2005 JUNE 12: KENT COUNTY, TEXAS TORNADOES

2005 JUNE 12: KENT COUNTY, TEXAS TORNADOES

What a day. Eric Nguyen, Scott Blair, Jason Politte, and I observed 6 to 8 tornadoes, including elephant trunks, cones, ropes, and a large red-dust ingesting wedge in the Garza and Kent County regions tonight between 2330z and 0245z. It was one hell of a chase and an incredible way to end the best week of chasing in my life.

A few interesting notes about tonight's storm: it seemed to ingest convection to the south quite easily, then translated rotation southwest into the new southern flank rapidly. Also we observed, like yesterday, that tornadoes frequently occurred well after mesocyclonic occlusion, when the rotation would quickly tighten and descend, but well after the wrap around precip and even hail swung around fully.

I finished my chase vacation with five tornado-day chases in a row, going all the way back to Arthur County, Nebraska, then South Dakota, Trego County, Kansas, and the last two tornado days in the great Texas panhandle. I could not have asked for a more spectacular introduction to mid June chasing, a time period I'm normally forced to skip. Never again.

Pre-chase blog entry:

Posted 9:53 AM by Amos Magliocco
Today's forecast is extremely difficult, with all sorts of ongoing convection. This is the last day for a while, and I want to get it right, so am focusing on areas I think have some chance to develop moderate instability, then hoping boundaries find their way to those regions. Very backwards forecasting technique, but it's a real mess today.

I'm ten days behind on emails. Bills are stacking up at home and I haven't shaved in several days. I appreciate everybody's patience.

Cyclone Road