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PAGE 18

June 7

June 7, 1998 East Central New Mexico and W. Texas Severe Weather

We left Oklahoma City around 8 am as a mini chaser caravan. Kathryn Ray was
chasing with me in my vehicle. Pat McMahon and Brian Stertz followed closely
behind in their vehicles. We all did not chase together in the same vehicle today
because of uncertainty where the chase would end up. Pat and Brian had to get
back to work within the next couple of days, and needed to start heading north
and east towards their hometowns of Detroit and St.Louis respectively. We all
started for the original target area of the N.Texas Panhandle and the Oklahoma
Panhandle. Unfortunately, convection continually popped in the Texas Panhandle
causing the airmass to become rain-cooled(temperatures in the upper 50's to the
lower 60's) hardly the right environment for supercells. The dry line was expected
to slowly move into E. New Mexico during the day. A pseudo warm front was also
expected to be in E.New Mexico by late afternoon. A meso-high was located in
the S. Texas Panhandle north of Lubbock. The airmass was expected to recover
late in the afternoon to the west and southwest of the meso-high. An intersection
of the two boundaries was expected somewhere in EC New Mexico, and this area
was forecasted to be the prime development area for supercells by early evening.
Much of W.Texas from Clovis to near Abilene remained strongly capped. As a
result, the most unstable inflow air would advect undisturbed into E. New Mexico.
Special weather statements and a tornado watch were issued mentioning this
set-up later. We split off from Pat and Brian in different directions from Stratford ,
Tx around 3pm. Brian and Pat decided that maybe supercells would form in the
eastern part of Colorado so they headed up that way. We decided to head south
through the Texas Panhandle, and hopefully intercept storms moving out of EC
New Mexico.

We headed south through Amarillo and Hereford just as the days first supercells
developed rapidly in EC New Mexico in De Baca and Guadalupe counties. The
area where they developed was very close to where the dry line and pseudo -
warm front intersected. The storms became well organized supercells rapidly,
(unusually far west I might add)and almost immediately developed pronounced
hook echoes on radar. The supercell near Fort Sumner, NM was the stronger of
the two cells and started to turn right(southeastward). We figured the storm would
track towards Clovis NM, and that is where we headed . We reached Clovis just
after 6:30 pm and the storm was now entering the western sections of Curry Co.
A tornado warning was issued for Curry Co. earlier for this cell. Radar continued
to indicate a massive rotating supercell moving e-se towards Clovis. Numerous
other storm chasers were also converging on Clovis at this time.

At 6:55pm, we were finally able to see the impressive storm structure west of the
Clovis area. The tower was visibly striated with rotation bands, and a very long
inflow band was poking into the storm's updraft. We mapped out where the inflow
band and updraft tower joined, and this was near the town of Melrose. Radar was
confirming our estimation, and a strong hook echo was noted just southeast of
Melrose. The storm appeared very much dryline structured. Dusty inflow bands,
laminar cloud striations, wall cloud removed far from the core, etc. We headed
west on U.S. 60/84 from Clovis and planned to intercept the updraft/meso about
5-10 miles west of Clovis. Radar was now indicating a developing tornado near
St.Vrain NM which was just 5 miles west of us!! The chase was on!!!

Shortly after 7pm, we caught up with the updraft region of the storm. The updraft
base was quite broad, and the subtle hints of a wall cloud were noted but were
not acutely obvious. Dusty inflow was to our east wrapping back into the storm,
but rotation was on a very broad scale. The rotation was almost too broad at this
time for a descent tornado to spin up. The core remained well separated from the
updraft until it moved closer to Clovis. Radar continued to show a large hook
echo with the storm as it moved on a more easterly course through Curry Co. We
followed the storm closely(as did numerous other chasers). At 7:08 pm, our ears
popped dramatically as the rotation attempted to work down to the ground. The
updraft area was shrouded heavily in dust from both strong storm inflow/outflow.
At 7:14pm, brief dust swirls appeared under the updraft as a strong RFD plowed
into the west side of the broad circulation. This RFD also appeared to have also
drawn the core into a closer proximity to the updraft. Soon the storm structure was
transitioning to a more HP structure. The core was wrapping around the updraft
embedding it in precipitation. We hustled back into Clovis in order to get out ahead of this now monster HP storm which was passing across the NW and N
sections of Clovis. Southeast inflow in Clovis was sustained at 40 mph with gusts
well over 50 mph as the circulation passed just north of town!!

Just after 7:30 pm, we headed north on NM Highway 209 and attempted to get
ahead of the large HP supercell. Hail up to baseball sized was reported west and
north of Clovis during the past 15 minutes. We wanted to get far enough away so
we could get video without the threat of being bombed by baseball hail. By 7:38
pm, the storm was rapidly approaching us from the west, so we turned east on
Highway 77 which would take us very near the Texas state line. Radar was still
very impressive showing the center of circulation 5 miles north of Farwell Tx and
moving into Parmer Co. We continued to track the storm eastward via the back-
roads, and at 7:42pm, had to seek shelter as hail up to tennis ball sized started
to fall on us sporadically. We were on a small dirt road in the middle of basically
nowhere. Luck was on our side,however. A hay barn with room for our vehicle
appeared just as the golfball hail intensified to even larger hailstones!! We held
tight for about 15 minutes until the hail subsided.

The circulation was still evident on radar, but was looking a little bit sheared out
and linear. The location of the circulation was near Bovina (an appropriately
named town) and we were on Texas Fm road 2290 to the west of Bovina. As we
approached this small town, numerous chasers were pulled over inspecting the
hail bruises on their cars. They must have seen the same thing on radar we did.
We entered into Bovina and picked up Texas Highway 86. Only with one vexing
problem. The underpass was flooded from the heavy rain and hail which had
just made it through town minutes earlier. At least one car was flooded out and
other vehicles(mostly cars) turned around to avoid the flooded area. The water
gauge indicated about 2-3 feet of standing water and hail in this underpass. I
figured my Blazer had sufficient clearance so I gave it a shot. My vehicle made
it through the water okay, but water and hail must have gotten into my distributor.
As a result, my car died on the east side of the underpass. For the next 20-30
minutes, I attempted to revive my stalled out car. When I opened the hood for
the first time, various sizes of hail were packed into my engine compartment,
as well as bits of hay and other stuff. I can think better ways to cool off an engine
than that!! We struggled to get the chase resumed, but the Blazer would not turn
over. With time, the Blazer dried out and we were able to start off again. The
storm we were following earlier was now approaching I-27 near Tulia Tx. Since
the sun had already set, we decided to pull over and shoot some lightning video
near Tulia. Ground fog was also prevalent along the storm's track as the hail
cooled the moisture rich air blowing in from the southeast. What a sight! We had
had hail covered ground, fog just above the ground, and then higher up, storm
towers illuminated by the frequent lightning. Just another spring night in the
Texas Panhandle!!!

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