I was initially planning to drive home this day, but extreme instability and a tempting outflow boundary convinced me to hang around. Interestingly, I wound up targeting near where we tried to watch the solar eclipse the previous year. Storms fired earlier than I was anticipating and I needed to pass through the fringes of some hail to get to the east side of the convection near Killeen. Trees are a challenge here, but I finally found an okay vantage south of Oakalla to watch the south moving cell strengthen and soon receive a tornado warning.
Strengthening storm from east of Oakalla, Texas as it picks up a tornado warning — 2100-2114Z.
It was moving very slowly, but I eventually had to move to stay out of the forward flank and maintain visibility. I ran across a hilltop vantage further to the west, closer to the hook. The RFD occlusion was well developed and things looked really promising. The mist of rear flank precipitation was light enough that the descending mass wrapped in the middle was discernible as it tightened up and formed a rugged stovepipe. One concern was an unfortunately placed power pole, which I have removed in the photos below, to better appreciate the storm. Sue me.
Very promising RFD occlusion forming, looking northwest across Oakalla — 2123Z.Lowering consolidating inside the RFD core — 2128Z.
As it started taking shape, I realized I wanted a video height advantage and made my first attempt at attaching the super clamp to my roof luggage rack and that actually worked pretty well.
Stovepipe tornado finally forming up — 2134Z.Inverted Hershey’s kiss, trying to be a drill bit — 2137Z.Strengthening — 2142Z.Zoomed in — 2143Z.
After 20 minutes in that spot, a handoff circulation looked like it was forming overhead, so I headed off to the south and watched the last few minutes of the tornado roping out while that new circulation lunged to the southwest.
Occluded stovepipe getting ready to rope out — 2147Z.Ropeout from between Oakalla and Briggs — 2153Z.
The tornado finally dissipated after 20 minutes and I headed further south to get in good position on the next circulation approaching Briggs.
New RFD cut puckering up the base north of briggs — 2159Z.Enhanced churning in progress — 2203Z.
It was a treat finding a better spot to watch this cycle from closer in and see all the churning detail in the base surrounding and beneath the RFD. Once it occluded, a smooth bowl lowering took shape and gradually started to narrow.
Bowl shaped lowering taking shape — 2211Z.Funnel taking on a point and time to reposition again — 2213Z.
Realizing the risk in missing something, I still needed to reposition and headed west where Loop 308 intersects Highway 183. I rounded that corner just in time to see another massive, tilted stovepipe aimed at the highway to the north. Traffic mostly slowed down and chasers pulled over so I had easy access to the middle of the road for photos as it churned just a couple miles to the northwest. What a sight! Just towering up into the turquoise core. I’m so glad I didn’t start my drive home this day.
Turning onto Highway 183 from Loop 308 just in time to catch this — 2218Z.Tour group getting their money’s worth — 2220Z.Stretching out — 2220Z.2220Z.
I only had three minutes with it before a blob of rain moved in and washed out the view. On the drive south, six minutes later, the funnel re-emerged from the rain and bobbed around for a bit before dissipating. Another 15 minutes later, another funnel emerged. I’m not sure if it was a continuation of the second tornado or something new or if it even touched down. Nothing shows up from it on the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
Another funnel spotted 20 minutes later, further south from north of Andice — 2242Z.
What an awesome chase day and a great way to wrap up an early 2026 Plains chase season!
The setup this day led me south of DFW, trying to pick something out amid and ahead of early, ongoing convection. It was mostly an exercise in transiting one town to the next, looking for a vantage through the trees to pick out something other than featureless, drizzly, scuddy skies.
What did show up at intervals was mostly mushy, semi-shelfy gust fronts. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any scenery to take in and photograph, and I did my best with what revealed itself.
Loose shelf north of Dew, Texas — 2135Z.At least a semblance of a rain free base near Donie — 2248-2255Z.More Shelf structure east of Buffalo — 2315-0011Z.Field decorations seemed worth a try near Flo — 0011-0012Z.
As the sun went down, I finally let things blow by before grabbing some anvil crawler scenes east of Marquez (0316-0337Z).
A surface boundary from the southwest root of the Texas Panhandle up toward Wichita Falls looked like a good spot for supercells this day. I targeted near Post, and was looking for storms that could form or migrate to the warm side of the boundary. The storm I picked was the tail end storm and struggled to do much more than make a lovely turquoise RFD core. Meanwhile a thoroughly nudged cell a couple cores to the northeast wound up producing a couple tornado reports near Seymour.
STorm near Post growing a heavy turquoise core — 2024-2037Z.A bit of fence and a blue storm — 2044Z.Blue blob taking a tour east of Post — 2046-2102Z.Outflowy cloud sculptures west of Clairemont — 2113Z.Trailing cell near Aspermont trying to grab the warm side of the boundary — 2240-2248Z.South end of the line congealing into a big shelf east of Haskell — 2339Z.And Haskell Farms closed up for the day as the line moves through — 2350Z.Ending the night with Super linear nocturnal convection northwest of Bowie — 0157Z.
Since early the previous day, I had been interested in the setup from Iowa through northeast Kansas. Instability and shear looked good for supercells. SPC noted tornadoes as a hazard, with better odds further north. Despite that, I opted for the Kansas target and watched for storms to develop along the dryline near Seneca.
Watching convection try to develop near Seneca, Kansas — 2239Z.
