Storm Chase Log 25 May 2005

[Guest ChaserUK]

Hello guys, sorry about the delay of this report but when we arrived here last night the wireless router had been taken our by lighning.

Anyway, what can be said about yesterday. We targeted Logan, NM initially but saw cells breaking out of the mountains so we decided to drive up and meet them. Not regular chase country more like something out of a cowboy film - very isolated so we had to re-fuel in Las Vegas, NM. However to get there we had to take a mountain pass up towards the base of a very nasty rotating updraft - not fun and very scarey indeed - especially when you look out the side of the window and see a 2,000ft shear drop - so worried about gusty winds!

We arrived in Las Vegas (NM not Nevada!) and initially drove through some small hail and CG. We are now at 7,500ft. As we leave Las Vegas large hail started to fall. This time, some was golf ball HARD hail, the roads became white, the noise was unreal and our ears are still ringing - how our windshield - or any other window held I do not know. Needless to say the vehicle picked up quite a few dents.

As we rounded the mountain clearing the hail the cells has organised into some monster supercells and we could see the back edge of three of them (have grabbed a pic from barons to show this). The cell closest to us showed great rotation and massive uplift within the wall cloud. Barons confirmed the MESO but no tornado - god knows why it did not produce. We did however see a perfect rotating FC but never made it to the ground.

We then follow each base all the way down to Ft Sumner. However, as it went dark and we are at such high altitude, the low ragged bases of the updraft regions of these storms looked like they were touching the ground. The lightning was 360 degrees and continous - the most intense I have seen. Every flash seemed to illuminate wall clouds and funnels - very scarey again but we powered on underneath all this to get to Ft Sumner. To make matters worse, there was radar dropout right over our location so MESO's and hail cores were not showing up!

Anyway, I do not have time to post all images so will just leave you with a few more to follow tonight.

Pic 1 - Barons, right behind the supercells - we are the white brick remember!

Pic 2 - The rotating updraft we had to get 2,000ft closer to.

Pic 3 - The hail covered road.

Pic 4 - Single rotating updraft confirming Supercell status.

Pic 5 - RFD cutting into the side of the updraft tower.

Pic 6 - Rather disorganised wall cloud but rotating all the same.

Pic 7 - A spectacular sky as the sun goes down.

Today looks good and we are already almost in positon - a repeat of yesterday perhaps!

[Paul R]

We arrived in Las Vegas (NM not Nevada!) and initially drove through some small hail and CG.  We are now at 7,500ft.  As we leave Las Vegas large hail started to fall.  This time, some was golf ball HARD hail, the roads became white, the noise was unreal and our ears are still ringing - how our windshield - or any other window held I do not know.  Needless to say the vehicle picked up quite a few dents.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The car hire company's gonna be overjoyed at the state of the car.

Spectacular pics chaser. Amazing!

Edited May 26, 2005 by emerson

[pottyprof]

some fantastic photos matt.. :lol:

stay safe!!

[Guest Mr_S]

once again im amazed at the pics there chaser :lol: Im still jealous of you!!!

Nice crack on the front window 2!! lol

outta curiosity, is there any insurance questions that come with hiring a car in U.S ? like "are you going to be storm chasing in this vechile through large damaging hail?"

[Kent Snow]

Awesome chase log and photos!

Love the Hail one especially.

[SteveB]

Great stuff once again