Me (Simon) and Jim forecasted supercells to develop near Lubbock, TX. I was physically drained on this day, because of lack of sleep and a morning run, so Jim had to drive. We left Norman and hauled tail down to Lubbock. We stopped in Vernon, TX for gas and viewed a line of storms to our northwest. This worriedus, so we drove south to Benjamin. In Benjamin it was almost completely overcast with a thunderstorm to our west, so we called Sarah Jones for info. We decided to drive west on 82 towards Crosbyton, TX.

We drove through a strong cell, which showed signs of rotation, west of Benjamin, but we kept going west. After filling up in Crosbyton we drove north on 62 and then west on 54 to intercept a supercell near Petersburg. The supercell had an intense updraft, a rain wrapped meso, and a well defined RFD marked by an impressive shelf cloud and roll cloud. We let the south side of the RFD move over us, doing so we experienced quarter-sized hail.

We then drove east on 54 and then north on RD 3111 to intercept the meso. While driving north on 3111 a funnel cloud lowered from the wall cloud, and just as we approached to funnel the RFD slammed us with very strong winds and golf ball-sized hail. When the RFD hit we lost view of the funnel. But we then came across two telephone poles that had been twisted and snapped, which was in the area where we saw the funnel before the RFD hit us. This might have been damage caused by a brief touchdown from a tornado, because of the isolated area of damage and the funnel cloud over the damaged area. We drove east on 37 to get ahead of the RFD and then north on 62 towards Floydada. We hit the RFD again and experienced golf ball-sized hail.

We drove east on 70 to get ahead of the RFD and then north on 602 in an attempt to get to the northeast of the meso, but we were slammed by the RFD once again. So we went back to 70 and drove east to Matador and then northeast on 94. On 94 between Matador and Northfield we could tell the storm was weakening substantially, so we decided to head back to Floydada.

As we approached Floydada we heard warnings for developing supercell near Lubbock. We drove west on 54 and watched a beautiful LP supercell near Lubbock to our WSW. The supercell had a large meso and a very long tail cloud, which eventually disappeared into the FFD. While driving west on 54 we encountered numerous flooded fields and flooded roads. Many of the fields looked like giant square lakes. As we drove
along the north side of the supercell it became HP. We decided to drive further west on 54 to get sunset pictures and possibly some good lightening. We stopped east of Littlefield, TX and witnessed a beautiful sunset.

This chase was spectacular. We witnessed large hail, multiple supercells, an awesome roll cloud, a possible tornado, flooded fields and roads, and a beautiful sunset. But we paid the price on the drive home. We drove though heavy rain from an MCS almost the entire way back. That's nearly five hours of miserable driving!

Simon's Pictures will be up soon!