Hail covers the ground west of Gladstone, NM.
Tempest Tours Tour #1 for 2010 saw their first storm today. It wasn't the greatest intercept on my part, but we found some interesting sights. We started the day in Clovis, NM, and after a rather slow departure, we ended up in Logan, NM for lunch. After lunch, I debated whether to turn left on New Mexico Highway 39 or to go northeast on U.S. Highway 54 through Nara Visa then toward Clayton. I chose the latter.
As soon as we were commited on U.S. 54, the storm we were targeting, near Capulin and heading southeast, suddenly decided to go south-southwest. Thus, my decision to turn northeast on 54 ended up being somewhat of a mistake. I tried to recover by taking a shortcut around Clayton, taking County Road 43 west from NM Highway 402, then west on Highway 562, County Road 25, then north on County Road 33 (Dave's Road) to U.S. 56/U.S. 412. That ended up being a mistake also, but not as bad as the first one.
The storm had been showing some supercell characteristics in terms of its movement relative to the flow, and I bet it would have looked rather interesting, albeit high-based had we taken Highway 39. We would have seen it just after its most intense phase. No big deal, because it was never warned. We were able to drive through the hail swath after the storm had passed U.S. 412.
Hail covers the ground west of Gladstone, NM.
Hail-covered roads.
Yellow-headed blackbird.
Mammatus, looking east.