Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Created by Christophe Asselin
June 1st already. It's about time to pick up our friend Tony.
DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
What's up guys?
It felt good to see somebody new.
Tony had to stay in France for work purposes
but he followed our previous chases from there.
Exhausting weeks for me too!
I obviously couldn't wait to join the team
and i was eager to see the events with my own two eyes!
We took the opportunity to exchange our vehicle
It's always worrying to bring back a slightly damaged car
but it went well.
We got a beautiful, new, white, roomy SUV
to make Tony feel welcome.
Tony is a professionnal weather forecaster
and brought a new point of view.
Do we go south-west or south?
It looks like this is still moving south
- We could at least go there and then see... - Exactly.
Is it really serious considering what the models...
Do we look like serious guys?
It was a brand new team building up!
We drove toward the south and the Panhandles
which are two areas from Oklahoma and Texas.
They're called after their evocative shape.
Panhandles are quite arid regions
with a lot of dust and not much vegetation.
Tornado statistics are quite good in the area
so we went there with great pleasure.
We rapidly saw storms growing over the target area.
We were in good position.
Oh yeah!
That's insane!
We can already see crazy rain vortex... which are rain-wrapped!
[this doesn't make sense in French either]
First storm of the panhandle.
Consistent base widening by the minute
There was a lot of wind this day.
It was a bit hard to keep the tripods straight.
It's becoming more organized!
The base is beginning to rotate!
After a few minutes of observation
we suddenly saw a dust cloud which looked like a possible tornado.
It matches the base's spinning.
We were on the look-out
wondering if we were seing something really that special.
Then it quickly vanished.
Sure it wasn't very large, but I mean...
I think it might have been a tornado.
As they usually do, storms moved nort-eastwards
so we got back on the road to follow them
racing with a freight train.
This storm is gorgeous!
Look at that base
There's a nice lowering!
If it could just get some strength and wrap here.
It could produce a *** tornado!
There's something spinning above us...
We're watching you! Beware!
I have a headeache, which means it's going to strike close.
I saw the streamers!
Time to get in the car!
It was a typical panhandle storm
where storms don't usually get enough moisture to produce tornadoes
but they produce a lot of lightning
The show around us was wonderful.
Loads of lightning bolts as I've never seen before
Very close at some times.
Great opportunity to take nice pictures.
Photography-wise, it was the guarantee to get a CG on each picture.
It was really intense.
Sure we had quite a fright at some points.
with too close for comfort bolts.
As far as I'm concerned, I love lightning
and we had a lot of fun on this chase.
Did you get it?
It strikes on our left.
We should step back guys!
Let's go Chris?
The sun began to go under the base
and it gave to the sky its golden colors again
but even crazier than usually.
Texas and panhandles didn't fall short of their reputation.
These are places you don't want to miss when in the US
because you don't think something like this can ever happen
until you're in front of it
excited like children on christmas eve.
TRUE SPEED
We wondered how it was scientifically possible
for a storm to deploy such an amount of power
in such a short interval.
It was another highlight of the trip.
JUNE 4, 2013
Panhandles also mean long waitings in the sun and heat.
We reached 40蚓/100蚌 several times.
This heat tended to dry up the air mass
preventing storms to form.
Maybe this one will grow soon.
We could drive north to the oklahoma border and see...
Anyway, this area is the best, so we wouldn't be too far away if it finally fire up.
- "if"... it's a lot of "if"!
- When you see how clouds look like...
TWO HOURS LATER
We ended up seeing a beautiful LP supercell
with nearly no rain at all.
Finally a really rotating and isolated cell
with the typical meso shape,
a circular smooth base.
We even saw a funnel at some point
It was very thin so we didn't really expect a tornado
but it looked pretty anyway.
This storm went on until the night
It provided a lot of unreal atmospheres
and that's what we like.
JUNE 5, 2013
Last day in the panhandles
It was a difficult bet
We hesitated a lot between south, north, west...
We wandered about on Texas roads
watching satellite images
and looking for a potentially developping storm.
Nice cumulus tower there!
As it never started up on our original target area
we decided to go west to intercept storms coming from New Mexico.
There were moving slowly
so we figured we would book an hotel in Lubbock,
drop our stuff and then calmly drive towards the storms.
We're between two storm systems
You can see a beautiful anvil there.
And there's a line coming at us with a probable shelf cloud in front of it.
We're aiming for a good show while eating our burgers
waiting for the arcus cloud to get us.
Sky got darker over the horizon
but the shelf cloud wasn't that pretty
It was even rather disappointing
I remember Vincent saying it looked like a "French storm"
and it was the lousiest storm he had ever seen in the US.
It wasn't photogenic anymore
so we decided to get back to the hotel in Lubbock.
On our way, the storm progressively caught us up.
A lot of dust and not much visibility.
It's going to be a mess in town.
It's ok, it was green!
Giant tumbleweeds...
Power flash!
I missed it!
Suddenly we saw power flashes to our right.
We reckoned the wind might be really strong outside
Keep close to the other cars to see them!
I think they're used to this kind of weather here.
We began to think we might not get to the hotel in time
even though we were entering the suburbs
We could see buildings from Lubbock.
The city in the dark guys.
All street lights are off.
That's why it's so dark!
What a crazy ambience.
I don't know where I'm going...
We're good, I recognize.
***! Debris are flying!
Careful guys!
Put your heads down!
Stop the car!
Move a bit to get away from the pole.
THE REAR WINDOW JUST SHATTERED
Try to move forward a bit.
We need to turn around.
- Are you OK guys? - We're good!
A debris probably hit the window.
Try to put the car windward
Nobody behind, you're good to go.
Go forward and take the street in reverse.
So, we just lost the rear window
which was smashed by a debris.
As soon as we get visibility back, we should drive to the hotel.
All of a sudden, we heard a noise on the car body.
The hail was next.
Hailstones were getting bigger...
We knew we were going to have yet another hard time!
Holy ***! We're gonna ruin the car!
We're going to lose the windshield!
Take cover guys!
The lousiest storm he's ever seen right?
We can't manage to keep a car clean!
It's a bit dusty!
It seems like it's calming down
We're gonna drive backwards!
It finally calmed down.
Despite the rain, we had a better visibility
so we tried to find our way to the hotel.
Look at that collapsed building!
We've been lucky enough not to get hit by a roof.
Look the street pole on the left too!
Big damages!
This one broke in half!
Be careful about down power lines
That's why they turn around.
It's flooded! Careful! Careful!
Even on flat terrain!
Where does it all comes from?
I think the downtown was on the other side.
But if we turn right, we'll be parrallel to the good road.
It took us one hour to reach the hotel,
even though we were only 500 yards/meters away.
We had to turn around several times because of damages and flooding.
Sirens were sounding all over the city.
We knew we had lived yet another violent event.
I must admit I did freak out a bit.
I wasn't bragging either on the higway when visibility dropped down
even though the winds were not very strong yet.
But when the very strong gust came
and we started to hear road signs sliding on the ground
I wasn't showing off!
Each time we think we did the most we could do.
We saw a tornado, then a big tornado, then a big tornado from up-close
Then we get hit hard without really seeing it coming
so I hope next time will not be one time too many!
This day was kind of ironical
We didn't expect something special
and that ended up being the most violent day
where we destroyed our vehicle.
It just goes to show that you can't ever turn your back on the storm in the US.
NEXT EPISODE
Developping rotation in front of us!
With a nice base!
Beautiful!
You can join us on Facebook or Twitter!