Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: May 24, 2014
Miles Logged: 718
States Chased: TX
Milestones:
Changed Andrew Newcomb's tire before the shelf cloud got us.
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Starting in Midland
Another day of cutoff low chasing. Started the morning out in Midland, TX doing laundry and taking our time before heading out around 12:30-1pm. Jari and I headed through Midland, then got stuck on the storm coming up from Odessa. We ended up heading north and got into some small hail near Gardendale, TX.
Dropping South
After playing in that mess for a bit, we dropped south to I-20 with a target near I-10. Storms down near Fort Stockton seemed like the most intense on radar, so we set course for intercepting those. The problem with chasing in South Texas is the lack of roads. We ended up on the service road of I-10 as a tornado warned supercell came towards us. Unfortunately we couldn’t see it until it was almost on us, and when we did we realized it had a shelf cloud and was outflow dominant.
We continued east on I-10 where the speed limit was an awesome 80 MPH, and got off near Sheffield onto TX Highway 349 and headed south. The terrain was quite hilly at this point and we got a decent view of the storms from a hilltop. I made the mistake of leaving my phone on the roof of my car trying to get signal and drove off with it on there. It fell off onto TX-349 and managed to actually be fine for almost an hour as we got about 15-20 minutes down the road before I realized it was missing. I headed back and found it where we were sitting in the middle of the road.
Changing a Tire
We found a nice place to setup for photos. Jari was able to get a couple decent lightning photos. Andrew Newcomb and Connor McCrory showed up, and Andrew had a flat tire. So I helped him get that tire changed. Luckily I had a lug wrench because his new car did not.
We would call the chase due to lack of roads and the fact we had decided to head west to sightsee for the next few days.
