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25th May 2010 |
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25/05 Day
9 The Supercell: Up close & personal We left our hotel in Colby fairly sharpish during the morning, knowing we had a fairly hefty drive south ahead of us. We were aiming for the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles, as scattered thunderstorms were expected to develop. We stopped for lunch in Dalhart in the Texas Panhandle, with the first storm of the day already just to our south. The storm's anvil stretched for tens of miles to the north, whilst the main updraft was anchored to the spot. We arrived on this first cell near Channing and, for a few minutes, it had a lovely structure with an eerie green tinge to it. The storm had clearly been a stationary supercell for a couple of hours but bad luck would ensue. Another large storm was racing up from the south and this crashed into our storm, completely wiping it out as we stood and watched. There was another storm about 80 miles to our south, which lay south-west of Amarillo. This storm was also just about stationary and showed classic supercell characteristics on the radar. We blasted south to see this unit, driving through the previously tornado-wrecked town of Happy. As we were approaching this second storm, it was clear it meant business with a beautiful supercell structure. There was a visible wall cloud popping out of the bottom, and a lowering which made its way very close to the ground. We were still too far from the cell to tell whether this touched down as a tornado, but spotters on the storm claimed that it did. We eventually parked up a few miles from the increasingly low precipitation storm with a ringside seat for the next couple of hours. The structure was text-book in appearance, with a corkscrewing updraft pumping upwards, giving way to a huge downdraft of hail on its northern and eastern side. We were only a mile or two from where the hail was hitting the deck and, at one point, a few stray marble sized stones fell out over us. One hit Helen on the head with quite some force, drawing a little blood and sending her scurrying for the car. Occasional CGs rained around making us a little nervous, but there was another noise rumbling above our heads in the storm cloud. The noise was the much sought-after hail roar, literally the noise of millions of large hailstones colliding in a blender above our heads. It was a very strange sound indeed, a little like the noise of a distant busy motorway. Over time, the supercell tried to make several new wall clouds and we reckon it was never far away from dropping a tornado. Alas, it never did in front of us and very slowly as the light began to fade, the updraft tower narrowed and weakened until it had all but disappeared at sunset. We left the decaying storm and headed to our hotel for the night in Amarillo. Storms hadn't finished though and, after a meal in Applebee's, we watched a nice lightning show to the north of the city. Total mileage: 486 miles |
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During
our journey south through the Texas Panhandle, we stopped quickly in
Dalhart for fuel. As we did so, this monster lurked to the south, pushing
its anvil right overhead.
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Parked up to watch the storm to our south, not far from Channing. There was another chaser here too. |
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Looking
south at the storm which was kicking out occasional lightning. Around
the core of the main updraft, there was a lovely green hue.
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There
wasn't just a giant unit on the southern skyline either, as the northern
view was rapidly taken up by this speeding monster. The trucks seem
to go on forever! He gave us a wave though (see the hand out of the
cab).
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The train rumbles past under a huge canopy of yet more mammatus cloud! |
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Another shot of the impressively low-hanging mammatus from the storm's anvil. |
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Heading
southwards from the previous storm towards Amarillo. The countryside
is populated by hundreds of huge wind turbines which were making the
most of the breezy conditions.
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Heading
past Amarillo, we were a little nervous when this chap sped up behind
us but, luckily, he was nailing the car in front of us instead. Still
gave us a cheeky glance though.
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This
was the new cell south-west of Happy, Texas. It was showing classic
supercell characteristics, and its wall cloud was already close to the
ground.
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As we continued to get closer to the supercell, this lowering almost made
it to the floor. A tornado was reported by spotters at this time, although
we didn't see it on the ground ourselves. |
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This
would be our vantage point for the rest of the evening, as the increasingly
low precipitation supercell span its way very slowly towards us.
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The skinny
updraft was kicking out frequent CGs at one point, and the downdraft
of hail just to our north was noisy too. The unmistakeable grinding
of hail roar sounded overhead.
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The setting
sun appeared through the downdraft of hail, whilst the forward part
of the updraft/wall cloud tipped its way towards the ground.
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but surely, the updraft became skinnier and skinnier, signalling that
the storm was on its last legs. It still looked amazing though, throwing
such a huge anvil out from such a small chimney! . |
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| The
last view before the light disappeared. The updraft was even thinner by
now but it still had a nice wall cloud and a well separated downdraft
of hail to the right of this shot. |
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