NW Texas Storm Chase 04/01/2013

I (Gene) left home for a solo chase to the SE TX Panhandle/NW TX area at around 2:00 pm CDT.  My expectations were not all that high, since the tornado risk was low-end.  However, I expected some picturesque supercell action, and I was not disappointed.

While on the way to my target area near Childress,TX I noted some non-severe convection developing in the Turkey, TX area as well as a storm that exploded quickly on radar near Happy, TX, about an hour's drive to the W.  Given that the Happy storm was showing strong supercellular structure by the time I arrived on target at 3:45 CDT, I briefly considered heading toward it, but then elected to remain in the Childress area when the storm to the NW began to organize went severe.  (Obviously, I kicked myself later, since it is possible I might have made it to the Silverton area in time to see the "Caprock Magic" tornado.)

After briefly viewing the approaching storm from a position NW of Childress, I traveled through town and set up along US 287 a couple of miles ESE and waited for the storm to come to me, which took a while since it was moving at only 10-15 mph initially.

As it neared, a large, lowered area came into view through the rain.  This feature was reported by another chaser as strongly rotating. Thinking back, it was probably at this point that the storm's tornadic potential was the greatest.

View to the W from ESE of Childress along US 287 at 4:56 CDT:

Lubbock, TX Area Chase 10/12/2012

Jason Caster and I left Cordell about mid-morning and met up with Walt Gish in Canyon, TX and we headed out to our initial target about 40 miles WNW of Lubbock.  Nothing developed on the dry-line but eventually some storms, initially with a multi-cellular look, developed in the I-27 corridor NNW of Lubbock.  It took a bit of doing to get into position, but having done so we were treated to an incredible mid-autumn supercell and three tornadoes.

Tornado near Underwood, TX at 7:15 CDT (HD video capture):

Chase Stats: 
Team Chase: Eugene Thieszen, Jason Caster and Walt Gish
Miles: 547
Tornadoes: 3

Other Recent 2012 Chases:
W-N Texas Chase 05/30/2012
Adrian, TX Solo Chase 05/21/2012
Much More Than Expected in South Central Kansas 05/19/2012

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

Late Winter SE TX Panhandle/SW Oklahoma Chase 03/18/2012

The WXtreme Chase Team together with Jason Caster, Brendon Lindsey, Sarah Manners and Ashley Mills staged initially in Shamrock, TX for some potential dry-line action.  After spending some time in McLean hoping storms would fire to our W or SW we eventually decided to head toward some development to our S.  After watching a small, strongly rotating tower continue to struggle with the cap NW of Wellington we made the decision to intercept the storms already in progress moving NE from the Childress area.  Although the radar returns looked pretty messy at this point our view of the back-shear on the south-western most storm gave us the impression that this might be the storm of the day.  (Two storms further south in TX had gone tornado warned, but had yet to produce anything more than funnel clouds.)

View of the developing storm near Childress at 5:15 CDT:

Video of Dimmit, TX Tornado 05/25/2010

Found! The Needle in the Haystack - The Dimmitt, TX Tornado 05/25/10

I left Cordell about mid-morning to meet up with Walt Gish in Canyon, TX for a chase down toward the New Mexico border SW of Amarillo. The risk for severe storms was reasonable, but the tornado risk was progged as very low. However there was a remnant outflow boundary analyzed W to E across the panhandle which was forecast to lie from about Farwell to Plainview so I decided to take a chance. (For Walt the chase was more or less local).

As we worked our way down toward Farwell there were numerous storms moving N that were severe, but not tornadic. However a storm across the New Mexico border NE of Portales went tornado warned.

We intercepted along FM 1731 about 9 miles S of Bovina at 4:52 CDT. The storm had an obvious wall cloud but did not seem near to producing a tornado:

Video of Tornadoes Near Jericho and Clarendon, TX 04/22/2010

Texas Panhandle Tornadofest 04/22/2010

The WXtreme Chase team met up in Cordell, OK and departed around noon for the Clarendon, TX area.  The day's setup looked to be a classic TX Panhandle dryline day with the Caprock in the mix.  There was a secondary target further S along the Caprock in the Matador area, but at least for the middle to late part of the afternoon the northern target seemed to have better dynamics.  We set up in Hedley, TX at about 3:00 pm CDT  to wait for things to pop.  We didn't have long to wait.  By 4:15 CDT a storm had become established about 25 miles to our WSW.  We moved closer toward Clarendon not wanting to commit too early since convection was developing in more than one area.

Here is a view of the first well-established storm looking WSW from along US 287 between Hedley and Clarendon: