New Friends

Beginning the day we left from Lubbock, TX and headed for Ft. Stockton, TX, where we met up with another Severe Weather team from the College of Du Page. USNA SWIFT took part in launching a weather balloon with Du Page and watched as we collected data making a new skew-t diagram! The students and faculty of Du Page were very welcoming and helpful.

After connecting with them, chase mode began towards Pecos, TX. Carefully watching the gathering storm, we briefly saw our next tornado sneak down which was confirmed by another spotter. Following this storm that had the potential to produce more tornados throughout the night, we had to travel faster and smarter because the roads were long and not many options were available.

Soon, the storm turned HP and we could no longer see inside the core. We still hoped to catch a glimpse of another tornado near the hook echo that formed on radar.

Getting ahead of the storm and avoiding severe damaging hail, we enjoyed the lightning storm that followed as we headed back to Midland, TX for the night. Overall, after not expecting much out of the storms with no helicity, it was a success! Our last chase day is up next, let's see how it goes!