April 28, 2006
Sorry, no pictures.
The first activation of the season. As a cold front approached
the area from the north a dryline was located about one county east of
the Interstate 27 corridor. A low level activation was requested
and a couple of us decided to go take a look. We were directed to
the area near Silverton and Quitaque. Cumulus development was
evident to the north both east and west of the interstate. I went
through Lockney and picked up a trainee, Paul McIntosh KE5HLL,
and we started moving up toward Quitaque. The NWS reported that
no real development was expected as the front seemed to be undercutting
any development rather than helping it. As we were already out on
a fine spring day we continued to the northeast. Towers were
still evident though it was apparent that none had managed to reach the
freezing level as no anvil material was visible. We reached
Quitaque after a bit and met up with the other spotter and his
rider. The towers by this time were being rapidly eroded at the
base by the cool winds from the north. After watching a bit we
headed southwest towards Lockney taking the more scenic route of FM
689. When we reached TX 207 we held up for a while to watch a
storm moving
near Tulia.
We then dropped south to the South Plains Post Office discussing the
path of the May 12,
2006 tornado and where the damage had occurred. After
dropping my trainee off at his house I continued back south to Lubbock.
While we saw no severe weather there were hail reports in the area,
some from the later storm we say and well south a tornado was reported
near Peacock in Stonewall county. See the reports
for the day from the SPC.
