Shelf Cloud in the Texas Panhandle

Chase Recap:

Jari gets to Forecast

We left Norman in the early afternoon. I left the targeting up to Jari. He wasn’t very excited about doing it, but he wrote his target down on a piece of paper.

Depature

We headed down I-40 to Shamrock where we stopped for gas and Dairy Queen before continuing west. A storm was ongoing in Cimarron County OK near Boise City. It apparently produced a tornado, but I still remained south near Amarillo. I was interested in the Outflow Boundary/Dryline intersection just south of Amarillo. Plenty of cumulus clouds kept bubbling but seemingly would evaporate. Storms struggled with capping while we sat in Amarillo. Storms to the north became tornado warned, so we decided to head that way.

As we headed north on US287 to Dumas, we had to make a decision. Head west and north to Dalhart and jump on that storm which had just produced a tornado or head north to Stratford. North won, and we continued on 287.

As the storm came into sight, it was obvious that it was producing a large shelf cloud. It sure was photogenic! We spent the next hour or so driving east and getting ahead of it and taking photos.

Photos

Spearman, Texas Hail

We ended up in Spearman, TX where we let the core hit us. The returns were over 70dbz on AMA radar. Lots of golf ball sized hail fell as we hid in a carwash and took video. Even standing on the far side of the car wash, we were bombarded by hail stones, rain and wind. The heater was cranking full blast when I jumped back into the car.

A quick stop for Allsups and to upload video and we were heading back east towards home via Canadian, TX. We managed to get into a tornado warning there and then again in western Oklahoma nw of Sayre. Great storms and a solid chase day.

Jari’s Target

Jari ultimately had written down Cheyenne, Oklahoma as his target. Not too far off.