Date: April 16, 2016
Time: 2:00 - 7:00 PM CDT
Place: Washburn, Panhandle, Lelia Lake, TX
Distance: 832 mi (300 positioning, 162 chasing, 370 to home)
Camera: T3i, GoPro3 Black, Sony RX100ii
Warnings: SVR
Rating: S4

The Chase

7:40 AM MDT: Starting the 2016 chase season off right with some Chick-fil-a for breakfast (always our tradition).

8:01 AM MDT: Wow lots of snow in the Sandias this morning - even have flakes falling at the Tramway elevation.

10:16 AM MDT: Cu is already going up on the dryline west of Amarillo. Hopefully this doesn't mean all-afternoon storms that sap the instability. I'm also worried these cells will move mostly NNE and won't really pop off the dryline and stay isolated.

12:25 PM CDT: First timelapse of the season! We are in Wildorado, TX filming the cumulus towers to our east along the dryline. There's a really neat old abandoned 1960 Buick LeSabre with bullet holes in the windshield!

2:01 PM: We passed through Amarillo and into the moist sector east of the dryline. Setting up for our first intercept of the year south of Washburn as two new mostly-isolated cells try to get going.

2:20 PM: Really nice RFD punch as the southernmost cell moves about a mile to our west. Gotta reposition before we get blasted.

3:05 PM: Played it safe and stayed east of the storm path as we made our way up to Panhandle. Looking a lot more linear now though - just what I was afraid of.

3:11 PM: First macabre discovery of the season: we are next to some train tracks and there is a rabbit chopped in two, one half on each side of a rail...

3:22 PM: Another tight little RFD punch just to our west. But unfortunately this cell appears to be shrinking and moving into worse road networks near Borger. Gonna have to let it go and look around for new storms.

3:45 PM: Still just north of Panhandle. I'm now growing indecisive about our next move. A new tail-end cell is growing rapidly to our southwest and really increasing inflow. But it is moving into worked over air. Other storms way to our SSE are getting warned now. What to do!?!?

4:14 PM: Ugh made a bad call and proceeded NE into Pampa - and mid-50s temps and fog from morning storms. No storm is going to thrive here so we were dumb to try to get out in front of them. Forgot how narrow today's instability axis is.

4:43 PM: Dropped down to the I40/Hwy70 intersection watching this line of storms move over. Nothing too interesting right now. I'm tempted to call it a day and head back to Amarillo.

4:55 PM: Not gonna give up yet. There's a tail end Charlie that we might be able to intercept near Lelia Lake - if it stays isolated while we make our way there.

5:15 PM: Almost thought about dropping south of Clarendon on 70, but I didn't like how the highway angles towards storm. Proceeding east to get a good viewing angle.

5:22 PM: FM1260 is a paved road south. Getting a nice view of the tail-end storm now. Hail core is picking up dramatically on radar.

5:37 PM: Escaping to Lelia Lake now as the edge of the hail started to move in.

5:45 PM: This thing is taking a right turn now!! Gonna have to go all the way to Hedley to stay out of the precip.

5:51 PM: Great position a mile east of Hedley beside a buffalo field to watch the developing supercell move by!

6:04 PM: AMAZING RFD WRAP UP!! We almost had a tornado in the field beside us!

6:07 PM: Sirens going in Hedley as we try to get north and ahead of the storm again.

6:16 PM: On the north side of the Red River Salt Fork valley looking SW back at the supercell.

6:38 PM: Well, we've let the supercell approach again, and it's clear it has mostly gone outflow-dominant now as it moves into the more stable air. What a great show, though - never expected this today.

7:00 PM: Followed a long chaser train up through the dying storm core and into McLean, TX. Good end to the day.

7:15 PM: More weak cells have popped between the dryline and the main line we followed all afternoon. Should make for some neat sunset views.

7:31 PM: Breathtaking sunset near Lark looking east at these weak departing storms. Moments like this are so special.

8:20 PM: Hitting up the Hoffbrau Steakhouse for dinner (not a steak though - didn't earn it today).

9:15 PM: Holy crap the Hilton Home2 Suites might be our favorite hotel yet.

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned

• As I was worried about, today's setup with the cutoff low had very meridional (S to N) upper winds, so storms couldn't move off the dryline after developing and instead quickly congealed into lines.
• The tail-end storm near Lelia Lake, however, was well removed from the dryline and was able to really ramp up rotation briefly.
• There were a couple weak tornadoes at dusk near and east of Childress - but those were never really in play for us today.
• Interestingly, this was the 18th anniversary of the Nashville Outbreak. I can't believe so much time has passed. I already loved storms back then, but it was a really exciting and scary event that got me even more invested in weather. Still remains the largest hail I've yet seen.