Friday, May 15, 2009

Today was the last day of my chase trip, so I was hoping that Mother Nature would cooperate one more time and put on a great show.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Computer models indicated the potential for severe storm development in the Texas Panhandle, so we made our way north from Brownfield to Lubbock, Texas then west to the aptly named town of Levelland, TX.  From Levelland, we eventually journeyed northeast toward a line of developing cumulus cloud towers.  By late afternoon, we intercepted a beautiful (some might say terrifying looking) saucer-shaped rotating supercell east of Pampa, Texas.  The colors and cloud structure were fantastic.  Our approach to the storm was very exciting as the winds screaming toward the storm buffeted our vehicle and lightning was striking all around us.  We positioned ourselves on the south side of the storm and had a great view of this monster.  Unlike the storms that developed earlier in the week, there was plenty of daylight left to take great photographs and video.  What a way to end my trip.  All week seemed to build up to this one event.  In retrospect, what we observed earlier in the week seemed like a preview of the big show to come.  And what a big show it was.    

The chase day ended with our return to home base in Amarillo.   

Developing Supercell 
This is how the developing supercell storm looked to our north as we raced to intercept it on I-40 east of Amarillo. 

Supercell Panorama 
I think the photograph speaks for itself. What a monster storm this was!    

Lightning 
The supercell produced a lot of lightning.   This cloud to ground lightning bolt was captured on HD video and converted into the photograph you see here.

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