May 24 2003
Storms developed on this day in the western and northwestern portions
of the Lubbock NWS area. Early development found it hard to
persist but once larger storm cells began to move into the state from
New Mexico, better organization resulted.
After watching some weak updrafts to the west of Levelland, I moved to
the northwest to observe a new cell moving down from extreme western
Parmer county into Bailey County. Along with a couple of other
spotters we moved southwest
of Muleshoe and positioned ourselves in front of the storm which was
now
moving almost directly south.
Initial observations were made from FM 1731 and FM 746.
Click on the thumbnails or the linked #'s to see a normal size view.
#1
Looking west-northwest from the intersection of FM 1731 and FM
746.
This area shows a shelf cloud type lowering. Due to the
motion
of this type storm to the south or east southeast, the main updraft
often
seems to alternate between a shelf cloud appearance and a wall cloud
appearance.
Our spotting group refers to these as CAC's or complex accessory
clouds
due to the changing nature. These have shown the ability to
develop
at least weak and usually short-lived tornadoes.
#2
Looking west from FM 1731 south of the above intersection.
The cloud feature has now changed appearance slightly but has a
nice lowered area
on the right center part of the shot. The color above the curved
"slot" shows a definite green. Reports were made of large hail
to the northwest of Muleshoe.
#3
A couple of minutes later I managed to get lucky and catch a
lightning
strike while photographing the intake area. This was the first time
I've
managed to catch one on a handheld digital camera.
#4
Having moved a little south on FM 1731, the storm started to
take
on the appearance of a high precipitation supercell. The well
defined
shelf layers curved from the western limit of visibility across to the
northeastern
area. The main updraft we could detect was to the southeastern
side
of the base with the storm continuing to move almost straight south.
#5
Again having moved a little further south, playing leapfrog as
to
positioning with another Team member, Jason Jordan KC5KND, I shot the
main
updraft area showing a lowering with considerable ragged scud
underneath.
Jason was or at least had been closer to this area and was
reporting
definite rotation. Due to the low contrast and lighting he wasn't
able
to see if the rotation was extending to the ground. At around
this
time the Bailey County Sherriff's office was reporting a brief tornado
north
and west of the FM 1731 and FM 298 intersection. This information
was
shared with us by a unit of the Muleshoe Fire Department who was also
out
on spotting duties.
#6
Once again I moved south on FM 1731 and pullled off to observe.
The
western area seemed to be forming scud underneath it but was also
showing
signs of outflow pushing out to the south from the main precipitation
area.
To the north there was still a decent intake area but it too was
beginning
to look more outflow dominant it that area.
#7
After a few minutes the outflow reached the area directly to my
west
with blowing dust really dropping visibility. At this point it
might
have been starting to move with a bit more easterly of a component or
it
was developing to the east.
#8
Moving south to FM 54 and then a short distance east on FM 54 I
shot
this image oft the eastern flank of the storm with what appears to be
an
inflow band moving into it. While the main updraft was likely
still
in the area where the inflow band met the base, we kept an eye on the
storm
to the west as it continued to show lowered areas and developing scud
in
advance of the outflow boundary.
#9
Now having moved almost east to Enochs, this is the area of
interest
to the west. Two of the lowerings are sloped like normal shelf
clouds
but the middle one has slopes to both sides. Interesting behavior.
#10
From just north of Enochs on Texas 214 there is still lowerings
evident
to the west. They are keeping pretty much the same relative
position
from the outflow and precipition behind them but I am too far away to
determine
if they show any rotation. It's not likely that it would be very
rapid
though at times some weak rotation and some vertical motion did seem to
occur.
(Brightness had to be increased for this shot to be useful.)
#11
The main updraft still seemed to be on the eastern portion of
the
storm, though the storm seemed to be extending further to the east into
what
could likely be called a small line storm. The area in the shot
shows
a ragged bowl shaped lowering to the north northeast of Enochs.
As
this approached it was accompanied by light precip so I had to move
south.
(Brightness had to be increased for this shot to be useful.)
#12
This was shot about a mile south of Enochs. Visibility in
light
precip and blowing dust from the outlfow makes this a terrible shot.
As
with the previous two, enhancement was required for anything to be
seen.
There was a developing area to the northeast of Enochs.
This
appeared to be the new main intake area but the road choices and the
wish
to keep the southwestern area under observation led us to go south at
the
time.
If we had gone east northeast out of Enochs we might have been in
better
shape to see what happened in Lamb and Hockley counties. However,
the
history of large hail and the observed strong outflow kept that choice
a
little too unhealthy. Jason and I continued south through Morton
(after
a brief side trip) and at the intersection of Texas 214 and FM 1585 we
heard
the reports of a tornado in Lamb county. We tried to get east and
then
north through the outflow but weren't able to reach that area or to the
area
of the tornado reported in Hockley county.
As the storm ended becoming a moderately sized line storm approaching
Lubbock,
we took shelter at Reese Center and waited it out.
Back
to
the Weather Page.
Back to Main Page.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12