And we were finally back on the move. After 1 1/2 days in Wichita Falls, Texas, we were treated to another moderate risk for severe weather.
It all started so well. Heading west from Wichita Falls, we drove across to Matador, arriving around 1:30 – just as the first big cell of the day began to build to our northwest. Ahead of time we were in position under the mesocyclone, feeling quite pleased with ourselves as no other chasers were in sight.
The storm looked really promising, with rotation tightening to our west. The cell started to kick up a bit of dust and we saw a Landspout/tornado form just west of us. A landspout is different to what you would normally call a supercell tornado as it doesn’t form directly underneath the wall cloud and is not (usually) as strong.
The tail-end of the landspout. Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough the catch the column that extended up to the cloud base
The beginning of the dust
It became apparent that the main updraft was now moving in a southerly direction, a change from the initial ENE motion, and the southerly end of the mesocyclone started to kick up a LOT of dust.
On our east-west road it was now clear that we were stuck between the main updraft and a rapidly approaching hail core, dropping hail over 1 inch in diameter. The mesocyclone was starting to look disorganised and was not rotating as strongly, so we decided to escape that way, cutting under it, just as the big hail started to fall.
We turned south and tried to make our way in front of the meso, finding really thinck dust in our way. I’ll tell you it is a bit unnerving driving under the main updraft of a potentially tornadic thunderstorm when your visibility is about 20ft and the dust is rotating in all directions around you. We saw a number of strong gustnados (whirlwinds not connected to the cloud base), which didn’t help to ease our nerves.
Dust-nadoes
When we finally punched through the dust we realised our chase had hit a problem. We couldn’t go north or east as the visibility was too poor (or we would be clobbered by large hail), and just at that moment we lost internet connection so couldn’t use the radar to navigate either. We were blind, so had to retreat with our tails between our legs. The dust storm was impressive though, it stretched across the sky. A proper desert duststorm.
Duststorm!
All in all a frustrating day but not without merit. We saw another tornado/landspout and got to see some great structures. As I write this we are on the way to Amarillo, Tx as tomorrow we are chasing on the Colorado/Kansas/Nebraska border. Good times.
[google-map-v3 width=”530″ height=”530″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”left” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”Wichita Falls, texas{}5-default.png{}Day 8-9 – Wichita Falls, Texas|33.978812,-101.149578{}4-default.png{}Day 10 – The Landspout/Tornado|33.916583,-101.25412{}7-default.png{}Day 10 – Duststorm!|Amarillo, Tx{}5-default.png{}Day 10 – Amarillo, Texas” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]