After another fitful night’s sleep and various intestinal issues far too graphic for this blog we’re “wide awake” at 06:15, get sorted and are on the road for 07:00. Nowhere is open for breakfast so we set off on US56 south west through Montezuma towards Liberal, Kansas, home to the extremely underwhelming Dorothy’s House. It’s 11c and raining. Go figure…shorts and rain jacket combo again. We stop at Sublette for gas which is right opposite a grain silo. A semi truck is filling up with grain, something I can’t recall seeing before. We get back on it and head south on US160.
While all this was going on the SPC upgraded the tornado risk to 5% over Lubbock, Texas which was nice of them, for context that is 367 miles from Dodge City. An F5 tornado ripped through there in 1970 if I remember rightly. The drizzle continues, it’s 08:30 and I’m getting peckish. Drizzle gives way to heavy rain.
We arrive at Liberal and to the Pancake House for breakfast. Deja vu from last year, same staff and same menu choice, Canadian Bacon, Eggs over easy, hash browns and sourdough toast. Very nice. We head off, sadly bypassing Dorothy's House and south towards Pampa, Texas, crossing into the Oklahoma Panhandle, the rain now having stopped.
We cross into the Texas Panhandle and through Perryton, the damage from the 2023 tornado still visible. As we travel further south the topography changes with rocky outcrops and gorges. We get to Pampa and stop for a Starbucks. Not being a coffee drinker back home I find these places confusing bordering on intimidating: no menu and pretentiously named cup sizes. Me and Rory got the same coffee so as not to go through the palaver twice. Leaving Pampa we pass the Freedom Museum with a lot of military hardware on display including an M60 tank, a Huey helicopter and an F4 Phantom which is a seriously cool Vietnam era fighter bomber.
The SPC has now upgraded to an Enhanced Risk (3/5) and the 5% tornado area has moved a little west. Parameters look good, 60s dew points, steep lapse rates, 2500-3000 MLCAPE and 35-45 kt deep layer sheer.
Fully caffeinated, we head south west in the general direction of Amarillo on US60. Changing drivers necessitated using the memory seat function and a whole lot of mirth kicks in as the massage system accidentally gets activated. At Panhandle we go south on Texas 207.
We travel through the outskirts of Palo Duro Canyon, the second biggest canyon in the USA. The soil is red but the sky is grey, we haven't seen blue sky all day. It's now 13:00 Central.
We continue south on Farm to Market Road 378 and the drizzle has returned. We get a grab and go Subway at Plainview and head south on I27 towards Lubbock; we nearly collect a coyote as it runs across the road. As we approach Abernathy we have sunshine and a hint of blue sky!
It's now 14:30 and the temperature has climbed to 27c, we pass Texas Tech University and their huge American football stadium - capacity 60,000. Rory has with him a Red Raiders baseball cap I bought him when I was here in 2010. We head south west on US62 and stop at Ropesville to see what happens. Chasers are starting to congregate and it's now 30c; a Texas Tech doppler radar truck is parked next to us.
Storms have initiated and we are just east of Ropesville. The storm in front of of us has gone severe warned at 15:55. Someone has reported a landspout.
We get in a good position, stop, take photos and move on. The storm looks really good with good structure if low contrast and has a wall cloud, strong inflow and is forming stratified plates. So far so good but suddenly the inflow into the storm is ripping colossal amounts of red dust from the arid fields and visibility drops to next to nothing. We keep moving but can't get away from the chocking dust probably laden with God knows what. Reports come in of a brief tornado but it's impossible to see anything. The bloody dust is everywhere.
There is clear rotation and finally it goes tornado warned just before 18:00 as all of our phones chime simultaneously to warn of a potential tornado. A last final attempt to get away from the dust has us travelling east away from the inflow and it is just possible to see the edge of the storm but any tornado is still not visible.
Time to call it a day, we head past Lamesa then north to Post then north west up US84 to the picturesque town of Slaten for dinner at Texas 1809. It's then onto La Quinta in Lubbock for our overnight stay. Somebody who is not me...had managed to lock their suitcase with a combination lock that will no longer open...how I don't know...thankfully I always bring a Leatherman multi tool with me, and after much sawing it comes off. Seriously...
Total miles: 577
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