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.
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.
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.
This was going to be a slow-moving, low-shear day—10-15kts—and kicked off with some more macro photography north of Pampa after a roadside boondock.
Blister beetle, hunting wasp, robber fly & a beetle of the Texas Panhandle.And a couple dung beetles honing their craft.
After that I headed east toward Oklahoma, with convection firing at my starting point a little before 20Z.
A couple sights on the way from the Panhandle to Arnett, Oklahoma — 1734-2223Z.
Although cells were individually migrating southward, a cluster out of the Panhandle was pushing eastward strongly enough to load the north side of all the convection with some excellent cloudscapes. So I surfed those for the rest of the day, starting at Higgins, Texas and moving up near Woodward, Oklahoma later.
Updrafts and shelves north of Higgins, Texas — 2300-2321Z.Taking windmills and bridges where I can get them — 2327-2331Z.Northwest of Harmon, Oklahoma — 0013Z.Rotating cogs on the lead edge of a surging gust front northwest of Harmon — 0017Z.Rippling cloudscapes from Harmon to Woodward — 0033-0110Z.Levitating structure — 0113Z.0114-0119Z.
The sunset mammatus display at the end of the day was fantastic.
Setting up to time lapse the drifting mammatus — 0047-0052Z.
On longer chase trips, some days are just down days. This was one of those and gave me a relaxed opportunity to shoot a bit of macro photography on the local critters near Quail, Texas and do some exploring further north. Following are a few of the shots that came out of that.
Caterpillar on bark.Plant bug nymph.Lynx Spider.Orthoptera nymph.Belt of Venus and Earth Shadow rising over Sourdough Creek sunflowers.Turtle removed from the road.Rippled airglow running across the Milky way near Canadian, Texas.
This day’s target was Hollis, Oklahoma to shoot for convection along the dryline that could interact with the previous night’s MCS outflow boundary.
Attempting to break that mean old cap south of Hollis, OK — 2121Z.The suspenseful turkeys & orphans phase in furthest SOUTHWEST Oklahoma — 2141Z.
Developing updrafts gradually led me south across the Red River into Texas.
Two types of structure on the verge of collapse Between Hollis & Childress — 2304Z.2305-2310Z.Near storm = toast. any chance the squat western buddy can do it? — 2321Z.Nah. No good. Double toastedness — 2333Z.
Fort Stockton, Texas has been good to us. It was our first chase target and tornado of the 2019 season and wound up being our last chase target and tornado for the 2023 season.
We started near Big Spring, Texas that morning. Convection was going to light early off the terrain. it was only a couple hour drive, but I still nearly missed getting us there in time. Coming into town, a strong storm was already moving in from the west. But I was hungry and anticipating hours of driving, so we pulled into a Burger King drive through for a quick food grab. But quick, it was not. Sitting in a mercilessly plugged-up drive-thru, squinting past various, opaque foreground elements as half obscured lowerings churn out of the passing storm is a sick, sad experience.
Staring longingly at the approaching storm from a clogged Burger King drive-thru. 1807Z
We finally managed to break free and scarf on the run, finding a vantage east of town around ten minutes later. A local pulled up wondering whether we were lost. People driving out from Arizona to watch storms didn’t seem to make sense to him, but he agreed they needed some rain.
Storm regathering itself, looking northwest from a couple miles northeast of Ft. Stockton. 1820 & 1824Z
As the cell moved east, it seemed like we might repeat some vantages from 2019. So we got on I-10 and made our way to the excellent frontage road we enjoyed the last time. Our storm started bulking up with RFD carving a wide swath in the base as it tracked along the highway.
Looking west from the I-10/Hwy 385 intersection, 12 miles east of Ft. Stockton. 1846Z
A tail cloud and embedded wall cloud started to develop as other chasers filtered in.
Embedded wall cloud and tail as chasers move into position. Mike Olbinksi leading the pack in the second image. 1851Z & 1852Z
It looked imminent, and with plenty of easy parking on the shoulder, I kept us notching eastward. About 3 miles further east, just past the RM 2023 exit, the RFD finally cleared out and the wall cloud started lowering a funnel.
