05-29-2001 - SW Upper flow in advance of short-wave trough with decent speed max up stream at mid and ut levels. Excellent shear profile expected by afternoon with high CAPE suggested favorable scenario for tornadic supercells. Saw Steve Hodanish (PUB NWS FO) and Charles Redwine, et al, at the AMA FO and the consensus was from AMA to W Of LBB. I had centered a target region around Littlefield, TX (Waylon Jennings' home town!) and followed my tracks from 28 May through Canyon down to Hereford. Spoke to Lon Curtis and he saw no flaws with my reasoning (and kept me informed with frequent sfc obs and radar updates through out the day early evening - thanks Lon!). Al Moller was targeting Plainfield.

Heading down US 385 I noted TCU were forming in a narrow NE-SW convergent zone. I pulled into the Springlake and saw Bill Tabor and Gene Moore. As we chatted and looked at some data the first cb *exploded* directly overhead. We moved a few miles south through light anvil rain and stopped to observe. Soon other chasers began to appear and the rest of the day would be crowded! We could see the SW end of the convergent zone at the dryline (~ 15 miles WSW). The region from N through the NE was scattered with young storms jostling for dominance. We moved E through eastern Lamb county and stopped to say hi to Bobby Prentice, RJ Evans, Scott Fitzgerald, and George Kourounis. Gene shared some insights with me that prompting him to consider bailing on this storm in favor of a better looking cell to the N between us and Amarillo (our storm was weak and relatively disorganized with a too-tilted-over updraft). Gene decided a few minutes later to make the move N and we wished each other luck (thanks for the insights Gene and for pointing out the N option) - I decided to stay with my forecast and move E on US 70.

I soon stopped to discuss the situation with the Doswells, Brian Curran (who had arrived moments before me), and John Monteverdi. We moved N and E and stopped to take some images like the next one below.

05-29-2001 - NE Hale (NW of Edmonson, TX) county weakly rotating lowering. John Monteverdi's hand held (i.e. it did not need to be big and on the roof of chase vehicle to work) weather station registered a Td of 60.4 - much to our chagrin. My 16z sfc analysis suggested Td's of 64-65 to NW and N of Lubbock. I can only guess that the convection near Canyon AOA 17z may have processed some of the moisture to it's south (but then one would have to ask why the cell that fared so well south of AMA - did so in an area which was much closer to the region that experienced the early afternoon convection - I dunno)! Please note I needed to adjust the contrast/brightness digitally of this image to match the scene in the sky (I had slightly under exposed).

05-29-2001 - Same location as above. Note John Monteverdi in lower right corner and broader meso on a later cycle. I expressed some hope for the future at that point! Again, the time for all these images will be identified from my video when I can access the audio portion. I will attempt to get the exact times for the images in the sequence so as to best correlate the with the radar images shown below (thanks to Lon Curtis for saving these while nowcasting from home). I have correlated into this sequence based on the general position of the cells in the radar images.

05-29-2001 - Here is the storm we were on - as shown in Amarillo's 2213z reflectivity image. Note the weak signature in SW Swisher County (the bottom-most cell in this image). Also note the cell NW of AMA that evolved to produce the long lived White Deer, TX tornado as well as the cell SW of AMA (which I believe Gene Moore later described as spectacular).

05-29-2001 - This is the 2238z AMA reflectivity image, highlighting the movement to the east of the Supercells to the NW and SW of AMA.

05-29-2001 - Our group headed E to I-35 with Brian and I taking the Interstate north and the E on FR 145 through Kress, where a huge number of chasers had assembled. Many University and Chase Tour vans and the OU DOWs (which very likely had a good proportion of the crowd following as uninvited tag alongs). At this point, defensive driving has to become a priority as there are many making unthoughtful moves (conscious and unconscious!) on or about the road surface. Ran into my friend Bruce Haynie somewhere E of Kress (along with my first meeting with TAMU's Jason Jordan and some other responsible chasers that Bruce and Jason knew - but I unfortunately did not get all the names straight with all the extraneous activity). Good to meet y'all nonetheless.

This and the following two images were taken along FR 145 between the intersection of FR 400/145 and FR 375/145. this is were I was seriously attacked by mosquitos - so bad that blood was trickling from some of the bites and Bruce Haynie and Brian Curran were repeatedly killing these little @*&#s on my back and shoulders. I know now why Texans wear boots and long pants (especially in heavily irrigated regions) - and this could have been much worse (e.g. Fire Ants). The storm cycled though a few mesos and these next two images represent some of the associated updraft regions.

05-29-2001 - Both this and the previous shot show some erosion around the updraft - but none of the cycles showed any significant RFD. This was also a period to watch out for chase tourists and/or University Chase Team members running across the road ahead of you while they were looking at the sky and not the road/traffic!

05-29-2001 - One of the cycle pairs produced this pseudo combination shelf/inflow tail.

05-29-2001 - This Lubbock Storm Relative Velocity image (2319z) showing marked rotation in far SE Swisher County matches up spatially with the images shown below!

05-29-2001 - As I approached the FR 145 & FR 385 intersection the next meso in the cycle took on a vastly different appearance. I pulled south on 385 about a mile to avoid most of the crowds and watched/photographed/videoed the evolution of the best meso of the day so far. This formed rapidly to the WSW of the previous meso and exhibit a much lower LCL/CCL. the associated inflow from the ENE persisted along with the good rotation. I thought this was going to become tornadic, and Lon called to say how impressive the signature appeared on radar (see above!).

05-29-2001 - Here is another view from the same location of the same sequence. Please note I needed to adjust the contrast/brightness digitally of this and the previous image to get them to match the scene in the sky (I had slightly under exposed).

05-29-2001 - This 2343z AMA reflectivity image matches up with (or maybe just a little later than) the two images below (one of which is a zoomed view of the other). The reflectivity morphology became more HP-ish with area of interest on/just E of the Swisher/Briscoe County lines.

05-29-2001 - This image was taken a mile or so south of the FR 145 and FR 378 junction in extreme SW Briscoe county - looking north up FR 378. Note probable gustnado to the left of the telephone pole. A zoomed image appears below. Again, this and the following image required adjustment with the contrast/brightness to match the scene in the sky (slightly under exposed).

05-29-2001 - In this contrast/brightness adjusted zoomed view of the above image one can better see the probable gustnado (dust whirl at the surface between the first two telephone poles). The cloud base weakly cone shaped/scuddy lowering is displaced to left (over the telephone pole). Again, most probably a gustnadic situation!

05-29-2001 - This and the next AMA image is from 0034z. In this reflectivity image one can note the cell has moved east into central Briscoe County and may correlate to the morphology AOA the time of the apparent Silverton tornado (as reported by Gilbert Sebenste). Unfortunately, after taking the taking the above photos I chatted with some of the chasers I had seen earlier in the day and I did not turn page 29 of "The Roads of Texas" to page 24 where I would have seen easy east road options that would have allowed me to stay closer to the storm (or at least S/SE). We decided to give the long S then E option a try and it put us well SSW of the storm. I then started to get my brake warning light come on (what a day!) and pulled back - here comes the drop off the Caprock and do I have brakes that will work?? I tested things to the point where I felt it was safe to proceed and that was the end of the chase (FR 97 to 70). I did note how damn red and full of red dust the sky was to my east as I crossed into Hall County on 70, just south of Turkey, TX (with the storm now off to the E of Turkey)!

05-29-2001 - KAMA SR vel image from 0034z (same as above). Another nice couplet!