Yesterday we woke up in Weatherford, Texas. We got on the road quickly to get over to our target area, which was towards the bottom of the Texas panhandle near Midland. The SPC had predicted a slight risk for severe storms extending into that region. We determined that this would be the best area for potential storms because the wind shear looked promising, and models were showing moist air flowing up towards that region. We knew that success or failure would depend largely on whether the moisture actually moved up into the region; moisture is necessary for both increasing the instability in the atmosphere and keeping the clouds low enough to the ground.
On our way we stopped in Big Spring, Texas for some lunch at Woodshack Burrito (Burritos and More!). We had a little time before we needed to keep moving, so we also stopped in Ward’s Western Wear so that Ryan could get a cowboy hat. A 200 dollar investment, but hey, he looks pretty snazzy. The second he walked out of the store with his hat, a storm popped up on the radar right near Big Spring. Coincidence? I think not. The hat is now dubbed “Stormbringer”. Then Ryan dropped it in the dirt at the park. It’s alright though, it still brought on the storms!
We tracked the storm out of Big Spring for a few minutes, but we were really hoping for some storms to initiate to our north in better air. Soon we left the Big Spring storm behind when we started to see storms initiating on satellite. We headed north towards Lubbock, and cut a little over to the west to get closer to the storms as they moved eastward.
As the storms came upon us, we saw two supercells that had formed and were slowly moving east. Making a decision on which storm to follow was difficult because the northern one began to display a classic supercell shape on radar. However, as soon as we started to move, our southern storm began to take on a beautiful shape. Our somewhat due east position to the updraft put us in the inflow, and we got caught in a massive dust storm. We got a real taste of those red dirt roads. Everything was dust in the wind. At one point when we were watching the storm, we saw a sharp vertical edge to a wide, dark column. We thought it was a precipitation shaft. LCDR Burich agreed that it was probably precipitation, but half-jokingly remarked, “Unless it’s a giant wedge tornado!”. We later learned that it was, in fact, a giant wedge tornado, but in the moment it was too hard to tell because of the dust.
We moved back south to get out of the dust bowl and into a better position to see. From here we had an amazing view of the structure of the storm. As the light started to fade, the storm was illuminated by its own lightning. This massive storm was powerful enough to produce softball sized hail, which we could see on radar. Seeing the beauty and power of this storm with our own eyes was an incredible experience, and one we won’t soon forget.
By 2230, the storm had finally started to weaken. We drove into Lubbock, where our hotel for the night was, and got one final look at the storm before calling it a night, making a quick stop at Raising Cane’s for a late night meal before heading to our hotel.
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