Day 17 - Reports and Pictures

[Nick F]

Excellent day's chasing today, which more than makes-up for yesterday's bust! I think we drove in total around 600-700 miles from Decatur in north TX SW and west to intercept a supercell between Big Spring and Colorado City in west Texas ... we followed the storm for several hours all the way to Haimilton to the SE, then finally gave up on that storm as it got dark ... then drove south to Lampasas to book into a hotel, where a great lightning show ensued as we entred the town with many cg bolts in the dark ... Paul Sharman has some great video and camera stills of the lightning bolts over the town.

Anyway, some photos of the storm we chased from between Big Spring and Colorado City, many spin-ups and inflow into the storm, some gustnadoes and possible landspouts observed ... though the all illusive tornado didn't show:

Inflow and spin-ups off the fields into the storm:

Soon after this gust front passed through we got pelted by golf-ball sized hail! Youtube clips to follow ...

Storm moved quickly east ... so we then folowed it on the I-20 for a while before dropping SE as the storm grew:

Storm in distance:

- Pileus

[MAF]

Excellent stuff Nick. bet been in a hail shower when its that size of hail is scary, and painful too if you get hit! love the pics, keep safe eh

[Roger J Smith]

Another great chase, I found it fascinating through the day but it's always great to see the actual structure of the storms.

Looks like a bit of a rest from chasing with the cooler air pushing south towards the Gulf coast overnight.

[Nick F]

Ok, 2 in the morning here, but have uploaded the first video instalment, credit to Paul for taking it on his video camera. It is of our car getting pelted by hail up to golf ball size, have a few dents on the roof and bonnet of the car!

Warning: contains strong language

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sCbG6g0XPXU

Have another youtube clip to upload later of lightning as we entered Lampasas - where we are staying now.

[Gorky]

I started late today due to being pretty worn out and was also up in OK, so my target of Brady, TX was going to be tough to make. I set off and lost all Internet access after passing Weatherford. I picked up a radar update in Brownwood showing cells off to the West of San Angelo, but still dropped south to Brady.

Getting there I checked radar again at a Days Inn, and saw a storm heading just south of due East (deviant motion compared ot the other cells) and really cranking. I left pretty much immediately after obtaining a loop of the storm for the last hour on GR Level 3.

First site of the storm showed anvils towering above some nearer junk storms and starting to block out the sun.

Over the next hill, I could see the base in the distance. It was certainly not high based which was a turn up for the books after yesterdays storms. The highish horizontal scud actually had a vertical tube decending from it when I first saw it. Looked very much like a tornado, but clearly not as this is not the area you would see one It only lasted a few seconds also.

A bit closer and I can see more of the base. Looks like a wall cloud or 2 very close to the ground, although the slightly hilly terrain may be deceiving.

Over the next hill and it's looking even better.

One area starts to consolodate into a solid feature.

I have moved closer again and the storm has metamorphosed somewhat. There is now a perfect hook on GRLevel3 with 'flying eagle' radar presentation, not that I can see it at this moment. This is a shot of the storm from GRLevel3 at the time which someone else saved

And this is how it looks from the ground. The wall cloud here is visibly rotating. I have footage of this as my camera battery had charged by this point. It looks pretty cool sped up somewhat but it is shakycam footage as I did not have time to get the tripod set up.

Inflow bands into the storm at this point

Inflow getting stronger a minute or two later. I have video of the structure as the inflow changes into a nice crocodile mouth cloud formation.

The above mentioned 'crocodile' cloud formation. Note the area of rotation is now starting to become outflow dominant. I believe at this point it has lost any chance of dropping a tornado anytime soon. However, 2 reports come in from this storm shortly after. I was looking at the storm as these reports came in and saw nothing to verify them...

At this point I decide to blast through Brady to keep ahead of it, but I do not make it. In Brady, winds gusted to 70mph+ bringing down tree branches shop signs etc, sending rubbish bins flying across the road in front of the car etc. I took cover at the Days Inn again but had no net access there anymroe. I assume the storm knocked it out. From there on in, I never got ahead of the storms, and they seemed to backbuild on me.I spent 2 hours driving to Lampassas and was never once out of the core of insanely heavy rain. I could see barely 10 metres in front of the car at points. Extensive flash flooding was noted in San Sabo and Lampasas as I drove through each town. Most of this was captured on video which wil be sorted at a later date.

at the end of the day, I spent some time trying to capture lightning in Lampasas. Very difficult conditions hampered me, with the lightning almost overhead, and alternating betewen weak and very bright. Most shots were badly underdone or overdone, and the location was limited to one awning protecting the camera from rain with trees in front.

This is the only shot I could vaguely rescue with a bit of post processing from the earlier attempts.

After I got the settings about right, the lightning moved out of view for the most part and I only got 1 good shot after that. The lightning was amazing elsewhere though.

A very good day however, despite no tubes! Some good video should be on the way when I get an hour or so spare (Friday probably!)

[Cloud 10]

Ok, 2 in the morning here, but have uploaded the first video instalment, credit to Paul for taking it on his video camera. It is of our car getting pelted by hail up to golf ball size, have a few dents on the roof and bonnet of the car!

Warning: contains strong language

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sCbG6g0XPXU

Have another youtube clip to upload later of lightning as we entered Lampasas - where we are staying now.

