Last week, the storm was predicted to be somewhere in the Texas panhandle. We drove up to the border, called back to the lab and found that we could intercept a really major one near Childress in Texas. Except for a few harrowing minutes when we were pounded by two-inch diameter hail, we stayed south of the storm, following it as it moved East into Oklahoma.
It just sat there, doing nothing. There was turbulence, great inflow but ultimately nothing of what we came for. No tornado.
Late in the evening, having given up on this monstrous piece of cloud that just couldn't pull enough muster to produce a twister, we started to speed back home. Just at that moment, a thin funnel formed in the turbulence. If you have ever rolled a cotton wick for an oil lamp, you know how it looked. We watched the delicate thin funnel form and disappear. It took all of 30 seconds. To our north, another storm punched a cloud and sunlight streamed through the cracks. An awesome spectacle.
Still ... no tornado.
