“I do not have a ton of faith in storms before then. It’s possible, but I think a lot of wishcasting is going into tomorrow. We shall see! I’m about to gamble 1500 miles and a couple hundred bucks to find out! LOL”
That was something I posted in my blog Thursday afternoon after replying to a friend of mine who commented on our upcoming chase.
I had never seen a thunderstorm in February, let alone chased one! This first February chase came with a package of a lot of firsts, including my first February tornado! I left Denver Thursday evening and met Verne and Michael Carlson in Limon where we embarked through very thick fog into Burlington and broke free for the rest of our trip to our overnight stay in Garden City, Kansas. We headed out shortly before noon on Friday and dropped south into Oklahoma and down to I-40 where we shot west towards the Shamrock/McLean areas. Our late initiation time allowed us ample wandering time to enjoy a calmer trip to our target. Storms fired earlier than expected around 5pm and lined up from Hall County, Texas and moved north/northeast towards our location off I-40 at the McLean exit. We sat there for about 45 minutes letting the first storm pass. The second storm would go on to produce one of only a few tornadoes that were reported today. We ventured east on I-40 back into Oklahoma but turned around and headed to Amarillo for the night.
After celebratory dinner and sleep in Amarillo, we hit the road to return home the following day on the backside of this storm. That trip home was whole other adventure! Verne and Michael left Amarillo a couple hours before I did and relayed conditions along the route home. They went up through the Panhandles into New Mexico then caught I-25 in Raton back home. Extremely high winds and blowing snow made for a very hazardous trip. Verne and Michael got caught in a ground blizzard on Hwy 87/64 near Des Moines, NM. Fortunately the storm subsided before my arrival a few hours later. I, on the other hand, stopped and shot high wind video along Hwy 87 in Moore County, Texas and in the town of Dumas.
Both the tornado and the dust storm got some airtime on The Weather Channel in the days after.
