Heather and I left Blanchard around 1815z with a target location of Childress, TX in the sern TX panhandle. We took OK-9/US-62 to Chickasha, I-44 to Lawton, and then US-62 into TX, with 10 to 15-min stops in Lawton and Altus. Our first picture was taken at 2103z of TCU looking wnw from near Hollis. Click on the image to get to a full-size view.
Picture 2 was taken at 2112z of the same cell, now a rapidly developing Cb over swrn Collingsworth county.
We then reached the junction of US-62 and US-83, 17 miles north of Childress, with the cell now to our nw, but obstructed by stratocu. After a call to Scott Lincoln at ISU for a radar update, we headed north for about 20 miles into central Collingsworth county, 6 miles north of Wellington. Picture 3 was taken at 2144z, when we were still south of Wellington, looking NW.
That was the last pic of that cell as it appeared to be diminishing. After talking with Scott again around 2200z, his radar update described healthier looking cells developing NE of Lubbock. So we made the decision to head back south into Wellington. Seeing more TCUs going up overhead and nwd, Heather called Scott to make sure we were making the right move going swd. He assured us and said a cell was starting to rotate just east of Plainview and that we needed to get west. In a retrospectively bad move, we backtracked in Wellington, heading north 2 miles to TX 203. We took that road to Quail, then took TX 1547 swwd into Memphis (this road was barren and hilly). We could have taken US-83 swd to TX 256 and then wwd to Memphis. Heather can attest to how irritated I was backtracking in and around Wellington. From Memphis we went wwd on TX-256 through nrn Hall county. Near Lesley, we could see a funnel cloud to our distant sw. This storm was in cntrl/nrn Briscoe county with the funnel near Silverton. Pictures 4 and 5 of the funnel were taken at 2257z.
Pictures 6 through 9 were taken from 2300 to 2302z and depict a skinny tornado, apparently just northeast of Silverton per LSRs.
Picture 10 was taken at 2307z from 1/2 mile w of South Brice where TX 70 and 256 split north/east. Looking wsw after the tornado had dissipated with a wall cloud continuing.
We heard through Wx radio and commercial radio that a tornado warning was in effect for the supercell south of the one that was north of Silverton. Being the srn most storm, we headed ssw on TX 70/256. We stopped a few hundred feet sw of the srn split of TX 70/256 on the 256 side in east-central Briscoe county. Pictures 11 through 14 were taken from 2322 through 2326z of a rotating wall cloud to our sw.
Fearing that we were going to be in/near the path of the wall cloud and since we were getting pelted by dime to nickel sized hail, we went se on the TX 70 side of the split. Pictures 15 and 16 were taken from 2332 to 2333z, 2 miles ese of the TX 70/256 srn split looking wsw.
We continued swd for a short distance to have a better view. We ended up 2.6 miles se of the TX 70/256 srn split. At 2334z, a small funnel formed and there was a circulation evident on the ground with swirling debris by 2335z. 10-second and 41-second camera videos were taken, the circulation/debris cannot be seen in the 1st video, but can be seen in the 2nd one. Pictures 17 and 18 were taken at 2336z, the tornado had just ended at that time. It should be noted that the wall cloud was rotating quite rapidly prior to funnel/tornado touchdown and that 3 CGs were observed within 1/3 to 1/5th a mile s/se (from the anvil region). There were 5-6 storm chase vehicles with most of the chasers outside taking pictures despite the nearby CGs.
A 44-second video was taken at 2338z and pictures 19 and 20 were taken at 2339z, looking w at the funnel cloud (could not see if it was making contact with the ground attm).
We then headed back n 0.5 miles to the spot where we were 2 miles ese of the TX 70/256 on TX 70 looking w. Pictures 21 through 51 and two videos depict a series of potentially several tornado touchdowns and/or one or two continuous tornadoes with intermittent condensation funnel dissipation. Pictures 21 through 25 were at 2341z, pictures 26 through 28 were at 2342z, pictures 29 through 32 were at 2343z, pictures 33 through 35 were at 2344z, picture 36 through 38 and video #4 were at 2345z, pictures 39 through 44 were at 2346z, picture 45 was at 2347z, picture 46 and video #5 were at 2348z (you can here me trying to call John Hart who was with Roger Edwards and Jon Racy who were around 25 miles n of us; cell phone service was not particularly good), picture 47 was at 2349z, and pictures 48 through 51 were taken at 2350z.
We then headed wnw on TX 70 towards the TX 70/256 srn split. Pictures 52 and 53 were taken at 2352z around 1 mile e of the split looking wnw.
