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April 26 - 30
The first three days prove to be
frustrating as a ridge has set up over our area and the nearest big storms fire
up along the Mexican border. Thus, these days are spent doing sight seeing,
including a client-requested visit to Austin, TX.
However, beginning with the night of
the third day, and after driving hundreds of miles from Austin, our fortune
starts to manifest as we witness a profound lightning storm beginning at about
midnight near Plainview, TX. The entire Western sky erupts in fire, the likes of
which my clients have never seen. A severe storm warning is called for this
storm, and we sit alone on a two lane dark country road, taking in the scenery
and praying that any hail that manifests stays tame enough so that we can stay
and watch. For over an hour we are treated to a splendorous light show along
with eventual strong winds and very heavy rains.
Our nearest motel is Amarillo TX, and we remark to the
60 MPH non-thunderstorm winds whipping through the area there.
Day four is about as sweet as can be. With lots of time
to spare, we go sightseeing. In the late afternoon, as we descend into the
Canyon TX landscapes, I note an isolated cumulus about 100 miles to our South. I
watch as it slowly ascends, then suddenly turns to an isolated thunderstorm.
With conditions ripe for tornadoes, we abort the sight
seeing excursion and shoot south towards Lubbock. We are greeted to some of the
most profound clouds that any of us have ever seen. Tremendous cauliflowery
towers explode into outer space, beginning practically at our heads and turning
fiery colors with the setting sun. Stunning displays of lightning develop and
increase across each tower, shooting every which way, including into clear air
above the thunderheads.
Severe thunderstorm warnings are called with each of
these supercells, all lined up as a bank across the eastern sky. We give chase
and are greeted to spasmodic explosions of lightning that shatter across the
sky. Things intensify as we move east then south towards Abilene, TX. 60
plus MPH winds whip across the night, howling through telephone wires and
roaring across buildings and trees as the entire sky seethes with lightning from
profusions of storms. We end up driving through 50 miles of hail to nickel sized
and flash flooding rains on our quest for a motel intercept. It is intense,
eerie and almost scary at times, and my clients leap for glee at the
excitement. For following 20 miles we have a game of combined chicken and
leapfrog with a 65K foot supercell alive with lightning and window smashing
hail.
Day five begins at Abilene. Things pop early, and at
2:30 PM we intercept the first thunderhead that comes up about 15 miles NW of
Abilene, moving swiftly NE. Springtime jet stream winds take this storm rapidly
away from us, but we give chase anyhow. Soon new towers spring up, like popcorn
on a pan, and they quickly explode into thunderhead status. With all these
ever-increasing choices, things get interesting.
Our first storm quickly becomes a rotating supercell.
We watch as it gathers into itself from all directions, spinning slowly around
and around, especially in its core of ragged black clouds. It looks particularly
beautiful and powerful as it speaks of a possible tornado, but nothing develops.
We receive motorist reports of baseball hail just 6 miles north of us up the
road. At this point we are near Munday, TX.
We suddenly hear reports of a tornado touchdown way up
the road near Wichita Falls, TX, then a warning on a storm more close by, near
Crowell, TX. We charge the 40 miles up towards this storm, as new supercells
take form to our SW and begin to merge with the anvil of the Crowell storm.
We arrive to join a small chaser convergence and
witness a gnarled sky of black, green and purple, as well as a tornado warning
and huge hail warning. Despite all the excitement, all that we see is a small
RFB and ragged wall cloud between areas of prec. Meantime, a tornado warning and
official touchdown is declared near Throckmorton, near where we came from!
At least 60 miles back to the SE! To get there, we must core punch heavy
rain and soft hail and reach the nearest SE moving road.
As we retreat SE we note the awesome wall cloud nearby
on the Crowell storm, and we keep check for development. The Throckmorton system
develops NE towards the town of Olney, TX, now directly SE of us by about 40
miles. A tornado warning is called for Olney, and reports of large hail on the
back side of that storm ahead of us prompt my concern. There is utterly no other
road that leads to the storm except the one that leads directly into the large
hail. My concern for our physical safety leads to a decision to wait till
the storm continues NE or East before trying to intercept. By then our
road option would improve. Meantime, a tornado does touch down just east
of Olney, much to our frustration. Within about 45 minutes, we go for a core
punch as large hail reports have decreased. After about 15 miles of blinding
rain and hail to nickel sized, we reach Olney where yet another warning has been
called, the power is out, and a small funnel cloud briefly looms to our NE.
Day fades to an orgy of nickel and dime hail, blinding
rain and close lightning. Particularly fascinating is filling up the gas tank to
a pounding hailstorm. I must drive my clients to Ft. Worth tonight in time
for an early flight out tomorrow. As as result, we end up following this weather
front southeastward, and we drive through 90 miles of continuous hail,
gusty winds, blinding rains, and lightning. This includes one stunning
cell that provides us with a 10 minute show of constant nearby bolts and cannon
shot thunder.
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