May 5, 2006
See the NWS link for May
2 through 5 for more information about the weather.
Under Construction!!!
A watch was issued for the area in the early afternoon. Several
storms were firing up to the southwest with good conditions for very
severe weather. I picked up my trainee, Colton Ancell, KE5DXX and
we started southwest towards the storms. As we were heading
towards the Brownfield area new development was occuring in eastern
Terry county and moving into Lynn county. We dropped south on FM
168 to FM 211 and started watching the area. This was a day of
numerous bases, lots of scud forming, widely scattered precipitation
and somewhat poor viewing conditions. There were, however,
numerous things worth watching and lowered
areas abounded from the multitude of cells (Image #1).
#1 A typical view during most of the event.
We watched the areas following along east on FM 211 to about Lakeview
where we started finding golfball and even larger hail stones on the
ground. They weren't widespread but sufficient to dissuade us
from trying to move to the east for a better view of the base.
Other spotters were reporting wall clouds occuring and some rotation
was occuring. However, most weren't persistent. We
continued playing with this cell until a tornado was reported northwest
of Brownfield. We quickly headed toward it to assist the spotters
in that area, leaving the current cell to those with a more appropriate
view. We reached US 62/82 at Meadow, but the heavy precipitation
and probable large hail to the west convinced us to head further
south. We missed the desired road and eventually started north
from near Brownfield along FM 2066. Unfortunately, during the
drive southwest we could not view the action due to a large embankment
on the west side of the road, and increasing precipitation. The
spotters reported several cycles of funnel and debris cloud with one
spotter (Steve Slay, KC5MVY) getting a decent
picture of one of the tornadoes as seen on the Lubbock page for the
day.
We wound up too late for that show, arriving at FM 211 and FM 2066 as a
new radar detected mesocyclone was reported pretty much overhead.
We could see a decent intake area and moved slightly west toward it and
met the aforementioned spotter moving rapidly east on FM 211. We
turned back east as the first hail fell. We continued east in
rain and hail until finally clearing it back near the FM 211 and FM 168
intersection. We could see a lowered area to the southwest.
We decided to risk moving south on FM 168 to position south of the
intake area. It was becoming evident at this point that all the
convection was now moving to the east or southeast instead of the
earlier NE movement. We continued south safely, though
experiencing some small hail. Reaching US 380 we moved along the
southern flank of the storm which as before produced numerous
lowerings, often with some rotation and some vertical motion. The
cell seemed to be increasing its forward motion as well. After a
while we found ourselves to the rear too much to be usefull. We
then began moving west towards a new storm that was near Plains in
Yoakum county. It had been tornado warned after a public
report. We moved south on FM 168 to its end, then west on FM 1076
To TX 137. The western
cell was quite impressive with a large shelf cloud to the south,
inflow bands to the northeast, and a precipitation core centered in the
middle (
Image #2).
#2 A new storm in the west, near Plains.
We moved south on TX 137 to FM 213 then west. This storm was
rapidly moving southeast towards us. We stopped along FM 213 east
of FM 403 and I took shots of the eastern
(Image #3) and southern
(Image #4) edges of the storm's base.
#3 Looking north at the likely intake area.
#4 Looking west from the same location as #3.
We then moved west to FM 403 on FM 213. The best visual
indication of an updraft
area (Image #5) was to the north of the position. The storm
was maintaining a fast southeast or even south-southeast
movement. This required a repositioning south to avoid the
storm. Reports of hail and high winds were coming in as we moved
south.
#5 Looking north towards a lowered area of the intake.
Moving south on FM 403 put us just west of the storm as it moved
southeast. There was a nice
double rainbow visible (Image #6)to our east. Notice the
white area of cloud to the left side of the image. While we were
discussing the event with the team members across the road we noticed
and confirmed that the lowered area was rotating. I missed
getting a shot of the funnel that formed briefly as I was busy
reporting the event to the NWS. The organized rotation lasted
only a few seconds and was pretty much dissipated by the time I could
get another image. One of the other spotters across the road got
a good shot of the funnel at its best but I don't have a link to it,
and don't know if it will get posted to the web.
#6 A double rainbow with advancing scud (left edge).
The funnel quickly lost it's shape and became a swirling mass of mostly
disorganized scud. There was never any indication of
connection with the ground, and I am not sure whether there was any
visual signs of a mesocyclone above it. There was too much low
hanging cloud material present to give good visibility much above the
surface. Comparing the two images, #6 and #7, shows how brief the
event had to be, as the clouds were moving quite fast.
#7 The remanants of the dissipating funnel.
We stayed with the cell a while longer, moving south out of our area
into Gaines county, then east into Dawson county. After this it
was decided that it had become too much of an outflow event and we
returned back to Lubbock.
#5 Looking north towards a lowered area of the intake.