Top marks for last nights hotel particularly our room which had more charging options than you could shake a stick at: mains, USB-A and USB-C sockets galore. Excellent. We also had a good night’s sleep, certain propriety anti-snoring prophylactics were put in place which appeared to placate Alex’s unsubstantiated moaning.
This morning is overcast and very humid. A quick look at RadarScope and we are about to be slammed by an outflow boundary from stormy weather to our north. Today’s breakfast is at Triple G in Stephensville. Another round of top marks, crispy toast, bacon, hash browns and plenty of coffee at a reasonable price with good service.
As we leave we’re greeted with torrential rain and the humidity is gone, replaced by a welcome freshness in the air; that combined with a good night’s sleep, adjustment to the time zone and plenty of coffee and I’m properly awake.
Today's target is Lubbock, Tx. The SPC morning update has an enhanced risk over central and north west Texas with 2% tornado risk, a 30% hatched risk for wind and a 15% hatched risk for hail.
We head west on West Lingville Road and in the distance are the blue and red flashing lights of many police vehicles. We slow down, anticipating our Blues Brothers moment, however the cause is a vehicle that has left the road, ploughed through a fence and into a field. We head west and are soon out of the washing machine weather with blue sky ahead of us.
The road we’re on is so uneven, when combined with being in the back seats is like trying to do this blog while bouncing up and down on a trampoline. I’ve spent more time trying to undo things I’ve accidentally clicked on than actually typing.
When I first came here I had a notebook to jot down some notes as we travelled. I’d then get to the hotel, download the camera photos to a hard drive, choose a selection, find a WiFi signal or locate a LAN socket, connect to blogspot and start typing, add the photos and hope everything uploaded overnight which wasn’t always the case. I then started typing directly into laptop and cutting and pasting that into the blog at the hotel, then as cell coverage improved I’d upload on the hoof from a wireless hotspot. Still choosing photos was a mass of cables, card readers and external hard drive often in the dark as we bounced along. For the first time everything is now done in real time using nothing but the iPhone. Easy peasy.
We cruise down the I20 and stop outside Abiline for a Starbucks. I don’t bother with these back home as we have a kettle, but it’s a tradition here. I try to ask for a medium coffee then get bombarded with pretentious names for straightforward things. We’re back on the interstate heading west where we’ll pick up the US84 north west towards Lubbock. The SPC late morning update is out, the previous 2% tornado risk has been updated to 5%. Both wind and hail are now 30% hatched risks. Who doesn’t like a free upgrade eh?
As we head up to Lubbock we have initiation so pass through and continue north west on US84. Child in Time by Deep Purple playing in the Suburban…from the Twister movie and why not lol?
We stop at Sudan on a severe warned storm, some mammatus above and a couple of CGs. We head west to get south of it for a better view. Some nice mammatus and the base can be seen. Four Silver Lining Tours vans wizz past. Head south on farm road 303 to get on the southerly cell which obliges by going severe warned.
We stop on farm road 597. The storm is moving relatively slowly at 15 knots, I take plenty of snaps and Alex some time lapse with the GoPro. Low contrast but good structure, base, rain foot, inflow tail and anvil all apparent. Back south on farm road 303.
Back on farm road 597 west, wall cloud evident with 103 knot rotation maker. Suddenly the wall cloud sharpens and inflow rushes past us at huge speed collecting massive amounts of chocking dust. We have to move. Great couplet and hook. We get through the dust and stop again. 1 inch hail starts falling so time to move again.
A pit stop at Whiteface is thwarted as the power is out so roadside improvisation is required. We move on to the next storm, north west of highway 114, the one we have just left has 5” hail observed. About turn and return to that one, the new storm is high based and not doing much.
We head through Levelland, not been here since 2012. Some flooding and shredded trees from the hail. We get to Smyre and we’re into the hail, slow down to keep away from the big stuff. Wow that’s noisy. There’s plenty of flooding as we enter Lubbock, spray everywhere.
We attempted to get into an empty Applebees…the service was so bad we couldn’t even get seated. So we left, and went to Texas Roadhouse instead. I had the New York strip which was an inedible piece of undercooked gristle. Awful. Complained and got a $15 voucher and the bill cancelled so can’t complain…but I did anyway. Tonight we’re in La Quinta in Lubbock. Tomorrow we are headed to eastern Colorado, currently a slight risk for wind and hail, tornado risk less than 2%.
Total miles: 473
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