Further south, storms firing near Junction City and moving toward Manhattan were strengthening nicely while the stuff near me was struggling. So I headed west and then south on SR99 to try getting in front of the lead supercell as it moved out of Manhattan. I just barely got out ahead of it at Wamego before rushing east on Highway 24 with the RFD gust front hustling in from behind.
It wasn’t until a couple days later, reviewing footage that I realized the rear dashcam caught a fascinating hybrid tornado. As the RFD curled in, a dusty circulation formed on the highway behind, near Belvue and got draw up into a circulation in the base of the RFD gust front.
Hybrid tornado spinning on the edge of the gust front near Belvue.
After letting the lead cell rush by, I headed further south, noting a tornado warned cell further southwest in the evolving line. However, nothing particularly cohesive managed to emerge from the line as it moved in across the setting sun.
Sunset underlighting north of Delia — 0054-0058Z.Last moments of sunset — 0101Z.
The next decent sized storm moved in after sundown, but didn’t offer much of a show beyond embedded lightning.
My target this day was northwest Kansas after a long drive up the entire Texas Panhandle overnight. I was hopeful for storms to fire up there, but they just couldn’t get going. Further into the Nebraska Panhandle though, things did take off so I kept hustling north trying to get at least something since my original target didn’t fire.
By the time I got near Mullen, Nebraska, a cell near Hyannis had exploded, was tornado warned, and was already producing an enormous wedge tornado in the Sand Hills. All I could do was keep hustling north to try and get lined up with it.
About to pass into the anvil shadow of this huge tornado warned cell near Hyannis, NE. Too bad so sad Northwest Kansas:,(looking west at actively wedge producing storm from a painful distance — 0056Z.
I finally got to a spot north of Mullen with a view of the approaching storm and a little reflective pond in a hollow. The tower was alive with lightning, but rather soft with distance and haze. It made for a fun time lapse though and at one point sported a conical funnel beneath the base before I needed to reposition.
Inbound storm loaded with lightning north of Mullen, Nebraska — 0237-0244Z.Pointy lowering 9 minutes prior to the next tornado — 0244Z.
I found a new vantage a couple miles further north that revealed a wedge profile that corresponds to an ongoing tornado surveyed by the National Weather Service.
wedge profile lurking behind the hills — 0300Z.
Five miles further north, I took an unpaved side road to try to get another view. A new lowering had formed that corresponded to another tornado that was later surveyed. I tripoded one of my cameras to shoot video while I took stills with another. Inflow winds gusted and knocked the tripod over, landing the camera lens-first into the grass. A big, chunky grass stalk wedged in between the lens barrel and zoom ring. No broken glass, but zoom was now tight and compromised with embedded vegetation. That turned into an unfortunate repair bill later on.
Pointy lowering from N. Falls Rd. as new tornado forms — 0317-0318Z.
Further north near Merry Land Park, the storm was getting ready to start crossing SR97. I stopped for a few shots, trying to capture some structure. But looking at it later, an apparent funnel and debris cloud was showing up beneath the base and corresponding to another tornado cycle that got surveyed.
Looking north near Merry Land Park during next tornado cycle — 0340Z.Apparent funnel and debris cloud — 0339-0340Z.
One last push up toward Merritt Reservoir led to a look at some brief multivortex spinups beneath the base, followed by a tight, lightning-silhouetted, elephant trunk tornado descending into the hilltops just ahead. I think this was identified as a separate satellite tornado in the damage survey, although the time is off from either ongoing tornado report by about six minutes.
Time lapse and video of the nocturnal supercell and tornado.NWS Damage Assessment toolkit map with associated photos.
I followed the storm for a bit longer, just across the South Dakota border near Sicangu Village, before letting it go. I missed the main, daylight wedge on this one by a wide margin, but was very happy with how the nocturnal show turned out.
I was conflicted on what to target this day. SPC had a 5% tornado risk plotted across eastern New Mexico and HRRR convection had supercells forming there, but I didn’t like what forecast sounding capping looked like. So I opted for further south where an outflow boundary was draped south of New Mexico.
As I made my way east of Kermit, Texas, a cell south of Pecos split and sent a left mover rocketing north toward a right mover north of Mentone.
Interested to find out what happens after this left split/right mover interaction works itself out between Mentone & Kermit. Pretty interesting driving under the vault of a left moving cell with things mirrored.
I tried to thread between the intersecting paths of both storms and see what would happen with that interaction. I didn’t have much hope for the right moving storm after that, since it was going to head straight through the other cell’s outflow. I got caught nickel & quarter hail from the left mover and then had to hustle back east to stay out of the right mover’s core. Kind of a fun dodging game with commercial traffic trying to stay out of it too.
Smeared updraft of left split and inbound right mover east of Mentone, Texas — 2331-2343ZCell that birthed the left-mover, 50 miles to the south approaching Fort Stockton — 2344Z
After turning south, I was surprised to see that the right moving cell was holding together nicely. I’m still not sure how it survived that interaction. I plotted the precip path of the left mover and honestly the right mover sported its best structure while it was moving through the other’s outflow trail.
Diagram showing path of the right moving storm passing unharmed through the outflow trail of the left moving cell.
So who was I to look a gift horse of a supercell in the mouth? I got to spend the next hour with some excellent, rotating structure from Wink to Pyote to Royalty.
