3/19/11 REPORTS: TX

[Marcus Diaz]

Me and my chase partner Jake Hudson intercepted the supercell in West Texas that fired west of Lubbock and moved NE before weakening west of Floydada. We were due east of the tornado at the time reported. We did not see the funnel itself, but I'm guessing it was behind the rapidly rotating wall cloud that was to our due west. We witnessed a lot of dirt chaotically moving under this wall cloud, but there really wasn't a concentrated area of rotation. The storm kept cycling from looking like crap to a rapidly rotating wall cloud several times. At the time we saw the tornado, it was probably the best looking and most organized the storm had ever looked. After the tornado though, it tried once more to produce with a large wall cloud, but then it finally went outflow dominant and weakened.

Here's my photo gallery of our chase: http://weathernoize.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11232349

 

[Doug Drace]

Due to a last moment change in my work work schedule, I headed out from Ardmore around 2pm to SW Oklahoma hoping for a little WF Action. Obviously everyone knows nothing popped except the one Supercell in West Texas that Marcus caught. Im guessing the meagar moisture even south of the WF in Okla was the biggest problem of the day, including all th Junkvection that was scooting through the area most of the early to mid afternoon. Had I known things would never really materialize with instability and moisture, I would have definately continued on to th SW instead of hanging around near Fredrick and Davidson so long. By the time I noticed the Supercell north of Lubbock on radar I had NO chance of making it there before it ran into the low 50's Dewpoints and only weakly unstable environment from SW Okla SW to the SE Panhandle. Anyway, it wasn't all bad, I got to test out some new equipment and a new camera....and enjoyed the heck out of being back on the road for the first time this year! Below are some really interesting pics. A couple are from some really cool mammatus, which if you didn't know about the lack of SW Okla storms, one might think the 1st could be a wallcloud/funnel. The 3rd is really cool, looks like two fingers pointing to the western sun. The 2nd one is looking WSW toward the Supercell in west Texas and some of its Anvil blowoff. All in all, totally unsuccessful day for storms, but fun to get out, and all the new stuff worked great! Bring on April!!!

BTW...Nice pics Marcus!!! Wish I had driven another 2.5 hours WSW of where I was...

 

[JHardy]

I caught the same storm by dumb luck yesterday. I had to go to the Lubbock airport to pick up my family and noticed the cell to the north. Verifing a "weak" looking hook on radar decided to go north on I 27. Went past New Deal Tx, pulled off the interstate to watch this storm. Very pretty storm with good structure. Watched the funnel lowering and thought it might have briefly touched down but never could confirm it due to how far I was to the storm. Was an awesome way to start the season. Was not prepaired to chase, wrong car, no laptop, no radio, only cell phone for radar. And if my family's flight wasn't delayed an hour I wouldn't have seen it. Good day.

 

[Colt R Forney]

My flight from Palm Beach, FL got in to OKC at 10am...was coming back from spring break and then raced back to Norman to grab my gear and blast off towards Lubbock area. Ended up leaving Norman around noon and flew SW making it to Crosbyton, TX at initiation. Followed the first storm from initiation to ~ 15 miles east of I-27 on hwy 54. Storm wanted to tornado sooo bad, but failed and eventually left this storm for the other cell exploding SW of Lubbock. Made it to this storm just after sunset and followed it east until it died around 10:30pm by Crosbyton.

This image was east of I-27 on hwy 54 when the storm wanted to tornado.

Left the storm about this time to head to the other cell SW of Lubbock.

Cell SW of Lubbock right after sunset.

East of Lubbock on hwy 82...full moon illuminating updraft. I was speechless...so beautiful!

And finally the storm dying by Crosbyton, TX around 10:30 or so.

What a great unexpected chase!!!!!!

 

[David Drummond]

This was a short backyard chase for me. I work a little side job on Saturdays and hadn't paid the day much attention after the models poo-poo on it, but thanks to Steve Miller TX giving me the heads up on the developing situation, I was able to get out there after work. Stayed with the southern storm. Plenty of hail, no tornadoes, nice structure.

More pics and a full chase report here: http://daviddrummond.com/chase-reports/2011/98-20110320-texas-south-plains.html

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Finally got around to writing up a full detailed chase report of this day.

http://weathernoize.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/6532189-march-19-2011-chase-summary