We started our morning in Wichita, KS and decided to make the long drive towards the general vicinity of Amarillo, TX, despite the Storm Prediction Center's forecast of only "marginal" conditions. Due to a general lack of wind shear, rotating supercells were relatively unlikely. Initial storms began firing near Earth, TX, but they quickly fizzled. We then targeted developing thunderstorms between Needmore and Enochs. This cluster of storms quickly strengthened, and for a while, moved very slowly which allowed us to observe strong, hurricane-force winds affecting the landscape to our south. The strong winds were moving a tremendous amount of dust from the surrounding fields. Once the cluster started moving more quickly to the east, we moved north and then east again to get out of its way and give us another nice opportunity to observe. Multiple spin-ups of dust (gustnadoes) were occurring in a nearby field as part of the outflow, and further away, we saw evidence of dust being transported up into the storm through a possible landspout. Eventually, the increasing outflow created a dramtaic haboob (dust storm) that we watched form, and shortly thereafter, called it a day. We stayed in Lubbock for the evening, where we observed some pretty serious street flooding along with some reckless drivers and stalled cars. Lubbock, TX was far enough southeast to hopefully set ourselves up to observe forecast storms in southern Texas the next day.
Time Lapse of a Severe Thunderstorm
Gustnado.
For all you Independence Day fans, “Welcome to Earth...Texas.”
Developing storm between Needmore and Enochs, TX.
Possible landspout near Needmore, TX.
The storm was kicking up a tremendous amount of dust with winds approaching hurricane force. Radar-reported winds above the surface were well over hurricane force.
