Reports & Pictures Chase Day 23 - Texas Panhandle

[Paul Sherman]

First Chase Day for Tour 4 Started Early with a 9am leaving time from Dallas Fort Worth and a chase Target of Amarillo. There was a surge of 55f Dewpoints in a narrow strip just west of the Caprock upto the Oklahoma Panhandle Border. After eating lunch at Vernon we meandered up towards Amarillo for 4pm. Storms were ongoing north of Dumas but we waited patiently much further South and just after 4pm the Supercell of the Day started to Initiate. We once again had 2 cells duking it out just like last week, this time I decided to let the Northern Storm core us NE of Amarillo, everyone loved the hail smashing against the car, another beautiful LP Storm went up further SW, So back south we went along Highway 207, this Storm quickly transitioned into a HP Supercell and started to move straight South. This took us through the Palo Duro Canyon, some breath-taking scenery unfolded before us with incredible audible Thunder and great Cg's. Then the fun really began with a rotating wall cloud 5 miles to our South West, a very thick Funnel Cloud made it halfway to the ground with insane rotation, alas the LCL's were just too high to get the job done. We quickly scooted south to Silverton where the Storm had another attempt at rotation, the structure started to also ramp up a gear briefly giving us some great shots of the Storm. Just before Sunset we drove straight under the Mesocyclone with it spinning above us, 60mph winds created a dust storm which made the visibility down to 50yds at times. We thought our day was done and started to limp back to Plainview for the Night But I noticed another Supercell had rapidly gone severe to our North, this was moving at 10mph so we set up for 2 hours of stunning Lightning Photography, Cg's were raining down every 10 seconds at times. Everyone nailed the Lightning, we then left the storm and ate at Chilli's and checked into our Hotel.

An amazing Long day and one that will live long in the guys minds who have never seen a Supercell Before!

Some Pics

- Palo Duro Supercell

- Insane Cg Lightning!

I am sure the others would like to put up some of their images as everyone got some great shots!

[Tom Lynch]

Stopped the night at Plainview, Texas, birth place of Jame Dean very cool dude

Took a radar picture to show the gust front that we drove through

Here too are some draft videos clips because its 2.40 am and I want to go to bed

It was a chase that took us right down into Paulo Duro Canyon. I have never seen a storm there before.

Good night

Tom

[Paul]

Thanks Tom, definitely time to sleep!

[Methuselah]

Nice clouds there, chaps...

[CycloneGail]

Awesome lightning photo there. Just wondering what sort of lens your using to get these shots. I'm wanting to get my camera gear sorted early for next year's chasing so I can learn how to use it properly before the tour starts.

[Arron]

What a start to the tour, it was incredible to see that cell go over the canyon! I have so many lightning shots; you just couldn't get it wrong, even Paul S managed Here some of my best ones

[Paul]

Lol Arron, impressive! Reminiscent of the final night of t4 last year.

[davelp]

Here are the links to my first two blog updates. ill keep adding them as I go along. look out for them in the Picture threads

http://www.dp-outdoo...day-one-travel/

http://www.dp-outdoo...the-light-show/

Just for your visual delight I include some of my images from yesteday for you all to enjoy. it was an amazing show

[Tom Lynch]

Driving through the dust storm

Tom

[John Hanrahan]

Some of the best lightning pics I've ever seen!. Well done guys. Dust storm was pretty cool too!

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

Unfortunately, I can't get the videos to work, but the lightning photos are superb; most spectacular!