A morning check of the radars show a relatively quiet day. There is storm activity showing up on the radar South West of Dallas near Austin and North East of Dallas near Arkensas – and we’re almost perfectly in the middle. We decide to head South West towards Austin, pack and head down for brekkie.
I’m not sure what was more upsetting – our 4G dongle and mobile internet access not turning up to reception meaning we couldn’t access radars, forecasts or forums on the move or the scrambled egg in my bagel having less moisture than a jacobs cracker? Regardless, after unsuccessfully asking a few surrounding motels if it had been delivered there by mistake we decide to rely on our mobile 3G and head South West towards Austin to seek out what was showing as a greeny, orangey, red blob on the radar.
We start our 200 mile drive and after 150 realise the storm has dissipated away, teasing us into the deep south of Texas. I’m clueless, but fortunately Andy notices some perfect conditions for storm formation; unstable air in the atmosphere from cloud observation, a cold front nearby using radar data and high humidity from both profuse sweating and radar reading. We drive through what can only be explained as desolate ghost towns where wild west films are shot, the only shop still open doing business was cryptically named, ‘The Gun Shop’. We come out the other side alive and position ourselves where our best guess thinks a storm will originate. Andy’s analysis was right – we noticed some activity showing up on the radar and drive c.50 miles west to be greeted with rain saturating the windscreen quicker than I could find how to use the wipers! We took a quick left off the 35E interstate, followed the storm and were rewarded with lightening pounding into a pole less than 200m from the car and an instantaneous deafening thunder roar, something I’ve learned to be called ‘Shotgun Thunder’. More lightening dazzled literally above the car and crashed into the earth around us as thunder was hassling my ears like my year 9 english teacher and in a flurry of excitement I nearly manoeuvred the car into a ditch to prematurely end our storm chasing adventure. The storm tapered out and we decided to drive back to Dallas to make sure we get the 4G dongle for our next chase.
I type this blog in jest, but this first chase was a real buzz and finding the first storm was really exciting. Trying to contribute to our chase I have realised how much I have to learn from Andy and will rely on him if I am to see a tornado – I learnt a lot listening to him on how to place ourselves, routes to take, tell-tale signals to watch out for etc. I hope I can harness this knowledge and help contribute more to future chases, watch this space…