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2010-04-21 REPORTS: TX

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Boggs
  • Start date Start date

Jason Boggs

Decided to chase the S/SE TX Panhandle today and met up with Jay McCoy in Tulia to look at data for a while. My chase partner today was Bri Winkler, the morning Met at the station I chase for. We looked at data and decided to head toward Plainview since a storm had already gone up to our south. It looked pretty good, but lost strength after a while. We made our way towards the Floydada area where another storm to the NE looked really good visually. We had some really nice structure with a wall cloud, but it soon got wrapped in rain. We then made our way north of Matador where we saw a pretty nice LP structured cell to our west, and a nice supercell to our southeast. It was starting to get dark, so we made our way home. All in all, a nice chase tease to get ready for today. Now to the photos:

Supercell near Floydada
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LP structure NW of Matador
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LP structure NW of Matador getting stronger
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Strong updraft of storm looking SE toward the vicinity of Paducah
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Thank you to everyone who responded

I want to thank everyone who responded to my call for help yesterday on spotternetwork.
Basically, I gave up on the chase around Turkey and decided to run behind the cells to get back north to 287. As I was punching the last dwindling cell, i finally found some pea size hail (The largest I saw) and a pretty heavy down pour. All of a sudden a person appeared in the middle of the road ahead waving a shirt and flagging me down. I was in the middle of very hilly terrain. The male that flagged me down was covered in blood and had some head wounds. He indicated that he had rolled over off the roadway at high speed and that his 4 friends where trapped and seriously injured. About this time Jeremy Dawson and his chase partner also pulled up. We all tried our cell phones and none of them had service. A rancher pulled up and his cell did not work either so I asked him to take the injured man with him to the next town and summon help. He took off and Jeremy and his partner started heading to the crash site while I had one last idea for summoning help. I went back to the van and saw i had 1 single tiny tick mark on my Sprint signal (10%) WITH my super antenna and cell booster running. So I thought I would send an email or message on facebook but it took to long for the browser to load. I then decided to use Spotternetwork and typed out the message asking for medical help to be sent to the icons position. IT WORKED! And thank every one of you who called in and sent us help! I then hiked to the crash site to find that this guy has LAUNCHED his vehicle at high speed. At one point the vehicle was airborne for about 30 yards. We looked and looked but where unable to find any other occupants.
The rancher brought back the injured driver and indicated he thought help was on the way. The driver needed medical attention for a head and neck injury so Myself, Jeremy and his partner began providing it while we waited for the first responders to show up. An ambulance showed up and took over patient care. Jay McCoy also arrived and assisted with blocking the roadway for our scene.
The Driver was very adamant that he had 4 others with him. When we left the scene, the local Sheriff and fire department where still searching.
Again, THANK YOU to those who were monitoring Spotternetwork and called for help.
 
I ended up right between the strong and eventually tornado warned storm WSW of Amarillo and the storm(s) down towards Plainview. While waiting to figure out what do I started a time lapse of the Plainview storm and unfortunately got too close to a electrified fence (i had no idea it was one). I dont think I touched it or was even close to touching it but all of sudden it felt like I was hit in the back of the head/shoulders with a bat (it was quite the impact) but after realizing what happened it was certainly one of the funnier things thats happened to me while chasing. I ended up heading down toward Plainview and followed those storms up to the NE. Will start form Childress today...

storm just E of Plainview
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storm between Plainview and Silverton
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same storm a few mins later
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same storm later on up towards Brice
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You can always tell the day didnt turn out as everyone hoped when the reports are lightning, structure, and sunset pics. I made my way out to south of Dimmit to begin the day, but after realizing those storms were not ever going to do anything I moved SE through Plainview to the storms that formed north of Lubbock. Everytime I got to a storm, it would collapse within minutes. The storms at sunset over caprock canyons were a nice treat though.

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Saw many of the same sights posted above while chasing an area from SW of Muncy, TX to South Plains, TX. I watched that initial high based storm fizzle out into an orphaned anvil, and then raced up after that bizarre north moving storm, which I believe may have been anticylonic. It had a brilliant hail core on the SW flank, and what looked like a base on the NW flank. Level 3 radar even indicated a TVS signature briefly on the north side of the storm. Here's a couple shots of it near South Plains:

Looking northeast:
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No tornadoes, but still a fun chase given the low expectations. The high based storms offered a lot of picturesque scenes and I should be able to make a nice timelapse of that first storm.
 
Gabe Garfield, his brother Joe, Steve Mullens, and I chased between Floydada and Dickens on Wednesday. We made it to the storm that was beginning to transition into a supercell SW of Floydada, with respectable structure (including scud beneath the base). Shortly after arriving the nascent supercell slowed down and turned right, convection to the southeast, perhaps riding north-northeastward on some cooler outflow, interacted with "our" supercell. Unfortunately, after this convection crossed the latitude of our storm, the supercell steadily withered away to nothingness.

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We briefly entertained the notion of following to activity to the E and NE of Floydada, but the structure on radar looked non-supercellular (supported by the fact that it continued to move NE/NNEward). Other storms were developing to our southeast, and we re-targeted a supercell down in Kent Co. While en route, we drove beneath a developing/intensifying storm N of Dickens. By the time we reached Spur, we decided to turn around to refocus our attention on the nicely-structured developing supercell to the NE of Dickens. The setting sun helped usher in some great colors as it lit up the west side of the updraft and the underside of anvil, and we watched the storm put on an "okay" lightning show at dusk.

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I followed two cells, a promising looking LP near Floydada in the first two photos, and then as it became choked off I pursued the conglomerate of a cell that was forming to the East of it near Matador. Prior to that we intially pursued the Northern storm near South Plains, TX and I can confirm also seeing the anticyclonic spin before we ditched that and headed SE. We saw our largest hail of the day, golfballs, just South of Matador as that cell crossed HWY 70.
 

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This is a timelapse of my chase near Lockney, TX shot with the robotic camera dome. This is one of my better timelapses thanks to the lighting and the picturesque subjects. There's no tornadoes, but some great towers, high based storms, hail shafts and rainbows:

 
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