This remarkable thunderstorm already had rewarded us for a very long day’s drive from central Oklahoma by showing spectacular supercell structures, which continued here as a nifty bell-bottom shape to the main updraft region. Normally with a supercell this high-based, carrying a nearly laminar cloud skirt with a rain-wrapped mesocyclone beneath, I wouldn’t expect to see a tornado emerge within that rain and beneath the inside of the skirt. [No jokes about peeping under the skirt, please.] Experience, however, is only as good as its exceptions. The atmosphere has a way of humbling the presumptuousness of storm observers, and given that this tornado hurt nobody, I wasn’t complaining about this little surprise! The cigar-shaped tornado had been underway for several minutes SE of Patricia, TX, before slowly emerging within the rain, as seen from our vantage. It would rope out directly down the road, the tornado’s ground path (fortunately for drivers) curving northward and avoiding the highway. Here was a wide-angle shot from a few minutes before we could see the tornado.
7 NNW Lenorah TX (5 May 6) Looking NNW
32.397, -101.889
RADARPatricia Tornado
This remarkable thunderstorm already had rewarded us for a very long day’s drive from central Oklahoma by showing spectacular supercell structures, which continued here as a nifty bell-bottom shape to the main updraft region. Normally with a supercell this high-based, carrying a nearly laminar cloud skirt with a rain-wrapped mesocyclone beneath, I wouldn’t expect to see a tornado emerge within that rain and beneath the inside of the skirt. [No jokes about peeping under the skirt, please.] Experience, however, is only as good as its exceptions. The atmosphere has a way of humbling the presumptuousness of storm observers, and given that this tornado hurt nobody, I wasn’t complaining about this little surprise! The cigar-shaped tornado had been underway for several minutes SE of Patricia, TX, before slowly emerging within the rain, as seen from our vantage. It would rope out directly down the road, the tornado’s ground path (fortunately for drivers) curving northward and avoiding the highway. Here was a wide-angle shot from a few minutes before we could see the tornado.
7 NNW Lenorah TX (5 May 6) Looking NNW
32.397, -101.889
RADAR