May 11, 2020 Storms

West Texas

We chased between Wildcat Ranch and Lubbock on Day 1 of Tempest Tour 3. See Bill Reid's summary of this chase here.

We started from Oklahoma City and drove into west Texas, targeting the area west of Lubbock where parameters looked best.  We ended up near the New Mexico border in the vicinity of Morton.  There, storms developed and started to go nearly supercellular.  These first storms eventually looked a bit less impressive, and we saw a more interesting storm on radar to our southwest, so we dropped south ahead of it.  This second storm was pretty nicely supercellular and treated us to a nice view at sunset.  The storm then chased us into Lubbock, where we took shelter underneath a gas station canopy (we also filled up our tanks there).  After the storms passed, we got some late night fast food and then headed for our hotel.         

Initial storm development.  It is nearly supercellular.

Storm looks a bit high-based.  Vegetation is the typical mix (including mesquite) of west Texas.

Our second storm of the evening is definitely a supercell.

This mesocyclone chased us into Lubbock.

We drove 646 miles on Day One of the tour.

Back to Storm Chases | Home