This supercell formed north of the Capitan Mountains (northwest of Roswell), producing a brief tornado near El Capitan Peak that dense precipitation hid from our view, before diving southeastward for a few hours through the vast oil-patch scrublands between there, Artesia and east of Carlsbad. All along the way, it offered splendid and fascinating structures, including the “ground-scraping” wall cloud here and one of the longest tail clouds (right) that I ever have seen. The tail cloud extended far off the right side of even this wide-angle view, nearly to the eastern horizon, and even well past the extend of the storm’s forward-flank core. Clearly the storm was interacting with a more extensive boundary than any of its own internal creation, and would continue to do so as it churned along into an even deeper HP structure.
18 SE Artesia NM (8 Jun 14) Looking NW
32.7397, -104.1085Artesia Supercell
This supercell formed north of the Capitan Mountains (northwest of Roswell), producing a brief tornado near El Capitan Peak that dense precipitation hid from our view, before diving southeastward for a few hours through the vast oil-patch scrublands between there, Artesia and east of Carlsbad. All along the way, it offered splendid and fascinating structures, including the “ground-scraping” wall cloud here and one of the longest tail clouds (right) that I ever have seen. The tail cloud extended far off the right side of even this wide-angle view, nearly to the eastern horizon, and even well past the extend of the storm’s forward-flank core. Clearly the storm was interacting with a more extensive boundary than any of its own internal creation, and would continue to do so as it churned along into an even deeper HP structure.
18 SE Artesia NM (8 Jun 14) Looking NW
32.7397, -104.1085