OK/TX Panhandles: May 4, 2019
Yesterday’s storm chase was focused on the High Plains. The first stop was Amarillo, TX, to stop and assess the environment around midday. I opted to drift north, as there were signs that convection would soon be initiating in southeastern Colorado. Another target area was farther south, where storms would encounter more favorable low-level moisture, but might not initiate until closer to sunset.
A cluster of semi-discrete storms formed in Baca County, Colorado, in the far southeastern corner of the state. As I got closer, I was not too impressed with what I was seeing. With dew-points in the mid to upper 40s, these storms were struggling to intensify and cloud bases were quite high.
One of the storms did start to better organize as it passed into the Oklahoma panhandle. I dropped south through the storm, that was producing large hail, to get a better look from the south side. There still wasn’t much of a visual and storms were starting to fire farther south, near and south of I-40 in West Texas. For the time, I stayed with the northern storm(s).
As the storm moved across the Oklahoma panhandle, it continued to intensify, as there was somewhat more favorable low-level moisture with south and east extent. Near-surface winds of 10-20 knots (kicking up a lot of dust in the inflow region) can help with surface-based storm intensification, but dew-points were only around 50 degrees, so moisture was still quite marginal.
The next move was to drift south a bit, as more storms were firing in the northern Texas panhandle, but the most intense supercells verified near and south of I-40. There was also a tornado debris signature on radar just northeast of Adrian. I was too far away to catch this storm, but I did catch some mammatus at sunset on the back side of it.
I still consider this a successful chase for having supercells to follow and a few photo opportunities, but it was clear that any bonafide tornado threat was going to be where there was better low-level moisture. Dew-points were in the lower 50s near I-40 and even higher farther south. I hung back north for logistical reasons and jumped on some of the early storms in hopes for a longer window of chasing. I also had the ability to have the storms mostly to myself, as most storm chasers were on storms farther south.
