Jeremy Perez
Supporter
By afternoon, a surface low over the Oklahoma Panhandle draped a dryline across the western Texas Panhandle, down into southwest Texas. The dryline was situated beneath 30 kts of westerly flow leading to 30-40 kts of effective bulk shear and 2000 j/kg MLCAPE across the southern warm sector dropping to 1000 j/kg further north.
This was day one of my second 2025 chase trip, a supercell or two was the plan and I targeted Fort Stockton yet again, hoping for some more of that magic. I was wiped out from the day-1 drive, but this time around I wasn't totally behind schedule and had time for a parking lot Subway lunch before convection took off.
The first cell to strengthen led me north of town for a bit. The quest for foreground interest wasn't especially productive, but I found a gate with a blistered sign to watch the storm mature.
North of Fort Stockon, TX on FM1053 — 2035Z
Before it could gather strength, a new cell formed on its southeast flank and took over to my north. At the same time, an even stronger storm was forming to the south, on the west edge of Fort Stockton. As this southern one blew up in size, it rang some pattern recognition bells, so I bailed out and headed to the Interstate to see if we could get a three-peat of 2019 and 2023. Drifting a bit east on I-10, I was able to keep an eye on the northern cell and the newer one looming over the city.
View of the northern cell from I-10 east of Fort Stockton — 2137Z.
I was hoping the southern cell would drift roughly eastward for a while and plant something similar to my previous two Fort Stockton excursions. I was also interested in being positioned to keep an eye on the northern cell as much as possible. But both cells took a hard turn to the southeast rather quickly without either dropping anything. At this exact turning point, the southern one was perfectly aligned with Highway 285 off to the west, with the core cutting me off from repositioning for an excellent, steady vantage, since I had committed east along I-10.
Good early look on the southern cell as it strengthened; but strong outflow noted with that rain foot — 2150Z.
At this point, the southern cell was now really seeding its northern/downstream buddy and obscuring its RFD in precip. That made it even more urgent to correct my positioning problem with the cleaner upstream storm, so I hustled east and then south on FM2023 then Puckett Road to try and head it off via the lonnng way around.
As I made my turn to the south, the southern storm looked nice and clean while the northern one was getting getting even further embedded and messy in the southern one's forward flank. This latest hypothesis about the northern of two interacting cells being the more likely tornado-maker due to nudging doesn't take into account all the intervening FFD precip and HP RFD that wants to totally obscure a supposedly more likely tornado. Yucko.
Northern/downstream cell flooding with precip from the upstream storm — 2209Z
By 2230Z both storms were tornado warned as I was looping around far to the southeast to reposition. The base of the southern storm fortunately stayed visible the whole time but was still far enough away to frustrate curious eyes watching daggers of scud materialize and wondering at the time whether they were funnels.
Southern storm in the distance from Puckett Road as it picked up a tornado warning — 2226Z
After a half hour of swinging wide, I made it back around to a position in front of the storm of the day as it tracked along Highway 285. By now it was flexing a monstrous new personality with a shaggy maw fed by broad swaths of dust, a curling inflow band and bristled beaver tail deep in the shadows. I don't need a tornado now. This is a spectacle like no other and it's eating up the landscape as it heads toward where I'm standing.
Rugged supercell ingesting the dusty landscape near the Hwy 185/Puckett Road intersection — 2247Z.
I made my way gradually southeast on Highway 285, letting the storm nudge closer to get a clearer view through the surging dust. As it did, the increasing strength of the inflow advertised incredible power. Car door opening now had to be done with a lot of concentration to avoid getting slammed or having it ripped out of hand and bending hinges backwards. At the same time, elevated structure took on expansive proportions as it swept through a strengthening inversion.
Curling inflow and upswept structure from Highway 285 — 2303Z.
Even clearer structure with a turquoise core leaking out as it gets closer — 2307Z.
Down the road a bit it was concerning to see the non-chaser traffic emerging from the core. Windshields seemed intact, so I had to wonder whether they had just snuck in front of it at the Puckett Road intersection. A sigh of relief for those guys. I'd hate to be stuck back in that icy, windblown core watching my windshield turn into abstract art.
Commercial traffic blasting away from the storm — 2323Z.
