That title was irresistible to click, wasn’t it? Gotcha! There is a (stretched) reason behind it, though. This classic supercell started on the dryline west of San Angelo while we were eating lunch there, then turned ESE past Mertzon. We headed there for a meet-and-greet session with the storm, and after some reorganization, it greeted us with a structure straight from the textbook. The conical wall cloud in the distance did rotate weakly. Stronger spin actually was happening in a flatter, closer cloud base appearing above and slightly leftward of those cotton clumps lying in the plowed field. The forward-flank core, off to the right (NW), soon started dropping hail on us, so we made haste SE through the town with the funny name just before the hail began falling there, then strong to severe gusts. In my football days, a slobberknocker was the ultimate kind of tackle, driving through the ball-carrier with such force that his feet left the ground, and mouthpiece and saliva went flying. I think the town felt rather harshly tackled by this storm soon thereafter. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
1 WNW Knickerbocker TX (14 May 8) Looking W
31.2768, -100.6383Knickerbocker Slobberknocker
That title was irresistible to click, wasn’t it? Gotcha! There is a (stretched) reason behind it, though. This classic supercell started on the dryline west of San Angelo while we were eating lunch there, then turned ESE past Mertzon. We headed there for a meet-and-greet session with the storm, and after some reorganization, it greeted us with a structure straight from the textbook. The conical wall cloud in the distance did rotate weakly. Stronger spin actually was happening in a flatter, closer cloud base appearing above and slightly leftward of those cotton clumps lying in the plowed field. The forward-flank core, off to the right (NW), soon started dropping hail on us, so we made haste SE through the town with the funny name just before the hail began falling there, then strong to severe gusts. In my football days, a slobberknocker was the ultimate kind of tackle, driving through the ball-carrier with such force that his feet left the ground, and mouthpiece and saliva went flying. I think the town felt rather harshly tackled by this storm soon thereafter. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
1 WNW Knickerbocker TX (14 May 8) Looking W
31.2768, -100.6383