Off to an early start this morning, left the hotel by 8am. No dice getting any reliable internet. I was able to receive wireless on the Pocket PC for a few minutes, long enough to fire an email to Dr. Hockensmith and reschedule our meeting.
This morning has light cirrus clouds making for a bit of haziness. It is breezy and a little chilly, I will take measurements soon. Dave Carroll hasn't answered his phone, mom did not answer her phone, and Bobby Edmonds was asleep when I called him, though a brief chat with him said that SPC had a 2% tornado threat from around Liberal, KS to Lubbock, TX last night. I am writing from just outside of Stratford, TX. Another hour and a half takes me to Liberal. I hope mom calls back soon, I'll get her to read me the SPC statement.
A while later, the WX radio informs me that there is a '20% chance of showers, lower 80's (temperature), breezy, some thunderstorms may be severe' out of Guyman, OK. They also advise that a developing dryline at the TX/NM border, and upper level distrubances are expected to cross paths, with low level shear being best in the eastern panhandle (TX). Obviously, the best chance of tornadoes is east, and that weak midlevel winds will lead to slow moving storms. The dryline will be pushed past the panhandles quickly once the surface low deepens (probably tomorrow).
A Hazardous Weather Outlook (HWO) was issued for the following counties in TX and OK: Armostrong, Beaver, Carson, Cimiron, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Dayley, Berkley, Hansford, Hartley, Hirsel, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Muller, Ogletree, Oldham, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Texas, and Wheeler. Large hail and damaging winds are the largest threat.
According to Amanda, I might be ina good place. The tornado threat might be east of here. She says there is a developing low at the KS/CO border. If that forms, it might interact and bulge the dryline here. GFS and NAM both had that low farther north, which is why I aimed for KS/CO initially. Now that it is south, so am I. The only probably will be eastern routes, as it is likely to shift the dryline upon interaction.
At 12:56pm CDT, light cirrus to the east, light cumulus to the west. Mom called and said tracking was spotty but had me in Gruver, TX. According to her analysis, this marks the 12hr position of the dryline.
I left for Gruver, TX as I knew it would be a while before initiaion and N8KIE needed Hansford County, TX to have worked all TX, so I figured I would get it to him. All in all, 46 HF QSOs that day. At around 3, (I think), I took down the hamstick, as I was in no better position to give out new counties and I wanted to dedicate time to the chase.
I left Gruver and headed to a small town called Morse for the sole purpose of taking a photo of the sign to send into QST.
Cumulonimbus began to build a line. I knew it would squall out quickly, but I did not know how quickly. I headed up to Perryton and bounced between it and the OK border. I picked up wirelss at McDonalds (for $2.95/2 hours) and decided to head south, based on the radar. Somehow, I lost my storm chase magnet. Oh well, one stolen, one lost. It began to rain hard and then pea sized hail fell. I pulled over at the Best Western at the south end of Perryton to avoid the hail. They had free wireless and the radar image showed that I could skirt south quickly and avoid the core of the storm, and might even beat a developing hook and be in position.
Naturally, I headed south, beating most of the precipitation. Even though it looked to have a pennant, I figured it wouldn't be rotating for long. I passed a few chasers, both parked and headed north. I ended up in a spot between two squall lines such that I had heavy rain and impressive shelf clouds on both sides of the road.
Night was approaching, so I continued south to Pampa. No vacancies. Then I headed through Miami to Canadian. No vacancies at either of those. I returned to Perryton to take the last room in Perryton at the Budget Inn (and was it ever).
The Budget Inn had wireless in the parking lot near the lobby and a warm bed. That was about it. Exposed wiring, leaky roof, holes in the wall, ungrounded outlets, a toilet which was not bolted to the floor (I almost knocked it over as I grabbed it falling out of the shower). Anyway, it was only $44. A roast beef sandwich and I was on my way to Day 2.