We started off the day heading south into West Texas, hoping to make the best of the little tornadic activity that was expected. We intercepted a cell north of Abilene, TX and followed it for nearly two hours. As the cell regenerated itself over a cow pasture, I heard a scream from the fence as I was fixing some computer issues. "Wall Cloud!!!" Sure enough, a wall cloud with some serious rotation had formed in the two minutes that I wasn't watching. We watched it boil and churn for about ten minutes, each of us saying "come on, drop a funnel..." It then dissipated, much to the delight of the grazing cows below.
That cell and the surounding cells became contaminated by their cold outflows, and thus formed into one linear line of storms. Yuck! We chased the line for a few hours to get good cloud and lightning photos. It was then time to call it a night in Abilene, TX by about 10pm.
Some of us went over to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for a midnight dinner. During that time the linear line of storms that we chased (or rather outran), caught up with us. As I and a few others were about to leave, rain started coming down in sheets. A small ditch near the restaurant had nearly a foot of water in it in just minutes. After fifteen minutes we had enough and sprinted 200 yards back to the Best Western. What we didn't realize was that the parking lots connecting the restaurant, a shopping center, and our hotel were three inches deep with water. So we all ran through the puddles and got water in our shoes. I've never been so wet in my life... I was wetter than someone who had just gotten out of the pool!
Tomorrow is a sight seeing day since the storm chances look awful. We're going to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and then heading north toward Nebraska so we can be in position for what looks like a pretty good day for severe weather on Thursday. I'll post a couple interesting photos from today sometime tomorrow afternoon.
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