Looking
west from FM 3397.
Though somewhat ominous looking, after observing for some time, this
area was seen to be drifting southwest and filling in with more cloud material.
It was never completely clear if this was attached at any point to the
cloud base or just blowing along near it.
Moving further southwest to just south of Enochs on Texas 214 we began
to observe a more definite lowered area which was attached to the base
and which at times showed extreme vertical motion of the cloud material.
Looking
WSW from Tx 214 S of Enochs.
This area persisted for a long time, possibly 30 minutes of more, with periods of continued rapid vertical motion, usually seen through breaks in the lowest portions of the intake area. The areas nearest to us did not seem to be rising at the same level. Though rapid "escalator" motion was seen at times on the upper section of the lowering above. Though a slight rise somewhat blocks the view, this lowering is very close to ground level. Despite the rapid vertical motion, little if any rotation was seen at this point.
As the section continued to draw more and more moisture into the updraft,
the lowering filled in and began to show signs of rotation in the vertical
plane.
Looking
WSW from Tx 214 S of Enochs.
This lowered feature continued to show this rotation as the size of the feature became more pronounced as shown in the next shot. A version showing just how the area was rotating can be seen here.
Looking
WSW from Tx 214 S of Enochs.
After a while the area decreased somewhat and precip began to fall through the center of the storm. The inflow took on a more vertical nature, though the "rolling" seen earlier seemed to go away. The inflow was still drawing in the moisture at a good rate and there was still good, rapid vertical motion along the front of the lowering.
Looking
W from Tx 214 N of Morton.
After a while the radar indicated that the area of most intensity was shifting back to west or southwest of Morton. Moving to this area showed considerable low cloud material but no signs of organization as shown in the next shot.
Texas
114 looking SW from just W of Morton.
As this area of the storm moved closer to Morton, we retreated back to northeast of Morton on FM 597. Another storm to the east began to merge with the Morton storm and the intake area became somewhat less organized though the base of the storm in general began to show the curvature indicative of a strongly rotating storm. This will be shown on the next page.
