Chase Day 9 Reports and Pictures, TX

[Arron]

Well what another amazing day this turned out to be. We overnighted in Amarillo and upon waking up had seen a slight risk introduced in central texas. We decided to head back down and had lunch in Childress. Noticed some tops going up near Graham, TX so made our way down. Very robust turkey towers played for about an hour, just enough time for us to get there when 2 cells went up. Both displayed LP characteristics with both rotating on visual and data. These cells literally did not more for about an hour and then eventually the southern cell ate the rest up and decided to put on a show!At this point she decided to move south through Graham, TX as it appears it latched on to some kind of boundary. We drove through the core to get down the eastern edge and got a great view from the south east with the sun behind the storm. She teased with a stunning cone funnel that we're pretty sure touched the ground, reports seem to confirm this too. After about 10 minutes up it went only to then drop another thin cone that fully condensed to the ground near Eliasville and then gave an amazing rope out with the sun lighting it up! I have some great video of the tornado splitting in the middle and losing the condensation. As it started to get dark it really lost it's low level winds and the lid finally closed. Now on our way north to kill some miles ready for tomorrows chase in Kansas. Had to core punch again and took some mean hard hailstones! Here's some pics and video will be up a bit later or maybe in the morning depending on the time we finish driving. 

Paul pointing out Wal-Mart in the distance

[Sprites]

great set of photos, you got the jackpot there!

[DanN]

Awesome pics! First couple look like the Piedmont storm from last year.

[Dust Devil]

Well done, great job - looks stunning and by all accounts a very obliging and photogenic storm.

[chionomaniac]

That to me looked like the perfect storm chase - it's a pity that I had to go to bed to miss the conclusion. Well done guys, and the good news is (no surprise) that the moderate risk zone is extended further south for today so hopefully you will be able to stay in OK and not have to travel quite as far as you envisaged. (Why leave TX?!!!!! It seems the place to be at the moment and I would be surprised if there wasn't another tornado in TX today).

[IanM]

It was another awesome day...  It's silly o'clock here and we are up early tomorrow, so no time to make it prettier I'm afraid....  This a 12 shot stitch of the storm that kept us entertained for a few hours this afternoon.

 

 

 

[chionomaniac]

Get to bed you fool, Ian, you have a lot of driving still left to do!

[Dorsetbred]

Tour 2 delivering the goods, well done a tour to be proud of

[Stuart_W]

Yep. Another fantastic day!

 

 

Extreme heat (105F +)

Great Structure

Excitement

Superb tornado

Cracking Lightning

 

Only thing "missing" was large hail. It was there, we just missed it which is a good or bad thing depending on your point of view!

 

Here are a few of mine.

 

Just got a picture of the horseshoe vortex and the lightning shot has the Cloud 9 (Charles Edwards) Tour group's van headlights in the right hand side.

 

 

[nsrobins]

Thanks for the images guys. Stuart, I love the widescreen stitch of the base with cone.After a quiet start and some portents of a long death ridge set-up, the tour has really delivered. 

[lewisosd]

good stuff team. Lets hope for more of that today!

[Cookie]

stunning stuff

[DubWeatherAddict]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwweeesome photos guys!!!!    

[CycloneGail]

This is really getting me excited - 3 weeks till Tour 5 kicks off!

[IanM]

Finally got some time to play with panoramic software and do some tweaking from this chase.

 

[Cookie]

ohh nice