This northwest-flow supercell formed just a few miles to my west in the Sangre de Cristo foothills, while I was pumping gas in Springer. This made the target storm self-evident. After peeling of the mountains, it churned along a 5-hour southeastward odyssey toward Tucumcari, offering occasionally marvelous looks not normally expected from New Mexico in August. Here, a downburst and accompanying rain foot are plainly visible at the lower right side, behind and either side of the lightning strike. You can see scud chunks forming directly off the toes of the rain foot, rising up as they are drawn into the updraft. Rain-cooled outflow air extended even farther than the visible precipitation, at least 3/4 of the way beneath the updraft base, based on the presence of scud forming beneath and angling up. Fortunately, this storm had a wide updraft, and (for the time being) was able to inhale at least a little high-buoyancy warm-sector air and withstand this attempt at self-destruction.
2 NNW Mills NM (13 Aug 17) Looking WSW
36.1113, -104.2597Don’t Fence Me In!
This northwest-flow supercell formed just a few miles to my west in the Sangre de Cristo foothills, while I was pumping gas in Springer. This made the target storm self-evident. After peeling of the mountains, it churned along a 5-hour southeastward odyssey toward Tucumcari, offering occasionally marvelous looks not normally expected from New Mexico in August. Here, a downburst and accompanying rain foot are plainly visible at the lower right side, behind and either side of the lightning strike. You can see scud chunks forming directly off the toes of the rain foot, rising up as they are drawn into the updraft. Rain-cooled outflow air extended even farther than the visible precipitation, at least 3/4 of the way beneath the updraft base, based on the presence of scud forming beneath and angling up. Fortunately, this storm had a wide updraft, and (for the time being) was able to inhale at least a little high-buoyancy warm-sector air and withstand this attempt at self-destruction.
2 NNW Mills NM (13 Aug 17) Looking WSW
36.1113, -104.2597