. Lmao😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Hahaha goodness

[@slayer18726]

​@ConvectiveChronicles I sent her this video. Keep up the great work

[@caydenruzicka]

First