Day 14, May 28th 2002

Route: From Dickens TX through Bakersfield to Sanderson, southernmost Texas.
Highlights: A great chase with a marvelous supercell around Bakersfield in the desert.
Text: Jules Geirnaerdt

Last night, we talked about how cloudy this year's chase was, and with a vigorous thunderstorm late at night in the deserted town of Dickens, it didn't promise to be very sunny for this Wednesday. Sure enough, Wednesday started cloudy in the morning. A heavy overcast produces some drizzle and our coats are needed. But the forecast gives us confidence, so we head for the south of Texas where a 90 degree high is to be expected.

We get into the sun in San Angelo, where we stop for a second weather briefing. It proves difficult this time, because a good storm is already active near the Mexican border while another point of interest is some 200 miles northwestward toward Odessa and Midland . The choice is the latter: we don't want to get into trouble in Mexico. And it turns out to be a good choice. A strong storm pops up near Bakerfield along Interstate 10. This storms quickly reaches the "severe status" and shows good signs of rotation. It also drops golf ball size hail on us. But the rotation doesn't lead to a tornado, there only are some "dustnados." Dustnados are small tornados at the outflow winds of storm. They pick up sand and dust and throw it high into the atmosphere, like in our picture. This one is about 75 meters high, but misses the funnel of a real tornado. Shortly after, a narrow but real funnel tries to make it to the ground but doesn't get there. Anyway, we are doing a good job here because it's the only real storm in the area and we managed to get it. We're not bad at positioning ourselves after two weeks of chasing!

Our storm moves south, into the southwestern part of Texas, but after a last try of a tornado, we have to settle for nice evening skies. One of those contains a cloud tower on the so-called "flanking line," which is always to the southwest of a storm. Very pretty. And Jules takes a quiet look across the desert. For this occasion, he's wearing a t-shirt with the name of Nederland. Nederland is a village in the extreme south of Texas, but also the home nation of the WeatherBug storm chase team. Besides, it'll be Jules and Rob's last day of this chase. They're heading for New York to do an interview on this WeatherBug storm chase on the FOX8 morning show next Friday. But Coen and Eric will be on the road for the remainder of the week.