8/15/08 CHASE

I sat at home for pretty much most of the day watching junk go up in and near Amarillo. I noticed a severe storm in SE Colorado moving S/SE toward the panhandle. I watched this cell for a an hour or two as it made headway into the TX panhandle while staying strong. As the cell entered into Oldham county, I packed up the truck and headed out. This was about 9:30 pm I would estimate.

I planned to go to Vega and get some lightning and structure shots. This storm had Dbz values as high as 75 and possibly 80 at times and I knew not to get close because I had already heard reports of golf ball hail and winds in excess of 70 mph. When the storm went through Adrian, "Doppler" Dave called me and told me that Adrian got a lot of damage (broken windows) due to the large hail and heavy winds. He also told me that whatever I do, don't get in the core because it was nasty. Anyway, as I got to Vega, I went south a mile or two on US 385 and just watched the shelf cloud advance to the SE. It was a sight to see. Actually, I didn't even take any photos of it at this time, and I don't know exactly why. I guess I just wanted to watch with my eyes for a change instead of peering through a viewfinder.

I started to go south to try to get to Hereford, but I decided that move might not be a wise choice. I then went back east and then south out of Wildorado. As I made it to Hwy 60, I went west a few miles and got out and started taking pictures of the shelf cloud moving into Hereford. As the shelf cloud advanced southeast, I went a little further west to test the core. I was currently about 5 miles east of Hereford, and the biggest hail I got was ping pong size. I called the AMA NWS and gave them the report. I sat there for a while and slowly made my way back to the east.

As I got about 7-10 miles east of Hereford, I began noticing hail covering the road with a lot of hail fog. I took a few pictures and slowly made my way back to
Amarillo. I always say that you never can tell what mother nature can do around here, even in August! Below are photos of the event.

RADAR IMAGES #1 and #2
PHOTO #1 SHELF CLOUD AS IT ENTERS HEREFORD, LOOKING WEST.
PHOTO #2 SAME AS ABOVE, ONLY LOOKING NORTH.
PHOTO #3 HAIL/HAIL FOG ON HWY. 60 ABOUT 10 MILES E OF HEREFORD