Crossing paths did some good things for this storm west of Wink— 0015Z.Getting more sunset light underneath it — 0021Z.Foregrounds were tough to find amid the oil field scrub from Wink to Pyote — 0024-0039Z.Morphing structure south of Wickett — 0100Z.Storm starting to settle down as twilight deepens northwest of Royalty — 0112-0131Z
Fort Stockton storm to the south still looking good in fading light — 0156Z.Back up by Wickett, watching the storm drift away as the stars come out — 0229Z.
Another day of modest 25-30kt H5 flow over the Texas Panhandle this day serving up 40-50kt of effective bulk shear and MLCAPE reaching 2000-2500 j/kg by late afternoon. There was an outflow boundary drifting across Lubbock and arcing to the northwest that would be great for storms to latch onto.
I got another late start, this time because I wanted to stop by an excellent Lubbock camera store, Armadillo Camera, to pick up a new ball head mount to improve on the messed up situation I had with tornado video the day before. I got just what I needed, but was now running late.
If I had gotten to the target area sooner, I might not gave gotten distracted by a competing storm. A big cell got rolling near Sudan as I moved in. As I got closer, another one formed off its forward flank to the east. In my haste to figure out the best option, I figured that the outflow boundary was in play for both cells, and with new thoughts about storm nudgers helping the downstream storm out, I opted to hang out with the eastern storm near Amherst.
It wasn’t the right call. The eastern storm did not hang out on the boundary, but gradually moved deeper under the anvil of the Sudan storm’s forward flank. By this time, I was far out of position for the western cell and just hoping that some sort of nudge magic would still happen for my eastern storm.
Sudan, Texas cell at lower left with downstream storm closer on the right by Amherst — 2048-2057Z.
The silhouette of the Sudan storm kept getting better and was now hinting at dust beneath the base. RFD surge or something more interesting?
Sudan storm (left) solidifying its base and kicking up dust while Amherst cell (right) tries to gel its own — 2059-2100Z.
Within a minute the dustup had consolidated as a funnel descended above it. All in distant silhouette while I tried to figure out which camera to quickly swap on a telephoto lens.
Sudan storm spinning up a tornado — 2100Z-2102Z.
With the 70-300 lens finally in place, I managed a few shots as the tornado churned up the landscape. Only later did I realize how amazing that would have looked closer in with good light. But it was still a catch.
Dusty tornado in silhouette — 2103Z.Churning away — 2103Z.
As that distant event faded away, my failed storm continued to drift into the forward flank of its buddy and get all the outflow feels to it. So what happened to my storm nudger hopes? Task saturation for one. Which led to not noticing how fast the downstream storm was surging north of the boundary. As it moved north, it got buried further and further in the forward flank of its upstream partner. Still noting that a tornado was reported on this downstream storm while it was tucked in there, but a fail mode is that this is an area with terrible contrast and increasingly getting seeded by the other storm’s forward flank. Visibility is just not at all good in that configuration.
The other issue, I think is that this downstream storm formed AFTER the main upstream cell, so I think that setup just wants to overwhelm the downstream cell rather than help balance its rear flank. The other thing worth noting is that the original upstream storm did not get nudged by another cell prior to forming its tornado. It got everything it needed from the outflow boundary it was latched onto. So hopefully I get some pattern recognition on that situation for next time around and not get fooled into targeting a doomed cell.
Amherst storm getting ingested into the Sudan storm’s forward flank — 2106-2108Z.
With both storms merging, some reorganization had to take place as I drifted south of Littlefield to see what it would do next.
Both storms consolidating behind an abandoned homestead south of Littlefield — 2132Z.
As the new cell consolidated, the rear flank made a quick surge to the east and got reorganized. The base and vault lofted spectacularly overhead with ominous green color and tight focus for the RFD. Radar and NWS damage survey indicated a tornado wrapped up inside the rain as that happened. But nothing that I could pick out even after torturing my images for contrast.
Fully merged cell now surging east from south of Littlefield — 2157-2211Z.Surging RFD gust front with tornado embedded in the rain at this point. Looking 3 miles to the west from southeast of Littlefield — 2215Z.Rain wrapped circulation with tornado still embedded. Looking west from southeast of Littlefield — 2219-2223Z.
After that burst, the storm seemed to drift north of the boundary and go elevated for a bit as I wound up west of Anton.
Momentarily elevated storm recycling behind a farmstead west of Anton — 2232Z.Trying to reorganize west of Anton — 2239Z.
After about 15 minutes, it managed to hop back south far enough to tap into fresh air and go surface based again with some fun, drilled down structure.
Cell managing to hop back south of the boundary and get surface based again — 2241-2243Z.
Not long after that, the RFD filled in, developed a tighter couplet, and then opened back up, revealing some faint, thin needles in the circulation, followed by dusty spinups beneath as it surged southward. NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit plots a radar indicated tornadic circulation at that point and time.
RFD filling in behind another homestead southwest of Anton — 2250Z.Thin funnels (right side of left photo) followed by dust whirl (right photo) beneath circulation — 2257-2300Z.
The storm had been pushing me south and east, but at this point, it was starting to go back elevated and hold position north of Smyer. Structure and light across the landscape were an enjoyable descent from the earlier excitement and gradually transitioned to an evening lightning & structure display.
Sunbeam moment between Roundup and Levelland — 2325Z.North of Smyer — 2344-2348Z. Storm going outflow dominant south of Smyer — 0018-0041Z.Local landscape flavor south of Smyer — 0050-0107Z.Evening structure show west of Lubbock — 0200Z.
After shooting structure and lightning for a couple hours, I was wiped out and booked a hotel on the southwest side of Lubbock. After grabbing a Subway sandwich and heading for the hotel, I saw that CG strikes were now starting to hop out of the storm. By a great coincidence, a bank parking lot near the hotel had a good view of the storm and I took that chance for 15 minutes of relaxed shooting from the window mount with new, sturdy ball head.
CG lightning display firing up from near my hotel in southwest Lubbock — 0323-0324Z.Multiframe lightning stack — 0313-0328Z.
This day featured 25-30 kts of westerly 500 mb flow over the Panhandles for 40 kts of effective bulk shear with MLCAPE rising over 2500 j/kg. Some outflow boundaries were in play with a prominent one moving southbound and eventually setting up northwest-southeast over the southern panhandle.
The storm of the day seemed to fire off this outflow boundary southwest of Silverton and produced a tornado at 2315Z, about 20 minutes before I got there. The 12 minutes I spent distracted by the dynamic flying of a cropduster up in the Oklahoma Panhandle contributed to that miss, but not by enough to be totally to blame.
Crop duster diversion south of Guyman, Oklahoma — 1952Z.
I caught up with that storm just on east side of the Cap Rock escarpment. It looked like it was reconsolidating after its early show.
Storm regrouping west of Flomont, Texas, after its first tornado, which I missed — 2335Z.
I dodged southwest of the forward flank and got in front of it in time to watch a new RFD cut slice in and tighten up. As I was deciding whether to surf the cell down the farm grid, a plume sprouted just to the north beneath the hub of the circulation and convinced me to hold off and skirt a bit further to the west.
New cut of RFD slicing in from atop the Cap Rock, southeast of South Plains — 2347-2351Z.Quick spinup as RFD tightens on the rim of the Cap Rock — 2356Z.
I made it down to CR178 and then back east toward the storm. After pushing through the haze, an impressive, rapidly spinning wall cloud appeared straight ahead.
Catching back up to a rapidly rotating wall cloud at the intersection of CR178 & 271 — 0014Z.
I turned south at CR271 and started grabbing video and stills as a tornado emerged from the shadows. As it widened, turbulence at the base revealed churning subvortices. Just as I was trying to lock in the video camera on the window mount, the ball head lock nut loosened up and all the camera wanted to do was fall to the side. Getting simultaneous video and stills was huge challenge with that going on.
Tornado beginning to materialize and clearly condensing WNW of Matador — 0015Z.
Dirt eating cone behind a shaggy wall cloud — 0017Z.Turbulence and subvortices near the ground — 0017Z.
The west side of it was a great view with front lighting showing the subtle contrast in color between lofted debris in the funnel and cleaner vortices and wall cloud. But I only had about 3 minutes with it before it got obscured in rain. I headed further south and then east on Highway 62 and got a view of the hazy brown cone tucked under the wall cloud.
Looking northeast at the mostly obscured cone from Hwy 62 west of Matador — 0029Z.
Five miles further east I got back ahead of it just in time to watch the tornado move in for a couple minutes before dodging back out of the way and watching the storm move off.
Looking northwest at occluded tornado as it approaches Hwy 62 — 0037Z.Watching the storm move off as it crosses FM 684 west of Roaring Springs — 0058-0059Z.
A much heftier supercell was brewing to the south, so I headed that way for an evening light show east of Post. As I got there, the storm went elevated, shrunk down and gave up a few good strikes before going dark.
After dark structure and lightning show from Hwy 380 between Post & Clairemont — 0229-0246Z.
The setup on the 23rd was on the weaker side but still held out hope for supercells. A surface low was positioned at far southeast Colorado with a dryline stretching down the western panhandles beneath 25kts of WSW 500mb flow. Across the panhandles, MLCAPE reached 1500-2000 j/kg with effective shear around 30 kts by late afternoon and rising to 40 kts after sunset as the low level jet strengthened.
After hustling north from Fort Stockton that morning, I caught up with a cell north of Gruver. It danced on the threshold of multicell and marginal supercell as it slowly drifted northeast.
Storm base north of Gruver, TX — 2315-2326Z.
After grabbing some moody shots with a concrete grain elevator, I spotted an excellent broadcast tower just a little bit down the road.
Grain elevator and broadcast tower north of Gruver — 2343-2347Z.
After about an hour of leisurely following it, I wound up with an elevated view along the Hackleberry Creek river valley. About this time, the storm started to look like a weak RFD was trying to take hold.
RFD attempting to sneak over Hackleberry Creek — 0020Z.
It kept trying with whispers of RFD until it was over Hardesty, Oklahoma, when it finally managed to curl fully into the base.
RFD still trying with occasional lowerings south of Hardesty, Oklahoma — 0032-0045ZRFD finally curling into the base — 0053Z.
I followed it for another 20 minutes before letting it drift off and dissipate. Back to the west, new cells had gone up and were setting up a beautiful sunset lightning display. No CG strikes, like whatsoever, but the anvil crawlers were great, especially since they were originating in a small but cohesive supercell.
Original storm dying out north of Hardesty — 0117Z and then sunset lightning flickering to the west — 0139Z.Small but coherent supercell over Guyman, Oklahoma — 0150Z.0157-0205ZDwindling away over Hooker, Oklahoma — 0232Z.
As the storms weakened and moved off, a larger convective complex was ongoing in central and northern Kansas. I set up the camera for some time lapse shots to the north and later discovered a couple frames with sprites. The foreground storms are around 30 miles away but the sprites are coming from the more distant storms that ranged from 150-250 miles away.
Sprites far to the north, somewhere over Kansas — 0436–0446Z.
By afternoon, a surface low over the Oklahoma Panhandle draped a dryline across the western Texas Panhandle, down into southwest Texas. The dryline was situated beneath 30 kts of westerly flow leading to 30-40 kts of effective bulk shear and 2000 j/kg MLCAPE across the southern warm sector dropping to 1000 j/kg further north.
This was day one of my second 2025 chase trip, a supercell or two was the plan and I targeted Fort Stockton yet again, hoping for some more of that magic. I was wiped out from the day-1 drive, but this time around I wasn’t totally behind schedule and had time for a parking lot Subway lunch before convection took off.
The first cell to strengthen led me north of town for a bit. The quest for foreground interest wasn’t especially productive, but I found a gate with a blistered sign to watch the storm mature.
North of Fort Stockon, TX on FM1053 — 2035ZNew cell taking over and crossing FM1053 — 2105Z
Before it could gather strength, a new cell formed on its southeast flank and took over to my north. At the same time, an even stronger storm was forming to the south, on the west edge of Fort Stockton. As it blew up in size, it rang some pattern recognition bells, so I bailed out and headed to the Interstate to see if we could get a three-peat of 2019 and 2023. Drifting a bit east on I-10, I was able to keep an eye on the northern cell and the newer one looming over the city.
Views of the northern cell from I-10 east of Fort Stockton — 2137–2147Z.
I was hoping the southern cell would drift roughly eastward for a while and plant something similar to the previous two Fort Stockton excursions. I was also interested in being positioned to keep an eye on the northern cell as much as possible. But both cells took a hard turn to the southeast rather quickly without either dropping anything. At this exact turning point, the southern one was perfectly aligned with Highway 285 off to the west, with the core cutting me off from repositioning for an excellent, steady vantage since I had committed east along I-10.
Good early look on the southern cell as it strengthened; but strong outflow noted with that rain foot — 2143-2150Z.Initial excitement over the southern storm’s look.The start of an RFD cut that didn’t manage to strengthen — 2158Z
At this point, the southern cell was now really seeding its northern/downstream buddy and obscuring its RFD in precip. That made it even more urgent to correct my positioning problem with cleaner upstream storm, so I hustled east and then south on FM2023 then Puckett Road to try and head it off via the lonnng way around.
As I made my turn to the south, the southern storm looked nice and clean while the northern one was getting getting even further embedded and messy in the southern one’s forward flank. This latest hypothesis about the northern of two interacting cells being the more likely tornado-maker due to nudging doesn’t take into account all the intervening FFD precip and HP RFD that wants to totally obscure a supposedly more likely tornado. Yucko.
Northern/downstream cell flooding with precip from the upstream storm — 2209Z
By 2230Z both storms were tornado warned as I was looping around far to the southeast to reposition. The base of the southern storm fortunately stayed visible the whole time but was still far enough away to frustrate curious eyes watching daggers of scud materialize and wondering at the time whether they were funnels.
Southern storm in the distance from Puckett Road as it picked up a tornado warning — 2226-2233Z
After a half hour of swinging wide, I made it back around to a position in front of the storm of the day as it tracked along Highway 285. By now it was flexing a monstrous new personality with a shaggy maw fed by broad swaths of dust, a curling inflow band and bristled beaver tail deep in the shadows. I don’t need a tornado now. This is a spectacle like no other and it’s eating up the landscape as it heads toward where I’m standing.
Rugged supercell ingesting the dusty landscape near the Hwy 185/Puckett Road intersection — 2247-2252Z.
I made my way gradually southeast on Highway 285, letting the storm nudge closer to get a clearer view through the surging dust. As it did, the increasing strength of the inflow advertised incredible power. Car door opening now had to be done with a lot of concentration to avoid getting slammed or having it ripped out of hand and bending hinges backwards. At the same time, elevated structure took on expansive proportions as it swept through a strengthening inversion.
Curling inflow and upswept structure from Highway 285 — 2303Z.Even clearer structure with a turquoise core leaking out as it gets closer — 2307Z. Down the road view — 2308Z.
Down the road a bit it was concerning to see the non-chaser traffic emerging from the core. Windshields seemed intact, so I had to wonder whether they had just snuck in front of it at the Puckett Road intersection. A sigh of relief for those guys. I’d hate to be stuck back in that icy, windblown core watching my windshield turn into abstract art.
At this point, the storm split, started going elevated and took a more easterly path as it turned grungier. Meanwhile its offspring organized west of the highway. I took off after the original down RM2400 and watched as it crossed the road and continued falling apart.
Incidental windmill and eastbound storm along RM2400 — 0005Z, 0034Z, 0040Z.Discombobulating storm crossing the road plus incidental shrubbery — 0045Z, 0048Z, 0050Z.
The remaining storm that had split off was now moving in and still held onto a velocity couplet, so I cruised back west and let it roll over me as it went elevated and fell apart too. This was an excellent first day for Plains-Dixie chasing part II!
Letting the gust front of a dwindling supercell move over RM2400 before calling it a day — 0118Z.
Fresh off an amateur damage survey around Wynne and Earle, Arkansas, I headed into Mississippi to intercept a line of storms moving across the river. Embedded supercells were the most I could count on, I figured, and I just worked on zipping down the line from Glover to Banks to Falcon then Eaglesnest. Shelf clouds and rain-obscured lightning dressed up the marshy landscape in the flood plain.
Advancing gust front and shelf in the line of storms south of Glover, MS — 1843ZWhale’s mouth crossing the flooded fields north of Banks, MS — 1853ZNext shelf cloud inbound from Falcon, MS — 1941ZShelf #3 near Eaglesnest, MS — 2015ZDisorganized sky, gradually nearing the south end of the line near Tutwiler, MS — 2126Z
After passing through Tutwiler, a tail-end storm looked like it was remaining discrete to my south. As I got closer on Hwy 49E, the cell came into view with a blocky wall cloud hovering over the trees ahead.
Heading south on Hwy 49E north of Minter City — 2149Z
After the last couple days of outflow driven lines of storms, this was an exciting few minutes as the area beneath the wall cloud took on a dirty brown color. Something interesting was happening and I finally found a farm road with a reasonably good view that still had a row of trees in the way.
Dusty column beneath the Tail End Charlie cell from just north of Minter City, MS — 2152Z
The fuzzy wall of dirt beneath the storm was strange. There was not a lot of motion throughout, but the right edge was the most solid part and seemed to be the source of the commotion. Chasers closer in confirmed it was a tornado and video seems to show that the right edge was where the marginally stronger circulation was feeding dirt into the larger vortex.
Closer view of the dusty Schlater tornado from just north of Minter City, MS – 2151Z
As the forward flank/advancing line started to rain on my spot, I took off east along Route 8 to see if I could pop out somewhere with visibility. Although I was trying to come out behind the passing storm and get a view as it drifted to my north, I couldn’t escape the blinding rain and decided to hold back because of poor situational awareness. I eventually crossed tree debris strewn across the road where it had passed and let the whole thing go as it moved into the hills and trees beyond.
The NWS damage survey rated the initial dusty tornado as EF-1. It looks like that one then handed off to a new EF-1 tornado that was responsible for the damage path across Route 8. After a tough few days it was an encouraging end point with an exciting 15 hours or so from the Arkansas QLCS tornadoes overnight to this odd dust barrel tornado in Mississippi.
Another difficult chase in Arkansas along the farm land north of the Arkansas River and then into the Mississippi Delta. I spent a lot of time trying to coax a view out of a road by Gravesville. There are spots to be had without trees, but a lot of them are really dumpy when you need one in a pinch. My first cell of the day at least had a base on it, but not really doing much more as we crossed paths.
East of Gravesville, Arkansas — 2111Z
Next up were a pair of tornado warned storms moving up from the southwest. The smaller cell was first to arrive as I tried to find a viewpoint on windy roads with some spots cut off from flooding. This one had lost strength and dropped its tornado warning as it approached with a tiny bit of a tail cloud. As it moved over and off, it picked up a tornado warning again. There was no point trying to reacquire it given the road network and visibility issues further into denser trees.
North of Damascus, Arkansas — 2221ZNorth of Damascus, Arkansas — 2226ZNorth of Damascus, Arkansas — 2229Z
As it trucked away, it framed up with the counterpoint to terrible storm views, which is beautiful landscape views. It flipped me a little shear funnel as it diminished into the distance.
North of Damascus, Arkansas — 2233Z
I repositioned to see if the follow up storm would be any good, but it too decided it was time to take a snooze and floated on by with a tame, flat base.
North of Gravesville, Arkansas — 2301Z
With that futile exercise out of the way, I hustled southeast, hoping to get a look at a huge supercell heading toward Little Rock. I had the bright idea to set up in the flat farmland east of the city and time lapse the evening show. I scouted out the perfect spot and set up the cameras. The cell of interest of course eased up as it approached and blended with a developing line of storms. There was still hope of a lightning show along a big shelf cloud but that didn’t gel either and a gust front was sending light showers overhead while the main line hung way back.
View of the no-show lightning display southeast of Kerr, Arkansas — 0219Z
The next tornado warned cell was aimed at a crossing of I-57 at Beebe. So I cruised up that way, found a flat, muddy spot to watch it move in. And it started to fall apart with enough gusto to give up a lightning bolt.
Beebe, Arkansas — 0451Z
The line of storms to the west was now well organized and hustling eastward. I opted for Highway 64 as the surfing road and pretty interesting how that worked out. As the line approached Crowley’s Ridge, it started spinning up mesovortices and picking up tornado warnings. I stopped just east of the town of Wynne to watch one of these move in. Shortly after turning around and facing that way I caught a power flash out of the corner of my eye. A couple more power flashes confirmed that big wind was happening behind the approaching precip core. The dash cam and video camera caught those flashes and a glimpse of lightning illuminated core structure.
Approaching mesovortex core — 3 miles east of Wynne, Arkansas — 0650Z
Dashcam frame grabs below showing power flashes and structure. Time stamps are in GMT/Zulu time and accurate within a few seconds.
The image below is a contrast enhanced frame grab from the R6II as it was on high-res video duty.
Biggest power flash over Wynne, Arkansas — 0650Z
I had to cut it short after that last flash and blasted east again. At this point, I was just trying to find the right spot to duck away from the strengthening bowing segment. I wasn’t sure I wanted to cross the river into Memphis and was strategizing the best option to unzip from the line before then. While those mental games were going on, craziness was unfolding directly behind over the town of Earle. The rear dashcam was kind enough to document that scenario as incredible structure and a lowering that turned out to be a funnel took shape with a batch of their own power flashes. Even if I know that was happening, I’m not sure I could’ve found a safe way to stop and get better photos or high-def video. Makes me want to start researching a rear dashcam with better quality. As above, time stamps are in GMT/Zulu time and accurate within a few seconds:
The more impressive of that lot:
Power flash with tornado — 07:05:50ZBrightest power flash with tornado — 07:06:25ZLightning illuminated structure and tornado — 07:06:39Z
I didn’t realize all this had occurred over Earle until the next day when I went back to see if I could find any damage near Wynne. Before I could get there, I came across the downed power lines and trees at Earle. I stopped to discretely take photos of the utility crews working when I saw one of the local residents in his yard running equipment to clean up tree debris in his yard. I pulled up to ask if he would mind if I gathered some photos for a report since this site was not showing up yet on the SPC storm report page. He related the story of his phone waking him and his family up middle of the night. They flipped on the TV and saw the meteorologist describing that spinups in the line can happen on a moment’s notice and it’s hard to predict each one well in advance. He said that the next thing he heard was the loud “freight train” noise that lasted about 15 seconds and then it was over. He shook his head for a second and said, yeah, they always get described that way, but that’s what it sounded like. Fortunately the homes on that road were not damaged, but it was a very close call. The size of the tree that was taken down in his front yard was staggering, besides all the others up and down that road.
Further west at Wynne, the Crowley’s Ridge Country Club, the damage was not as extensive, but multiple trees and a section of utility poles were down. In both towns, the utility crews were making fast work of the repairs.
Just an absolutely insane night after a very slow and frustrating start to the chase day. Damage from those two tornadoes gives me a heightened respect for he quick and dangerous spinup hazards in QLCS setups with dangerous parameters downstream.
UPDATE: After compiling damage photos and video frame grabs from the dashcam, I submitted those to the NWS Memphis and received this note in reply:
I wanted to thank you for the very detailed report you provided for the damage you observed. This helped identify tornado damage that we were previously unaware of. Looked like there was some previous damage on Gaskill Rd, but new damage was certainly observed as well. We were able to trace out a sporadic track over a 5-6 mile length.
That heightens my awareness of the value of reports — whether ongoing events, or damage details after the fact. Track details are available at the NOAA Damage Assessment Toolkit. The Wynne tornado was rated EF-2 and the Earle tornado EF-1.
I headed south out of Memphis and then back west into Arkansas to shoot for warm advection storms forming south of a stationary front. The best I could manage was a few quick shots of a heavy but diffuse gust front and then a lot of driving trying to get a decent angle on a supercell that just wouldn’t let me get a decent shot.
Driving beneath a diffuse gust front near Clarksdale, MS — 2002ZNear Star City, AR, as a long shelf cloud moves in — 0001ZFast moving and linear — 2004ZAdvancing gust front before I got overtaken and left behind — 2008ZAfter dark, even the lightning was elusive. Near Crocketts Bluff, AR — 0137Z
This was my first active chase day of 2025 and it took me to Dixie Alley. I’ve chased the Mississippi Delta before on a single chase day back in 2016 in Arkansas. This was going to be a longer trip and I really wanted to test myself in the Delta region for multiple days and see if I could latch onto something that didn’t involve blinding hills and forests.
My very large target area for this initial day was from northeast Arkansas to northwest Tennessee. The general idea being to stay ahead of the initial mass of interfering storms forming in central Arkansas and try to catch anything isolated out in the warm sector. I made a pit stop at Mammoth Spring State Park on the Arkansas-Missouri border for a little exercise and some photos.
After that detour, I opted to commit deep into the warm sector and headed for the Missouri Bootheel on the way to Tennessee. I was excited to finally get into the Delta and have wide vistas to work with. But I wasn’t counting on strong southerlies blasting across actively plowed fields. The highway was a visibility nightmare in key spots. I don’t drive in Arizona haboobs and I sure didn’t want to get taken out in the middle of a dumb quarter mile wide stream of farm dust in Missouri. Fortunately I only had to tap my way through three of those. I stopped for a few photos before moving on.
By 19Z, weak convection was starting to spot the warm sector, but nothing worth trying to line up for at that point.
Near Caruthersville, MO 1920Z
Finally, around 21Z, some tornado-warned contenders were popping up east of the Mississippi in Tennessee. I positioned for one near Alamo, but both options were a mess of interfering updrafts that fell apart as they got closer.
Tornado warned cell, looking southwest from near Alamo, TN 2127Z
Just a bit down the road I finally caught sight of some, at least legitimate, if not tepid, structure on a withering supercell north of Crockett Mills.
Near Friendship/Crockett Mills, TN 2142Z.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mississippi in Arkansas, things were going nuts. The mess of interfering storms that I was worried about were somehow managing to stay reasonably discrete as they lined up on each other. Reports started dropping of tornadoes and I was kicking myself for going after the warm sector when the strongest storms were apparently doing amazing things and not turning into mush amid all the forcing.
After that, I wound my way through Trenton, Milan and Huntingdon and getting deeper into the treed realms before crusing back south to I-40 and heading westbound to try and catch a pair of inbound supercells. Dixie Interstate Chasing, I figured — this is the way — let’s get that fine experience under my belt. As I headed west into the thickening precip, I realized how confounding it is to have minimal, safe pulloffs with masses of trees while trying to stare down the fuzzy barrel of messy forward flanks. I got antsy wondering if my next offramp would be too risky, so I found a crossover and whipped back east to a previous stop at the 101 Travel Center between Independence and Union Cross.