Descending funnel. I believe it was a tornado at this point, but no way to tell from this spot. 1857Z
When we stopped here, I was thinking we might need another half mile or so before it produced, and was just doing a quick spot check. So, it was a crummy vantage. The funnel started descending right behind the overpass. I got mentally locked up thinking, what if it’s a quick spinup — if I reposition now, it might be over & done while I’m driving. So I hung in that spot longer than I should have with the overpass blocking a full view. I did have my lightning trigger in play, so it was snagging random shots in between my deliberate shutter releases. It pulled off a decent CG running through the almost-down funnel.
Descending funnel and lightning strike just behind the overpass. 1858ZWhite tour van parking and lining up perfectly with the widening funnel. 1858Z
After snagging a few more just-in-case photos, I retreated back to the overpass/frontage-road intersection to get an elevated view. The tornado fully condensed and spun up a tight debris fan at its base as it drifted right to left.
Finally moving back west for a better view. 1859ZFully condensed and churning up a small debris fan. 1900Z
After each batch of shots, I kept creeping along the shoulder, looking for different views while my daughter shot video. The lightning trigger was going nuts with all the CGs popping off and I wasn’t interested in getting outside the car with all that.
Seemingly strongest point, looking down the frontage road as it drifts to the left. 1900ZLightning trigger caught a pretty good strike at this point as the funnel lifted a bit. 1901Z
As it moved to the left, it approached a mesa and started roping out. It seemed like it was dragging itself upward before whipping around a bit and dissipating.
Roping out as it dragged up along the mesa. 1902ZOne more lightning trigger catch during ropeout. 1902Z
After it roped out, we drifted further east to see if it would cycle and produce another one.
Views along the I-10 frontage road after the tornado roped out. 1906Z & 1911Z
By this point, the storm was moving southeast and we needed to get south of the interstate. So we headed 20 miles east to RM 2886 and went south looking for a new vantage. About an hour later, we made it down to a paved ranch road, Harral Rd., which looked like our best option. Terrain was a visibility issue though and this westward option didn’t dish out the best views, especially with the need for caution to keep distance so we could get back out in time without the storm cutting us off.
Vying for views of the storm off in the distance along Harral Rd. 2009Z-2019ZRanch fence with enhanced stick sensibilities. 2015Z
Hills and mesas continued to block the view as we continued south on RM 2886. A tornado was reported on the storm at 2041Z, but we had no view of it either beyond the terrain or behind the precipitation.
Obscured views of the storm from RM 2886. 2036Z & 2040ZFinally a decent vantage of the HP core of our storm about 3 minutes after the reported tornado. 2044ZWildflowers and brooding skies. 2046Z
At this point, our storm started moving east again while new storms started to fire westward along its outflow boundary. Things got messy and difficult to view amid all the precip cores and embedded circulations. The best thing I figured we could do was look for elevated spots and see if anything would emerge.
Mushy views of precipitation cores along RM 2886. 2046Z-2057Z
We headed southwest and then east on RM 2400 for another chance at seeing something. Some lowerings appeared, but nothing discernible beyond that. Doppler trucks showed up at one point and parked nearby, with me wishing I had their up-to-the-minute views of radar compared to the spotty data I was getting.
Desperately seeking lowerings. From RM 2400. 2132Z-2139ZA tour group completing a walkabout while Becca Furnish snags shots of the passing RFD and scuddiness. 2147ZDoppler trucks and cell approaching from the southwest. 2209Z
By this point, we needed to bail back west, dodging a couple RFD cores along the way to get south on Hwy 285. I was really struggling with decent data and figured things were turning too messy to target precisely. So we stopped in Sanderson to gas up and take a bathroom break before moseying east on Hwy 90 to grab parting shots of the storms and rainbows.
