Paul Austin
Well, we finally met up with our friends from the Danish Severe Weather Society on Sunday night. We left this morning for an initial target somewhere between Abilene and Austin, TX. As we proceeded west from Ft. Worth we noticed most of the cells moving into this area were weakening, presumably due to atmospheric stabilization by an ongoing MCS. We decided to ignore SPC's outlook somewhat due to its southern extent and our possible positioning for 5/1. Instead, we targeted a discrete cell wnw of Lamesa moving east around 15-20 mph. The closer we got, the less organized and impressive it looked on radar, but we finally intercepted the cell just west of Snyder. We watched the unimpressive cell for a few minutes before decided to sample what was left of the core. Returning to Snyder, we stopped to get some data for a few minutes and discuss our options. No sooner had we decided to call it a day and head back toward Abilene when suddenly the "dying" cell exploded with new convection. After stopping to admire the overall structure and and take a few pics, we tried to get closer to examine the base of the isolated cell. We caught a decent shelf cloud and some brief lowerings, but nothing more. At Abileen we noted the cell to our south was tornado-warned. This cell eventually produced a tornado that did damage to the airport at Ballinger. The cell got away from us, and without east road options we called it a night.
A few pics of the Snyder cell:
A few pics of the Snyder cell:
