W-N Texas Chase 05/30/2012

Walt Gish and I headed out for the Childress, TX area on this chase.  Did not get on target early enough to get in position on the first tornadic supercell, but were treated to an incredible early evening "dust-eater" supercell which we chased from near Paducah down to E of Guthrie.  Witnessed one brief tornado E of Guthrie just after 8:00 CDT.

The "dirt-eater" along US 83 near Grow, TX at about 7:35 CDT:

Brief tornado E of Guthrie as it dissipates at 8:05 CDT.  The well-defined funnel had already disappeared by the time we stopped to take this picture, but the ground circulation remained under what looks like ragged scud:

Chase stats:
Team Chase: Eugene Thieszen and Walt Gish
Miles: 412
Tornadoes: 1 (very brief)

Other Recent 2012 Chases:
Adrian, TX Solo Chase 05/21/2012
Much More Than Expected in South Central Kansas 05/19/2012
Kansas - Oklahoma High Risk 04/14/2012

Adrian, TX Solo Chase 05/21/2012

A couple of pictures from Gene's solo chase to the western TX panhandle on May 21, 2012.  A patient wait eventually resulted in a slow-moving supercell with wonderful structure and a brief tornado near Adrian, TX to top off the day.  Not much to report since I stayed in the same area near Adrian and Vega for most of the afternoon patiently waiting for a supercell to make an appearance on a subtle N-S boundary.  Nearly gave up the wait at about 7:00 pm.  Supercell shot from about 8:32 CDT and the tornado shot from just after 8:37 CDT.

Chase Stats: 
Solo Chase: Eugene Thieszen
Miles: 434
Tornadoes: 1


Other Recent 2012 Chases:
Much More Than Expected in South Central Kansas 05/19/2012
Kansas - Oklahoma High Risk 04/14/2012
Central Oklahoma Surprise 03/21/2012

2012 Chase Season Continues!

Most of May has been rather slow, but perhaps things will pick up as we near the Memorial Day weekend. Certainly Gene and Jason Caster had a really great chase on Saturday, May 19  in South Central Kansas.  Check out the most recent illustrated log here.  More Chases on the  2012 Illustrated Chase Logs page.

Video of Tornado Near Varner, KS 05/19/2012

Much More Than Expected in South Central Kansas 05/19/2012

Chasing is always full of surprises.  Sometimes we head out to a target with hopes of a significant event only to get sunburned in a cap bust.  And sometimes we head out prompted by a bad case of Supercell Deprivation Syndrome (SDS) on what looks to be a probably waste of gas, only to be caught off guard by what we find.  Saturday May 19th, 2012 was such a day.

Gene and Jason Caster met up in Cordell, OK and headed out at about 11:30 am for an initial staging point at Pratt, KS.  As we passed Medicine Lodge a short line of agitated cu was visible to the NW and by the time we arrived in Pratt to fuel up and set up for the chase we had towering cu and before long some rather high-based cells which we observed for a bit from the Wal-Mart parking lot.  First good sign that this would be a memorable chase...initiation within 25 miles of our staging point.   Eventually we headed N toward St. John and then E on US 50 toward Stafford encountering a bit of penny-sized hail on the way.  We set up on an initial observing point just E of Stafford at noted that, although the storm bases were quite elevated, there was some strong cloud-level rotation as RFD cut into the storm as it moved ENE.

Deeply-cut RFD slot with all kinds of crazy motion near Stafford at 4:01 CDT: