Awesome Lightning Near Corsicana 10/11/2010

Well, I did decide to chase Monday's event (thanks to James Langford who now-casted for me pretty much the entire day) and wound up shooting south-southeast on I 45.
Initially things were not too interesting, but as the front began its slow progress south while I sat on 287 between Palestine and Corsicana thunderstorms erupted jut about right on top of me. I experienced some pea to dime size hail and some cool lightning.

Shear on this day was in the 25 - 35kt range I believe... but flow in the low levels was very weak and disorganized until you got up past the 700mb level or so. Some storms did show periods of Supercellular behavior, but most cells didn't. Cape was not too bad this day with values around 2000 j/kg or so.

I started the chase around 2:00pm from Murphy Texas and headed for cells that had already developed along Highway 31 east of Corsicana. I reached them around 3:30 - 4:00pm. One cell in particular showed superculler characteristics, but not for much of the latter part of its life when it bowed out and became embedded in a mess of cells moving off to the east-southeast. I got suckered after this cell... but never reached it as it remained south of 31 and was moving away from me and home. I did head on into Athens only to have my view completely blocked by trees.

By the time I reached Athens all the cells near me appeared to weaken and become fairly disorganized on radar, but I continued to have hope that new and better storms would fire off to my west closer to I 45 in the latter afternoon. I shot south on Highway 19 out of Athens to try and get back to the boundary that storms were firing off of to my south. Trees still plagued my view of the sky and I missed an awesome rainbow due to not having a place to pull off when there was a view. I arrived in Palestine and took the quickest route back towards I 45 which was 287.

When I reached the Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area my view suddenly opened up and I could see everything around me for miles. The road went over several overpasses in that area and was elevated above the surrounding countryside by about 15 feet.


I decided then and there that that was where I needed to be and there I remained from about 5:30 - 8:30pm.

The main bulk of storms pushed off into southeast Texas and Louisiana by this time and the front (which was now sitting just to my north by about five miles) was slowly marching south. New cells tried repeatedly to fire off of the front and some tried to my south. Around 6pm storms began to take off right on the boundary and almost directly over me. And that is when the fun began. I sat on 287 while a couple of cells intensified to my north and east. Another cell got very intense just to me west shortly after the ones to my northeast began to intensify. All storms were drifting to the east very slowly. I decided to let the more intense western cell pass overhead as there were no warnings on any of the storms and couldn't think of a better spot to be as far as visibility.

A cell to my east-northeast also got fairly intense and showed some signs of weak rotation on radar. Under the base a small cone shaped lowering formed and persisted until rain from the western cell moved overhead and blocked my view of it.


Once it disappeared I experienced the hail from a left split off of the cell to the west which lasted about a minute or two. What fallowed was a pretty intense display of lighting just a few miles to my south from the right mover that was now beginning to drift to my south very slowly.



I'd been hanging on this stretch of highway about an hour and half or more by now, using the hazard lights and charging the iPhone the whole time, when the battery goes dead. Ooops! Well, I call Dad and let him know of the situation and he decides to come and jump start my engine (despite the fact I am two hours from home). On the bright side I would have a spectacular view of lightning for the next hour or more at this location the way things were moving. Thankfully a hunter stopped by on his way home and jump started my car long before my Dad would've reached me and Dad didn't have to make the long drive from the north side of Dallas. I left soon after the car started as I was afraid the car might die on me again. But, from the time the car died till it got jump started I was able to grab a few images.


All in all it was well worth getting out seeing a few good thunderstorms.