Chase Day 10 - SE Colorado into Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles

FRI 06 JUN  

Difficult decision today - two target areas, 

Chase Day 9 - West Texas

THU 05 JUN 

What a day... my personal best chase day to date. We left our hotel in Canyon (TX) late morning and ambled south, through extensive stratus, mist and drizzle, to sit on an old outflow boundary at Brownfield (TX). Any supercells that can latch onto pre-existing boundaries can ingest enhanced low-level vorticity which can increase the probability of tornadogenesis, so we were keeping a close eye on where this boundary was located at a given time. 

After grabbing some lunch, we nudged gradually northwards and westwards to keep close to the boundary, whilst keeping an eye on a couple of storms that were developing in the vicinity of Portales (NM) and Dora (NM) to our northwest. Eventually these storms started to gain strength on radar, and we decided to jump on the southern one near Dora (NM) as this would likely become the dominant cell given it was impeding the inflow to the storm to its north. We didn't have to wait long for the first tornado to develop near Garrison (NM), albeit reasonably brief, and watched it rope out. 

First tornado near Garrison (NM)

We then followed the storm progressively east-southeastwards for several hours as it moved from eastern New Mexico into west Texas, producing a multitude of tornadoes - many were reasonably short-lived, but a much more significant wedge developed near to and passed just north of Morton (TX), shrouded in significant amounts of dust. Away from the main tornado, numerous small, brief circulations developed closer to us, including a weak anticyclonic tornado that moved northwards across the road immediately in front of us.

New tornadoes form SE of Maple (TX)

The beginning of the Morton (TX) wedge

Given the amount of dust that had been kicked up, making it hard to get a visual of the large tornado northeast of Morton, we decided to make faster progress southeastwards to get further ahead of the storm and then park up and let it get closer to us. 

Dusty tornado continues to trundle to the east of Morton (TX)

Once we managed to get a visual just north of Smyer (TX) it appeared there was no tornado on the ground initially, however with time several brief, smaller tornadoes developed with eventually a new wedge forming. 

New tornadoes form just north of Smyer (TX)

As we nudged a little bit further east, a separate satellite tornado became visible to the east of the main wedge. At this point, knowing this storm was heading straight for the Lubbock metro area, we decided to get ahead of the storm once more and drove round the southern side of Lubbock before stopping on the SE side (to avoid the traffic during the storm). The mesonet weather station reported a gust of 101 mph at Smyer, but it appeared the tornado risk was reducing with the storm as it moved through Lubbock so we opted to park up under a shelter in Slaton (TX) and let the storm move over us to see if we could find some hail. Roads soon became rivers, and once the storm had passed we headed north to Plainview (TX) to find a hotel for the night, knowing that there would likely be issues with hail damage and flooding in Lubbock.

Chase Day 8 - Lesbia NM to Canyon TX

WED 04 JUN 

No great rush today as initiation was expected to be late in New Mexico, but we still had a good 6 hour drive to get from our overnight stay in Decatur (TX) to reach our target of San Jon (NM) via a lunch stop at Amarillo (TX). We bumped into Simon Lee again at Buc-ee's in Amarillo, and arrived in San Jon around 5pm, giving us a couple of hours to chill before initiation, in the company of two Doppler on Wheels. 

Right on cue at 7pm a thunderstorm developed to our southwest, so we drifted west along Historic Route 66 to Lesbia (NM) where we core-punched the storm as it became severe warned, producing copious amounts of hail covering the road. What was particularly cool was the visible transition from heavy rain to hail, with an obvious wall of white in front of us marking the start of the hail. This cell crossed I-40 and we then followed it back east to San Jon and Glenrio (NM), stopping several times to watch its structure and rotation. 

Punching through the hail core near Lesbia (NM)

Doppler on Wheels heading south near Lesbia (NM)

Hail core easing away to the north near Lesbia (NM)

Core punching at Lesbia (NM)

Copious amounts of hail at Lesbia (NM)

Copious amounts of hail at Lesbia (NM)

By now, as it crossed the state lane into Texas and darkness descended, the supercell was making more of a right move and heading ESE'wards, soon to cross I-40 once more. Due to somewhat limited road options we decided to keep ahead of it and drove some distance down I-40 to Vega (TX), then taking the south road towards Hereford (TX). We parked up for a while to watch the constant lightning illuminating the shelf cloud and threatening wall cloud. Other chasers reported a brief tornado around this time, although it was incredibly hard to see due to the darkness and rather ill-defined/ragged nature of the wall cloud.

