{"id":2029,"date":"2023-05-31T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:33:52","slug":"31-may-2023-melnesand-to-kenna-texas-supercells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/2023\/05\/31\/31-may-2023-melnesand-to-kenna-texas-supercells\/","title":{"rendered":"31 May 2023 | Melnesand to Kenna, Texas | Supercells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Base of a distant cell 15 miles west of Milnesand. 2230Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Storm base and varying levels of visibility. 2233Z & 2250Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tortured storm and hail to the east, tower to the south, inbound cell to the west. 2250Z, 2255Z, 2256Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lowering through the haze to the west of Milnesand. 2256Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Flooded roads helped keep me in check and not follow garbage into the Texas Panhandle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flooded roads near Causey, aiding the decision not to continue chasing things eastward. 2350Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Isolated cell to the west and cloudscape to the north from near Garrison. 0007Z & 0008Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Elevated structure on cell 19 miles west of Pep. 0020Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Abandoned house north of Pep. 0024Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sampling unpaved options for better views. 0032Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Stopping at the end of the passable unpaved option. 0045Z.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Elevated structure drifting by a homestead south of Dora. 0057Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Moving off to the east. 0109Z, 0119Z, 0124Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Best structure of the day, interrupted by trees between Kenna and Acme. 0213Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally a spot with a decent horizon, but clear air lightning has stopped arcing out. 0222Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cell moving off to the east as it shrivels. 0233Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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0235Z & 0241Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After that one, another congealed line moved by to the north with some terraced shelfiness and signed off the chase for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Terraced shelf north of Elida. 0428Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Headlights from passing cars giving the foreground a bizarre look. 0434Z<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,40,6,4],"class_list":["post-2029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-storm-chase","tag-storm-chasing","tag-storms","tag-supercell","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2029"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2059,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2029\/revisions\/2059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/ceruleanarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}