Category: Extreme Weather

I’ll be heading out here shortly for Clovis NM.  This isn’t much of a “forecast”, but I do like that area and maybe a little northwest of there.  I think there is a limited window this afternoon for some supercells to pop up along any one of the several outflow boundaries that are very evident on satellite, in particular the one that stretches from NW of Clovis to around Lubbock.  I think by the time the storms get into the Lubbock area later it will just be a big wind and rain mess, but maybe something interesting early this afteroon.  Wind shear isn’t particularly strong, but the directional shear is very pronounced.  A little boundary interaction magic just may be enough to do the trick.

At any rate, it’s not far from home and it’s a nice day to get out.  The LIVE ChaseCam will be up and running when we start getting some decent towering CU going.

Went out Wednesday evening to do a little chasing on some marginally severe stuff for the TV station.  Never got more than 35 miles from home and ended up with some great B-roll footage of an awesome dust storm, including a huge dust foot (below) to add to my spotter guides website.

Although I never encountered anything I could call severe, it was a chase like the old days in many respects. I didn’t see ANY other chasers, and only one guy I think might have been a spotter, not even sure about that one.  Other than the station calling me for phoners, I had it all to myself out there, and the dust storm was quite exciting as those of you that were watching the LIVE ChaseCam can attest.

Chance I may be heading out today as well.  Might even be a supercell in the offerings today, no big severe blowouts, but just enough shear to make for an interesting storm. We’ll see.  SPC has a slight risk out for my area into eastern NM, with a 2% tornado risk, which doesn’t surprise me given the directional shear.