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Tour
#2: May 23-30 This
tour brings much interesting and exciting weather to chase. We are blessed
with much activity throughout the region, though we have to sometimes drive a
lot to get to it. Six
out of eight days see good action. Our
biggest drive is from OK City all the way to Lampasas TX on day #1.
During this part of the tour, a closed low in the Central US pushes
weather systems far to the south of usual for this time of year. We
intercept an evening storm with awesome lightning, flooding rains and hail to
quarter size in Lampasas. Day
#3 We watch storms gather and
brew spectacularly in NW Texas. At one point we are surrounded by five
different cells. We give chase
after the most promising cell and are greeted by a wall of water, hail up to dime sized, wild winds and spectacular cloud to ground lightning. We duck
under some ones carport to protect us from the hail at one point. We follow
this storm southward, and soon awe to a splendid double and even vaguely
triple rainbow, with lightning looping within it.
Later that evening, we thrill to another splendid light show for miles
and miles between Sweetwater and Childress TX. Day
#4 is one of the creme de la cremes, as we witness a mind-boggling squall in
Liberal KS that raises a huge wall of dust which ascends into the cloud bases,
and sends the gas station pump roof into wild up and down gyrations as well as
telephone poles into swaying, and blasts debris across fields.
We have parked under the pump roof for protection, and it moves with
such violence that we have real concern it will fly off.
Winds in this storm are clocked at up to 90 MPH. Just
for the sport of it, we follow the tail end of this line all the way into the
Southern OK panhandle to see if it would develop.
Towards sunset, cumulus towers suddenly explode upwards out of the
line, producing exquisitely beautiful mountains of cloud bathed in sun and
shadow. Occasional spectacular networks of lightning leap across their faces. We
give chase again, and witness the unfolding of
science fiction-like lightning displays, complete with snake- like
slithers of lightning spasmodically leaping every-which way across the sky,
and at the last of dusk, a developing wall cloud. After
dark, we park our vehicles not far from Perryton, TX, and thrill to a focus of
lightning into one supercell about 20 miles to our SE. As
we watch, our mouths drop in awe as lightning illuminates an inverted V or
stove pipe, complete with a tube above it.
The thick stovepipe of dust remains in place for about 4 minutes,
illumined by various flashes and bolts of lightning. It is apparent that we
are witnessing a tornado. You would have loved the excitement in our group!
After a time, the dust column begins to tilt and a snake-like string of
cloud appears detached just below the cloudbase. The tornado is roping out. Later
in the evening, this same line of storms produces a tornado warning in W.
Central OK, and by 4 AM, makes it
all the way to the Dallas TX area, bringing big storms there. On
Day #6, we thrill to a pre-dawn squall line at our motel in Liberal KS. The
storm includes sheets of rain, pea hail and winds to 45 MPH as well as fiery
lightning. The
12:30 PM SPC analysis has a moderate risk enveloping our entire region,
including Liberal KS. where we are and all of Western and Central KS, extending
all the way into the TX Panhandle. The
atmosphere is primed for storms to break out anywhere, complete with great
shear, and explosive lift. It becomes a difficult choice as to exactly where to
be in this sea of possibility. During
the past two days, tornados hit in NE CO, north and west of the slight risk
zone, so we are thinking of hanging out in the more northern reaches of the
moderate risk today. About
1PM, storm cells begin popping up everywhere. So many cells, where to pick? We end up intercepting a supercell that explodes east of
Hardesty OK. Tears come to my
eyes as the road takes us directly towards an ever-fattening wall cloud and rain
free base. As we
come nearer to the wall cloud, a funnel appears.
We are in open country, and all of us cheer it on, hoping it will drop
into the fields below. When
we arrive to within a mile of the funnel and get out our cameras, the swirling
funnel shrinks back into the wall cloud and the wall cloud soon gets skinnier
and skinnier till it disappears completely from the base of the thunderhead.
What a drag! Coitus interruptus! This
storm, now mostly mid-upper level thunderheads still has a warning on it for
flooding rains and large hail. We
move onto Guymon OK for a radar check, then turn south towards a cluster of
storms developing in the TX Panhandle. As we move south, we note a number of
exploding towers that turn to “turkey towers”
Suddenly
about dinner time, isolated masses of thunderhead across the sky rocket upwards
like bombs. We watch closely for
development of RFB’s and wall clouds. Suddenly
the masses merge with one gigantic line of squall cloud that hangs like a huge
monsters mouth complete with teeth that drop just above trees. The line extends
itself from the distant northern horizon clear into the SW, deep black in color
with pinkish teeth hanging down. Our
town: Gruver TX. Instinctively
I know that this could be a dangerous situation; storms like this could easily
produce baseball hail and 80 MPH winds. So
we experience the thrill of being chased by this system.
We shoot SE towards Spearman then Pringle, roughly parallel to the squall
line. The
weaker section eventually over runs us, complete with spectacular lightning and
clouds that swiftly tumble almost to the ground. Fifty MPH winds and brief heavy
rains accompany this storm. Meanwhile we hear of a tornado on the ground in
White Dear TX. We just experienced
its equivalent in wild and spectacular weather, but still, just missing a
tornado stings. This
is one of the lessons we learn in life: How do you react when you go for a goal
and you receive an equivalent and equally powerful but not exactly what you are
looking for experience? We
end up watching a spectacular sunset, including the tornadic cell to our SE,
complete with mammatus, lit orangish-pink in the setting sunlight. On
Day #7, we move to Wichita Falls and intercept an exploding supercell that
produces a spectacular ink purple-black wall cloud and funnels just south of
town. (Scotland TX) We
also drive through night-like darkness, blinding rains, powerful lightning and
small hail to investigate another tornado warning that never produces a
touchdown. We end
the evening awing to a breath taking display of non-stop lightning just south of
us. The
lightning flashes with the intensity of a disco dance floor strobe light. That
particular storm turns stationary and produces 7 inches of rain in three hours,
prompting flash flood warnings. |
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