6/1 Pics & Report
Nothing unexpected happened with weak mid level winds. However, strong veering with height and moderate CAPE and a front clashing with a weak outflow boundary made for some fun today. :-)
I made it down to Hereford where I planned on making a decision to head north and find the OFB/front intersection or head down towards Clovis. Distance made the decision for me today as the NM cell was moving south away from me. After grabbing some Mickey D's and chatting with Jason Boggs who happened to be in the parking lot, I saw the cells up north visually and on radar start exploding. So, off I went.
When I got there, the radar was really lighting up with several cells around and near Oldham County gaining strength and curiousy, several showing a little hook signature to them. Cool! :-) As I got to Vega, I could see three wall clouds associated with each cell and a new one developing on front of me. That is a first for me to see such a sight. The storm closer to Vega really started cranking and I stayed with it watching a pretty cool wall cloud develop and grow. it didn't take long to see that it was going to become outflow dominant pretty quick. However, it did produce some cool horizontal rolling of the wall cloud as it morphed into a shelf cloud. Pretty cool.
I danced around with it as it started joining the developing line segment. I headed east to intercept a *westward* moving cell south of Wildorado and had a nice hook on it. Before long, it too got swallowed by the big line segment. It was at this time that I noticed pretty significant and tight rotation at tilts 2-4 on GR3 and pretty soon after that, a tornado warning issued. I was able to peer into the area with the rotation, but it was all within a very heavy precip core...a "book end" meso. I could never make anything out at all.
As the big storm started bulging south, I stayed just ahead of it to Hereford and then headed back towards Canyon on 60. I noticed on radar once again a good rotation couplet aloft with a slight hookish appearance on radar....all just to my north. Lo and behold, I saw a large plume of dust (which I thought was outflow) organize into a more concentrated mass. I thought it was a nice gustnado until the dust formed into a faint cylindrical column and lofted upward halfway to the cloud base where I could make out what appeared to be a little rotation. The contrast overall was poor, so it's hard to be certain wht it really was. The radar presentation would certainly support the idea that it was a weak, brief tornado. Whatever it was soon dissipated though.
I headed home and got a few more cool pics as I did. Unfortunately, it was on ISO 800 for the last few, so the quality is abit on the poor side. Here are the pics:
New storm forming in front of me. Note the distant wall cloud on the horizon. This was the stronger storm that showed a bit of a hook and a good meso. The lowering looked suspicious for a minute or two. I actually got the video camera out and focused on it just in case.
Wall cloud developing nicely. It had a hint of rotation to it too.
The storm as it transitions to HP outflowish storm. I started seeing horizontal rolling at this point.
Ever see underwater video of ocean wave action...like when surfers wipe out? At least this is what it reminded me of. LOL!! Pretty cool.
Hereford gets swallowed by this beast...which starts taking on a glow from the sunset.
Off to bed. I am planning on a road trip tomorrow based on ETA model run this evening. I'll mosey down to Lubbock tomorrow morning where strong instability and shear with impressive veering profiles should pop some pretty mean tornadic supercells...similar to the awesome one I watched on radar down there earlier this evening in Gaines/Dawson/Martin counties. That thing looked like it was nuts. I hope to find a similar one tomorrow somewhere.
I made it down to Hereford where I planned on making a decision to head north and find the OFB/front intersection or head down towards Clovis. Distance made the decision for me today as the NM cell was moving south away from me. After grabbing some Mickey D's and chatting with Jason Boggs who happened to be in the parking lot, I saw the cells up north visually and on radar start exploding. So, off I went.
When I got there, the radar was really lighting up with several cells around and near Oldham County gaining strength and curiousy, several showing a little hook signature to them. Cool! :-) As I got to Vega, I could see three wall clouds associated with each cell and a new one developing on front of me. That is a first for me to see such a sight. The storm closer to Vega really started cranking and I stayed with it watching a pretty cool wall cloud develop and grow. it didn't take long to see that it was going to become outflow dominant pretty quick. However, it did produce some cool horizontal rolling of the wall cloud as it morphed into a shelf cloud. Pretty cool.
I danced around with it as it started joining the developing line segment. I headed east to intercept a *westward* moving cell south of Wildorado and had a nice hook on it. Before long, it too got swallowed by the big line segment. It was at this time that I noticed pretty significant and tight rotation at tilts 2-4 on GR3 and pretty soon after that, a tornado warning issued. I was able to peer into the area with the rotation, but it was all within a very heavy precip core...a "book end" meso. I could never make anything out at all.
As the big storm started bulging south, I stayed just ahead of it to Hereford and then headed back towards Canyon on 60. I noticed on radar once again a good rotation couplet aloft with a slight hookish appearance on radar....all just to my north. Lo and behold, I saw a large plume of dust (which I thought was outflow) organize into a more concentrated mass. I thought it was a nice gustnado until the dust formed into a faint cylindrical column and lofted upward halfway to the cloud base where I could make out what appeared to be a little rotation. The contrast overall was poor, so it's hard to be certain wht it really was. The radar presentation would certainly support the idea that it was a weak, brief tornado. Whatever it was soon dissipated though.
I headed home and got a few more cool pics as I did. Unfortunately, it was on ISO 800 for the last few, so the quality is abit on the poor side. Here are the pics:
New storm forming in front of me. Note the distant wall cloud on the horizon. This was the stronger storm that showed a bit of a hook and a good meso. The lowering looked suspicious for a minute or two. I actually got the video camera out and focused on it just in case.
Wall cloud developing nicely. It had a hint of rotation to it too.
The storm as it transitions to HP outflowish storm. I started seeing horizontal rolling at this point.
Ever see underwater video of ocean wave action...like when surfers wipe out? At least this is what it reminded me of. LOL!! Pretty cool.
Hereford gets swallowed by this beast...which starts taking on a glow from the sunset.
Off to bed. I am planning on a road trip tomorrow based on ETA model run this evening. I'll mosey down to Lubbock tomorrow morning where strong instability and shear with impressive veering profiles should pop some pretty mean tornadic supercells...similar to the awesome one I watched on radar down there earlier this evening in Gaines/Dawson/Martin counties. That thing looked like it was nuts. I hope to find a similar one tomorrow somewhere.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 6/01/2007 11:09:00 PM
2 Comments:
I am absolutely SICK abotu that gaines/dawson storm. I had idea about the bubbling cu going on down there, but the station was concerned about that stuff by Clovis eventually rolling in to LBB (which it did) so I stayed with it while I took pictures of the nuclear explosion going on down south. At one point the backsheered anvil must have shot west of that storm a good 20 miles! And it was within 20 miles of my house most of it's life. :(
Yeah, I was too. That radar image was incredible. I bet it was a beautiful storm too and it had to drop a tornado or two which only the jackrabbits saw. ;-)
I'll be heading towards your neighborhood today.
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