John Farley
Supporter
This would probably have been my best chase of 2018 except for a few big-time messups (nearly running out of gas, screwing up video on the closest/most intense gustnado I have ever seen, and one or two others I don't even want to admit to). Even with these bursts of stupidity on my part, it was still a great chase. I was too late to the game for the tornado on the Acoma Pueblo, and by the time I was getting in position, that storm was merging into others to its south. So I decided to head for the tail-end storm southwest of Belen, and that strategy worked out very nicely, as that storm went supercellular and stayed that way for a good hour and a half, all the way east to Willard. It started with a nice rotating wall cloud, that also had some small brief funnels I caught on video SW of Belen just after 3:00. Here is a photo of that wall clloud:
Around 3:40-3:45, the dust really started flying SE of the meso, as an intense hail core formed just SE of Belen:
I thought I could get ahead of the dust storm going east on U.S. 60, but I did not quite succeed. Now I know what they mean when they talk about how dark it gets inside the Phoenix haboobs. This was easily the most intense dust storm I have ever experienced - would estimate the wind in the 60-70 mph range with visibility down to 50 feet or less at times.. When I finally emerged on the east side of the dust storm, two gustnadoes spun up right behind me. One crossed 60 from south to north, despite the intense northwesterly outflow. The second crossed a couple minutes later toward the SE, and became very intense. Unfortunately, I messed up the video of this one - hit the record button twice, thus turning the record function on then quickly off. I did get video of the first one. Both were within 100-200 yards behind me when they crossed the road, and the second one was the strongest I have ever seen. There were several others farther away, too. I stayed ahead of the core east to Willard, where I got this photo looking up the line to the NE:
This is NOT the meso associated with the tornado report south of Willard - I did see that meso too (big, round, low wall cloud) but did not get pictures as by then I was running on fumes (too many towns with no gas stations in central NM) and did not want to stop, waste gas, and end up stranded.
I will eventually get a detailed report on my Web page with more pictures and a video link or two.
Around 3:40-3:45, the dust really started flying SE of the meso, as an intense hail core formed just SE of Belen:
I thought I could get ahead of the dust storm going east on U.S. 60, but I did not quite succeed. Now I know what they mean when they talk about how dark it gets inside the Phoenix haboobs. This was easily the most intense dust storm I have ever experienced - would estimate the wind in the 60-70 mph range with visibility down to 50 feet or less at times.. When I finally emerged on the east side of the dust storm, two gustnadoes spun up right behind me. One crossed 60 from south to north, despite the intense northwesterly outflow. The second crossed a couple minutes later toward the SE, and became very intense. Unfortunately, I messed up the video of this one - hit the record button twice, thus turning the record function on then quickly off. I did get video of the first one. Both were within 100-200 yards behind me when they crossed the road, and the second one was the strongest I have ever seen. There were several others farther away, too. I stayed ahead of the core east to Willard, where I got this photo looking up the line to the NE:
This is NOT the meso associated with the tornado report south of Willard - I did see that meso too (big, round, low wall cloud) but did not get pictures as by then I was running on fumes (too many towns with no gas stations in central NM) and did not want to stop, waste gas, and end up stranded.
I will eventually get a detailed report on my Web page with more pictures and a video link or two.
