Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: May 27, 2015
Miles Logged: 457
States Chased: TX
Tornadoes Witnessed: 4
Largest Hail Encountered: 1.25"
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Waking up in Childress
What an amazing day to cap off the end of my official “chasecation”, and probably one of the best of 2015. Woke up in Childress with a target of Balko, OK, but ended up driving to Perryton, TX. In Perryton, we stopped and grabbed lunch at Subway. After we ate, we headed just south of town to time lapse the turkey towers. The cumulus field over us was very healthy looking. Jari took a time lapse video of the tower going up which was the start of the the Canadian, Texas Tornado storm. One of my very few chases to observe a storm from Cumulus to tornado to rope out.
No storm motion
We headed back south on 83 towards Canadian. The storm had an original motion somewhat to the northeast, but basically sat stationary for the rest of the day, moving perhaps 10 miles to the southeast throughout the lifecycle. It was anchored on or really close to a stationary boundary that was north of I-40 all afternoon.
First Funnel
We headed south to TX 23 and pulled off and witnessed the first cone funnel of the day. It’s inconclusive if it touched down, but it was quite persistent.
Then the storm morphed for at least an hour if not 2, and became to look outflow dominant and kind of crappy. It was at this point we finally bailed way south on 83 into Canadian and up US60 to get in better position.
Canadian Texas Tornado
The wall cloud finally reorganized and after awhile a nice cone tornado touched down and lasted for about 12 minutes. What a pretty tornado and an amazing storm. Jena and Jari both got plenty of photos and video of the tornado.
The rope out of the Canadian tornado was quite spectacular, like the storm was putting on a show for us.
Next two tornadoes
Things looked as if they would wrap up again to the south. I was busy editing and uploading video, so we repositioned to the south. The storm would go on to produce 2 more tornadoes right along 83 just west of Canadian.
Broken Window
I setup tripods and closed the trunk on my car, and the back window shattered. Apparently the trunk was damaged earlier in the week and hit the glass and shattered it. Let me tell you, that is a mess I don’t want to clean up again. Once the glass broke, we knew our day was over so we started heading south towards Shamrock. This kind of put an end to our day, and eventually we headed south towards Shamrock. The window finally came completely out south of Canadian, so we had to clean some of the glass out.
Everyone converged upon Big Vern’s Steakhouse in Shamrock, TX.
