2012--Day 4

Day 4

A late start after a late arrival in Pueblo.  As I predicted, we didn’t make breakfast.  The morning briefing did not bode well for us, as there was a small area under a slight risk around the Texas Panhandle for today (and tomorrow), with the ridge of death forecast for the next few days after that.  We had a very difficult decision to make: bag the chase and head north toward the Rockies (and points north during subsequent days), or head for the Panhandle and hope.  We decided to hedge our bets and head toward northeastern New Mexico (about 100 miles south) and reassess our plans.  It was a good idea, as we got to see the Land of Enchantment in daylight; the pictures don’t do it justice, frankly.

By the time we got back into NM, SPC had increased the slight risk area into NM.  We began to chase a line of discrete storms to the east, which meant a run into the northern Texas Panhandle, heading toward a little town called Dalhart.  The dryline was in full force (10 degree dew point difference over 40 miles), but it wasn’t moving very much at all.  The storms we chased were moving from north to south, which is a very strange direction.  Nevertheless, we got to see some very nice structures (anvils, mammatus, rain shafts, rain/dust feet, and a rotating wall cloud that didn’t produce).  We also got to see plenty of lightning, mainly CGs (what I like to refer to as ‘smitening,’ as it looks like bolts coming straight down and aiming at people.  The lightning lasted for quite some time into the evening. 

We needed to wait at times to prevent core punching (highly unrecommended), and in doing so we got to watch a beautiful supercell develop over Hooker, OK (the town from the night before).  As our chase storm weakened and shrank, we chose to drive south into Vega, where we picked up I40 and drove east to Amarillo, where we set up shop for the night.  For the first time on this trip, we were in our rooms before 9 pm!  Of course, there was still the matter of dinner (at Texas Roadhouse, where the hypothesis about everything being bigger in Texas was easily proven).  One of our students just turned 21, so she was given an appropriate amount of embarrassing attention by the servers (including being placed on a saddle).   

All in all, a good gamble and an easy day: three states and 366 miles.  As a side note, we have yet to spend more than one night in any one state (Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas). Good night from Armadillo!