Rainbows, updrafts and misty roads east of Sanderson on Hwy 90. 2318Z-2325ZUpdraft to the east, about 20 minutes before it produced a tornado. 2325Z
As we sat there enjoying the rainbows and dicing against impossible to catch lightning strikes, tornado reports started popping up on the storm to our east. I had missed the chance to get ahead of it before it started coring the highway, so besides being behind, there was the bigger question of whether it would be possible to punch the forward flank without trashing the car, besides whether the cell would keep cycling and provide another opportunity.
I gave the core punch a shot, but poor data hosed my confidence and as hail approached ping pong ball size, I couldn’t justify pushing the ice odds any further, so we held back. As photos started to show up on Twitter/X/Whatever, of a very stout tornado south of the highway near Dryden, my heart totally sank at the missed opportunity. Which in retrospect is ridiculous. We had just seen and documented an awesome, photogenic tornado. The act of flipping through social media while the storm hail-blocked us, and then grousing about missing a second tornado seems pretty thankless. (e.g., remember when you caught Chapman and a bunch didn’t? Quit complaining.) So yeah, the well know perils of social media chasing — something to ponder soberly before next chase season.
That mental drama aside, the sunset show was gorgeous. Kelvin-Helmhotz-ey debris clouds, mammatus, updrafts, and cg lightning strikes were lighting up the sky as the storms retreated eastward. And that put the final touch on our 2023 chasecation. 13 days. The longest we’ve done so far.
Debris clouds to the west of Langtry and churning updraft/possible RFD cut to the east. 0128Z & 0135ZSunset mammatus and puddle reflection. 0142ZCGs on the retreating storm. 0148Z & 0153Z0149ZMoving to longer focal lengths as the lightning recedes. 0154Z-0259Z
This was a rough one. I planned to target an outflow boundary between Hobbs, New Mexico and Andrews, Texas. As the day wore on, it became apparent the west side of the boundary was not interested in convecting. We repositioned eastward as cell fired near Lamesa and moved east-southeast. As we got closer, another cell popped up east of Lamesa and I navigated close to see what it looked like. It was kicking up some dust, but didn’t look like it had much of a future.
Storm gusting up dirt around cell southeast of Lamesa. 2155Z & 2156Z
So we bailed on that storm and tried catching up with the original cell which was now southwest of Snyder. As we got close, that storm was looking fun as it dragged bands of dust across the road ahead. But we didn’t manage to get in front of it, and it was starting to dissipate. As it receded, it spread out a long arcus across a golden field.
Approaching the stronger cell southwest of Lamesa as it drags dust across the road. 2245Z2249Z & 2250ZLowered base as we drew even with the storm. 2257ZWatching the storm move off to the east. 2304ZStretched out arcus on dying cell south of Snyder. 2316Z
Looking back west, the cell we left earlier had held its own for a bit and showed some detached structure at a distance.
Looking back west as our original cell kicks a roll cloud along. 2328Z
As we headed back to the original storm and a hint of convection to its south, we got to watch things fall apart and toss out rainbows as we got close. At our last stop, as we cleaned mud off our shoes and the door jambs, a husband and wife showed up driving an ATV to check up on us. Turns out we were parked next to the entrance to one of their fields. We chatted for a while about what was up with all the out-of-state chase vehicles and how the storms turned out that day. Then they trundled on down the dirt path onto their land and left us to finish up our scraping and puddle splashing.
Withering cell and rainbows southwest of Snyder. 0023Z0038ZRainbow and ranch land southwest of Snyder. 0050ZSunset oil derrick as we headed south for the last day of the chase vacation. 0147Z
This day held better odds of supercells than the previous couple days and we headed into eastern New Mexico, targeting near Dora where I thought I had identified a boundary for any storms to take advantage of. The chase started out pretty tough, with windblown haze and dust filming the view and storms going up everywhere. A base finally came into view about 15 miles west of Milnesand. A lowering peeked through the haze before getting obscured behind RFD. No tornado reports on that cell, although it was over a mess of sketchy, unpaved roads and probably very few others were in position to have a closer look.
