The Tour 4 guests received a quick orientation late morning on the 24th, and we were quickly out of Oklahoma City and headed towards west TX and southeastern NM. SPC showed a tornado and large hail risk out that way. It took 7 hours or so to reach the TX/NM border near Hobbs, and we continued west to Carlsbad where storm initiation appeared likely. We lucked out with the timing, as a strong storm developed a little northwest of Carlsbad as we neared the town close to sunset. We found a road to the west from U.S. 285, between Carlsbad and Artesia, near a place called Seven Rivers. This got us close to a storm base with a lowering, but the storm did not appear likely to produce a tornado. As our light decreased into the evening, we raced east again to U.S. 285 to get a look at storm structure, and it did not disappoint! The supercell became HP-ish, and baseball-sized hail was reported with the storm near Seven Rivers. We had some lightning to watch as I booked rooms in Hobbs for the night.
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