MAY 15th - Sunray, TX
CHASER: Bobby Eddins
NOWCASTING: Michael Cohen
SUMMARY:
This "High Risk" day in the Texas Panhandle looked so good that I took a day off from work for it. It was a classic setup for tornado's with a nice 500 mb low already moving into NE New Mexico towards the TX/OK Panhandles and 5000+CAPE and tons of Helicity forecast to be in place. A dryline in eastern New Mexico was progged to bulge to a near the caprock SE of Amarillo by late afternoon arching back to the NW with a warm-front from near Plainview eastward to north of DFW intersecting the dryline. This intersection was my initial target.

After working all night and getting loaded up I took a much needed 40 minute nap getting up around 10:40 am and got out the door just after 11:00 am and headed towards Childress, TX. After arriving in Childress and gassing up I checked radar and satellite on the laptop and saw that the only storms going so far were in the NW TX panhandle. I noted this but didn't budge from my target and proceeded NW on Hwy 287. As I neared Claude, TX I heard reports of large tornado's now occuring in the Dalhart area but also noted a East/West line of Cu just to my south and ripping ESE winds. This appeared to be the warm front. From Claude nice hard towers appeared to my WSW so I took FM 1151 to cut across to Canyon and intercept. About halfway across this trek an electrical burning smell caught my attention. I quickly looked to see what was burning and then noticed the temp gauge on the Taurus was way high so I stopped. Raising the hood revealed smoke coming from the engine cooling fan which is electric. A quick check of radiator water showed I was still ok and the only dripping from underneath was cold condensation from the AC. Meanwhile my hard tower now to my SW was moving my way and looked ready to explode on top of me. My first thought was I've found my storm and can't get out of it's way but after letting the engine cool a bit and turning the AC off :( I drove east into the wind and noted that the temp gauge was near normal as long as I kept moving. So I decided not to give up on the day yet.

My hard tower soon orphaned out and since all storms to my south appeared to be doing the same I deducted that the cap must have been too strong for anything before dark. I quickly decided that though the northern panhandle storms were probably too far away to catch, the prospects were better the further north I went so I blasted north on Hwy 207.

North of Stinnett the western sky started to darken and warning came out for the Dumas storm to my WSW which was moving toward Sunray so I took FM281 west to intercept the northward moving storm. East of Sunray I started to get anvil precip and a wall-cloud appeared in the haze to my WSW. This looked better and better as I moved west until half-inch hail started so I headed east to get out of it and turned to watch.

Quickly a funnel formed just south of FM 281 and reached more than halfway to the ground with no apparent debre under it. As the wall-cloud moved north of the road it appeared to split with the northern lowering looking better and soon another funnel reached almost to the ground and the storm took on a mothership appearance with an inflow band coming in from the SE.

At this point I took a much needed break behind my car :0 and before I was done I noticed a needle dropping to the ground from the higher base to the south of the wall-cloud and a dust whirl under it so I rushed back to the camcorder to film it.

I sat and filmed as the now large wall-cloud base wrapped rain into it and moved off to the NE.

I moved east and then north on FM 1060 stopping just north of FM 520 to film rapidly rotating rain-curtains to my WNW. Soon the sun began to shine through the middle to my west and a nice fat elephant trunk became visible for a few minutes before disappearing again.

I headed E and then NE to Spearman and gassed up next to Gene Rhoden and others who had witnessed much of what I just had. We all proceeded east and soon met with Tim Marshall and Carson Eads who navigated us nicely east on HWY 33 into Oklahoma then south to Elk City to avoid the massive suppercell to our south that was tearing up I-40.

After gas in Elk City Gene headed east on I-40 back to Norman and Tim, Carson, and myself worked our way back southeast to Lawton then south to Wichita Falls watching a left-split occur ahead of us south of Lawton and an intense light show.

Back home around 4am very exhausted.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV East of Sunray on FM 281 looking back west at a rapidly rotating wall-cloud.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The wall-cloud takes on a funnel shape as rotation increases.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A brief funnel forms in the north side of the wall-cloud.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A new wall-cloud forms to the north of the old one.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The old wall-cloud is shed with much agitation as the new one strengthens.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A broad funnel forms in the new wall-cloud.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The wall-cloud shows good separation from the precip core with a visual hook wrapping around the west.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV Lots of lightning accented the storm as well.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The storm takes on a "mothership" appearance.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV Rotation concentrates in the middle of the base and lowers. The birth of a "bears-cage".
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV I center on this area of rotation as it lowers and leans toward the core.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A funnel quickly forms with condensation half-way down.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV Though no dust whirl is seen probably due to wet ground most likely there is rotation on the ground at this time though only briefly.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The funnel quickly vanishes but the "bears-cage" remains.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The base broadens as more rain wraps in. What a storm!
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A flash of lightning reveals a bit of structure.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The "bears-cage" takes on a conical shape. who knows whats inside?
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A very low inflow cloud wraps back into the north side of the meso at a rapid rate.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A weak tornado forms out of the higher base south of the main updraft. This had a visible, narrow funnel about 1/4 down with a dust whirl on the ground. Probably an old "shed-meso" but who knows.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The main updraft becomes a spinning barrel with a "bears-cage" in the middle. WOW!!
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The view as I move east and then north on FM 1060 to get a better view.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A short beaver-tail forms to the NE of the meso.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A nice close view of the "ball-of-hate" to my WNW with an occluded wall-cloud on the south end behind the rain.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A funnel seems to be forming from this feature.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV Quickly a tornado forms while the precip curtains sweep to the north but remain thin enough for a view.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The tornado takes on a fat elephant truck shape.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A nice CG hits the ground to the right of the still visible tornado.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The rain curtains thin a bit more for a better view.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The tornado widens as I zoom in a bit.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV The tornado straightens up and gets larger just before disappearing behind thicker rain curtains. Thanks for the view.
image from Sony TRV-900 miniDV A bit further east lightning illuminates the storms down the flank as chasers head east.

All Images © 2003 Bobby Eddins. All rights reserved.