Scattered Rissa

Monday (May 25)

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We traveled from Norman to just southeast of Amarillo to meet up with the Armada. We waited around for some time, and we were then told to head for Estelline to set up for future targets. After approximately 15 minutes on the side of the highway in Estelline, we were instructed to deploy on a target storm just to our northeast that had the possibility of becoming supercellular. We attempted to deploy, but the storm’s updraft was obscured by low clouds.

We packed up and headed off in an attempt to get in better position. Sadly, before we could re-deploy, the storm died.

We sat around where we were for about 30 minutes or so while FC decided which storm to target next. We eventually got the word to target a storm about 2 to 2.5 hours off to our Northwest.

Sadly, the storm died before we could get to it, once again. FC tried to have us target another storm which was again way off in the distance. No one made it to said storm, however, and we all just gave up and went to Sonic for dinner. We all made our way to Childress where we completely collapsed for the night.

Tuesday (May 26)

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Tuesday looked much more impressive, with high CAPE values in the western part of central Texas, just west of the Dallas metro. We started in Childress and were instructed to be in Wichita Falls by 2pm. We got there, ate lunch, then were told to make our way to Gainesville, and after sitting there for a while, to move east and south of the area. We moved, but we just assumed that nothing would be in a rural enough area west of the metro and before daylight so that it could be targeted. The supercellular storm of to the west of Ft. Worth, however, had far different plans for us. It made a north-south split, after which the south split died, but the north split intensified and moved NNW out in to rural territory. We were instructed to get there as fast as possible, and we were one of the first teams in position (hooray!). We got some great images of an anti-cyclonic, left-moving supercell. Yay for success!

We are now currently down in Norman for at least one more night, possibly a second tomorrow (Thursday). We will then be traveling to KS to get in place for possible targets this weekend and the beginning of next week in the upper midwest and central great plains. The pattern is finally looking more seasonable! YAY!

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