Day 12: June 7, 2014

Total Miles: 431

Total Driving Time: 8 hours and 0 minutes 

Today was our last chase day! We left at 11:00 am CDT and did our weather discussion on the road in order to be in good positioning for where storms were expected to develop. We headed west towards New Mexico and stopped for lunch in Tucumcari, NM. After lunch, we went 20 miles south to watch a small storm and get closer to the pre-existing outflow boundary. We left this storm and headed west then south towards a a second storm developing around Fort Sumner (~2:40 pm MDT).

 

Around 4:15 pm MDT a wall cloud could be noticed with this storm (we were 15 miles west of Fort Sumner). We kept with this storm for some time and then decided to head southwest towards storms that were intensifying around 5:50 pm MDT.

We had to move fast in order to get ahead of these storms and avoid the hail core. The one storm had a well-defined updraft and soon the storm had a mothership appearance (32 miles north of Roswell). The storm behind the mothership supercell formed a wall cloud. We watched both of these storms for an hour or so and then headed towards Roswell, NM. We stopped around 7:40 pm MDT in Roswell to watch these storms into the night. We had dinner at Whataburger and arrived at our hotel in Roswell, NM around 9:45 pm MDT.    

 

 *Photo from Molly Matott*

 

  

      

Day 11: June 6, 2014

Total Miles: 480

Total Driving Time: 8 and 45 minutes

Today was the day…we finally saw a TORNADO!

We met at 11:00 am CDT for our weather discussion and then headed towards our initial target area of Boise City, OK. We waited for some time and decided to head towards New Mexico where storms were beginning to develop. Around 4:00 pm MDT, we were between two cells (one to the north and one to the south of us). We decided to go after the cell to our south because it had more potential then the storm to the north. As we were driving, one of the students realized that the storm we were going away from had produced a funnel cloud! We stopped immediately (~4:20 pm MDT) and saw in front of us a tornado 20 miles north of Abbott, NM. The tornado was on the ground for about one minute.

 

 

*Picture from Mike Ginnick*

We continued to follow the south cell as it kept intensifying. Around 5:00 pm MDT, this storm (with a tornado warning) was located 3 miles SE of Roy, NM. This storm had a well-defined wall cloud, strong rotation, and frequent lightning. At 6:00 pm MDT, the storm was located around Mosquero, NM and the wall cloud could be seen over a butte. We took one last look at the storm around 7:15 pm MDT (25 miles east of Mosquero, NM) before calling it a night. We stopped on our way to our hotel to observe a rainbow, impressive mammatus clouds, and the sunset. We arrived at our hotel in Amarillo, TX around 11:30 pm CDT.

*Picture from Patrick Cavlin*

 

*Picture from Patrick Cavlin*

*Picture from Patrick Cavlin*

Day 10: June 5, 2014

Total Miles: 672  

Total Driving Time: 11 hours and 0 minutes

We were so close to seeing a tornado today! We began our day with a daily weather discussion at 9:00 am CDT. The forecast team decided that our target location would be in eastern Colorado. While heading west, a storm developed south of Denver around 1:00 pm MDT. The team decided that this would be the storm we would go after. We were not sure if we would make it to the storm because we were miles away. Luckily, this storm was slow moving so we were able to get ahead of the storm. We stopped in Hugo, CO for a quick break around 5:15 pm MDT to get gas and then head back on the road to see this supercell. We stopped near Wild Horse, CO (~5:45 pm MDT) to watch the wall cloud develop and see if this storm would produce a tornado. Around 6:00 pm MDT, a small funnel cloud was seen, but then retreated back into the wall cloud.

We decided to travel southwesterly to get closer to the supercell since the storm was moving slowly (around 25 mph). As we got closer, this storm developed an impressive beavers tail  and another wall cloud around 6:45 pm MDT. At 6:50 pm MDT, lots of dust was being picked up and the beaver's tail continued to lower. The lightning from this storm became prominent so we had to continue watching the storm in the vans. We followed the storm, even though it looked like the storm was weakening. At 7:45 pm MDT, a wall cloud and a few funnel clouds formed again, showing signs of strengthening. At 8:20 pm MDT, a scud bomb could be noticed from this supercell. We were all hopeful that this storm would produce a tornado, but it did not happen. We stayed on this storm until dark, got dinner in Lamar, CO, and then travelled over three hours to our hotel in Guymon, OK. We arrived at our hotel around 1:30 am CDT.  

  

Day 9: June 4, 2014

 Total Miles: 0

Total Driving Hours: 0 hours and 0 minutes

Due to the significant damage to the vans, today was our second down day. We met at 10:00 am CDT to discuss yesterday’s events. The team was told that the vans would be fixed Thursday morning and that we should be on the road by 12:00 pm CDT. We spent the day relaxing, playing ultimate frisbee in the pool, and going out to dinner at Chances R, a local restaurant in York, NE. We stayed in the same hotel as the previous night.