Chase Report: May 5, 2006

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This will forever be known as my infamous chase! After a long trip from Denver, I intercepted a massive supercell north of Midland and ended up destroying my vehicle in hail as big as softballs. I would go on to witness a tornado later in the day!

I left Denver this morning at about 5:30a and made great time and gas mileage into Amarillo where I filled up my 3/4 tank after over 400 miles of travel. I then continued south through Lubbock where I was aiming to make Midland. However, storms firing in New Mexico had me thinking heading that far south wasn’t needed. I elected to turn west into Andrews where I met with Jason Boggs and shot the breeze with him til we elected to head north to Seminole to intercept the storm coming out of Hobbs.

What happened next is by far the most incredible chasing experience of my life to date. The storm was heading east/northeast at this point just north of the highway. When I got into town, I met with Amos Magliocco, Eric Nguyen, and Scott Eubanks and we headed west out of town. We elected then to get northwest of Seminole to get a closer view of the storm.

The storm suddenly made a violent and quick turn almost due southeast. Hail began to fall; marbles at first, then growing to quarters, then golfballs. Eric and Amos (in Amos’s truck) headed back southeast into town while Scott E and I hung back. Things looked like they were lightening up a bit. All of a sudden, a few baseballs started coming down. We were going to head back in to town when we heard Eric and Amos over the radio advising us NOT to head south cause the hail was bigger.

We then elected to stay put; the stones weren’t falling too furiously, so it looked as if the storm had wrapped itself around us and we were going to be spared. *Insert a long incorrect buzzer here* More stones began to fall, then hell rained upon us in the form of 3 and 4 inch diameter stones. My vehicle didn’t stand a chance; the back windshield exploded as I was filming (camera away). I ironically enough had just began to say how thankful I was to get the damage waiver on the rental when the back windshield exploded.

We then tried to find cover as the back windshield continued to crash in. The sunroof never stood a chance and was beaten to a pulp as well. The windshield held its own, but soon became a shattered, spidery mess. Scott and I found shelter along side an aluminum building northwest of town and rode out the rest of the storm from there. His car suffered numerous big dents and a cracked windshield. I lost the back windshield, sunroof, and severely damaged front windshield.

We left my car at the police station and I jumped in with Scott for the remainder of the chase. We eventually intercepted the tornado southeast of Patricia, but were looking in toward the meso from the north and had poor contrast. None-the-less, it was the first tornado of the season for me.

Many thanks to Scott Eubanks for allowing me the seat in his car after leaving my car in Seminole and allowing me the chance to continue chasing. Also thanks to Amos and Eric for their concern and offer to ride with them. Its always nice to be in good company, and while I was in a hole, they all offered help even as it may have cost them parts of the chase.

This was the car before it all occured!

Marbles up through quarters fell first followed by golfballs. These shots were taken during a lull in the storm.

The ground as the stone’s began to fall again; starting at quarter to golfball size and growing.

Round 2 began and this would be the big show of the day.

Baseball sized hail was as big as I dared to get out of the car to get. The softballs came next and I wasn’t eager enough to get clocked in the head with one of these.

The softballs reigned down and destroyed the car. The back windshield and sunroof stood no chance. The front windshield also took a beating, but I was fortunately able to safely see through the cracks. The constant sound of wooshing caused as these heavy stones were falling at 100mph was incredible. It was almost like being in a constant morder attack.

When the storm finally let up, this was what was left of my rental. We left the car at the Police station in Seminole and I jumped in with Scott Eubanks for the remainder of the chase.

Catching back up with Amos and Eric, we stay on the storm’s edge to try and avoid getting clobbered with more hail. This shot shows Amos looking behind us as hail sits on the ground. Hailstones we found that were bigger than baseballs we lined on Scott’s truck; the field was littered with these as this storm dumped millions of stones.