Heather had been talking with her dad on the phone who was looking at radar via Weatherbug. He mentioned a line of cells had formed west of Lubbock and that more discrete cells were forming nw of Lubbock and sw of Amarillo. We reached the junction of TX-86 and I-27 on the southwest side of Tulia, where we stopped for gas. That's when we heard the first severe thunderstorm warning issued for Nwrn Castro County on the WX radio. We decided to head north to chase it. The next set of pictures were taken from 2301 to 2304z looking north through west, while heading nb on I-27 in nwrn Swisher County, around 3-8 miles sse of Happy.
We headed nnw on US-87 from Happy. Then went west on FM-1714. Our next shot was taken at 2317z looking west, 5 miles ssw of Canyon in cntrl Randall County.
We reached FM-168 in the Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge and began heading north to Umbarger. The next set of three pictures were taken of a lowering and scud developing upwards in to the updraft base. The pictures were taken at 2328z looking west, 1 mile south of Umbarger in w-cntrl Randall County.
We continued nb on FM-168 through Umbarger, then went west on FM-1062. We stopped around 5 miles nw of Umbarger, less than a mile into e-cntrl Deaf Smith County. The next set of pictures were taken from 2338z through 2341z looking wsw through nw. There was a weakly rotating wall cloud, visible in the nwrn pictures. The after-the-fact radar indicated a classic supercell shape to the storm at 2340z. However, this storm was quickly becoming seeded/interfered by the cell to its south, visible to the sw in the wwd looking pics.
We started retreating ewd along FM-1062, disappointed that the original Castro/Deaf Smith County supercell never developed a tornado visible to us. We took one last picture in this area at 2352z, around 4 miles ne of Umbarger of the destructive interfering cell to our southwest.
We headed ewd along FM-1062/US-60 into the nrn portions of Canyon. Attm, we heard via the tv simulcast on the radio (I think 710 AM), of a large tornado invof Channing/Masterson in Hartley/Moore counties, 50-60 miles to our nnw. We figured that may be the only show, so our thought was to race nwd along I-27 to Amarillo and continue n on 287 to Dumas. Just as we were about to head to the junction of US-60 and US-87 (to I-27), the tv guy talked about a large supercell with an intense couplet in nern Lamb/nwrn Hale counties west of Plainview. He also mentioned it heading newd towards Swisher county. I told Heather we never should have gone north (she heard me complain multiple times). So we made a last-second decision to go south on US-87 through Canyon and Happy, back onto I-27 sb. Heather was quite worried about core-punching this supercell. We heard via the tv/radio simulcast of a visible tornado with damage. Our first picture of this storm was at 0032z looking sewd around 2 miles sse of Happy in nwrn Swisher County.
We continued swd through moderate to heavy rain, but could see a lowering to our sw. The next set of pictures (albeit blurry) were taken from 0038 to 0041z, looking southwest around 5-8 miles nw of Tulia.
We took exit 77 and headed sse along US-87 towards Tulia. The rain became very heavy, but still no hail. In Tulia, the hail started falling. Worried about how big it could be (heard reports of tennis-ball sized with this storm earlier), we took shelter beneath an abandoned gas station carport, 1 block north of the intersection of US-87 and TX-86. The hail reached dime to nickel size at this point. We heard tornado sirens going off here as well. The next two pictures (first one is blurry) were taken at 0045z looking sw at the lowering.
Thinking that the lowering was headed right for us, we had to decide whether to continue s along US-87 or go east along TX-86. Since TX-86 would mean more town (and thus trees/obstructions), we made the quick decision to head along US-87, hoping to make it before the lowering would cross. A few blocks south of the US-87/TX-86 intersection, the hail was at least quarter size (1 inch), if not half-dollar to ping pong size (1.25 to 1.5 inches). It was the biggest hail I had ever seen (previous record was 1 inch), so it was probably in that latter range. There were a couple of hefty thuds on the car. Three tiny dents are visible on the top and back of my car. My first known hail damage ever. We did not see any place to stop, nor would we have stopped given that the wall cloud was clearly rotating just to our wsw. This next picture taken at 0049z was of developing scud to our wsw, when we were about 1.5 miles sw of downtown Tulia.
Heather was looking above us seeing horizontal rotation as we raced swd, my focus was at the ground trying to see if any circulation was located in front of me. We did get hit by the rear-flank downdraft, with wnw winds I'd estimate around 40 to 50 mph. We finally stopped 4.5 miles s of Tulia at the intersection of US-87 and CR-T. The next picture was taken at 0052z looking nw at the rotating wall cloud and scud.
The next two videos were shot between 0052 and 0053z, looking north towards Tulia at the rotating wall cloud.
The next three pictures and video were taken at 0054z, looking north at the Tulia tornado. Debris can first be seen in the center of the third picture.
The next four pictures were taken from 0055 to 0056z, as the Tulia tornado continued, but appeared to be dissipating.
We headed north back into Tulia, with 5-6 emergency vehicles rushing into the city as well. We reached the intersection of US-87 and TX-86 again, with the police blocking nb traffic on US-87 due to debris/damage along the road (bent metal, signs and power lines downed). As we went east on TX-86 to reposition, we saw two roofs peeled back on buildings n of the road, a large garbage dumpster in the middle of a city street, a tree uprooted, several tree branches in the streets, power out, people standing around with cell phones. About a mile east of downtown Tulia, we took the next three pictures from 0105 to 0107z looking nnw at the remnant tornado/continuing wall cloud.
At this point, it was getting dark, but we decided to press on anyway. We went back into the city of Tulia, heading wsw to get on I-27. We took I-27 north to exit 83, going east on FM-2698, before merging with FM-146. We could continue to see a lowering/updraft base to our n-ne. As we were heading east, we saw two cars heading wb with their hazard lights on and I began to think about where this storm would have crossed the road. About two seconds later, we saw debris and power poles downed over the road. I ended up driving my right tires over the first debris item. I thought it was a 1-2 inch diameter tree branch, turns out it was a metal road sign that was lying flat on the road. Heather called 911 and reported this debris since they were no emergency vehicles in the area. Around 9 miles ne of Tulia, we snapped our final two pictures between 0126 and 0127z of the downed power poles in front of us and the road sign on the ground. I could not open the window in the final shot as we were facing s with moderate rain from that direction.
We then called the chase over, heading back west to I-27. We drove north along I-27, just ahead of a linear, leading-stratiform MCS. Then in Amarillo, we went east on I-40 all the way back to Yukon, OK, before heading south/east on OK-4 back towards Blanchard. The MCS overtook us in Amarillo, continuing to propagate/develop ewd. The Tulia tornadic supercell became a large HP before being combined with the MCS. There were still tornado warnings on the cell, all the way up to I-40 as it crossed. We stayed around 15-20 miles nw through sw of the radar-indicated circulations. When we reached sern Carson county, we had a police vehicle lead traffic at around 20 mph ewd. East of this, very heavy rain fell at times as we crossed the squall line in the Gray/Donley county border region. As we entered Wheeler county, we finally escaped the heaviest portions of the line. The only other interesting facet on the way home was 7-8 close CG strikes out ahead of the line between Sayre and Elk City. We finally got home around 0645z.
Slideshow of all images
Picture of a storm chase vehicle after it was caught in the Tulia tornado. Occupants uninjured.
