Wednesday 4th May 2022 - Texas Panhandle (Moderate Risk)
Awoke today in Childress with the SPC again going 15% Tornado Risk and a Moderate Risk of Storms. HRRR had been quite consistent for once this season with a Pair of Supercells erupting on the Dryline just south of Amarillo and riding the Warm Front which it had draped along Interstate 40 West to East.
We headed West to near Clarendon and early signs were not great with a Cirrus deck supressing convection and the warm front not really making great inroads north. The Mid 60s Dewpoints were still well south of us so we made the decision to head back towards Childress again. Around this time a Storm fired to the east of Lubbock and looked like it was becoming surface based well south of the Warm Front. That storm then did a textbook left/right split with the left split heading straight north just to our west and the right split heading for just south of Paducah. Our road south meant we would have to punch through the forward core and take some hail. We encountered mainly 1" Hail with a few sporadic Golfballs and then we came out underneath the base to a churning Mesocyclone above our heads.
We were minutes away from a Tornado. And just 5 minutes later a lovely dusty Tornado formed just to our east.
The Chase was now well and truly on and with the storm on a straight east path we had a decision to make as it was not in a favourable chase area. Either go 10 miles North to Paducah then east or 15 miles South to Benjamin then east or...........East through 30 miles of Ranch Road, you know the answer to this!!!! And after another 5 miles of rally driving Tornado Number 2 formed and this was a beauty. Great Picture of Jock in front of this Tornado.
The Tornado was on the ground for quite some time probably over 20 mins popping in and out of the Hail. Lovely view of the whole Meso below and our position just west of the hook!
We then continued on and spotted the Crowell Tornado off to our North East which again was a big white cone!The next phase of this chase was very dangerous as our Cyclic Supercell now went onto produce its biggest Tornado of the day and as darkness fell the radar images I got made me hang back a few miles as I knew a large and dangerous Tornado was on the ground to my east, Jock actually has some pictures from a Video still of this Tornado crossing the Highway in front of us.Radar Image and Our Position below
Around this time I noticed the Tornado occluding and turning first North East then North towards the Town of Lockett, I noticed quite a few spotter Icons right in its path and feared the worst.
As we rolled into Lockett the smell of vegetation was overwhelming and people scrabbling around in the darkness with power lines snapped was the tell tale sign it had taken a hit from the Tornado which was later rated EF3. My worst fears were also realised with a Chasing Tour Groups Van being hit as well.
The Storm dissipated after this and we headed to Vernon to end the chase