Supercell near Glenrio

Screengrab from Radarscope of our location (blue circle) relative to the supercell

It was getting late now (10pm onwards) and given it would be very hard to see any tornado in the dark we opted to head NE'wards to Canyon to find somewhere to shelter the car and let the storm move over us. In the minutes preceding the onslaught of rain and hail, a prolific lightning display took place above our heads, with constant flashing illuminating the ominous shelf cloud gradually approaching from the west. Eventually we were hit by the rain and hail, with some pieces as large as ping pong balls with plenty of shredding of vegetation. Wind was not especially strong in the part of the storm that hit us, but a more substantial bowing segment passed to our south did produce a reported 81 mph gust at Tulia. Once the storm had moved through we found a hotel for the night in Canyon, but with several more thunderstorms moving through at times.

Ominous shelf cloud approaches Canyon TX from the west, whilst constant lightning flashes above

Hail at Canyon

Hail at Canyon besides a Quarter coin (24 mm diameter, suggesting hail was >30 mm in diameter)

Large hail falling in Canyon (TX). Credit Chris Bell

Chase Day 7 - SW Oklahoma

TUE 03 JUN

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SPC forecast issued 16:30Z 03 June 2025

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Chase Day 6 - SE Wyoming into NE Colorado

MON 02 JUN 

We left Hays (KS) reasonably early (8am) to get closer to our target in the vicinity of the Nebraska / Wyoming / Colorado border. After lunch in North Platte (NE) we continued to push west, stopping briefly at Big Springs (NE) and Sidney (NE) to reassess the situation. By mid-afternoon a few severe-warned supercell thunderstorms had developed in eastern Wyoming, and we opted to follow the Tail End Charlie at Pine Bluffs (WY) which offered some lovely structure. 

SPC forecast issued 16:30Z 02 June 2025

Congestion on I-80 where the supercell, and associated heavy rain and large hail, crossed the interstate

Road options were rather sparse so it became difficult to keep up with this first storm as it crossed I-80 and headed more SE'wards across the Colorado border. We headed back east to Sidney then south to Sterling (CO), by which point our first storm had all but died but superseded by several new cells that had built further south into Colorado. As we neared Sterling, the supercell nearest us came into view with a ragged wall cloud - this piqued our interest! We nudged west a little, to park up several times and watch this supercell wrapping up and producing yet again some fantastic structure. There were several occasions where it looked like this supercell might produce a tornado (and was appropriately warned), and despite a few spotter reports we never saw anything particularly convincing... we did see a brief gustnado (which appears to have been reported as a "landspout"). The inflow winds significantly cranked up, and we measured 50 mph on a handheld Kestrel, with plenty of lifted dust from the fields.

Tornado warnings were issued for the supercell as it approached and move through Sterling (CO)

Once the supercell approached Sterling it weakened fairly quickly, as numerous additional cells developed in the vicinity. At this point we decided to leave it and undertake a fair few miles to get us slightly closer to tomorrow's target which is many hours away down near the red river (Oklahoma / Texas border).

Day 5 - Tourists in Kansas

SUN 01 JUN

Today was more of an opportunity to position ourselves for the following day's storms, so we drove a few hours north into Kansas, visiting the world's largest ball of twine and the geographical centre of the US, en-route to our overnight stay in Hays (KS). We also finally had the opportunity to have a proper sit-down meal at a reasonable time. There was promise of a decent aurora display overnight, but it appears this peaked (somewhat unexpectedly) the night before.

Chase Day 4 - north central Oklahoma

SAT 31 MAY

I think it's fair to say that with each set of new data (models and observations) that today looked less likely to produce much in the way of severe convection, with an increasingly late initiation. We left Amarillo (TX) with a target of Medicine Lodge (KS), stopping at the Twister museum in Wakita (OK) en-route. I've been to this museum a couple of times before in the past, but there was the addition of props and memorabilia from the 2024 Twisters movie now added to the collection too!

We arrived at Medicine Lodge by late afternoon and sat by the lake watching convection bubbling along a S'ward moving cold front, gradually gaining some height/depth. Because it was hot (low 30s Celsius), cloud bases were fairly high. A cell went up more-or-less overhead and we soon had large drops of rain falling in the vicinity. We nudged south over the Oklahoma border to Alva to keep ahead of this slowly developing cluster of thunderstorms. Towards sunset it became clear that these storms were struggling to produce much aside from a few lightning strikes, some brief heavy rain and gusty winds, so we opted to find a hotel in Ponca City (OK) and enjoy some occasional lightning strikes on our journey there - although the frequency was on a par with UK standards quite frankly!

