March 11, 2001 -- Jeff Lawson's Chase Page

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March 11, 2001 -- Windthorst, TX

Chase Team: Jeff Lawson, Amos Magliocco, Robert Hall, Brian Fant

This chase served as a great official start to the season, as we managed to catch a supercell which formed practically right on top of us as we watched.

The dryline was draped across Northwest Texas that morning, and moisture return over the previous night had been respectable. With good divergence aloft and upper level energy expected to approach later in the day, the stage was set for severe thunderstorms to form in the area between Wichita Falls and Abilene.

We left around midday, targeting Abilene, but ended up in Graham instead. A few convective towers dotted the sky to our north, but nothing looked all that impressive yet. Our surface winds were much lighter than desired, and a forecasted surface low had failed to form to our west as expected. In the distance, the top of a large, almost stationary supercell which had formed near Brownwood could be seen, over 100 miles away. Needless to say, our spirits were falling.

After a nowcasting call to Steve Miller, we learned of a storm rapidly going up just to our north, near Archer City. From our location near Graham, we couldn't see it, but it came into view as we sped north on an intercept course. The updraft was impressive, and the storm appeared to have potential...and then we made it underneath the base. Nothing. The storm literally went *poof* before our eyes. All that remained was a heavily sheared tower and an orphan anvil. To add insult to injury, two chasers from OU filmed a brief funnel underneath the storm just minutes before our arrival.

Still anticipating the arrival our upper level energy, we decided to pass the time on the outskirts of Archer City, enjoying the beautiful Spring afternoon. As we waited, a tower began to form right above us. The base lowered and darkened, and took on an unusual appearance, with three distinct inflow tails feeding into it. The updraft was solid and persistent, as rain finally began to emerge from the base, punctuated by the occasional lightning bolt. We had a storm!

As the storm moved to the northeast, we headed east to Windthorst. The storm was beginning to show indications of broad, mid-level rotation, with noticeable striations ringing the walls of the updraft above us. As the storm passed just north of Windthorst, a collar cloud developed just to our west. We then headed east again, to near Joy, observing an interesting protrusion underneath the base of the updraft. Some light rotation could be observed, but it remained elevated and fairly disorganized. By this time, the sun had set, and only the last bit of twilight allowed us to see the base of the storm.

As we broke away from the storm and headed north towards Henrietta, we encountered some small hail and heavy rain. Then, it was back to Denton, just in time to check into the local Skywarn net due to two severe storms which were approaching the Metroplex from the west. From our vantage point in the middle of nowhere, we were able to watch lightning illuminate our old storm as it continued to chug along the Red River and into Oklahoma.