6/8/08 CHASE SUMMARY

Today looked like a pretty good chance at convection in the eastern parts of the TX panhandle. I looked over the data and decided to head to Shamrock, TX to set up. I made it to Shamrock and began to notice convection firing to my N/NW. I began making my way north toward Wheeler and ended up north of Mobeetie. The storm to my southwest looked fairly strong at this time and I just sat tight taking in the scenery. I then eased west a little to get a better glimpse of the storm. After a few minutes, the storm starting spitting out nickel to ping pong size hail on me.

At this time I was just north of the intersection of hwy1268 and hwy 3367. I then noticed a nice rain foot just to my west. I snapped a few photos and then began noticing an elevated meso. I watched it a few minutes and it started rotating and lowering just a little. I was practically underneath this, so I went east a few miles. I finally made it to US 83. I began noticing a disorganized wall cloud form, but it was rotating fairly rapidly. I then went south just a little and at this time, it began showing signs of tornadic rotation.

I sat on US 83 and was anticipating a tornado at any time. I then looked to the west about 10 miles and noticed a funnel forming on another storm. I called it in to the AMA NWS. The tornadic rotation near me began to weaken and I went on into Shamrock. I then noticed an isolated storm on radar SW of Childress. I began going south out of Shamrock to intercept the storm. As I got south of Shamrock, inflow winds were howling at 40-50 mph. I stopped to take a nice sunset photo and proceeded on. I noticed a brief wall cloud with the storm, but it began to weaken as darkness fell. I sat and watched the lightning in Childress, then began my journey home. Below are photos from the event:

PHOTO #1 RAIN FOOT SE OF MIAMI, TX
PHOTO #2 TORNADIC ROTATION ON US 83 NORTH OF WHEELER, TX
PHOTO #3 FUNNEL CLOUD LOOKING WEST FROM US 83
PHOTO #4 SUNSET SOUTH OF SHAMROCK, TX