Amarillo, Texas--Steve Miller and I chased isolated LP storms in the
Eastern Texas Panhandle today, one of which morphed from a small, compact LP north of
Mobeetie in Wheeler County into a classic supercell with a large rain core near Hoover,
where we witnessed a large and impressive gustnado (see picture). This feature might have
been reported as a tornado though several impressive wall clouds associated with
constantly westward-developing mesos certainly could have touched down briefly. In Pampa,
what had become a line segment with strong inflow on the eastern and western flanks shrunk
into a more classic supercell with a small hook and mesocyclone, dropping baseball hail on
State Road 70 just south of the city. We perched beneath a gas station awning, looking for
a way to escape back into a favorable viewing position. As the storm moved southwest, we
skirted the hail core by driving south on 70 as the storm cleared the road.
We headed west on Interstate 40 toward Amarillo and then south to Goodnight where we shot
the laminar banded gustfront, polished and sculpted something like the May 27, 2001
derecho in Southern Kansas. Considering the small distance we traveled, we’re amazed
to realize we chased more than five hours from 4:15 PM CST to past 9:30. The Weathervine crew and Scott Eubanks also chased with
us.