Date: May 16, 2016
Time: 1:30 - 9:00 PM CDT
Place: Felt, OK, Dalhart, Channing, TX
Distance: 828 mi (287 positioning, 238 chasing, 303 to home)
Camera: T3i, GoPro3 Black, Sony RX100ii
Warnings: SVR, TOR
Rating: S5

The Chase

8:14 AM MDT: All setups are different, some are more different than others. Today we are leaving ABQ and targeting northeast New Mexico for the first time ever. If you believe the last several HRRR runs, a surface low in NE New Mexico under a very shallow shortwave should spawn a supercell or two that will rumble southeast towards Amarillo. Big question of the day, will these early storms turn into a squall line before any tornadoes have a chance to form?

10:45 AM MDT: Leaving I-25 at Springer, NM and cutting east across Hwy 56/412 to Clayton. This section of highway is one of the most desolate we ever drive. Hardly any cell signal between here and Clayton (unless there've been new towers put up since last year).

11:51 AM MDT: Arrived in Clayton and back in cell signal again. Forecast still appears on track. During the last hour, we saw some Cu towers building to our north in Colorado along the Raton mesa. Those might end up being our storms in a few hours.

12:15 PM MDT: New blips just starting to show up on radar about 40 miles north of Clayton. HRRR seems to have nailed the initiation timing and location. We are heading north on Hwy 406 to check them out. Still every early, but they might give some good "building supercell" timelapses.

12:36 PM MDT: Rolling the first timelapse of the day - looking north at the developing storms about 20 miles away. Anvil is just starting to form. Unfortunately, there are some foreground cloud-streets that are blocking full visibility of the towers. Otherwise, this would be a really cool lapse.

1:03 PM MDT: We moved a bit further north into the Dry Cimarron River valley by the CO/OK/NM intersection. Really pretty, but terrible for cell signal. Developing supercell is just a few miles to our NE now. It appears to be moving SE as expected.

1:35 PM MDT: An MCD and Severe Watch were issued over the last half hour - always a little disappointing to get a SVR vs. a TOR watch. Our storm continues to build and consolidate into a supercell, but the progress is slow. The trick is to get this thing into a little warmer, moister inflow before it gusts out on itself. Still this is some great, relaxing chasing.

1:42 PM MDT: Finally got a SVR warning!

2:20 PM MDT: We've only drifted south 10 miles over the past hour and a half - very leisurely chase. Surprised that we've only seen about 10 other chasers thus far. Inflow is still chilly but has doubled in the past few minutes. I think our storm is finally ramping up. No wall cloud yet but a little rising scud.

2:41 PM MDT: We are currently near the ghost town of Seneca along Hwy 406. I'm scared we are seeing the beginnings of cold outflow undercutting the storm. But we are also starting to get out of position a little as the main inflow region is just to our north and moving southeast. We are gonna have to blast into the OK panhandle to get back in front of this.

4:31 PM CDT: Back on Hwy 56/412 just inside the OK panhandle now (and in the Central Time zone). As I feared, our storm is looking very linear now. All I see is a big outflowish gust front.

4:41 PM CDT: ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! As we were dropping south near Felt, OK to stay ahead of the storm, we were nearly run off the road by a chaser going the opposite direction - clearly looking at something directly behind us rather than the road. I glanced in the rearview and what do you know!? A little rope tornado is emerging directly in the middle of that linear-looking gust front!!

4:46 PM CDT: The rope just, well, roped out - putting on a nice undulating show for about 4 minutes! Woohoo this marks three tornado chase days in a row for us! I'm still very confused about the tornado placement vs the overall storm structure, but then I don't chase a ton of SE moving supercells. I was definitely fooled into thinking we were looking at a linear outflow arc instead of an RFD arc.

5:15 PM CDT: We've gotten way out of position a good 15 miles SW of our original storm, which now has a nice hook but is very HP. We are at the intersection of roads 296 and 1879 in the northern TX panhandle now. No clue why I'm sitting here instead of getting in position on a new storm base to our west. It's hard to leave a tornado-warned storm even if your out of position on it for a new, unproven cell.

5:24 PM CDT: I finally came to my senses and we are dropping south to meet this new cell. A DOW truck is right behind us - can't be a bad sign.

5:36 PM CDT: We got to Hwy 87, but I can't proceed any further south on the grid roads. They're private company roads of some pork supplier. Dang, the new storm is looking very interesting - could produce any minute.

5:38 PM CDT: Tornado warning just issued and we are still trying to find a path closer to the storm. Driving SE on Hwy 87 desperately looking for a public road we can go south on.

5:43 PM CDT: Probably have a tornado in progress and I can't enjoy it! A stumpy but sharply-tipped funnel is dangling more than halfway to the ground. I'm still driving SE away from it looking for a road to get closer. Toni is getting some footage out the window though.

5:54 PM CDT: We were finally able to cut west on Hwy 102, but we missed a closer shot of the potential tornado. It only lasted about a minute or two. Looks like this storm will not last much longer as it is getting undercut by cold air from our original supercell

6:18 PM CDT: Huge traffic jam in Dalhart! Looks like we're gonna get clipped by the RFD from the second storm. Not super worried since it's gotten undercut. But this could have been a very bad situation if a tornado was chasing us down the highway.

6:44 PM CDT Wow it took us nearly 30 minutes to get through the Dalhart traffic jam. There's a new cell approaching from the west that has a small little hook on radar. Not looking very impressive IRL though.

7:20 PM CDT Fourth storm intercept of the day between Hartley and Channing, TX on Hwy 385. HOLY MOLY this is the most amazing LP supercell I have ever seen! Gorgeous cauliflower updraft with blue skies overhead and deep yellow underneath. You can watch this monster updraft rotate in real time. Can't wait to watch this timelapse.

7:48 PM CDT We are directly under the updraft in Channing - which has morphed into a perfectly symmetric horseshoe. One of the most amazing, humbling sights I've ever seen. Some small hail (no rain) is starting to fall. We'll probably dodge south to avoid the worst of it.

7:56 PM CDT Amazing! The north end of the updraft horseshoe has broken off into a tight, barber-pole Cu column.

8:22 PM CDT Blasting east to try and drop south on Hwy 87 ahead of this supercell core. I probably waited too long back in Channing - mesmerized by the structure. Storm looks elevated so I don't see any tornado threat, but it'd be nice to stay ahead of this thing. It probably had huge hail now.

8:27 PM CDT Yep we definitely aren't going to beat the core. Just north of Masterson, precip is already crossing the road south of us. Hope the windshield holds up.

8:31 PM CDT Tennis balls raining down now. Had to pull off and turn into the wind to keep them from coming in through Toni's window. First time we've needed to put on the goggles!

8:38 PM CDT Easily the biggest hail we've ever experienced. Undoubtedly lots of dents on the Crosstrek now, but all the windows held up. Poor cows out in the field were pretty stoic through all of that. I think we can call this a chase - lots of awesomeness today.

9:36 PM CDT Can't end the day without a little Amarillo BWW.

Recap, Filmmaking Notes, and Lessons Learned