One long and lonesome road on the New Mexico High Plains led directly toward a southbound spinning cloud. The destiny of any westbound traveler was jeopardized by lightning, severe winds and damaging hail in the similarly translating core to its north. Fortunately we could jump back eastward a short distance, head south by southwest on the only other road for many miles, and stay ahead of the … [Read more...]
Memphis Sunset
Memphis, Texas, that is! Another fascinating Panhandle chase day ends with a bountifully textured, copper-toned sunset sky, thanks to anvil material backsheared off a bunch of storms. These are the times when we as storm observers unwind from the day's road travel, standing outside for many minutes, unloading the worries of the world while immersing in the soothing beauty of the moment, and … [Read more...]
Deadly Forks
A rapid-fire series of forked cloud-to-ground strokes split the rainy night sky, sending their collective crescendo of explosive reports reverberating with authority across the water. I know a few people living near the opposite side of the lake, in that general direction, who were having a rather loud and unsettled experience at this moment. Any closer, and it would have been unsettling to even … [Read more...]
Whale’s Mouth
Once in a thunderstorm's cold outflow, but not yet embedded in deep precipitation, observers often witness the upward-sloping maw of the shelf cloud's underside. This shape is known colloquially as a "whale's mouth", sometimes accompanied by a resemblance of the rain core to baleen. 4 NE Matador TX (19 Apr 9) Looking NE 34.0557, -100.7749 … [Read more...]
Spinning to Wheeler
Adjacent to a deeply rain-wrapped, heavy-precip supercell's main circulation, a relatively new mesocyclone spawned a high but intensely convergent and moderately rotating cloud base. The eerie, odd lighting arose in part from the reflection of tan hues off the near side of the cloud wall from still-dormant and dry grasslands in the Texas Panhandle. We couldn't exactly pull out lawn chairs and … [Read more...]
Canadian Tube: Wide View
Taking its dear, sweet time to wind down after a larger, more destructive stage, the tilted Canadian (Texas) tornado pirouetted its way across hilly Panhandle countryside. This was a remarkably straightforward storm intercept, as they go, with the supercell forming in the forecast target area of the northeastern Panhandle and just about as soon as we arrived. The reward: this and several other … [Read more...]
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