Prepping For The Big One

Hi All,
If you've been following the weather at all in the plains you're well aware of the situation setting up for tomorrow. A strong frontal system is building into the central US and it looks like we'll finally have all of the ingredients necessary for an all-out severe weather event. The Storm Prediction Center currently has a moderate outlook issued but the expectation is it will likely be upgraded to high risk by tomorrow morning. All of the parameters are consistent with a historic tornado event and V2 is primed and ready to go. Current forecasts have the storms moving too fast for the armada to get into an effective formation so odds are we'll end up setting up some sort of picket fence out ahead of the storm and let it pass through us. The sounding team is likely to be busy launching hourly for most of the day.


On a happier note, the armada spent the weekend in Amarillo Texas where, according to the note left in the bathroom, we were treated with "Texas Star Hospitality". Our weekend was capped by a wedding reception in the lobby with big hair abound. On Saturday Adam, Casey L. and I went for a hike in the Palo Duro canyon just south of town. It was quite impressive. They said it's only 800 ft deep at its deepest point but it was the second longest canyon in the US. I couldn't convince them to go on the 11 mile running trail so we did the 2 mile "Sunflower" trail at the bottom of the canyon.


On the way home we stopped by Wal-Mart and found what I can only imagine is the official mascot of the Amarillo area Wal-Mart:


You can't make this stuff up. There's a painted horse statue in front of 50% of the major businesses in the Texas panhandle. Howdy partner.

I'll leave you with an image for my weather geek friends who take the time to follow my blog. On the drive over today (Sunday) from Amarillo a strong storm cropped up to our south producing one large cell with hail and heavy rain. The convection kicked off some beautiful gravity waves which propagated outward through the cloud deck. I was able to snap this picture as we merrily rolled down I-40:


That's all for now. Stay tuned for the outcomes of our chase on Monday. Here's hoping we see something nice and get the data we came for.