Click Here: Video of Storm Courtesy Randy Denzer - All Rights Reserved

Displayed: Are Three pictures of a wallcloud which formed west of Junction. Today wasn’t supposed to be a phenomenal day for chasing. Particularly the winds at sfc, mid levels and up were poor. The instability wasn’t too phenomenal either. My target area was basically out toward Ozona toward Del Rio. My area converged with some of SPC’s 2 Tornado risk area. Talking with David Douglas and others we were somewhat bored and figured there’d be a storm - so why not chase. We all left, Aaron Dooley, Randy Denzer, and David Douglas all in four separate vehicles. Aaron decided to try the south route toward Eagle Pass. Storms formed down there and I’m not sure what he got. David, Randy, and myself ended up taking 290 west through Fredricksburg  and on to Junction, Tx where we all met at the Motel 6 parking lot and used their wifi for data since cellular was a bit sparse.

Things were a bit slow for awhile. To the west was just a bunch of scattered non-organized mini cells. Someone mentioned Coopers BBQ next door was good. So we decided to grab some BBQ while we waited. It was a bit pricey for what we got, but pretty tastey. We decided to sit outside out back and as soon as I walked outside it was already raining. To the west the clouds had organized to create a small storm. Lo and behold it began showing structure and eventually what looked like a wallcloud in the far distance. Randy remarked that this happens everytime he eats on a chase. Nothing and as soon as he is busy / distracted eating...BOOM. We hastily finished and dashed west along I10 to the first primary road north where we intercepted this wallcloud.  It was raining a bit in our position so I stayed in the vehicle awhile, but eventually climbed out to shoot these 3 pics.

We were quite happy for this surprise catch this day which was much more than we really expected. Randy called in a wallcloud report. To the left it appears the wallcloud has a tail cloud extension nw toward the precip region. To the left in front of that feature you also see a curved clear, brighter area with precipitation. This appears to be a clear slot developing from an eroding rear flank downdraft. I say all this but this was a very weak supercell in my opinion although I did detect the slightest bit of rotation on base velocity associated with this feature. Minutes later likely due to the effects and probably caused by the weaker winds aloft this entire cell just broke down and dissipated fairly quickly. We started to reposition for a better view, but their wasn’t anything to see. At this point we ended the chase and adjourned to Fredricksburg where we stopped in and had a couple beers at the Auslander Biergarten. All in all a fun chase, and it was certainly a good test for much of my new equipment while I worked the bugs out. I should add that the Texas Hillcountry’s beautiful wildflowers were in bloom and were very enjoyable as well.

© All images on this site Copyright  Bill Tabor unless otherwise noted