About 1 mile north of the split on TX 70/256 we saw a stovepipe tornado to our nw. Pictures 54 through 64 and video #6 show the tornado apparently moving nwwd. Pictures 54 through 56 were at 2354z. Pictures 57 and 58 and video #6 were at 2355z. Pictures 59 through 62 were at 2356z. Pictures 63 and 64 were at 2357z.
We then headed n bound on TX 70/256. Pictures 65 and 69 were taken while traveling, around 2 miles north of the srn split (the highway was angled to the NNW in pictures 66 through 69). Picture 65 was taken at 2358z. Pictures 66 through 69 were taken at 2359z.
Continuing n bound on TX 70/256, pictures 70 through 80 are the tornado roping out from around 3 miles n of the srn split of TX 70/256, still in Briscoe county. Pictures 70 and 71 were at 0000z. Pictures 72 and 73 were at 0001z. Pictures 74 through 78 were at 0002z. Pictures 79 and 80 were at 0003z.
Continuing n bound, the last vestiges of this tornado were to our nw in pictures 81 through 84. We were around 4 miles n of the srn split of TX 70/256. Pictures 81 and 82 were taken at 0004z. Pictures 83 and 84 were at 0005z. This tornado appeared to be nearly continuous for 20 minutes from 2345z to 0005z.
We then crossed the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River and were back into nwrn Hall county. Around 4 miles sw of the nrn split of TX 70/256, we observed a newly forming circulation nearly directly overhead. Pictures 85 and 86 show this at 0011z (it looked kinda like an eyewall), with picture 87 looking n. What was also interesting is that surface winds were strong (probably around 30 to 40 mph) and variable from the e to s attm. I also saw my first large tumbleweed ever, as it crossed the road (not pictured).
We reached the nrn split of TX 70/256 and took picture 88 at 0013z looking ne.
We heard from John that they saw a tornado near Clarendon, which I assumed was from the more nrn cell we had seen our first tornado on (but later found out it was indeed the more srn storm we had been viewing). We decided to keep tracking this srn cell, by heading east on 256 to Memphis and then either going ne on TX 1547 to Quail or going nnw on US 287 to Hedley. There were 5 to 6 sheriff/fire dept people stopping traffic just east of 256, so we waited 5 minutes before getting to move. By this time, a caravan of chasers was behind and in front of us, erratically stopping/slowing down/speeding up. A few miles east of Lakeview, Heather briefly saw a funnel/possible tornado to our distant n in s-cntrl Donley county. I couldn't see it because of trees and with all of the changing traffic keeping me rather focus on driving. This was probably around 0030z. We eventually reached Memphis, running rather low on gas and both of us needing to use the bathroom. So we made a quick 5-min stop, then headed nnw on US-287 to Hedley. Then we headed east on TX 203, before going n on TX 273. Our final 6 pictures (89 through 94) were taken from 0054z through 0057z while heading ene on TX 203 about 1 mile ene of Hedley, looking n at scud/possible back edge of a wall cloud.
We then made a 27 mile trek nwd to McLean and I-40. There was a plethora of chasers: some stopped, some suddenly stopping, some going slow, some going fast, etc. Darkness had set in and via commercial radio I had heard that a tornado had touched down near McLean and that warnings continued for Donley, Gray, and Wheeler counties. Heather and I never saw any tornado/funnel clouds, besides possible wall clouds lit by lightning and lots of low scud. We stopped twice, once around 0115z when a tornado warning was reissued for Donley county and then again around 0130z around 5 miles s of McLean. We saw some chasers picking up things from the ditch (must have been hail) and were bombarded by tumbleweeds at times. On our first stop, we were buffeted by apparent inflow of 30-40 mph (the car rocked twice). We reached I-40 at 0140z (I almost missed the turn-off to get on the freeway). There were no overhead lights and apparently no city lights either judging by the total darkness except for vehicle lights and lightning. As we traveled east, we noticed no vehicles coming from the east. Westbound lanes were shut down all the way to Shamrock, even at 0200z.
Little did we know until after the fact, that several tornadoes, including a multi-vortex one had touched down to our north. Roger, John, and Jon saw this and were pelted from 3" hail which created a crater in the center of Roger's windshield (still drivable home to OK). The multi-vortex tornado and damaging hail occurred around 0109z to 0117z around 8 to 3 miles SSW of McLean. Attm, we were around 15 miles s of McLean, having just crossed the Salt Fork of the Red River. The tornado must have been rain-wrapped from our vantage point for us to not see it. If we were not forced to sit on TX 256 for 5 minutes and did not stop for gas/bathroom, we could have saved 10 minutes and been very close to that last tornado.
It was definitely an exciting chase. Special thanks go to Scott Lincoln at ISU for helping to nudge us swwd when we were without any Internet connectivity.