DAY 3 - Thursday May 30th 2013

Today is a NON-CHASE day. A coolish, but sunny morning in Liberal, Kansas as we make our way towards Denver, Colorado. We have about a 7 hour drive today to meet up with the rest of the crew for this tour.
It's amazing how flat and how much of nothing is in southwestern Kansas....

We encountered a small area of thunderstorms in northwestern Kansas that gave some brief heavy down pours and a few bolts of lightning. Some gorgeous VIRGA (precip falling, but not hitting the ground) from these clouds as well.

No sooner did I have my camera ready to take the shot above when a beautiful forked bolt of lightning came down in front of us. Just missed the shot by 1second.

As we entered Colorado, we began our slow climb upwards as we approached Denver. Denver is known as the Mile High City... as it's elevation is exactly a mile high above sea level or about 5300 feet. Landscape in eastern Colorado is exceptionally barren as you can see in the images below.

 

 

You really begin to notice the elevation in the city if you are not used to living there.

 

Checked into the hotel and waited to meet everyone from the tour for dinner.

 

We had to make it an early night as we have a long drive on Friday to head back to Oklahoma City as a severe outbreak is expected in that region.