SPC forecast issued 16:30Z 31 May 2025

View looking NW at developing convection over Medicine Lodge (KS)

On it from initiation!

Sub-severe thunderstorms to the NE of Alva (OK)

Day 3 - Roswell NM

FRI 30 MAY

Since the cold front, and associated Gulf moisture, had been scoured to the south, there wasn't much opportunity for severe thunderstorms across the Plains today. Given a marginal risk of isolated strong storms over the high terrain in New Mexico, after bumping into Simon Lee at our hotel, we decided to amble westwards to Roswell (NM) and take in the alien sights. After grabbing some lunch, we drifted west to watch a couple of (reasonably weak) storms over the Sacramento mountains before driving a few hours back into Texas to a hotel in Amarillo, to be in a better position for the following day's storm potential.

SPC forecast issued 16:30Z 30 May 2025

Chase Day 2 - West Texas

THU 29 MAY

After our overnight stay in Perryton (TX) we headed south through the TX panhandle, stopping at Buc-ee's in Amarillo (TX) en-route to our target of Brownfield (TX). After lunch, we ambled west to watch convection bubbling along an effective cold front stretched west-east to our north.

SPC forecast issued 16:30Z 29 May 2025

Quick stop at Buc-ee's Amarillo

Eventually three cells developed, with strong inflow winds developing in our vicinity. We noticed two short-lived landspouts, revealed by dust circulating around their surface rotation. Eventually the three storms congealed into one large supercell that began to make better progress SE'wards, whipping up an incredible amount of dust. Another, slightly longer-lasting landspout became visible a short distance to the SE of Brownfield, again largely visible courtesy of the significant amounts of dust rotating around its lower circulation. 

Watching a cluster of supercells mid-afternoon near Needmore (TX). Credit Chris Bell

Texas Tech University doppler on wheels near Needmore (TX)

Ground circulation a few miles SE of Brownfield

Circulation filmed by Morrie Gooch

Eventually this storm became so shrouded in dust and precipitation that it became impossible to see any notable structure, other than just a wall of brown/black covering most of our northern sky - it was incredibly dark given the time of day (17:00 local). We trundled SE'wards to keep ahead of this storm... it became tornado-warned, although its presentation on radar looked rather messy and dust/precip wrapped. 

A number of other storm chasers on Highway 137 between Brownfield and Lamesa, plunged into darkness by a wall of rain, hail and lifted dust. Credit Morrie Gooch

We decided that it was unlikely that this storm would produce a highly visible / photogenic tornado given it was very outflow-dominant and had consumed so much dust, so instead we opted to park up on the outskirts of Lamesa underneath an agricultural hangar to let the storm pass over us. Within minutes the winds significantly whipped up, with torrential rain and hail lashing the side and roof of the hangar, and occasionally the car as the wind direction kept changing within the broader circulation of the storm. 

Radarscope screenshot as the tornado-warned storm approached us on the south side of Lamesa

Wind, rain and hail just south of Lamesa filmed by Berni King

Screenshot from the NWS Damage Assessment toolkit on 30 May, highlighting two confirmed EF-1 tornadoes either side of Lamesa - our location, whilst the storm was moving over us, is denoted by the filled red circle. Given the reported end and start time of tornado #1 and #2, an approximate timeline for the mesocyclone tracking through Lamesa is given by the white boxes putting it closest to us between 18:37 to 18:39, roughly the same time we noticed the sudden change in air pressure.

The nearby mesonet station at Lamesa recorded a wind gust of 77 mph and just over an inch of rain. Perhaps more fascinating was the sudden changes in air pressure as the mesocyclone moved overhead, inducing a noticeable pressure sensation in our heads and ears, that kept waxing and waning with each wave of strong winds/heavy rain - akin to rapidly ascending/descending in a plane... I've never felt anything like it with a storm before. The mesonet station recorded a pressure range of 6 hPa over a 40 minute period.

Lamesa (TX) West Texas Mesonet station plot

Once the storm had passed we tried to catch up with a separate tornado-warned storm to the west of Abilene (TX), but it began to weaken / become outflow-dominant before we reached it, so in the end we gave up and grabbed some food and a hotel for the night in Sweetwater (TX). New, sub-severe cells developed nearby/overhead, and produced some decent CG lightning whilst we sat and ate dinner. All-in-all a decent chase day, enhanced by an excellent road network in this part of west Texas which enabled us to keep relatively close to the storm with lots of exit options.