Everyone here in Colorado knows that tornadoes only hit the plains in our state, and never in the high mountains. Mountain tornadoes are so rare as to be almost mythical–maybe once every 10 or 20 years.
NOT!
These are not my photos, they are from a cool new website here in Colorado, http://www.fishexplorer.com, dedicated to lake fishing of all types (not just flyfishing). I’m a volunteer ‘lake skipper’ for these folks, keeping the lake conditions updated for my lake.
I’ve crosslinked to one of the pictures, go to the thread on Fishexplorer for the rest. This high altitude mountain waterspout occurred a week and half ago, on August 23, on ElevenMile Reservoir in South Park.
Some things to think about – the folks in the motorized pontoon boat in the photo, and the photographer in the boat from which the photo was taken, are lucky to be alive.
If someone had been in a float tube or personal pontoon boat at the wrong spot, they would have been DEAD, with no way to move the boat fast enough to get out of the way. Anyone in a hand-propelled craft (very common on this lake, it’s a trophy flyfishing destination) should have been off of this lake and having lunch on shore at LEAST an hour before this event happened–probably even earlier, because of lightning danger.
When you are in a small boat on a lake, do NOT ever make assumptions like “it’ll blow over soon” or “the thunderstorm is too far away to affect us” or even “I haven’t heard any thunder yet, we’ll be fine.”
I guess the advantage you have on water is the fact you can go go just about any direction to avoid such a thing. On land(in a car) you can go the direction the road goes or the opposite direction and that is about it.
A few weeks ago there were quite a few water spouts on Lake Erie. I’m not aware of anyone injured by them. I know that a few people had to change their shorts when they got back to the boat launch. Buffalo TV stations had some good pictures on the news programs that were taken by the people out fishing on the lake.
I used to see them once in a while when out on albacore trips in Southern California. They were always miles away and never were a cause for concern. Or were they?!!
Gary
The weather is always something to be concerned about, especially around here. Talked to some bowhunters yesterday where I hunt, Sat. was hot, short sleeve, Sun was HUNTING WEATHER, cool but not cold, Monday, the 1st was rain, snow, wind, etc., all day. This was at 8,000 to 9,000 feet, Muddy Ridge, Big Sandy area. Have been forced off c couple of lakes because of wind, lightning, etc. I have never seen a water spout, BUT several people I work with who fish the Flaming Gorge Res. have seen water spouts, and regularly get forced off the water because of the weather. They also keep a wary eye on conditions because the changes happen so very fast on the body of water.
Sorry for taking so long on this reply, but being ready for most any happening is one of my passions, and why I teach survival in hunter ed classes.
We see a lot of them on L. Erie in late summer and fall— warm water and cold air encourage the formation—i saw 7 in a string once while driving east down the edge of the lake—another stayed in place for at least a half hour by South Bass Island.
I worry more about lightning strikes—we’ve had line that wont fall on the water, st. elmo’s fire and whistling antennae. The plan has been to move and bleed off any static charge on the boat and get out of the immediate area.
A charter capt in L.St. Clair grabbed his railing without a cloud in the sky and fell and quit breathing—his client resussitated him.
Believe it or don’t there was a dust devil that came across from the west of Rocky Ford Creek Hit the creek about 100 feet south of the Handicap dock and was powerful enough to lift a column of water about 6feet in the air as it crossed the creek. It lasted about 2 minutes. There were no clouds visible in the area.
Wow, nice pic! Scary! Can’t believe the boat in the pic isn’t moving.
I was over the hill at the Fryingpan that Saturday, and I recall commenting to my Dad about the size of some of the thunderheads that day (I’m pretty sure I took a pic of one of them - probably near this one based on the direction). That was the only night we had any weather, and boy did it blow for awhile as the sun went down!
The size of the storm out east on Sunday evening (which produced several tornadoes along the front range) was even more impressive. We could see the top clear as day from Vail. That was a massive storm complex.
Wow. There is a video on the 9news website taken from what appears to be a small aluminum fishing boat. These people can’t be more than a few hundred yards from this twister! Idiots!!!
