A somewhat unexpected tornado spun up in a large road void, accompanying a highly tilted, shrinking supercell that was moving over progressively colder air several miles north of a front, and hadn’t done this yet. The tornado had been ragged and ill-defined for the previous couple minutes, but finally condensed a sharp tube within the broader circulation. Further search for a better vantage was sketchy because the marginal environment and downhill overall storm trend (outside the presence of a mesocyclone) didn’t give me great confidence this would last long. It’s a chaser’s conundrum: keep going and try to find less-obstructed vantage, if it exists, and risk the tornado’s disappearance, as has happened to me several times. Since the tornado was evolving slowly, I finally chanced finding a higher, less-forested area and watched its classical rope-out. Once upon a time, this area in the transition zone from Great Plains to Edwards Plateau was open grassland, but lack of wildfires has allowed mesquite to grow thick and high, not helping storm observers much!
25 SSW Sterling City TX (19 Apr 25) Looking NW
31.5063, -101.09