Base of a distant cell 15 miles west of Milnesand. 2230ZStorm base and varying levels of visibility. 2233Z & 2250ZTortured storm and hail to the east, tower to the south, inbound cell to the west. 2250Z, 2255Z, 2256ZLowering through the haze to the west of Milnesand. 2256Z
Flooded roads helped keep me in check and not follow garbage into the Texas Panhandle.
Flooded roads near Causey, aiding the decision not to continue chasing things eastward. 2350Z
I wasn’t sure whether anything would manage to stay sustained in the all the backwash to the west, but another smaller, inbound cell did sport some elevated terrace structure. We checked it out for a bit, near an abandoned house, and then looked for some more vantages on an unpaved road that didn’t seem to be completely soaked.
Isolated cell to the west and cloudscape to the north from near Garrison. 0007Z & 0008ZElevated structure on cell 19 miles west of Pep. 0020ZAbandoned house north of Pep. 0024ZSampling unpaved options for better views. 0032ZStopping at the end of the passable unpaved option. 0045Z.
It eventually crossed to our north, casting a bizarre backdrop across a contemporary homestead. We followed it a bit more before it lost any semblance of interesting structure
Elevated structure drifting by a homestead south of Dora. 0057ZMoving off to the east. 0109Z, 0119Z, 0124Z
Further southwest in the direction of Roswell, another cell was hanging in there and looking a lot healthier. We headed that way on Highway 70, hoping for a shot before it fell apart. On the drive there, the updraft tower and anvil lightning was spectacular. But Hwy 70 was terrible for pull off options with a clear view over all the mesquite. I kept hunting for a spot as we got closer to the beautiful rotating storm, but didn’t find a decent spot in time to capture any of the awesome clear air bolts. It was really frustrating. It still offered up some decent shots as it thinned out and moved off.
Best structure of the day, interrupted by trees between Kenna and Acme. 0213ZFinally a spot with a decent horizon, but clear air lightning has stopped arcing out. 0222ZCell moving off to the east as it shrivels. 0233Z0235Z & 0241Z
After that one, another congealed line moved by to the north with some terraced shelfiness and signed off the chase for the day.
Terraced shelf north of Elida. 0428ZHeadlights from passing cars giving the foreground a bizarre look. 0434Z
This day started out with the plan of being a low-key chase — I was thinking it would be an opportunity for some strong multicells and lightning. An early MCS left behind a west-moving outflow boundary that lit up cells on the north and south ends of the Panhandle. My initial idea was to catch storms firing along this boundary and then later on, go after what CAMs suggested would be a line of storms moving south out of southeast Colorado/southwest Kansas.
By mid afternoon, we were heading east toward an updraft lofting off the outflow boundary near Morse, Texas. As we got closer, the updraft looked strong and the base reasonably solid. The storm was moving slowly north and it was easy to keep pace and watch it develop. We had a chance to chat with a local contractor who repairs vehicle hail damage. He pulled up to talk about his own, recent harrowing hail encounter and discuss the storm we were watching.
Storms lighting up along the boundary across the Panhandle. 2026ZApproaching the northern storm near Morse, Texas. 2050Z-2111ZWatching as our first cell continues to strengthen west of Morse. 2148Z & 2156Z
As quickly as the outflow boundary was hustling west while our storm drifted north, I initially thought the airmass behind the boundary would be more stable and would wither our storm as it fell behind. But that is definitely not what happened. The boundary had more than enough time to modify — I just had a predisposition to equating any fairly progressive boundary with cooler, stable air pushing in behind it. Our cell continued to strengthen and graduated to developing a mesocyclone and an absolutely perfect, rotating wall cloud. That was definitely not on the roster for the day and I was only to happy too switch modes and enjoy and capture every bit that I could.
Developing wall cloud and foreshortened funnel. 2202Z & 2204ZRotating wall cloud. 2213ZRFD cut making a clean slice toward the wall cloud. 2217Z & 2219Z2219Z
We briefly made our way into Morse, maneuvering on paved roads after the storm had dumped rain and hail on everything. A local resident pulled up next to us to talk about the storm and to predict that even though it was moving away to the northwest, it would come back later. And his local gut feelings turned out to be totally right, with that forecast line of storms brewing up in Colorado/Kansas.