Great video with the perfect choice of music by Massive Attack.

[Rustynailer]

Great pictures and videos, my top prize goes to Gorkey and his crocodile inflow clouds

Great documentation from you both, I would be swearing also re' the golf ball hail

[Nick F]

Another video clip on youtube, this time of lightning as we enter through Lampasas in south central TX, where we are staying tonight:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-M3J8-d6M

[dogs32]

excellent vids and pics guys.....love the lightning pics......Gorky

that black storm cloud looked frightening Nick.F..

Nick did you move because of the hail or what could of been in that dark cloud...just curios..I think I would of moved just because of the color of that thing forget about the hail.....

[SHOUY]

Great video and pictures Guys, Lovin it all. If you look at the hail storm video i cant belive that a motorbike rides past!!! Thats got to hurt if you get smacked by one of those golf ball size hail!!!!!! Keep up the chasing. Take care.....

[NL]

I agree with Rusty, Nathans shot of the inflow is incredible but i'd be brickin' it with no

data to tell me if there's a tube around..!!! Lookin forward to Paul S's lightning video i

followed the action up til around 3am(BST) and as Roger has said great to see the structure an'all.

Tuned into a few live streamers too but streams where quite poor most of the time but managed

a few glimpses of what the teams were enduring like driving almost blind in those downpours.

Bet ya'll lookin forward to a bit R & R after all those miles you've covered over the last few days..!!

[pottyprof]

Super photos and video guys.. Great stuff..

[Paul Sherman]

Some pictures from yesterday, really enjoyed the chase and was literally seconds behind the Elephant Trunk tornado which I am guessing was only viewable from the West

- NE Of Big Spring, Circulation was incredible

- After the Hail hit us took this Pano

- Moving further away

- Texas or England

- Our Position

Some Pics for Dogs32 On my Canon 350d

Ended in Lampasas

Paul Sherman

[Ross B]

Great pics and reports guys

Is there a reciever for the Barons system on the car roof? I've just been looking into it as i shall hopefuly be out chasing next year!

[NL]

Like the panoramic view of that tornadic storm Paul.. nice...

Really thought you'd get on that tornado yesterday, just goes to show

you can still be in the right location but if ya on the wrong side of the

storm you get obscured by clouds, rain or hail.. Well might catch something

today if you decide to chase, if not a few days of suntan catch-up... B)

Now we're at the start of week 3 of May lets hope for some more serious severe

weather next week, early GFS indicates potential for an active week ahead?

Edited May 15, 2008 by NL

[dogs32]

lovely juvely Paul...I like and im dead envious......well done B) ...looked close...i bet the thunder was loud

Edited May 15, 2008 by dogs32

[Tom Lynch]

Some pictures from yesterday, really enjoyed the chase and was literally seconds behind the Elephant Trunk tornado which I am guessing was only viewable from the West

- NE Of Big Spring, Circulation was incredible

- After the Hail hit us took this Pano

- Moving further away

- Texas or England

- Our Position

Some Pics for Dogs32 On my Canon 350d B)

Ended in Lampasas

Paul Sherman

Paul

Dave is asking if you are going to Rockies BBQ this Saturday

Tom

[Nick F]

Paul

Dave is asking if you are going to Rockies BBQ this Saturday

Tom

Hi Tom,

Paul's driving atm, but yes, we are going ... give Ian a call on his mobile.We could possibly head upto OK City/Okarche tomorrow and meet up with you and Dave if you aren't doing anything, we aren't chasing today and heading north, currently near Dallas atm.

[Gorky]

Just got done taking some stills of the CG lightning from my video camera. Video of the storm is being capped right now but here are the shots!

(The last one was a little too bright for the camera to cope with! B) )

Edited May 15, 2008 by Gorky

[grab my graupel]

Just got done taking some stills of the CG lightning from my video camera. Video of the storm is being capped right now but here are the shots!

(The last one was a little too bright for the camera to cope with! )

I dont believe those shots Nathan...That lightning looks so Evil

[Rustynailer]

That lightning is very intense, especially for video stills.

In America everything is bigger and more intense

[grab my graupel]

That lightning is very intense, especially for video stills.

In America everything is bigger and more intense

I thought you got lightning like that all the time Russ in the IOW

Seriously though Russ those pics above are Jaw Dropping aren't they mate

[Gorky]

The storm was spitting CG's out left right and centre. Most impressive display I have every seen. Unfortunately, I went into battle with 20 seconds of battery life on my camera! and the spare was dead also. I was charging one whilst using the other for a minute or so, then swapping batteries repeatedly, just to get what footage I could. Very stupid mistake to make

Edited May 15, 2008 by Gorky

[Rustynailer]

Yes definitely GMG, if that was at night I am sure it would be that bright one would call it blinding

And furthermore although the lightning on the IoW is pretty good, its not as bright as that

Edited May 15, 2008 by Rustynailer

[grab my graupel]

The storm was spitting CG's out elf tright and centre. Most impressive display I have every seen. Unfortunately, I went into battle with 20 seconds of battery life on my camera! and the spare was dead also. I was charging one whilst using the other for a minute or so, then swapping batteries repeatedly, just to get what footage I could. Very stupid mistake to make

That is such a shame and just typical that it happens at such a crucial time...Even so, the pics you did get give a really good

Idea of the intesity.