Sunday started in the aptly named Weatherford, OK with another fairly obvious target for Storms forming in the late afternoon in Texas. Our initial target was Childress, TX.
We started the day with breakfast at a route 66 diner and a brief stop by the Stafford Air and Space Museum, which was unfortunately closed until 1. But did have some pretty excellent aircraft parked outside.
After leaving Weatherford, it was on to our target area for the day, initially heading for Childress TX.
Unlike Saturdays storms, today started to get interesting early with our first target firing up by 2pm.
After an easy set up drive we stopped for our first look at the developing storm.
As the storm grew in strength, we relocated to a rather convenient picnic spot with a brilliant view of the storms updraft.
As we watched, we saw a whole convoy of storm chasers. Chasing storms on a weekend means you are rarely alone!
As the storm continued to develop we relocated to get a closer look
As the storm developed, we relocated again to stay on the right area of the storm should it show tornado potential.
Minutes later that’s exactly what it did.
As we relocated to stay in a good position, the storm moved into some challenging terrain that made it difficult to keep track of without running the risk of interacting with this storms 4-inch hail!
Dan did an excellent job forecasting and was able to make an early call to move on to our next target of the day. One of the hardest parts of stormchasing is knowing when to leave a storm, particularly one with an active tornado warning. Dan made the call at exactly the right time, allowing us to move to our next target, leaving behind the stormchaser traffic and to a brilliant spot to observe our next storm!
First stop for storm number 2 and it’s quite incredible structure starting to take shape.
After another quick relocation, we found a spot with a perfect view, and our storm moved at less than knots across the ground, allowing us time to observe at our leisure.
The following videos are all from the same location as the storm continued to evolve.
Dave was the first to spot what would be our first tornado of the trip!
After an incredible lightning show, at least one and probably 2 tornados, it was time to relocate as the light started to fade.
As the light faded we paused for one last photo stop.
After saying farewell to the storm, we had quite an eventful drive to our stop for the night in Wichita falls.
The drive back was one of the most challenging I have ever experienced, almost zero visibility, flooding, and constant lightning! It was challenging but a major thrill as well!
Sunday’s storm chase was one of my all-time favorites and embodied everything I love about this hobby!
wow. This all makes for an adventurous read. The lightening photos are perfect. I did get a sense of the power around you…the screaming siren and the heaviness of the cloud formations…
Again, some great photos, particularly of the lightening. The brooding intensity of the storms with their swirling black clouds is well captured. I felt some of your excitement while sitting on the sofa looking at them!