In other news, at this point, a new cell had formed northwest of our storm and was now going strong as it moved away to the northwest. But I wasn’t sure if ours was done yet, so we watched for a bit, spotting an arcus or funnel to the northwest of town.
Watching final stages of our initial cell and possible funnel from Morse, Texas. 2233Z & 2240Z
Finally it became clear that our storm was definitely withering and we hustled over to the next one. It was an interesting change to position on these clean, odd moving storms, Arizona-style, hanging out in clear air, not feeling compelled to snuggle up to the forward flank to see what’s going on. This next storm was a bit dustier and had collected a lot more chaser traffic at this point. But this area was great for roads, pull-offs and views. We did catch a gustnado puffing up under the RFD gust front at one point. There are always fangs of scud popping up above these dust ups and it all easily generates excitement, but I count myself dubious until proven otherwise.
Repositing on our next cell west of Gruver as RFD nudges the base. 2307Z & 2322ZGustnado east of Gruver. 2331Z-2335ZSometimes you get a row of power lines so fresh & straight, you don’t mind them glomming down one side of the frame. 2337ZScud daggers and dusty inflow on the horizon. 2348ZLast moments with this second cell. 2355Z
Around 00Z, a third cell to the west-northwest was rapidly strengthening and moving westward. It was starting to rain into our storm’s updraft and likely to become the main show next. So we cruised west and then north on CR119 to catch up. It was looking especially interesting with a lumpy inflow band running along the forward flank toward the updraft. Eventually, that inflow band stretched out and started showing streamwise vorticity current structures along the shelf.
Third cell from CR119. 0023ZScud fingers and lowerings dipping along the forward flank. 0023Z & 0025ZMore scuddy lowerings and dustups along the developing streamwise vorticity current. 0025Z & 0026ZFlanking line and SVC converging on the base of our storm and encouraging us to press on. 0029Z
The storm was definitely looking like it had greater potential and I didn’t want to lose it due to paved road network issues. Unpaved County Road T, off of 119 looked like it had wet patches, but otherwise reasonably well maintained, so we headed west, mindfully maintaining momentum through the larger, inescapable ponds. We traded places with 2 or 3 other chasers along this road. Which is one of the great things about unpaved options—they’re a lot less hectic. As long as one doesn’t get stuck.
Over the next 10 minutes or so down as we hustled westward, RFD started stretching into the base, with enough precip to put a gauze across the lowering that was shaping up behind it.
RFD wrapping around a developing wall cloud while the SVC feeds in from the east. 0041Z & 0044Z
Gradually, the lowering grew more focused, and we took our stand about 8 miles down the road. Over the next 3-4 minutes, a funnel consolidated, lowered, and then the tornado fully condensed. This road turned out to be a great spot to watch tornadogenesis about 2 and a half miles northwest as the storm slowly grooved right to left. The tornado lasted around 7 minutes before fading out as a thin hazy rope inside the occluded precipitation.
Funnel shaping up. 0047ZThe funnel is tornadic at this point as seen by chasers close enough to capture ground contact. 0049ZFully condensed with a brief corkscrew effect behind a row of parked chasers. 0051ZThick elephant trunk with SVC lobes dragging vorticity into position. 0052ZMy daughter grabbing some shots as the video camera rolls. 0053ZRoping out inside the occluded RFD. 0055ZRadar loop and frame from 0048Z.
After a few maybe-nadoes on our chase trip, it was extremely cool to have a legit tornado drop after a trio of awesome storms, on a Less-than-2% tornado risk day. Once it had roped out, we dropped a couple miles south and then west on County Road V. This extra bit of distance gave a gorgeous view of what had been happening to this storm’s structure while we were closer in watching the tornado.
Sculpted updraft and solid beaver tail. 0106ZTrying to get a look in the darkness underneath all that gorgeous, windswept structure. 0108ZSpectacular wall cloud/enormous funnel inside the carved out RFD. Looking north from County Road V, 4 miles east of Hwy 287. Some hint of dust/haze beneath it, but no confirmed touchdown reports that I’m aware of. 0110Z
At this point, that other anticipated line of storms was now moving in from the north and I moved over to Hwy 287 south of Stratford so we could hustle south and stay ahead of it. As it rushed into our storm, it gusted out and everything started cascading southward. We cruised down Hwy 287 for a while, getting photos of the big gust front before calling the chase on a spectacular day.
Our storm gusting out as another line of storms crashes into it. 8 miles south of Stratford. 0122ZCongealing line moving in over some grain silos 10 miles south of Stratford. 0130ZSunset whale’s mouth as the gust front rushes overhead. 0038Z
My target on this day was near Dora, New Mexico. I was trying to keep an eye on an outflow boundary and hope a cell would latch onto it. As the afternoon wore on, storms moving off the higher terrain congealed into a lumpy line as they moved eastward toward the Panhandle. My hoped for cell wasn’t managing to dominate that line apart from occasional lowerings and motion along hints of a base through the haze. Meanwhile development on the south end of the line was looking way more interesting on radar.
A bit of lightning flickering along the mushy line in the vicinity of Dora, NM. 2239Z & 2337ZHunting for structure and vorticity in the silhouetted base, west of Dora, NM. 2310Z
As we approached 00Z, I couldn’t stand it any more and bailed south. In the 45 minutes it took us to get down there, tail-end-Charlie had managed to produce a brief but photogenic tornado. Seeing that report on social media while in transit was a huge aggravation while the base of that storm was still off behind the precip of the forward flank. Also kind of frustrating to see the northern option finally start to own its space, break up the line and become its own isolated entity. But such are the emotional roller coasters of chasing some days.
Once we got to that tail end storm, it was still a marvelous sight and helped melt away the frustrations. Dynamics beneath the base were beautiful and fascinating. We were in a great spot out on the grid and easily able to watch it slowly approach. The video camera was running with no hindrances to getting shots of the storm’s evolution. While we were enjoying the view, another couple of chasers drove up. They kindly avoiding blocking our view while setting up some professional AV equipment.
First view of the tail end cell as we jogged out onto the grid, northwest of Plains, TX. 0050ZContrast enhanced wall cloud and a small funnel that lasted 2-3 minutes. 0053Z
Not long after that, a frightening double lightning strike arced out of the base with one bolt landing about 1000 ft. west of us. My daughter loved it and we exchanged wows and startled looks with the guys on the other side of the road. I bet they got some great audio out of that. I hustled to grab tripods and cameras and jumped in the car to find a spot suited to shooting out the windows as long as the storm was going to be lobbing those way out ahead.
First strike reaching out of the updraft and trying to land out of frame. 0056ZSplit second follow-up strike landing about 1000 ft up the road. Faint exposure due to camera not retriggering at the best moment. 0056ZComposited image of selected video frames showing lightning strike traveling with the wind and bird whose flight was seriously disturbed by the strike. 0056ZShooting from inside the car, just down the road as the base starts to get gusty. 0102Z
We surfed on, keeping pace ahead of the cell as it grooved southeast. We stopped roadside as farmers were working a couple plows while the storm loomed inbound.
Now from Rt. 214 north of Plains, TX, as a plow works in the distance. 0113ZAnother plow pulled off field as clods & rocks & whatnot were being picked out of it. 0015ZOngoing development as the field gets worked. 0017Z
Further southeast took us into oil field, with flares burning as the storm morphed and spun against the sunset. After sundown, structure started to fall apart and we disengaged.
Snagging some oil field flare shots east of Plains, TX, with my daughter and chase partner — who shares my pyro fascinations.Saucer structure east of Plains, as sunset tries to burn through the precip. 0144ZPicking up a couple meringue tips on the top tier. 0049ZInflow band & beaver tail as the storm starts to quiet down. 0159Z
