Supercell | Elida, New Mexico to Plains, Texas | 27 May 2023 — Jeremy Perez

Published on May 27, 2023

My target on this day was near Dora, New Mexico. I was trying to keep an eye on an outflow boundary and hope a cell would latch onto it. As the afternoon wore on, storms moving off the higher terrain congealed into a lumpy line as they moved eastward toward the Panhandle. My hoped for cell wasn’t managing to dominate that line apart from occasional lowerings and motion along hints of a base through the haze. Meanwhile development on the south end of the line was looking way more interesting on radar.

A bit of lightning flickering along the mushy line in the vicinity of Dora, NM. 2239Z & 2337Z

Hunting for structure and vorticity in the silhouetted base, west of Dora, NM. 2310Z

As we approached 00Z, I couldn’t stand it any more and bailed south. In the 45 minutes it took us to get down there, tail-end-Charlie had managed to produce a brief but photogenic tornado. Seeing that report on social media while in transit was a huge aggravation while the base of that storm was still off behind the precip of the forward flank. Also kind of frustrating to see the northern option finally start to own its space, break up the line and become its own isolated entity. But such are the emotional roller coasters of chasing some days.

Once we got to that tail end storm, it was still a marvelous sight and helped melt away the frustrations. Dynamics beneath the base were beautiful and fascinating. We were in a great spot out on the grid and easily able to watch it slowly approach. The video camera was running with no hindrances to getting shots of the storm’s evolution. While we were enjoying the view, another couple of chasers drove up. They kindly avoiding blocking our view while setting up some professional AV equipment.

First view of the tail end cell as we jogged out onto the grid, northwest of Plains, TX. 0050Z

Contrast enhanced wall cloud and a small funnel that lasted 2-3 minutes. 0053Z

Not long after that, a frightening double lightning strike arced out of the base with one bolt landing about 1000 ft. west of us. My daughter loved it and we exchanged wows and startled looks with the guys on the other side of the road. I bet they got some great audio out of that. I hustled to grab tripods and cameras and jumped in the car to find a spot suited to shooting out the windows as long as the storm was going to be lobbing those way out ahead.

First strike reaching out of the updraft and trying to land out of frame. 0056Z

Split second follow-up strike landing about 1000 ft up the road. Faint exposure due to camera not retriggering at the best moment. 0056Z

Composited image of selected video frames showing lightning strike traveling with the wind and bird whose flight was seriously disturbed by the strike. 0056Z

Shooting from inside the car, just down the road as the base starts to get gusty. 0102Z

We surfed on, keeping pace ahead of the cell as it grooved southeast. We stopped roadside as farmers were working a couple plows while the storm loomed inbound.

Now from Rt. 214 north of Plains, TX, as a plow works in the distance. 0113Z

Another plow pulled off field as clods & rocks & whatnot were being picked out of it. 0015Z

Ongoing development as the field gets worked. 0017Z

Further southeast took us into oil field, with flares burning as the storm morphed and spun against the sunset. After sundown, structure started to fall apart and we disengaged.

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