Yesterday, I learned there is almost nowhere that has a good breakfast in Childress.
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had a Slight Risk over southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico, with a 2% Tornado Threat Ring in the same area. It was a long jog for us, but we decided to do it.
We left Childress under off-and-on morning convection. However, near Ralls, TX, we passed just behind a severe thunderstorm that dropped quarter-sized hail. We stopped and took a picture, and tweeted it to the Lubbock NWS.
We stopped in Lubbock for a few supplies and then ducked south, chasing the cold front that was trekking south, causing brief convection everywhere it went.
In Midland, we had the choice between going west to Kermit, TX, or going south to Rankins, TX. Both had cells. We chose to keep up with the storm to the south, as that is where the boundary was headed.
The storms ended up a bust. We did meet a few nice stray cats in Rankins, then ran into our friends, Charles and Kathy. We also got a few pictures of this roll cloud.
In Rankins, we watched the storm for a few minutes, but we were running out of daylight and the storms were merging into a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) and becoming unchaseable. We headed north to Midland, stopping to take a few pictures along the way.
After we got settled into our hotel, we got slammed with strong winds from a convective mess that had globbed up to our west. It rained hard for a minute or so, but the winds were the real fun.
We were originally targeting Lubbock, TX, for the night, but upon searching for pet-friendly hotels, we decided instead to stay in Midland, TX, knowing today would be a long day, if we chased that threat.
Our route for the day:
Thank you for reading my post.
The forecasts from the National Weather Service are from The NWS Homepage. The upper air soundings and mesoscale analysis plots are from the Storm Prediction Center website. The satellite data, model data, and forecasted soundings are from College of DuPage – SATRAD
High Plains Chasing 