5-26-08 CHASE SUMMARY

I woke up to a slight risk and a good chance for tornadoes. I looked over data and knew a tornado watch would be issued shortly. I saw storms firing to the SE and I made my way to McLean, TX to set up. A storm was headed my direction from the SW so I sat tight. Reports of tennis ball sized hail came in with my storm so I sat tight hoping I might get some large hail. You know, now that my truck has hail dents in it and it's paid off, I can't get into large hail to save my life.

Anyway, I followed this storm to Shamrock where it started to produce a fairly good rotating wall cloud. I called this in to the AMA NWS and it went tornado warned after a few minutes. The sirens started going off in Shamrock, and it's always an eerie feeling hearing the sirens going off. The storm marched it's way off to the NE without producing a tornado. I made my way into Oklahoma and went north out of Erick to keep up with this storm. It was really looking good now. It had a very low wall cloud with it, almost scraping the ground.

I followed it to Sweetwater and let it go because I noticed a better storm on radar. This storm was near Wellington, TX and it was tornado warned. I went south out of Erick, OK to Vinson, OK where I started seeing incredible structure. I really thought I was going to see a tornado with this storm, but it just didn't happen. It had incredible inflow and moderate rotation with it. I followed it to just east of Vinson and let it go because it became enshrouded in rain. I began getting sparse golfball size hail at this time. I sat there hoping to get bigger hail, but it didn't happen, you know...since the truck is already dented and paid for. Here are some photos from the days events.

PHOTO #1 STORM WITH LOW WALL CLOUD NW OF ERICK, OK
PHOTO#2 SECOND STORM NEAR SWEETWATER, OK
PHOTO#3 GORGEOUS WALL CLOUD STRUCTURE NEAR VINSON, OK