Paducah, Texas 05-30-2012

Continuing with the importing of my historic chase logs.

This was a confusing day because SPC had been showing an area in NW Oklahoma to be a 10% risk of tornadoes, but the forecast models were showing something completely different.  I was seeing storms initiating in the eastern Texas panhandle and nothing was happening up north, at least at the time I got out and was able to chase.  So, I headed west to Shamrock, Tx and sure enough storms initiated just to the west and to the south.  Since this was my third straight day of chasing I was a little worn out, so I stuck with a cell that was just southwest of Shamrock hoping it would take off.  But unlike the storms in Oklahoma the day before, on this one I chose poorly.  It slowly evaporated, leaving nothing but a small shaft of rain.  Meanwhile to the south near Childress, around 40 miles away there was a beast of a cell moving southeastward at about 30 mph and had a well defined hook echo, prompting it to go tornado warned.  The problem I had with it wasn't that I couldn't catch it, it was it that it was such a beast and it basically covered the only road to the south, so it would take a massive core punch and some luck to get through it safely because you didn't know what you might come out and run into on the other side.  But, I made my way down and it kept moving southeast and was just behind it when I reached Paducah, Tx.  As I was passing through, lightning had set of a huge brush fire to the west clouding up the sky and adding to the area's woes.  I went to the east and noticed debris on the road and just on the left side of the road was a barn that housed some classic cars...only the barn wasn't there anymore.  Luckily for the owner the cars were still there.  I'm pretty sure a small tornado had to have obliterated the barn...sheet metal was wrapped around a sign near the road.  Not long after that another cell had developed behind me, and it quickly went tornado warned.  The inflow winds were sucking up smoke and dirt from the fields into the storm creating quite a sight to see, but as for a tornado, I couldn't see so I didn't push my luck.  I didn't get many pictures that day because I was playing catch up for most of it, and the HP nature of the cells made it that much tougher.  Still a memorable chase, but not fruitful from a tornado standpoint.  Here's a couple of photos from this uneventful chase.