Being my first storm chase and the fact I do not have a data card for the road, I was a tad nervous storm chasing but I finally decided that morning that today was the day.
I had my father take me out of school at 11:30 in the morning. I headed home for 45 minutes to check the latest data and call a few friends to get their options on where I could head. At 12:15 PM I headed out from my home in Duncanville and headed down on Highway 67 then jumped east on 287 to I-35E. I headed down to Hillsboro and arrived there by 1:45 PM. Conditions did not vary much along the drive. Rain was a mix of a mist to heavy rain, although nothing compared to the levels I would see later that night.
After having a brief lunch at Wendy's I took a brief tour of the town attempting to find some wifi. I finally found Wifi at the Best Western off I-35. After checking data for 20 minutes I headed to take a quick stop at the gas station to get some drinks before we were going to head west towards Glen Rose. Just before we were going to pull out of the parking lot, however, the Tornado Warning was issued for up north.
I was originally going to hold off for the cells starting to develop to the south, however as I was only 45 minutes from an intercept I decided to forgo my original plans to stay south and wait for initiation down south. As it was my first chase, I don't have much patience, however, I could have gotten back down there in good time as the storms would have formed at least an hour west of I-35.
It took 30 minutes to get north to the Tarrant/Johnson Border when I was called by my now-caster telling me I needed to get to the I-20/I-30 Interchange on the Parker/Tarrant Line. It took only 15-20 minutes to get there. Unfortunately I lost contact with my nowcaster and for that length of time I did not have any radar information. I continued west another 5 minutes before finding an exit and finding a hotel with WiFi. During this time I thought I was still in the direct path of a hail storm so I was trying to hurry and get data so I could get to shelter (Gas Station) If I needed to. Fortunately I got the radar up and now found the I was on the extreme northern end of the storm. After regaining contact with my nowcaster and calling two other chasers for their opinion on the situation.
After conversing with them, I made the decision to head down to Granbury in an attempt to intercept the now tornado warned cell heading in that direction. I continued west on Interstate 20 to Weatherford and headed southeastward on State Road 171, otherwise known as Cleburne Highway. Off course the Tornado Warning was dropped, but I elected to continue onto Granbury just in a hope of seeing some wind or hail. This was around 6:30 PM Local Time. I arrived in Granbury as the storm was still 20 miles west of the city. I was stuck in traffic on Highway 377 heading into town at which I first thought was storm damage from an earlier storm blocking part of the road (Power lines down) however I was later informed that it was in-fact a serious car incident.
After sitting in Granbury for 10 to 15 minutes it was obvious the storm was going to go north of my location and as it was weakening my father and I elected to head north towards home. We decided to go north on 377 and hit Interstate 20 and go east. During this several storms hit us as we were travailing north. The rainfall rates were likley 2 to 3 inchs an hour. At the time I thought it was extremely heavy rain, however this does not compare to what we saw an hour later. We hit Interstate 20 just as I got in contact with Gene Yates, a local chaser who I have known for a good duration of time. I was going to originally meet him at the Interstate 35 at 20 but my father and I elected to go farther east and grab some dinner and call it day.
As we headed farther east and approached interstate 20 I received a call from Gene Yates that the storm may be trying to separate from the line. I pulled off at the next exit (Great Southwest Parkway). I stopped at the nearest hotel and pulled up the radar and indeed the storms were much stronger then I had anticipated going by the lightning. As I was pulling out of the parking lot when I saw a Walgreen's and remembered their new policy of having the NWS Products displayed on their electric signs. Indeed they had the Tornado Watch for the area displayed. So I stopped off there real quick and took one of the only pictures I took that evening.
After this I headed up Interstate 360 to DFW Airport. During this time for the first time in a few hours I was not in any precip, although It was obvious there was a storm over the airport as the lightning continued to increase. 4 miles south of the airport I ran into some of the most heavy rain I have seen in years, It must have been 4 to 5 Inchs an hour at least. This caused Interstate 30 to be shut down for most of the overnight hours due to flooding. This rain continued for 30 minutes and maintained its strength. As Mr. Levine said above, it was very difficult to drive in those conditions and we maintained 35-40 MPH on the highway which was still too high for the conditions. I remained at the airport for 40 minutes before electing to head home to Duncanville. Just as I exited the airport to the south and got on the on ramp to Highway 183 East, Wind driver rain suddenly hit and the increasing amount of rain resumed. It would appear it was raining in this area for sometime as Highway 183 was nearing impassable status with only one of the three lanes possible in some areas. It took nearly twice as long as normal to get home where storms continued to lash the area into the overnight hours and the lightning with the storms became more fierce.
I apologize if any part of this post was out of order or If I have not made a decent report. To a chaser who has chased for a while this would likely be considered a bust but for me, being my first chase, I was more into the spirit of just chasing, seeing thunderstorms. So even with seeing no severe weather, I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
Thanks for taking the time to read my ridiculously long report!
