Day 14 of the Great Storm Chase!

Today was definitely interesting...in a weird way. We started off in Wichita Falls, TX and were planning on heading towards Amarillo for a slight chance for some storms--pretty slight. We weren't in too much of a hurry because the best indices were for around 7 pm tonight so we were expecting to get there about 3 or 4 pm to have some leeway in what we were able to do. I have to say, Texas reaks! Between the guys in the car and the towns and cows outside, I didn't stop smelling poo and other nasties the entire day, SICK!

As we got closer, we got more skeptical about the possibility of severe storms, or at least supercells and tornadoes. We went through Amarillo and a little northwest of the city because there were a few cells firing up in that area. They didn't look like supercells but they looked okay for the time. We were shocked when we found out that it generated a tornado warning because a law enforcement officer reported a land spout from it...we were all skeptical as to what he actually saw because the radar didn't show much at all for that storm. We kept going towards it anyways because it was the best option we had and then we had to turn and backtrack a little and to our west when we realized that something better was happening on the other side of the storm. We saw a shelf cloud and were racing to get closer to the area because we noticed that a few notches kept wanting to form off of that. We saw a few brief wall clouds from from the shelf and we saw a lot more mammatus clouds. There was also a decent couplet on the velocity radar, high VIL values, decent amounts of hail, and an evident notch on the radar indicating a possibly imminent hook.

We found the perfect road to take to get to that area because we had a few other shelf clouds to our immediate left and right above us. Today, we saw several gustnadoes and one really well-defined one. We decided to stop at a nearby road to take a few pictures of the lowering shelf cloud, gustnadoes, and the amazing skyline. There were a few rotating clouds that came along with that as well. When we stopped and got out to take pictures, we noticed there was a lot of tall grass and since we were in Texas we had to be leery about deadly snakes being around. We also had to stay somewhat close to the vans since there was a decent amount of lightning in the area. We noticed that the gust front was moving towards us and fast along with a lot of rain so we jumped back in the vans before we got blown away. When we did, we noticed that a huge swarm of gnats attacked our van and were all over the inside, SICK! That was probably the worst part!





It was a good thing that we got back in the vans when we did because right after we did, the gust front moved in strong and the grass was completely horizontal. As we drove down the road a little ways we could see that a lot of dust filled the air from the gust front acting on that dirt road that we pulled off on. We had to keep our eyes to the sky since there were a lot of shelf clouds and a lot of rotation above us.



We decided to start heading south once we got to the western boundary of the storm to try to attack it from a different angle. We pulled off again a little ways down the road to re-assess and decide where to go next. As we did, we saw the really well-defined gustnado ripping through a cornfield parallel to the road. This land was perfect to get hit by a tornado, in our case--it was flat, not very populated at all, and only some fields in the area.

This is the point where our group became pretty divided and tensions got a little heated. Some wanted to stop chasing and start getting into position for tomorrow and the rest of us, especially me, wanted to keep chasing because we still had a pretty decent shot at this storm. The part that we were originally chasing was starting to squall out and die off because they seemed to be merging together, but there was a storm that was still a little to our south that was picking up intensity and started to show some nice couplets on the velocity radar, indicating good amounts of shear and thus rotation. There were also high decibels indicated on the radar with high cloud tops indicating that it was a pretty strong and energetic storm.

It became even more complicated to decide what to do because another guy and I were the Day 1 people, in charge of deciding where to go and what to do with the storms, and he wanted to position for tomorrow and I wanted to continue. We decided to go for it for about 20 more minutes to give this storm a shot.

As we did, we realized where we were in relation to the storm. The RFD became really well-defined as we saw an amazing view of the downdraft to our east and as we traveled further south we could see more and more downdraft becoming evident. I made a comment that we were in the Magic School Bus because it was like we were taking a virtual tour of a textbook example of a strong thunderstorm. It was amazing!



We got to a point where we ran out of decent road networks and we couldn't seem to get to a decent spot to capture this storm so we decided to call it a day. Another huge disappointment!

To make matters worse, Korey got a text message from his mom saying that the SPC reported a tornado touchdown at 6:33 pm in Amarillo, TX. The spot where the tornado hit was only 5-10 miles away from us at that point! I couldn't believe it! I was angry, sad, frustrated, and disappointed on top of being exhausted. It was painful because there was no way that we could've known that was there and it was so close! Nothing indicated that a tornado should've necessarily been at that spot at that time so there was no way for us to predict that but it was still painful. It was so much worse than losing that all important game in a sport.

I couldn't help but wonder why. Why would we get so close and then have a tornado be right next to us without us having a clue? Soon after we found that out, we were all pretty much in a daze and everyone was listening to their iPod's when we noticed a cloud off to the distance in the dark sky. The cloud was in the exact shape of a tornado. We could tell that it wasn't an actual tornado, but it was a 2-D image of a tornado that just happened to form from a cloud. I couldn't help but laugh a little, it made me more angry, and I honestly even shed a tear. I prayed just a few minutes before I saw that asking God why we would get so close and then a tornado would form right next to us without us even being aware. After all, He knows how desperate and passionate we are about finding at least one tornado on this stinking trip! I couldn't help but think that this cloud was a pure reassurance, whether you believe it or not...it brought me more frustration but yet a deep since of peace about finding one of nature's most powerful, extreme, and miraculous occurrences. Honestly, how often do you see a tornado-shaped cloud after a day like this but it's not truly a tornado. It was the PERFECT shape and image against the dark sky. It didn't even last long, just long enough for us each to see it and chuckle.

Tomorrow has the best outlook yet for tornadoes so we're all VERY excited and hoping that it won't be another crap out. We're looking to head into northwestern Kansas where the SPC issued a 10% chance of tornadoes (may seem low but the most we've had so far is 2%) and the Weather Channel's Vortex 2 is saying that there's a 5 out of 10chance that tornadoes will form in that area. We're hoping for a huge breakthrough and a relief to all of our tension and frustration of a 15-day dry period. Hope for the best!

Good night!