May 8th West Central Texas Storm Chase - Wall Clouds and a Shelf Cloud
05-08-07 CHASE LOG: TX The film crew for "Twister Sisters" decided to take a day off...but that didn't stop the myself, MaryLynn, the Twister Sisters, Beau Gjerdingen and Eric Whitehill from going after a squall line that was racing across western Texas through the day! We wanted to show our guests a good time so we took off from Amarillo by late morning, trying to get ahead of the squall line that was racing east of Lubbock. We finally ended up getting far enough ahead to stop and get some pictures near Throckmorton, Texas. There were a pair of supercells out ahead of the main line of storms that each had non-rotating wall clouds upon moving north through our area. We did get some photos, but all agreed that they would not amount to much due to the squall line likely to overtake both storms soon. The squall line had one of the best shelf clouds I have ever seen and we let this overtake us at our position, all the while staying outside and feeling the full power of the winds that were gusting around 40 mph. The shelf moved overhead and had a very nice underbelly that we viewed before the rain hit and we called it a day. This was actually a very fun and relaxing chase day as all we had to do was get out ahead of the shelf cloud and wait for it to hit us. Plus we got to view a couple of supercells out ahead of the main line, which was a pleasant surprise to say the least. Check out the photos below!
Impressive updraft with a supercell ahead of the squall line and with wall cloud underneath as well as some striations.
Nicely structured wall cloudy developing underneath the supercell ahead of the approaching squall line.
MaryLynn and I in front of the wall cloud moving our north by a few miles.
Awesome shelf cloud about to overtake us with 40 mph winds and very heavy rain. Check out the shark teeth!
The underbelly of the shelf cloud that has just overtaken us. What a sight this was with all of the intense motion, horizontal and vertical.
More photos from this day can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39991047@N02/sets/72157621655776921/
