Another Wild Panhandle Chase! (with gorilla hail!)
A quick note on today, I'll once again be playing the western half of the TX PH today as the overall setup is similar to yesterday with one important note. Today, the forecast models indicate some weaker low level and 700mb flow compared to yesterday. I'm also not excited with cratering dewpoints again though with 48 at Hereford and 50 and Dumas already. Stay tuned for how this one turns out, but I'm thinking higher based outflow dominant storms...maybe yawners. We'll see.
Now onto the WILD chase yesterday...again! :-) The highlight of the day was the largest hail I've ever seen in my life. Details further below.
After blasting out of the office at 5pm, two storms north of I-40 were already showing impressive cyclonic echo patterns on radar. I knew this was going to be a good day when I saw that. However, there was alot of clustering going on. A rapidly developing storm along and just south of I-40 caught my eye. Seeing nothing developing to its south to interfere, I made my choice and stuck with it despite being strongly tempted to go after the two big cells showing TVS north of I-40 (which Jay McCoy actually saw a nice cone funnel almost to the ground). As I made my way towards Freona, it started becoming apparent that this southern cell was going to be a major beast.
I sat near Freona watching it slowly move south and get better organized visually and on radar. The NWS soon issued a tornado warning on it which got me really charged up as I watched an impressive radar signature with the storm right in front of me. Stormgasm indeed!! I then go on the phone with the NWS-LBB and started my reports as well as turning them onto the live chase cam giving them a front row to the spectacle. So, describing the RFD descending and cutting into the updraft base is much better when seeing it for yourself. :-)
I shadowed the storm as it moved south being able to stay right in the notch. I saw some moderate rotation in the base along with some RFD dust plumes and one nice rain-wrapping occlusion that I though was a precursor to tornadogenesis. However, I could never see anything spinning up on the ground other than some gustnadoes on the outer edges..nothing strong though. Then, the inflow started screaming at 60-70mph into this beast!! It was incredible!! Dust started flying and being sucked into the updraft area and wrapping RFD.
So, for most of the chase, the only way I could see into the notch and various rotating wall clouds was to get danger-close...but always with good escape options handy. I never could see anything really getting close to tornadogenesis and certainly nothing spinning up on the ground. There was one exception NE of Muleshoe where there MIGHT have been a little vortex in all the dust and rain curtain mess. Then, things got REAL exciting. :-)
The storm moved then east of Muleshoe by a few miles. I was close to it and about to take a south option to get around it again. I felt I had a good, safe distance from it like so many storms I've danced with before. Without any warning, on the road in front of me, a large white "artillery shell" exploded in a shower of ice chunks. Oh, shit! I immediately made a 180 while creatig some new colorful expletives. ;-) The barrage then ensued like a scene out of a WW2 movie with artillery raining down all around me. I was trying to be brave like John Wayne, but was in a bit of panic mode cursing and praying at the same time.
The smallest of the hail was tennis ball...most of it baseballs. A good number of them were softball size. A few were even larger than that to grapefruit. I even saw one in particular falling from the sky ahead of me that was larger than grapefruit. I swear under oath that this thing was probably cantelope sized....at least. No exaggeration. That image of it dwarfing every other chunk of ice hurtling to earth is burned in my mind. When it hit the road, it was by far much larger than any of the other chunks that were exploding on the road surface. The showering chunks from it tumbled into my lane and looked like golf balls!!
Soon, I escaped the onslaught suffering only 4 major strikes on the roof. All windows were intact. But, I do have some nice craters to show for it and an end cap from my luggage rack is gone. The craters are significantly deeper than the little ones I suffered in Kansas a few weeks ago with tennis and baseballs in that event.
As I got to safety, I stopped to report my encounter with one of the Muleshoe PD units watching the storm. Since my cell phone was not working (serious outages in the PH yesterday) he relayed my report to the NWS as softballs because at the time, I thought I might be exaggerating the size because of the adrenaline. :-) I called the NWS later and told them about the larger stuff. I regret now not going back after the hail passed to search for large stones in the field to photograph them. I still thought this thing would tornado though which made me decide not to.
I got a little further south as the storm crossed 84 SE of Muleshoe. I flagged down a few motorists to keep them from driving into such brutal hail. Interstingly, most said that they were going to drive into it because they just HAD to be somewhere...despite the vicious appearence of the storm. Yikes. They were appreciative though that I waved them down. Others that just kept going probably go severely cored.
At that point, road options weren't in my favor and I was eying another brutal storm approaching Muleshoe. So, I went back, found a nice, strong awning and watched the assault with 60-70mph winds and hail up to baseball in isolated instances. The sky turned to midnight with hues of orange, purple and green approaching the town. With the civil defense sirens wailing and the wind and hail picking up, it was a surreal scene. Hell had come to Muleshoe. Fortunately, it wasn't too brutal and spared the folks more serious damage side from a few dents and cracked windshields.
After that, I headed home to Amarillo. The end. :-)
Now a few pics...and only before it got to NE of Muleshoe where all the dust and stuff made it tough to see anything but a reddish fog. Did get some good video though.
The cell north of Freona prior to tornado warning. This thing was a beautiful storm from a distance according to David Drummond. I hope to see his pics soon!
Sorry about the powerlines in the shot.
This is where it really started to tighten up and made me think tornadogenesis was about to commence.
A rogue hail shaft I suspect. This same thing might have been what ambushed me later.
The wrapping rain curtains and small little spinups near it. Some would count those as tornadoes. I do not however.
The last decent shot I got of a lazily rotating wall cloud.
Now onto the WILD chase yesterday...again! :-) The highlight of the day was the largest hail I've ever seen in my life. Details further below.
