Storm Chase Details
Chase Date: May 5, 2009
Miles Logged: 570
States Chased: OK, TX
Largest Hail Encountered: 3"
Severe Risks: SPC Outlooks
Chase Recap:
Hans, Steve and I left Moore a little late, a bit after 1pm on Tuesday and headed down I-44 towards Wichita Falls, which was our original target. On the way down, we decided to get a bit further south, settling on Seymour, TX. We met up with Shane Adams and some other chasers in Seymour.
A mesoscale discussion came out, which showed the warm front a bit further south than we thought it was (due to lack of METARS/Mesonet stations), so we quickly started heading south towards Throckmorton. It was about that time the cell started firing near Breckenridge, but quickly hit the cap and died out. We took some back roads to get down to Breckenridge, and arrived just as the second cell, and the cell of the day, fired.
We sat along US 180 for awhile as the cell got it’s act together, and got into some small hail. A wall cloud formed and it quickly started rotating. The storm really looked as if it was going to produce, and had a great look to it on radar.
We decided to drop south ahead of the meso, and was hoping to make it to Strawn before the storm. Unfortunately that didn’t end up happening, and we got majorly hail cored before getting there. Hans lost his windshield, and I got a bunch of new dents in my truck.
We ended up giving up after the windshield was broken, and headed to Weatherford, TX after the cell passed us over. The positive is that Hans’ windshield was only $200 installed.
