AMARILLO IDOL

I spent most of the day today at the All Star Ford dealership south of Amarillo. They were hosting the Amarillo Idol contest. FOX 14 was responsible for making it all happen. I think there were 40 contestants in all, and only 1 was chosen to go audition in front of the American Idol judges. The winner flies out Monday, and its all paid for by FOX 14 news here in Amarillo.

Most of the singers were actually pretty good, and I would have hated to have been one of the 3 judges. One singer was terrible right off the bat, and he pretty much knew that he sucked.

Anyway, I had it narrowed down to 2 guys and 2 girls. Boy, that would have been a tough call to make. All 4 contestants were really great singers, but only 1 would go to the real American Idol. The winner happened to be Anthony Johnson. I don't remember where he was from, but he sure did have a great voice. I think the American Idol judges will have nothing but great things to say about him.

Other than the scorching heat of 106 in the shade, it was a pretty nice evening to get out and hear some great singing.

Andy Justus and John Harris doing the news live from the event

I really thought she was going to win it. She had a great voice

The finalists nervously waiting for the results

The All Star Ford Amarillo Idol sign

Anthony Johnson singing his final song

Anthony Johnson is going to American Idol

THE HEAT IS ON!

Summer is definitely in full swing around the TX panhandle. We broke the old record yesterday of 100 degrees. We officially hit 102 in Amarillo. High temps in Amarillo for Thursday may get up to 105 or so. Definitely not the time for the AC to conk out, that's for sure.

FINAL CHASE FOR A WHILE

Due to the death ridge establishing itself over the area, Tuesday may very well be my final chase for a long while.

I'm going to target an area around Hugoton, KS for Tuesday. Td in the mid 50's along with strong heating should yield CAPE values around 1500-2000. The cap will be a major factor in determining if anything forms or not. The latest NAM forecasts around 10-12 degrees Celsius at 700mb. Strong daytime heating along with the moisture should eat away at the cap, but it may not. The NAM does not break out any precip for the area, so we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully enough lift and daytime heating will be able to possibly form an LP supercell or two. It would be nice, considering it may very well be the last chase for a long time.

6/14/09 REPORT

Myself and Chris Martin met up with Steve Miller(TX) east of Happy, TX. We sat a few minutes and then proceeded to go south towards the storms that formed in the SW panhandle. Steve went SE and myself and Chris went to investigate storms near the Dimmitt-Arney area. They never got going, so we ditched them and made our way to Silverton where better storms were ongoing. We went south of town near South Plains and played in some rain, wind and small hail for a while. We then called it a day. Not much else to see.

STEVE MILLER (IN BLUE VEHICLE) AND CHRIS MARTIN GO OVER DATA

EXPLOSIVE UPDRAFTS LOOKING EAST

CLOSE VIEW OF UPDRAFT

STORM NEAR SOUTH PLAINS, TX

6/13/09 REPORT

Got on the storm that formed near Tulia, TX and stayed in front of it until it got to Quitaque and died out. It displayed numerous wall clouds and 1 funnel, but I never confirmed a tornado. Lots of wall clouds would form with decent rotation, and then it would get wrapped in rain. I'm really surprised this cell was never tornado warned.

Met fellow chaser and friend Jay McCoy in Quitaque and we headed back to Amarillo after a bite to eat in Tulia. All in all, it was a pretty good chase, but I was expecting a couple of tornadoes today. Maybe next time...

STORM NEAR TULIA, TX

ANOTHER PHOTO OF STORM NEAR TULIA

STRANGE CLOUD FORMATION NEAR QUITAQUE, TX

EXPLOSIVE STORM NEAR PLAINVIEW, TX

PARTING SHOT BEFORE TULIA STORM DIED

6/8/09 REPORT

Well, as I always say...High risk and I'm done, T-storm watch and I'll have fun. Today was no exception. I'm not sure why, but T-storm watch events have been some of my best days over the years.

I started off in Vernon, TX looking over data and noticed towers going up to my south. I headed that direction and intercepted the developing storm near Seymour. It looked good but never really got going, so I pursued other storms near Munday. By the way, it was very hot and humid down there at Seymour. The cow in the first photo had the right idea! At one point I wanted to join her, but I needed to move on and chase. Anyway, these storms looked ok, but they still weren't what I was looking for. I then noticed a monster cell erupting near Jayton, and the chase was on! It initially headed due east, but eventually right turned hard and headed for the Hamlin area. I made it to Stamford and thought I saw a pretty large tornado under the base. I still have no idea if it was a tornado or not, but it sure looked like it. I didn't call it in because I was too far too see if it was rotating and I sure didn't want to give a false report.

The cell was producing softball size hail at this time in Stonewall county. I continued west to the Hamlin area and the storm was looking to peter out. I was headed home, and the storm very quickly regenerated, and looked better by the minute. I went south out of Hamlin to the town of Noodle and took a few more stills. It was a massive beast at this time, and it was tornado warned. It was kicking a lot of red dirt up underneath the main meso. I stayed south and started making plans on returning home since it was getting dark, and I was still almost 4 hours away. I went west out of Noodle and North toward Sylvester. As I neared Sylvester, I had to stop dead in the road for 20 minutes due to lack of visibility and very heavy wind upwards of 70 mph. After this moved on, I headed for home. What a great chase on a T-storm watch day. I love a good ol' T-storm watch! Blah on the High risk days. Now to the photos...

UPDATE ON TODAY

After looking at realtime data and RUC analysis, I'm headed to Vernon, TX. Road options out of there are pretty good. I think there may very well be a few supercells today, but they will probably be HP in nature. CAPE looks pretty high, so large hail will definitely be on the menu. The tornado threat will be low, but not out of the question, especially late this evening when the LLJ cranks up. I'll update with photos (if I have any) later on tonight.

TARGET: VERNON, TX