Day 13, May 29, 2002

Route: From Sanderson to Columbus in Texas.
Highlights: Being stopped by the border patrol at the Mexican border
Text: Coen Verrijn Stuart

We drop off Jules and Rob in San Antonio because they fly to New York tomorrow for the Fox interview. On the way we take a look at the Mexican border and get stopped by the border patrol. In the afternoon we chase some weak thunderstorms.

Today there is another slight risk of severe storms in the south of Texas. We leave Sanderson around 9 AM and drive along the Mexican border. In Langtry we drive right to the Mexican border line and take a look at a nice view along the Rio Grande. Where is the water? We do not see any, but many trees. A few miles further along the road we are stopped by the border patrol. They ask for our nationality and scan our passports thoroughly. We are relieved that everything is all right.

In the afternoon we drop Jules and Rob off at a Motel 6 in San Antonio. WeatherBug has arranged a flight to New York so they can be in the FOX morning show this Friday. It is national television so don't miss the WeatherBug storm chasers between 5.30 and 8 AM!

After splitting up, Eric and I go chasing again. It is a disappointing chase although the meteorology is interesting. The storms are likely to develop on the outflow boundary of previous storms. We do find this boundary rather easily as cumulus clouds develop in the warm and moist air. The outflow is cooler and less moist which results in rather clear skies. Where these two air masses collide, the air converges and lifts. This results in developing storms on this boundary. Some storms develop indeed, but they die out again quickly.

We might have a last slight chance the coming days but high pressure is taking over. We agree that we have chosen the wrong period for this year's chase. There have hardly been any good chase days the last two weeks while we were here. And the weeks before were much better! But, maybe there's still time for a little luck after all.