Warp speed restored…

So today will be mostly spent in interstellar space at warp factor 9 as we charge down the interstate wormholes. 

The SPC has a slight risk along the North Atlantic coast which may as well be in a different universe. There’s also a marginal risk (level 1 of 5) across Texas replete with 2% tornado risk. Quick reminder: this means you have a 2% chance of seeing a tornado within a 25 mile radius of any point within the risk area. Sounds hopeless, but as we’re mobile we can dramatically reduce those odds. 

So we have Breckinridge, Tx as our target for a day. A quick look on Google Maps - that’s 518 miles/7 hours 22 minutes away. And that’s just to join the game, in the event storms do fire (not a given) there’s chasing miles on top. Also as the day develops our target may be revised. Yes, it’s a stupid distance but that’s the game we’re playing. In any event, we need to be in that general vicinity for the next few days so it has to be done. 

We’re underway at 7 a.m. with a quick stop at McDonald’s and time to choose some breakfast. According to Alex the menu is completely different from the UK, I wouldn’t know as I don’t eat much in the way of fast food. We order two McGriddles and they come in 30 seconds. Absolutely revolting. It gets forced down anyway. We head west on I44 towards Joplin. 

We chew through the miles, have a pit stop east of Tulsa then have Oklahoma City in our sights. It’s 11 o’clock, 4 hours done. Keep going chew, chew, chew…

Now 6 hours have been scrubbed away and it’s time for a stop south of Geronimo for a cheese and ham sandwich at Loves. It’s warming up and 97f outside. Back on it, we’re not far from the Red River and the Texas border. And I should have mentioned that this morning the SPC upgraded today to a slight risk with a 15% hatched area for “gorilla” hail, with dew points in the 70s Fahrenheit (high) and steep lapse rates supporting MLCAPE of 4000-5000 j/kg. Juicy…Tomorrow has similarly been upgraded to Enhanced over a similar area of central Texas, with 2% tornado risk, 30% hatched area for wind and 15% hatched area for hail. Remember, a hatched area ramps up the severity of the expected weather. Nice.  

We cross the Red River and we’re in Texas heading south towards Wichita Falls. 6 hours 40 minutes of interstate has wizzed past as has Wichita Falls and we’re now in US281. 

As we approach Breckenridge there’s some convection in the distance and the mercury hits 100f making it officially quite hot. We reach our target at 15:03, that’s 3 minutes later than expected…meanwhile way to our south a severe warned storm waits patiently at the Mexican Border for entry into the USA…we head south on US183 towards the bubbling convection. Looks fairly well capped at the moment, not much conviction in the convection…we’re on the edge of a severe thunderstorm watch which has just been issued. 

We stop at Cisco, location of Conrad Hilton’s first hotel. Alex gets the drone out for some practice and I take some snaps before the oppressive heat forces me back into the AC. Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that. 

It’s 16:30 and the cap is still evident. Towers start, then hit the glass ceiling, so with our attention not reciprocated we turn our backs and have a break at a truck stop. That appears to work and by 17:00 our updraft has taken the hint and looks a lot more enthusiastic, the billowing colours set against the blue sky. A blip dutifully appears on radar, that then fades. The HRRR however does predict it will flourish. Alex does some time lease with the GoPro. We wait. 

Not looking great so we head off towards our hotel for the night, south east to Stephenville. Out of nowhere a cell pops up to our south and quickly becomes severe warned, we have a clear, if low contrast view of the whole storm, updraft and anvil. We drop south on Texas 16 to have a look. It’s 18:25.

We try to get in front of it and continue south on highway 36, the huge billowing updraft backlit by the sun. It then splits into two cells. 

As we get into Hamilton it disintegrates. We get out to snap what is left. To our back is a massive storm in the distance with an overshooting top right over the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area with 2” hail. During a quick pit stop, we consider dinner at the Koffee Kup in Hico but it’s about to close so we are off to Peacocks in Stephenville. The Dallas storm looks like a huge mushroom cloud so we stop for some snaps. 

Dinner at Peacocks was decent, both had burgers with a monster portion of curly fries. Alex, for reasons best known to himself asked for hot tea which arrived with lemon as is standard.

We checked into the La Quinta in Stephenville before 10pm, top marks for the speedy check in process and helpful guy on the desk, irritating that my travel Mastercard was declined as occasionally happens over here. 

The room was excellent with quiet AC and plenty of mains and USB charging points. The library on the other hand only had one book, so a few marks lost there.

Total miles: 696