May 7, 2008 Red River Storms

We awoke in Childress to cold drizzly weather and northwest winds, as a cold front had just passed through.  Fortunately, the front was not advancing eastward very quickly.  Our forecast was for the Red River area near Gainesville, TX, between Ardmore and Fort Worth.  We stopped in Quanah or Vernon and took some quick group photos, and then hustled east to Gainesville.  Nothing was brewing yet, so we sat beneath Interstate 35 next to the Red River until we grew weary of the traffic noise.  A cell went up in the target area near Ringgold, TX.  We positioned ourselves just northeast of it on the north side of the river, near Rubottom.  While it was still 10 miles or so to our southwest it showed a good lowered area.  We felt that we might have something good for a little bit.  Some small hail fell on us and we decided to scoot south of the Red River towards Saint Jo, as the cell showed little inclination to move rapidly northeast.  Unfortunately, once again, the cell sputtered and weakened.  A new cell much further to the southeast, near Denton, was tornado-warned as we tried to reach it.  We got close, and it sputtered out.  Dinner was at the Pizza Hut in Bonham.  Some dark and menacing clouds forced me to take their pictures near the Bonham water tower.  We went back west to the Vernon Super 8 for the night.  It was quite late.  561 miles.