The morning of June 3 was met with a lot of lofty expectations being the first time that I have chased in the panhandle. Todd and I were lucky enough to fall into a moderate risk with storms forecasted to develop over southeastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico and then travel southeastward into the northwestern Texas panhandle....got it??!! All this was within a 2-3 hour drive from our base camp. We headed toward Clayton around 11:30am with plans of stopping in Dalhart to find the public library and re-evaluate the situation. After a few brief stops for photo ops (did I mention I had never been in the panhandle and was amazed by the scenery) we made it to Dalhart just in time to find a Subway and observe the locals.
Next stop, the library where we found several other storm chasers, our first encounter with the such - it would not be the last. We looked through all the information and although it was still advertised to be an exciting day, low clouds covering the entire panhandle were hindering any potential early afternoon development. We decided we were in a good place and didn't need to go any further north or west so we headed down to the small town of Channing where we would wait for the clouds to erode.
**Unrelated to the chase, I feel it necessary to share this funny story. After we found a good place to hang out just west of Channing, I realized the turkey and bacon sub that I inhaled earlier was not sitting well, especially given the hurry-up-and-wait circumstances we were finding ourselves in. SO, we had to take a quick trip back to Channing while things were still quiet. If you ever find yourself in Channing, Texas you will realize very quickly that the town does not cater to the tourist...meaning there aren't many places that lend themselves to a friendly potty break. The one building that had potential was the Cowgirl Cafe. I braved the entrance and found my own way to the restroom in the rear of the establishment, feeling the eyes of 2 chain smoking "cowgirls" following me all the way to the door. Several minutes later, feeling slightly embarrassed but altogether relieved, I exited the bathroom only to find an additional chain-smoking "cowgirl" sitting with the others watching my every move. I shot them a nervous smile and scooted out the front door as quickly as possible. I imagine the 3 cowgirls are sitting around the same table today filling the cafe up with smoke reminiscing about the day the slightly overweight city-boy ran in the restroom with some urgency, only to reappear 5 minutes later with an awkward smile, leave, having never said a word.**
...back to the chase. We hung around the outskirts of Channing for more than an hour and although the temperature and dew point were increasing slowly, we were frustrated and growing impatient by the lack of sunshine. We found our way back to Dalhart for another quick gander at the satellite, radar, and updated mesoscale discussions. A tornado watch was in affect but mainly to our south as some convection had fired up near Lubbock. We tried our best to ignore that and focus on our area which was still looking perfect. The much anticipated shortwave was approaching from southeastern Colorado but the clouds would not freaking erode over us. We decided to head toward a clearing near the New Mexico border where some cumulus were building and had potential.
Enroute, we received a call from our friendly Baseops Meteorologist who informed us a few very promising storms were popping just west of the New Mexico border along a N-S line. About that time we crossed the New Mexico border (we missed a turn because of all the excitement) and finally could see the tops of those storms he was telling us about. After a brief off-road excursion to get a better view and a few pics, we headed back to the road we missed that would take us back to...you guessed it...Channing!!!
We called Rich again once we were in Channing, feeling very good about our position and trying to decide the best way to intercept the most northern storm. This is where we learned of a storm near Friona, Texas that at the moment only carried a Flash Flood Warning. We went south toward I-40, all the time paying close attention to a lowering on the horizon. About 10 miles from the storm, a broadcast comes out...TORNADO WARNING!!
sidenote...after driving close to a thousand miles in 2 days not knowing if we would even see lightning on our trip, whis was a very exciting moment for Todd and I. We had accomplished a major feat just being in the same county as a storm capable of dropping a tornado. At this moment, I felt our journey was worth every penny and wouldn't trade it for the world.
Anyway, we were definately not attacking this storm from the best angle (northwest) but could see a wall cloud nonetheless and were just miles away from intercepting it. We found a few dirt roads on the south side of Vega where we pulled off and watched the storm evolve in front of us. After you see the pictures, you will understand this was a BEAUTIFUL storm!! I think we missed a lot of its glory being on the northwest side but we positioned ourselves in the best place possible as the rain-free base rolled within half a mile of us. It never dropped a tornado or was able to reform the wall cloud that we originally could see while we were approaching it from the north. BUT WHAT A SHOW!!! It is the first storm that I have ever seen with so much structure. I felt like I was looking at a life size text book picture. It was an incredible experience that film could not do justice.
After we retreated briefly back to the north as it began to rain out, we watched it collapse and followed it toward Hereford that lead us home for the evening. On the way, we also saw some LP supercells that were backlit by a setting sun. They continued to sporadically put out a bit of lightning making the trip back to Amarillo go that much faster.
