Storm Chase Details
Miles Logged: 573
States Chased: TX
Largest Hail Encountered: 2.00 in.
Highest Wind Encountered: 70 MPH
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Severe Reports: Storm Reports
A very unstable atmosphere in place over the Texas panhandle with supercell shear. As it’s June, temperatures are a little high with RAP showing low 90 degree surface temps on the south side of the boundary with 70 degree dewpoints right up against the caprock.
Forecast
12Z/7am CDT Morning Upper Air Soundings/RAOBS
16Z RAP
Some excellent flow over the best instability in the Texas panhandle. The environment could easily be characterized as explosive along the front at least.
19Z SPC Mesoanalysis
Departing Norman
Chance swung by my house and picked me up in Norman and we headed out to the I-44/Bailey Turnpike. The ride down was pretty eventless, with us heading to Lawton then west on US62 to Hollis and then to Memphis. We filled up in Memphis and continued west on Texas 256 towards the highway 70 intersection south of Clarendon.
Waiting as the storm traverses the canyon
When we got to the storm, we had to wait. The storm was taking the long way through the Palo Duro Canyon and there are exactly 0 roads through there. We waited south of Clarenden near the 70/256 intersection with a plan to continue south on 256/70 to Turkey. The same plan every other chaser in the world apparently had.
Overall I was able to capture some pretty cool images while we waited for the storm to come to us. The lightning production was pretty insane, with a lot of positive CG bolts. I was able to even capture a few photos with cloud to ground lightning.
Clarendon Texas Storm Time Lapse Video
Turkey Texas Cops
As we waited in a conga line to turn right on highway 70 to highway 70 in Turkey, the local police came up with their overhead lights on. Like the law states, everyone pulled over to the shoulder as they were supposed to. The officer then got on the loud speaker telling us to go and that we’re holding up traffic. Definitely protecting and serving the public there…
22Z SPC Mesoanalysis
Dropping south and east out of Turkey
Every chaser ended up in a conga line on my favorite FM-656 east out of Turkey. The road has a number of turns on it, so we had a hard time staying ahead of the storm. Eventually enough people pulled over that we were able to put some dirt between us and the storm.
We continued east on FM656 to Northfield and FM1440 where we dropped southeast towards CeeVee. We took that all the way to US62, where we dropped south.
We continued south on US62 to Paducah, staying ahead of the storm as we dropped south.
Storm comes into Paducah Texas
We found a perfect awning to get under in Paducah, and let the storm overtake us. We had some