At this point, the storm split, started going elevated and took a more easterly path as it turned grungier. Meanwhile its offspring organized west of the highway. I took off after the original down RM2400 and watched as it crossed the road and continued falling apart.
Eastbound storm along RM2400 — 0040Z.
The remaining storm that had split off was now moving in and still held onto a velocity couplet, so I cruised back west and let it roll over me as it went elevated and fell apart too. This was an excellent first day for Plains-Dixie chasing part II!
The full report with all images and video segments is available here:
Highways and Hailstones: 22 April 2025 Southwest Texas Supercells
This was day one of my second 2025 chase trip, a supercell or two was the plan and I targeted Fort Stockton yet again, hoping for some more of that magic. I was wiped out from the day-1 drive, but this time around I wasn't totally behind schedule and had time for a parking lot Subway lunch before convection took off.
The first cell to strengthen led me north of town for a bit. The quest for foreground interest wasn't especially productive, but I found a gate with a blistered sign to watch the storm mature.
Before it could gather strength, a new cell formed on its southeast flank and took over to my north. At the same time, an even stronger storm was forming to the south, on the west edge of Fort Stockton. As this southern one blew up in size, it rang some pattern recognition bells, so I bailed out and headed to the Interstate to see if we could get a three-peat of 2019 and 2023. Drifting a bit east on I-10, I was able to keep an eye on the northern cell and the newer one looming over the city.
I was hoping the southern cell would drift roughly eastward for a while and plant something similar to my previous two Fort Stockton excursions. I was also interested in being positioned to keep an eye on the northern cell as much as possible. But both cells took a hard turn to the southeast rather quickly without either dropping anything. At this exact turning point, the southern one was perfectly aligned with Highway 285 off to the west, with the core cutting me off from repositioning for an excellent, steady vantage, since I had committed east along I-10.
At this point, the southern cell was now really seeding its northern/downstream buddy and obscuring its RFD in precip. That made it even more urgent to correct my positioning problem with the cleaner upstream storm, so I hustled east and then south on FM2023 then Puckett Road to try and head it off via the lonnng way around.
As I made my turn to the south, the southern storm looked nice and clean while the northern one was getting getting even further embedded and messy in the southern one's forward flank. This latest hypothesis about the northern of two interacting cells being the more likely tornado-maker due to nudging doesn't take into account all the intervening FFD precip and HP RFD that wants to totally obscure a supposedly more likely tornado. Yucko.
By 2230Z both storms were tornado warned as I was looping around far to the southeast to reposition. The base of the southern storm fortunately stayed visible the whole time but was still far enough away to frustrate curious eyes watching daggers of scud materialize and wondering at the time whether they were funnels.
After a half hour of swinging wide, I made it back around to a position in front of the storm of the day as it tracked along Highway 285. By now it was flexing a monstrous new personality with a shaggy maw fed by broad swaths of dust, a curling inflow band and bristled beaver tail deep in the shadows. I don't need a tornado now. This is a spectacle like no other and it's eating up the landscape as it heads toward where I'm standing.
I made my way gradually southeast on Highway 285, letting the storm nudge closer to get a clearer view through the surging dust. As it did, the increasing strength of the inflow advertised incredible power. Car door opening now had to be done with a lot of concentration to avoid getting slammed or having it ripped out of hand and bending hinges backwards. At the same time, elevated structure took on expansive proportions as it swept through a strengthening inversion.
Down the road a bit it was concerning to see the non-chaser traffic emerging from the core. Windshields seemed intact, so I had to wonder whether they had just snuck in front of it at the Puckett Road intersection. A sigh of relief for those guys. I'd hate to be stuck back in that icy, windblown core watching my windshield turn into abstract art.
Commercial traffic blasting away from the storm — 2323Z.
At this point, the storm split, started going elevated and took a more easterly path as it turned grungier. Meanwhile its offspring organized west of the highway. I took off after the original down RM2400 and watched as it crossed the road and continued falling apart.
The remaining storm that had split off was now moving in and still held onto a velocity couplet, so I cruised back west and let it roll over me as it went elevated and fell apart too. This was an excellent first day for Plains-Dixie chasing part II!
The full report with all images and video segments is available here:
Highways and Hailstones: 22 April 2025 Southwest Texas Supercells
