Panhandle Chase 3/13/2021

Published on March 13, 2021

We departed Wichita at 8 am with the initial chase target of just southeast of Amarillo, Texas. It’s just over a 5 hour drive and storm initiation was expected by mid-afternoon.

The first 4 hours of the drive were very foggy, but as we finally crossed the warm front, the fog cleared and the temperature went up 11 degrees.

While not my ideal chase, we were able to catch two brief rope tornadoes. The storm mode was high-precipitation, which made it more difficult to get a good visual of the normal features we look for.

As this area is very rural, radar updates were few and far between thanks to the sparse cellular network. Combine that with limited road options, a close intercept was not in the cards.

We captured two brief tornadoes a few miles southwest of Claude, Texas before calling the chase just before sunset.

Click below to watch the full chase!