Sunday 17 June 2012

Saturday 19th May 2012 - W Oklahoma

The last chase day for Tour 2 saw us start in Mcpherson knowing there was a broad risk area covering Western and Central Kansas and Western Oklahoma, we chose the Southern risk are as it would be easier for us to get back to DFW For the changeover although i dearly would have loved the Kansas target, this day would end up with us seeing an amazing Classic Supercell near Clinton and brief tornado but also getting bitten by a Landspout fest in South Central Kansas along the very roads we had driven down just hours earlier. After stopping for gas and lunch at Greensburg we continued along the highway south to Woodward and just behind us we could already see a huge Shower breaking the cap behind us, this would be the machine that would crawl across Highway 400 all the way to Wichita and drop Landspouts for fun!! We pressed on and eventually the Cap broke down near to Elk City, we got ourselves under a beautiful Classic Supercell which showed some decent rotation and which also seemed to want to strike us down with it's dangerous Cg bolts raining down around us. We then positioned further South towards Arapahoe and watched 3 Supercells all lined up, an amazing display with a LP Supercell near Elk City, a Classic in front of us and a HP Supercell just to our North. Our Classic Supercell was showing exactly the same structure as Wynnewood and exactly 2 years to the day as well. We witnessed a brief Tornado spin up with this cell just north of Clinton before letting it chase us Southwards all the way to Lawton stopping along the way to grab pictures of the Lightning and insane Structure. A great end to the first tour out here and close enough to Dallas Fort Worth for the changeover as well.




Monday 14th May 2012 - Big Bend Texas

Started this day in Carlsbad (New Mexico) and SPC Went with a 5% Tornado risk just to our south around the Texas Big Bend area. The way it played out was oh so different with the front sagging south much quicker and the moisture reserved for just the hills of Mexico. We left and punched through a SE Moving MCS just North of Marathon (Texas) and awaited a few cells that had popped up near El Paso, these moved towards our position but were racing away to the SE Towards Mexico, the temperatures behind the front had dropped to an incredible 5c and this near the sub tropics with a screaming Northerly wind, almost at once we knew it was game over so we started to re-position for the next risk days coming up, a very dissapointing day from what the morning models were showing and all we got was a few Cg's and some very messy structure for our troubles.

Sunday May 13th 2012 - New Mexico


After we had used Saturday 12th May as a repositioning day from Kerville to Carlsbad (New Mexico) the SPC Had issued a Slight Risk over the eastern plains of New Mexico for today, easterly upslope flow would allow convection to form over the interior mountains of New Mexico and eventually move off the higher terrain into the better moisture, so it was a sit it out and await the Storm of the day to move South East. Weak Storms duly erupted around 1pm MDT, And we sat and watched patiently between Carlsbad and Roswell. At about 6pm we noticed that one cell had become dominant just to the west of Roswell and we decided now was the time to intercept, we initially drove west from Roswell to take a look and sample some small hail, it was about this time the Storm was rapidly gaining Supercell structure and starting to eat into the better moisture to the South East so off we went south from Roswell and sat in front of it for the next 2 hours, the structure became more and more fantastic. As we neared Artesia the Storm became tornado warned and the sirens were blaring as we went through the town, amazing clouds of outflow dust overran our position. The cold winds were enough for me too know that this Storm (Although Pretty in appearance) was not going to produce so just NE Of Carlsbad we let it core us, we took refuge under an old gas station canopy which gave us little protection from the 70mph driven in hail hitting the car, thankfully the hail was only quarter sized at the biggest. Ended the day eating at Applebys in Carlsbad and receiving a very strange job proposition from Mr Casey and Mr Ivey.

Friday 11th May 2012 - SE Texas

Started this day in Corpus Christi with a Slight Risk for Thunderstorms in SE Texas. We had a leisurely morning on the beach at South Padre Island with some swimming in the Gulf Of Mexico before heading North towards the I-10 Interstate. We were initially going to use this day as a positioning day for some New Mexico chases over the coming few days but Storms to our East were simply not moving just to the West of Houston, so with an hour's intercept time we headed east to take a look, we got onto a Tornado warned Storm which had a rotating wall cloud, it looked meaner than it really was and ultimately after an hour promptly died a death. Still it was nice to see what sort of chase conditions were available and I was impressed with the flat farmland in that area and would certainly chase around there again. Headed East and stayed in Kerrville for the Night.