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*