6/19/08 CHASE SUMMARY

Today looked to be a fairly good day. Strong southerly inflow winds were getting underway, and I knew that today was going to be big. Sometimes, I can just feel it. Again, today was a NW flow event, and I had planned on heading toward Dumas, or near that area. I started the day off by getting my new magnetic logos from Newschannel 10. I made it to the station at about 3pm and met Dave Oliver at the door. He had the magnets in hand and put one on the passenger door while I put one on the drivers side door. This was a real special and memorable moment for me. I don't mean to sound cheesy here, but a guy that's been at the same station here for 25 years and been the chief for 21 years is a special guy. He is by far the most popular chief in town, and I felt honored to have him help me put the magnets on my truck. I'm glad I finally chase for the best station in town. The other 2 meteorologists, John Harris and Shel Winkley are very nice guys too. I'm glad to be associated with guys of their caliber.

After we talked about how good the truck looked with the magnets, Dave told me to go in and we would look over data. As we were walking toward the door, Dave pointed to the north and said "look at that! We don't need to go over data, just head north". I saw the storm to the north as I was going to the station,but it had strengthened significantly in the last 30 minutes or so. I shook Dave's hand and told how much I appreciated the magnets. I hopped in the truck and began going up Hwy 287.

I got about 10 miles north of town and knew that this storm meant business. The core of the storm was a deep hue of emerald green. I had never seen this deep color of green on a storm before. It just looked like it was waiting to tear something up. It didn't have the tornadic character of some storms, but I knew it packed a punch with heavy rain, very large hail, and very high winds. I took some stills of the storm and followed it south. As I made it to loop 335, I went east about 3 miles and sat beside the road. After about 20 minutes I started getting hit with very heavy winds of 70+ mph. It then started raining and I got hit with occasional nickel to half dollar size hail. I knew I couldn't go east or I would get into larger hail, so I stayed put.

The wind was a steady 60-70 mph for at least 15-20 minutes. I was really getting a little nervous because I knew this storm meant business. After a few minutes, I slowly crept my way around loop 335 and made it to I-40. At this time I got sporadic golfball size hail and winds cranking to 60+ mph. I kept going south on 335 and went to the Claude hwy near Lake Tanglewood. I did a phoner with Dave and began to make my way back to town. I wanted to get some high wind video back to the station for the 6pm newscast. I got the video there and talked to Dave.

We decided that I should go south because a storm was forming near Hereford, and it was isolated. I watched radar as I made my way south, and it began getting stronger with each update. After a few updates, it began to show a hook echo which usually indicates rotation. I began going a bit faster and began seeing a wall cloud as I got to Tulia. I kept going south and eventually stopped at Kress to get a few still shots. At one point, I saw 2 wall clouds. One wall cloud on the SW flank of the storm, and one a little further in the precip core. I followed it south until it crossed I-27 and began to make my way home. Below are photos of the event:

PHOTO #1 NEWSCHANNEL 10 MAGNET
PHOTO #2 EMERALD GREEN HUE OF STRONG STORM NORTH OF AMARILLO, TX
PHOTO #3 ZOOMED OUT VIEW OF STORM NORTH OF AMARILLO, TX
PHOTO #4 DOUBLE WALL CLOUDS TAKEN FROM KRESS, TX LOOKING SW
PHOTO #5 ZOOMED IN VIEW OF WALL CLOUD TAKEN FROM KRESS, TX