Start: Littlefield, TX/lunch: Seminole Dickeys BBQ/End: Roswell, NM/377 miles
Mesoscale Discussions 2:24 p.m. CDT. 7:41 p.m. CDT. 9:57 p.m. CDT
The prospects on this chase day just looked a bit so-so, despite SPC’s 2% tornado outline from Brownfield southward and a good-sized 15 percent hatched hail area for much of west and southwest Texas (and extreme southeast NM). I initially was thinking to head southward all of the way to I-10 and the Fort Stockton area. However, the tornado risk just did not appear to be good enough for such a long jaunt. I was probably also thinking of chasing back up towards the OK Panhandle and vicinity on the following day, and I didn’t want to be lured WAY down towards the Rio Grande for high-based and mostly outflowish storms.
After lunch I elected to head west into New Mexico to play (expected) stuff coming off of higher terrain west of Carlsbad and Artesia. The flow was upslope and the dews were reasonably good. We wound up with a rotating base west of Carlsbad during the late afternoon, and then an electrical high-based storm near Artesia at dusk. The Canon images of the lightning near Artesia are above. Below are the iPhone radar screenshots and the iPhone shots west of Carlsbad and the Artesia sunset light. We weren’t sure if the roadside fire was due to lightning or a motorist.
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