6/20/08 CHASE SUMMARY

I wasn't sure I was going to chase today. A slight risk encompassed most of the TX panhandle. I waited around the house and finally saw a storm coming in to the northern TX panhandle. It made it all the way from Kansas, and it was strengthening as it got further south.

I began loading up my gear, and I headed up hwy 60 to Panhandle. I wanted to intercept this storm near Borger so I headed north on hwy 207. As I got about 10 miles south of Borger, I began noticing a very distinct shelf cloud that stretched across the sky. It was almost dark, but I managed to take a few stills of this awesome looking shelf cloud. I forgot my tripod, and this would have been a perfect time to use it. I sent a photo in to the station via e-pic which is posted on their blog. They grab the photo off the blog and use it on air. This works out real well because the guys can get an idea of what were seing out in the field.

Anyway, after taking a few stills, I went south to stay ahead of the hail and rain. I made it back to hwy 60 and I decided to go east towards White Deer. I wanted to sample the hail core to see what it had in it. I made it to about 4 miles west of White Deer and I started getting heavy rain, winds to 65 mph and hail to the size of quarters. I called the info in to the AMA NWS and they said I should be receiving very large hail any minute. I waited for baseballs, but they never came. Either the hail shaft was very small, or the hail just wasn't as large as everyone thought it might be. I then went south out of White Deer and made it to I-40, and went west to Conway. I filled up with gas and waited for the storm to strengthen.

After about 30 minutes, I noticed a storm near Boys Ranch getting strong. I took off west and anticipated the intercept near Bushland. As I got into Amarillo, I saw cloud to cloud lightning that was bluish-green. I have never seen lightning like this before. It's like it was illuminating the emerald core of the storm. I started taking video and finally made it to Bushland. As I got into town, I got hit with quarter size hail along with some sporadic half dollars to golf balls. I played in the core and decided to go south out of Bushland to stay with the storm. As I got about 5 miles south of Bushland, I ran into absolute zero visibility. I was in extremely heavy rain being driven by 70+ mph winds. I have to say, it was a little nerve racking.

I finally continued south and eventually made in into the town of Canyon. Canyon was flooded pretty bad. I got on the phone with Dave Oliver and gave live reports while he was continuously on air. I gave reports off an on for about an hour. Our coverage kicked some butt. I'm sure the other stations weren't on, and if they were, I bet they didn't have a chaser giving live reports from the field. After taking a little video, I ended the chase in Canyon. Below are photos and video from the event:

PHOTO #1 SHELF CLOUD SOUTH OF BORGER, TX
PHOTO #2 DIFFERENT VIEW OF SHELF CLOUD SOUTH OF BORGER, TX
PHOTO #3 VIDEO STILL OF BLUE LIGHTNING WEST OF AMARILLO, TX
VIDEO #1 FLOODED STREET IN CANYON, TX