Hi all,<\/p>\n
I’ll squeeze in another update this evening for y’all.\u00a0 But first things first —<\/p>\n
KINGS win AGAIN!\u00a0 Up 3-0 against Phoenix, 11-1 in the playoffs so far —- absolutely unbelievable!\u00a0 Storms in NW KS weakened an hour or two before sunset, and gave us time to get to the motel in Imperial, NE, at a reasonable hour.\u00a0 Our group invaded the Brickstone Bar and Grill in Imperial for dinner, and they turned on the Kings game for us.\u00a0 I was able to watch the last half of the game, and the Kings prevailed, 2-1.<\/p>\n
My last update was a week ago in deep south TX, May 10.\u00a0 The tour had two full chase days remaining.\u00a0 On May 11, Friday, we targeted areas not too far north of our starting point of Hebronville, TX.\u00a0 Some cells went up north of San Antonio and around Austin.\u00a0 These were generally weakly organized and rather low-topped, near an upper-level low in north TX.\u00a0 Better instability was towards Houston, but I wasn’t going deeper into southeast TX unless the tornado chances were excellent.\u00a0 They were not, and we fumbled around with so-so junk in the traffic and congestion and general Friday afternoon mess along I-35.\u00a0 YUCK.\u00a0 We managed to see some okay low-level structure on what appeared to be a low-topped left-split weak supercell northwest of Austin.\u00a0 A forgettable day.\u00a0 We stayed at Copperas Cove for the night.<\/p>\n
The upper low continued east and took the instability with it, leaving us with nothing to do on Saturday (May 12) except to continue north towards OKC for the end of the tour.\u00a0 Tempest guide Jennifer Dunn gave us a tour of the NWS in Fort Worth (where she works) after our meal in downtown Fort Worth.\u00a0 May 13th was an easy drive from Ardmore to OKC, with a stop at Norman to look at the radar domes.\u00a0 That afternoon we performed the mundane routine of getting the vans cleaned and prepared for the next tour.<\/p>\n
Ten-day Tour 3, with guides Bob Smith and Chris Gullikson, began on Monday, May 14.\u00a0 The best air and severe storm chances were well to the southwest, near and south of I-10 in southwest TX.\u00a0 This was too far to reach from OKC, so we headed west into the eastern TX Panhandle.\u00a0 Despite north flow aloft and marginal moisture, a storm with some low-level organization was observed a little south of Shamrock.\u00a0 This one didn’t last too long, but another one went up to its west, and actually moved or propagated to the west a little!\u00a0 We stopped and watched it weaken.\u00a0 it was better than a sharp stick in the eye, but not by much.\u00a0 The new group was happy to see a few lightning bolts and to get the feel for a little chase.\u00a0 We found a motel in Canyon (south of Amarillo) after doing a little sight-seeing in Palo Duro Canyon south of Claude.<\/p>\n
The next few days on the Plains were characterized by pathetic moisture and weak flow, and we went into sight-seeing mode for the most part.\u00a0 Tuesday, May 15, was sunny and dry in the Panhandles and for thousands of miles in all directions.\u00a0 We went into Palo Duro Canyon for an hour or so.\u00a0 The ground was still a bit muddy from the rainy Monday weather, so we hiked just a little bit and then went to the Big Texan in Amarillo for lunch.\u00a0 I checked the group into a motel in town mid-afternoon and watched the Kings defeat Phoenix 4-0 in the breakfast room.\u00a0 GREAT DAY!<\/p>\n
On Wednesday (May 16) there would be some very high-based storms along the Front Range in Colorado.\u00a0 This activity was not chaseworthy, and we scoffed at it.\u00a0 We headed to Clayton, NM, for lunch, and then took an unpaved road from the Black Mesa area in extreme northeast NM through Sheep Pen Canyon to Kim, CO.\u00a0 The scenery along this remote route is very nice, and we had the road to ourselves for about an hour!\u00a0 From Kim we continued north to La Junta, and then to Limon.\u00a0 Considerable cloudiness and virga were encountered upon reaching Lincoln County.\u00a0 Limon was our home for the night.<\/p>\n
Today, May 17, featured strong but dry southerly flow through the High Plains as upper-level energy moved through the Colorado Rockies.\u00a0 We went up into the Genoa Tower to look at 6 states, and had lunch in Flagler.\u00a0 High-based storms went up nearby along I-70, and we went east with them.\u00a0 To make a long story short, we observed some mildly interesting high-based storms south, southeast, and east of Goodland from about Sharon Springs to Colby.\u00a0 Lightning became somewhat frequent around Colby, but then the activity weakened.\u00a0 We gave up east of Atwood, and headed northwest to Imperial.\u00a0 A great double rainbow north of Atwood was a nice end to the chase, and the Kings victory was a great end to the day!<\/p>\n
Images later.<\/p>\n
By the way, we may get to chase in or around eastern NM\/west TX on Sunday, where an annular eclipse will be in progress at sunset.\u00a0 This could yield some fantastic photo ops!<\/p>\n
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