We started off our day by leaving Borger, TX and started to head east and toward home.

Most of us fell asleep right as we made it back into the car.  There has been a competition the past two weeks to try and catch each other sleeping, well chaser Kyle Berry was the winner.  He caught six of us sleeping in the van today.

After all waking up from our nap, I was asked to decide on where to go for lunch in Clinton, Oklahoma.  After looking at some in town restaurants, I chose Jigg’s Smokehouse.  I decided to get the BBQ Beef sandwich and boy was it a sandwich.

We left the smokehouse, and started on the road again.  Some of us played Apples to Apples to pass the time and some of us decided to listen to our music.  One thing that has always been a fun thing to play is the crossword game book that chaser Evan Webb brought.  Chaser Kyle Mattingly seems to know the most of these.  Jealous!

After sitting in traffic twice on our way east, we made it to our destination of Memphis, Tennessee.  We are in the home stretch and I know all of us have learned some valuable things and many things about the weather.

We have about a 4 hour drive tomorrow back to Bowling Green tomorrow.  I hope everyone has enjoyed following the trip!

Day 12 of the WKU storm chase began in Raton, New Mexico, where we spent the night recovering from last night’s exhilarating hail storm. After weighing our options in the morning, the class decided to move eastward toward the Oklahoma panhandle. This would allow us to move north or south as the day wore on, depending on how convection evolved.

We ate lunch in Boise City, Oklahoma and hung out in the local park while we waited for thunderstorms to develop. After thunderstorms started to form, we moved eastward to intercept and found ourselves in the parking lot of an establishment known as Brown’s Meat Market. An alpaca, a scavenging dog, and hacky sack provided entertainment while we waited for our storm to strengthen. We also were sustained by the awesomeness of our mustaches:

After it became clear that the storm we were watching was struggling to maintain itself, the decision was made to dive southwestward toward the westernmost storm in the line of convection. This storm displayed some persistent midlevel rotation and produced some sizable hail according to radar estimates. While not as spectacular as some of the previous supercells on the trip, it still produced some impressive lightning and mammatus clouds.

While monitoring this storm’s progress, we also were able to observe a textbook anvil and overshooting top associated with a thunderstorm near Amarillo, TX (over 70 miles to our south).

When our storm began to become disorganized, our class decided to bail and set out for our hotel in Borger, Texas. This was more than likely our last chase day, as prospects for tomorrow look dim and the day will probably be spent traveling back home. By any measure, this class has been a success and an unforgettable experience for everyone involved!

  Due to the main severe risk being too far east to chase, we left Amarillo, Texas, this morning and headed west toward Raton, New Mexico, in the hopes of chasing upslope thunderstorms. On our way out of Amarillo, we visited the famous Cadillac Ranch, where ten Cadillacs are planted at an angle in the ground.

We stopped for lunch in Dalhart, Texas, for lunch at Taco Juan’s, where their burritos are said to be “Juan in a Million.”  Continuing west, we stopped in Clayton, New Mexico, to view and tour the Capulin Volcano National Park.  This volcano is no longer active, and its last eruption was near 60,000 years ago. Dr. Durkee drove the van up the volcano, and we then got out of the van and hiked over the rim of the cinder cone volcano.  This task proved to be more daunting than originally observed, and many of us became exhausted quickly.  However, we all made it to the bottom with no injuries or sickness!

We arrived at our hotel around 4:00 (Mountain Time) this evening in Raton, New Mexico.  After a exhausting day at Capulin Volcano National Park, many of us changed clothes and freshened up.  Around 7:00 (Mountain Time) we headed toward Trinidad, Colorado, to view a storm with impressive lightning. We then headed south toward Maxwell, New Mexico, in order to intercept more promising storms. Radar indicated weak rotation associated with these southern storms.  A hail report stated that quarter inch hail covered Interstate 25 up to one inch deep.  While traveling north toward Raton, we were caught in a hail shaft, but most of the hail was dime size.  We retreated south to avoid damage to the van. When we returned north toward Raton, we were caught again by larger hail, this time quarter to ping pong size.  We again headed south toward Maxwell, New Mexico, and took cover under an overpass to observe the hail and again avoid damage to the van.

After viewing storms, we enjoyed Mexican food at Sands Restaurant in Raton, near our hotel.  Tomorrow we are meeting at 10:00 (Mountain Time) to discuss tomorrow’s chase options.

Written by Tami Gray