{"id":20787,"date":"2018-06-24T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/?p=20787"},"modified":"2018-07-19T20:59:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T04:59:32","slug":"june-24-2018-raton-mesa-nm-supercell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stormbruiser.com\/chase\/2018\/06\/24\/june-24-2018-raton-mesa-nm-supercell\/","title":{"rendered":"June 24, 2018 Raton Mesa, NM supercell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Start: \u00a0Syracuse, KS<\/p>\n

Lunch: \u00a0Elkhart, KS\/Pizza Hut<\/p>\n

End: \u00a0Liberal, KS<\/p>\n

SPC Day One 1630Z outlook<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 855<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 857<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 860<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 865<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 868<\/a><\/p>\n

SPC Mesoscale Discussion 871<\/a><\/p>\n

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This day was looking like a BIG severe weather day, and maybe a big tornado day. \u00a0At least until about mid-morning. \u00a0Persistent morning convection (a large MCS) in western Kansas and then northern Oklahoma completely trashed the troposphere, sending an outflow boundary southward into Venezuela during the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Okay, not Venezuela, but WAY south into the central Texas Panhandle. \u00a0The boundary basically wound up where the cap was too strong to get a storm, and where the upper level flow was too weak to get a good severe storm. \u00a0 The air behind the boundary was so cool and cloud-riddled that afternoon surface-based convection was looking less and less likely in SPC’s hatched area (and 5% tornado area) in and around the northern TX Panhandle region. \u00a0After our lunch stop in Elkhart, Kansas, I had to decide whether to continue south towards the outflow boundary and hope for enough afternoon heating and convergence on the boundary for a storm. \u00a0Or, whether to find another play. \u00a0The play to the south, well into the Texas Panhandle, seemed like a losing proposition. \u00a0At Elkhart, the cool northeast winds beneath the low overcast were casting a pall upon the chase day. \u00a0The satellite imagery showed some clearing around the Raton Mesa area to our southwest, though the air still had a long way to go to “recover.” \u00a0We went west to Springfield and Kim, in southeastern Colorado.<\/p>\n

At Kim we visited a lonely bar, and enjoyed some cool sodas. \u00a0A cell to the west by maybe 45 miles did not last very long. \u00a0Another one, to our WSW near Trinidad, got pretty strong and began to head east or east-southeast. \u00a0This one managed to stay strong and quickly organized. \u00a0It was an impressive supercell as it tracked along the relatively empty terrain of the Raton Mesa from Trinidad to Folsom. \u00a0We had a good look at the rotating updraft base as we headed south towards Branson, Colorado.<\/p>\n

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