May 9, 2006
The SPC issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the eastern portions of
the South Plains. As I was free for the evening I called for any
trainee that wished to go out and take a look at the storms that were
developing just east of the Lubbock county area. I picked up
Colton Ancell, KE5DXX and we headed east on US 62/82. There were
two rather large well developed cells that were by that time in
northeast Crosby and east central Floyd counties. Both were
showing storm
cumuluform towers with overshooting tops, though the anvils
appeared somewhat glaciated (Image #1). Both towers showed signs
of rotation at times, with striations appearing on the sides of the
towers. They also showed some signs of knuckles in the
backsheared anvil, though the anvil itself was often somewhat glaciated.
#1 Two storms seen from the western edge of Idalou.
As we approached a little closer we received some nowcasting thanks to
Al Hardin, WA5OEO, advising us that the best approach might be to move
north and then east along FM 193. The northern of the two cells
was at that time the stronger as viewed by radar.
However, it was probable that we'd not be able to catch up in time to
view the lower parts of the updraft from the proper position as the
cells were moving fairly rapidly to the east northeast. We
followed this advice and eventually wound up at FM 193 and Texas 70
south of Roaring Springs. A third cell had formed in
between the two cells, either as a split from the northern cell or as
new development. By the time we stopped again the northern and
middle cells seemed to be losing strength. The southern
cell was still somewhat impressive, though the anvil was
looking weaker and it was clearly very high based (Image #2).
#2 Southern cell of the group.
We watched the cells for a bit and I took a few wildflower shots on the
roadside. We could now see some development to the northwest of
the these cells. However, we couldn't reach anyone either via
radio or cell phone. As the cells we were closest too seemed to
be on the way down we decided to head south to Dickens, then back to
Lubbock. As we headed back along US 82 we could see that the
northern development was increasing in strength. When we reached
the Caprock west of Dickens, I stopped and took a shot of the cells
now directly to our north (Image #3). There were at least two
and other development was faintly visible even further to the northwest.
#3 Distant cells to the north,
I believe that the main cell in Image #3 is the cell that went on to
produce the
Childress tornado and other severe impacts out of the Lubbock CWA.
