Storm Chasing Day 3
The day started in an overcast and rainy Wichita Falls which was bad news for trying to find some severe weather to chase, for Supercells to develop you need an uninterrupted flow of warm moist air and the dreary weather was like a brick wall for that uninterrupted airflow.
After a very healthy Denny’s omelette for breakfast we hit the road south towards Dallas to try and get out of the cool damp weather. The drive took us to the aptly named town of Weatherford just outside Fort Worth where we pulled into town to analyse the weather radars and storm reports, unfortunately it was bad news, a cold North Easterly wind dominated the weather system putting a stop to any chance of a storm, the chase for today was over.
We took the chance to explore the quaint town of Weatherford which had antiques stores as far as the eye could see, I managed to find a tobacco shop run by Larry a pip smoking ex Navy serviceman who spent a good 15 minutes telling me about the storms he’d seen whilst serving in the navy, as well as a crash course in why Cuban cigars are bad, mainly because they are communist!
Weatherford City Hall
After a pause in Weatherford the radar maps showed we wouldn’t be seeing any severe weather activity near us today so the new plan was to get up towards the Texas Pan Handle where it looked promising for tomorrows chase.
Before Leaving Weatherford we topped for a spot of lunch, I went for the healthy option.
Copper Creek- I tried to order a lighter lunch so went with a sandwich…
Despite not chasing any storms the drive up toward Amarillo was great tour of the teas landscape and feels just about as alien as a landscape can get when compared with home. Bendy Dave insisted that we stop to take some photos of the beautiful vistas and archetypal Texas landscape.
Bendy Dave on the Road to Childress trying to hitch a lift
The Town of Childcress is our home for the night and I’m staying in a very typical motel for the night, its a sharp contrast to the Allerton in Chicago!
It definitely feels like a road trip now, this motel is home for the night.
Fingers crossed for some more interesting weather tomorrow, if not you’ll be treated to more pictures of food and Bendy Dave on my next post!
My fellow chaser and talented photographer Jeremy Wilkins is also blogging, you can follow him here: