Breakfast was at Lubbock’s Breakfast House. Decent and came with four pieces of bacon and sourdough toast.
Plans to visit the Jack Sizemore RV museum in Amarillo, always worth the trip, go west; they’re closed today so we visit Ransom Canyon and The Steel House by architect Robert Bruno. See last year’s entry when I went with Rory. We head north on Texas 400.
So today the SPC has a slight risk up against the Rockies and a 2% tornado risk up in the High Plains in SE Colorado, across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and NE New Mexico.
In 2010 I saw 5 tornadoes in this region including the legendary Campo tornado which was also on a 2% tornado risk day. I’ve been through there a couple of times since then, it sure does bring back memories. A repeat of that day would do very nicely, thank you.
Alex has been “on it” with the drone and GoPro and made some cool footage. He also sent me a cracking photo I’m now using as my profile picture on social media.
One of the irritating things about Blogspot on the iPhone is justification. Sometimes it just won’t left justify (see top paragraph) and the double space for full stop stops working. Like now. Grrr…and photos are not loading into the place I’ve selected either, necessitating cutting and pasting further messing up the formatting.
We have a pit stop Allsup’s at Plainview. Apparently the Allsup’s taco is a chaser staple. Will have to try one at some point. We continue north on US87, stop at Amarillo for some picnic items and head north. Irritatingly my prepaid Mastercard is declined (for the second time on this trip) this time at the self service till at Walmart. We continue north on US87. The 2% tornado risk has been updated and has drifted north west covering more of eastern Colorado.
We roll into Stratford in the north of the Texas Panhandle for our first picnic of the tour. The fridge in the back of the Suburban has gone U/S so we need to eat up quickly. The picnic area is shut but we sit in the bandstand in the city park.
We’re right in the bullseye of the dust bowl of the 1930s; settlers were offered 160 then 640 acre plots to farm to encourage western expansion. Several years of decent rains led to successful harvests, however this was atypical, and when the usual semi-arid conditions returned was when the problems started. The virgin ground was held together by deep rooted native grasses, when this was ploughed up and dried out the earth turned to dust and blew away creating huge dust storms. Many people went bust and left in droves.
The land in the Texas panhandle is very flat, and to a none expert looks prime farming territory. We cross into Oklahoma…on Donald J Trump Highway…A quick stop at Loves in Boise City and we’re underway again.
A short snooze later and we cross into Colorado, and through the aforementioned Campo. A very small town with a big legacy. An amazing day 14 years ago on Friday. See 2010 for details and the 5/5 tornadoes captured.
We stop in Springfield for a Subway and a there’s a custom truck in the car park with a hail shield and array of cameras. You’d get pulled over in the UK, “is this your vehicle sir?”
A severe warned storm has popped up to our north west, so it would be rude not to. We continue north and past the Two Buttes (pronounced “beauts”). We’re now on mountain time which is -7 vs back home. Sloshing between mountain and central can get very confusing.
The severe warning has gone but there’s a nice base and then a sudden down burst with some mammatus. The Chaser Chicks are right behind us 😜. We’re south of Lamar and the severe warning is back with a 3” hail marker and some rotation.
We head south and have a stop at Wiley for photos. We’ve crossed the boundary back into warmer air. We head south.
18:04 - tornado warning!!! Funnel!!!
Head south. Stop. Photos. Repeat. This storm is playing with us, on and off tornado warnings. At 19:10 clear rotation is visible, as close to getting a tornado as you will ever get. Alex got a hailstone right in his ear 😂 and I got to chat to the Chaser Chicks 😁
We finally know it’s time to stop, the day ends with an amazing sunset. The air turns cold as we get enveloped in outflow and we’re off for our 2 and a half drive to Liberal Kansas. An unbeatable 2% day, High Plains Magic indeed!
We turn off left at Colorado 116 east. Our storm is to our north and has a nice wall cloud, a small hook and is still severe warned. It’s getting dark so time to say goodbye, it’s been fun. Oh go on then, we’ll take a lightning display of you insist.
Total miles: 557
No comments:
Post a Comment