After blasting out of the office at 5pm, two storms north of I-40 were already showing impressive cyclonic echo patterns on radar. I knew this was going to be a good day when I saw that. However, there was alot of clustering going on. A rapidly developing storm along and just south of I-40 caught my eye. Seeing nothing developing to its south to interfere, I made my choice and stuck with it despite being strongly tempted to go after the two big cells showing TVS north of I-40 (which Jay McCoy actually saw a nice cone funnel almost to the ground). As I made my way towards Freona, it started becoming apparent that this southern cell was going to be a major beast.
I sat near Freona watching it slowly move south and get better organized visually and on radar. The NWS soon issued a tornado warning on it which got me really charged up as I watched an impressive radar signature with the storm right in front of me. Stormgasm indeed!! I then go on the phone with the NWS-LBB and started my reports as well as turning them onto the live chase cam giving them a front row to the spectacle. So, describing the RFD descending and cutting into the updraft base is much better when seeing it for yourself. :-)
I shadowed the storm as it moved south being able to stay right in the notch. I saw some moderate rotation in the base along with some RFD dust plumes and one nice rain-wrapping occlusion that I though was a precursor to tornadogenesis. However, I could never see anything spinning up on the ground other than some gustnadoes on the outer edges..nothing strong though. Then, the inflow started screaming at 60-70mph into this beast!! It was incredible!! Dust started flying and being sucked into the updraft area and wrapping RFD.
So, for most of the chase, the only way I could see into the notch and various rotating wall clouds was to get danger-close...but always with good escape options handy. I never could see anything really getting close to tornadogenesis and certainly nothing spinning up on the ground. There was one exception NE of Muleshoe where there MIGHT have been a little vortex in all the dust and rain curtain mess. Then, things got REAL exciting. :-)
The storm moved then east of Muleshoe by a few miles. I was close to it and about to take a south option to get around it again. I felt I had a good, safe distance from it like so many storms I've danced with before. Without any warning, on the road in front of me, a large white "artillery shell" exploded in a shower of ice chunks. Oh, shit! I immediately made a 180 while creatig some new colorful expletives. ;-) The barrage then ensued like a scene out of a WW2 movie with artillery raining down all around me. I was trying to be brave like John Wayne, but was in a bit of panic mode cursing and praying at the same time.
The smallest of the hail was tennis ball...most of it baseballs. A good number of them were softball size. A few were even larger than that to grapefruit. I even saw one in particular falling from the sky ahead of me that was larger than grapefruit. I swear under oath that this thing was probably cantelope sized....at least. No exaggeration. That image of it dwarfing every other chunk of ice hurtling to earth is burned in my mind. When it hit the road, it was by far much larger than any of the other chunks that were exploding on the road surface. The showering chunks from it tumbled into my lane and looked like golf balls!!
Soon, I escaped the onslaught suffering only 4 major strikes on the roof. All windows were intact. But, I do have some nice craters to show for it and an end cap from my luggage rack is gone. The craters are significantly deeper than the little ones I suffered in Kansas a few weeks ago with tennis and baseballs in that event.
As I got to safety, I stopped to report my encounter with one of the Muleshoe PD units watching the storm. Since my cell phone was not working (serious outages in the PH yesterday) he relayed my report to the NWS as softballs because at the time, I thought I might be exaggerating the size because of the adrenaline. :-) I called the NWS later and told them about the larger stuff. I regret now not going back after the hail passed to search for large stones in the field to photograph them. I still thought this thing would tornado though which made me decide not to.
I got a little further south as the storm crossed 84 SE of Muleshoe. I flagged down a few motorists to keep them from driving into such brutal hail. Interstingly, most said that they were going to drive into it because they just HAD to be somewhere...despite the vicious appearence of the storm. Yikes. They were appreciative though that I waved them down. Others that just kept going probably go severely cored.
At that point, road options weren't in my favor and I was eying another brutal storm approaching Muleshoe. So, I went back, found a nice, strong awning and watched the assault with 60-70mph winds and hail up to baseball in isolated instances. The sky turned to midnight with hues of orange, purple and green approaching the town. With the civil defense sirens wailing and the wind and hail picking up, it was a surreal scene. Hell had come to Muleshoe. Fortunately, it wasn't too brutal and spared the folks more serious damage side from a few dents and cracked windshields.
After that, I headed home to Amarillo. The end. :-)
Now a few pics...and only before it got to NE of Muleshoe where all the dust and stuff made it tough to see anything but a reddish fog. Did get some good video though.
The cell north of Freona prior to tornado warning. This thing was a beautiful storm from a distance according to David Drummond. I hope to see his pics soon!
Sorry about the powerlines in the shot.
This is where it really started to tighten up and made me think tornadogenesis was about to commence.
A rogue hail shaft I suspect. This same thing might have been what ambushed me later.
The wrapping rain curtains and small little spinups near it. Some would count those as tornadoes. I do not however.
The last decent shot I got of a lazily rotating wall cloud.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 6/18/2008 12:27:00 PM
3 Comments:
I saw the dents and can vouch for the size of those things. That must have sounded like shotgun blasts as they hit. Its bad enough when you have people with you but being all alone out there in that must have been an experience.
Also sad to mention not only were many cars damaged but most of the corn and wheat crops in that area were totally destroyed which will probably bankrupt a number of single family farms out there. They were already battling the drought only to have this hailstorm wipe out what crops they did have. The news was estimating tens of millions in lost crops.
Awesome report, Steve! Always love to read them. Thanks for sharing! This one must have been hell of experience with this gorilla hail.
I was wondering, is there maybe a video of this monster hail available?
Thanks!
Cool, Marko! I'm glad you enjoy my reports. :-) It was an experience I never hope to repeat undless under a nice, large awning someplace. As far as the video, I was streaming it live. I'm trying to get an archive of it to display later.
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