March 8th
I chased solo on this day. Zack nowcasted for me, which was a huge help as storms rapidly developed in several areas. Started up near Sherman on a beautiful cell that passed by just to my north. Zack then directed me to Greenville, where a nice isolated cell developed and moved parallel to I30. Ended the day near Sulpher Springs.
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We had been watching the models closely for Tuesday, as they were showing a rigerous trough moving through our area. With a dryline and coldfront also in the area, this made for a classic spring time setup for North TX. The models seemed to indicate that most of the action was going to be over far North East TX, and I had pretty much written off chasing due to this. However, by mid day on Tuesday, the system had slowed dramatically, and models were showing supercells firing right over top. I made a last second decision to chase, and headed out around 2 pm with a target of Sherman. Storms had begun firing around Denton, and were moving directly East.
As I headed up 75 going North, I decided to pull off near the town of Melissa. I could see several cells from my location, and proceeded to take some pictures and do some time lapse video work. The cells were beautiful, and were moving fairly slowly. I could see a wall cloud like lowering to the North under the primary cell (see video), and this was confirmed from several other chasers in the area. It was around this time that Zack informed me of a new cell that developed just north of Garland, and was heading North East towards Greeville. He felt I would have enough time to get there before the cell arrived, and told me that the environment in that area was much more supportive of supercell storms.
I took highway 380 to Greenville, punching through a small rain core along the way. I arrived just as the cell was approaching town. It had a nice rain free base, but wasn't very impressive at this time. I followed the cell along I30, eventually ending up just outside of Sulper Springs. The cell was becoming more organized at this point, showing a bit of rotation and trying to develop a wall cloud. I videod from here for a while, not seeing a whole lot of interest. I headed further East on I30, and this is the timer period where the cell was most interesting. Several areas of low level rotation developed and rapidly dissapated. I was unable to film as I was driving as these occurred. I gave up on the cell as darkness approached, and it moved further North East away from I30. Had a nice lightning show on the back side of the squall line as the cold front/dry line finally caught me as I headed back towards Allen.
All in all, a very fun chase!
Read More**********************************************************************************************************
We had been watching the models closely for Tuesday, as they were showing a rigerous trough moving through our area. With a dryline and coldfront also in the area, this made for a classic spring time setup for North TX. The models seemed to indicate that most of the action was going to be over far North East TX, and I had pretty much written off chasing due to this. However, by mid day on Tuesday, the system had slowed dramatically, and models were showing supercells firing right over top. I made a last second decision to chase, and headed out around 2 pm with a target of Sherman. Storms had begun firing around Denton, and were moving directly East.
As I headed up 75 going North, I decided to pull off near the town of Melissa. I could see several cells from my location, and proceeded to take some pictures and do some time lapse video work. The cells were beautiful, and were moving fairly slowly. I could see a wall cloud like lowering to the North under the primary cell (see video), and this was confirmed from several other chasers in the area. It was around this time that Zack informed me of a new cell that developed just north of Garland, and was heading North East towards Greeville. He felt I would have enough time to get there before the cell arrived, and told me that the environment in that area was much more supportive of supercell storms.
I took highway 380 to Greenville, punching through a small rain core along the way. I arrived just as the cell was approaching town. It had a nice rain free base, but wasn't very impressive at this time. I followed the cell along I30, eventually ending up just outside of Sulper Springs. The cell was becoming more organized at this point, showing a bit of rotation and trying to develop a wall cloud. I videod from here for a while, not seeing a whole lot of interest. I headed further East on I30, and this is the timer period where the cell was most interesting. Several areas of low level rotation developed and rapidly dissapated. I was unable to film as I was driving as these occurred. I gave up on the cell as darkness approached, and it moved further North East away from I30. Had a nice lightning show on the back side of the squall line as the cold front/dry line finally caught me as I headed back towards Allen.
All in all, a very fun chase!