The vista was ugly, but at least I could see what was moving in. The cell seemed to be losing its punch and turning outflowy, but still had some structure as it lashed out with a fierce lightning barrage.
East of Independence, TN — 0000Z.
I followed it back northeast for a bit before finally calling it a day in Arlington. Kind of a frustrating chase day, realizing what went down in Arkansas while I was plodding around on the other side of the river. But it did land a couple supercells with decent enough structure, especially for my first chase in Tennessee.
June 21st was an interesting setup in the Four Corners area. Tropical moisture had surged across the southwest while an ejecting trough and associated jet streak provided support for elevated shear across the Arizona-Utah border and on into New Mexico-Colorado. Forecast models varied on initiation and continuation of storms from Lake Powell eastward. But were pretty insistent on a strong cell forming north of the Kaibab Plateau west of Lake Powell and cruising slowly east-northeastward. That consistency was tempting, but road options, especially approaching and getting around the Lake are terrible. So I stuck with the varied option further east and cruised up to Monument Valley.
As expected, an early storm fired over the Arizona Strip and drifted over Page — reasonably further south than models had anticipated but otherwise following the pattern. Further south like that, the road network was slightly better, and an intercept near Glen Canyon Dam could have actually been really rewarding. But I was too far east at that point, hanging out in prolonged one-lane pilot-car construction, to rearrange plans. And a cell had gone up north of Monument Valley. I paced eastward with it, mindful of road commitments vs. other convective attempts nearby since the storm really seemed to be struggling. I finally decided to abandon ideas on that one and worked on some landscape shots, waiting for something more promising to fire.
Bubbling cumulus over Agathia Peak. Cell phone pic. 1825ZMonument Valley storm struggling to gain strength to the northeast. 1903ZWeak convective attempts to the south. 1916Z
Cruising further east, about 6 miles west of Bluff, Utah, convection to the south was finally starting to take hold. A couple updrafts were visible with the near one catching my eye, displaying a low contrast ribbon from cloud base to the ground. It looked like a landspout to me. The more distant storm however, was the one to keep an eye on as it was strengthening more rapidly.
Convection to the south building from 6 miles west of Bluff, UT. 2010ZConstrast enhanced view of suspected landspout, center. Looking south-southwest from 6 miles west of Bluff, Utah on Highway 163. 2010Z
The cell further south, approaching Rock Point, AZ, did look promising, so I headed south to give it a shot. The terrain was both beautiful and frustrating, as I then cruised back east on Highway 160 trying to get ahead of it and get a look at the base between ridges and mesas. For brief glimpses, I was astounded by the beautiful color. The turquoise core contrasted against a reddish purple counterglow as the desert floor reflected into the rugged, evolving structure of the storm’s base. At one point, an RFD push was enveloped in this light as it came into view between a couple hills. But I wasn’t able to find a good pull off to capture it and hoped for a better chance at an upcoming south highway.
Just past Red Mesa, IR35 dives south again and I took that for an intercept. The road was clearly leading to a rise on the plateau that was hiding things from view, but it felt like one of those dreams where you never get to the end of the hallway. By the time I crested to a view, the cupped structure from earlier was gone, but that reflected color was still good. I couldn’t stay long as hail was starting to fall and visibility was plummeting, so I jogged back north to 160 and east again for another view.
Strengthening cell with reflected color from Indian Route 35.
About eight miles further east, the terrain was far enough back to get a good view of the base. It felt like it was really taking cues from the buttes and foothills leading into the Carrizo Mountains. There were several good spots in this area to watch as it developed a rugged, rotating wall cloud with tail cloud feeding in off the forward flank while it scraped up the hillsides. The landscape was fantastic for this storm and way overfulfilled what I hoped would set up for this chase.
Gusting outflow kicking up a shelf east of Red Mesa after I got out of the forward flank. 2114ZRanch/homestead sign pointing the way as the cell lofts Chezhindeza Mesa. 2121ZTerraced structure and disorganized wall cloud developing. 2130ZMore developed wall cloud with intermittent threads of vorticity moving through ridges and valleys. 2133ZVaulted canopies of structure as the storm as RFD cuts deep into the tattered base. 2134ZHigh based funnel outside the occluded wall cloud. 2135Z
With the forward flank continually encroaching, I had to keep nudging east. My next stop, about a mile southeast of Teec Nos Pos gave a view of the occlusion sculpting a broad funnel that gradually tightened up and roped out in beautiful fashion over flat-topped terrain.
Cylindrical funnel looking southweast from 1 mile southeast of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. 2145Z2147Z2147ZGust front carving out to the south. 2147ZNo sign of ground contact across the hills and through the bands of precipitation. 2147Z2148ZEnd moments of the ropeout. Closest I could find of groundward condensation. 2148ZLost moment of the ropeout as the tail of the funnel takes on interdimensional alien flavors. 2149Z
After this, the storm encountered overturned air from earlier storms in the area and it dwindled away. I took way to long deciding whether the cell that had pounded Page earlier would be worth an intercept. By the time I got going north, I was playing catchup amid a mess of other developing convection. I did finally take a pause on a forest road near Slick Rock in western Colorado and take stock of the day. The sun finally snuck under the clouds and threw out a rainbow to seal up the day.
Rainbow near Slick Rock, Colorado.
Hyperlapse video of the wall cloud and funnel near Teec Nos Pos, Arizona.
