Day 3: The First Chase

What a day! Our adventure can be divided into two parts: Oklahoma and "Deep in the Heart of Texas." 

Oklahoma

After getting into our hotel late from last yesterday's adventures we woke up with a new addition to the team! CDR Carmody met up with us just in time for the action. 

This morning we were in for a real treat. After a short recap from the other day's weather we met with Mr. Bill Bunting, Chief of Forecasting Operations at the Storm Prediction Center. He was generous enough to give us a presentation about the SPC. Not only that but he was kind enough answer our questions ranging from fire forecasting, to cyber security at the National Weather Center, to the use of social media and psychology for disseminating important information. These forecasters devote so much of themselves to provide us with the most useful information in order to keep us safe. 

Once we finished up there we booked it back to the hotel, changed, checked out, and set out for the chase. It was go time.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

After booking it from the hotel we stopped briefly for a meal to eat in the car. Our weather brief had to be on the road this time around. We decided to drive east of Lubbock, Texas as we anticipated the action to be there. We believed the CAPE, eventual dispersion of CIN, and shear would prove to be fruitful. However there was a potential failure mode being weak low level speeds which would make it difficult for tornadogenesis. 

As we continued on south we kept an eye on satellite imagery and radar.  CDR Carmody exclaimed we may need some new shock absorbers once we encountered a dirt road. Soon enough we met our storm. We kept driving until we got to one with good intensity. The van continued to get closer and closer until we found a suitable spot to observe our catch. We were in awe. We were able to spot the hail either by the white streaks as it came down or by the ominous blue green hue above due to the refraction. Langston was successfully able to get drone footage without sacrificing the drone.

We were fortunate to drive close enough to pick up some hail while not breaking the wind shield.

As we continued to follow this storm we were tempted to move onto other storms nearby, but ultimately decide on sticking with our storm. We had mixed messages about there being a funnel cloud. We thought this was because low level speed was not high enough. We did however see a majestic outflow to an intimidating shelf cloud. We thought if we could get around a rain wall we could see a potential tornado. Unfortunately as we sped to change our angle of attack we noticed something. We finally looked at how much gas we had left in the tank. 

Seeing as we did not want to be stranded with storms around us, we changed our course in search of gas. We eventually found haven in Paducah, Texas. Once we were there, and after eating some Krispy Krunchy Chicken, we decided it was time to head back to Oklahoma to get some sleep. We have a planned visit to one of their high schools tomorrow. We are to give them presentations on some cool modules and share our enthusiasm of STEM.

On our drive back we spotted this ray of sunshine. Thank you for reading, and we hope you stay around for more.