june 4, 2003
the portales pummeling


By the time I got back on the 27th, Jay was finally free to chase, and he had begun asking me over and over if I wanted to take another chase vacation. But with the northwest flow showing no signs of letting up, and the fact I had to go back to work full time for the rest of the summer, it looked like my chase season was over. Then I found out the week after I got back I would only work a half shift that Wednesday (June 4) and would be off that Thursday (June 5). Sure enough, the ridge retrograded that week, putting the Plains under a pattern slightly more favorable for sustained supercells. It was almost like my season was destined to continue! This would probably my last chance to chase this year, and Jay's only chance to chase this year, so we decided to give it a go. On the morning of the 4th, Jay drove up from Austin, and picked me up from work in Norman at 2pm. Based on data I looked at before work that morning, I targeted northeastern New Mexico. A strong surface low was forecast to develop in central New Mexico, with easterly winds transporting moisture up the higher terrain. We were about 7 hours from our target and had 7 hours of daylight left when we left, so we drove straight through without stopping for data. From reports we saw on Jay's TV along the way, we learned of tornado warned storms in east central New Mexico, and after seeing a radar image of these storms we decided to persue them. We made it to Clovis NM right at sunset, with an imposing supercell to our west and northwest rapidly darkening the sky. We tried to head south to Portales to beat the storm there, but got overtaken by the hail core just south of town. As you will see below, attempts to get away from the hail core proved futile, and Jay ended up with a hoodful of craters and a broken rear view mirror to prove it.


Intense rain cores stood in between us and our prize as we headed southwest on US 60 from Amarillo......
....but we would eventually clear the junk storms just before crossing the New Mexico state line, where we finally began to see this massive supercell. It had a long beaver tail extending to its southeast, and was pulling in all kinds of scud and a rapid rate. I had not seen inflow this intense on a supercell since Oct 9, 2001, so I was getting excited.....
Many vehicles travelling through Clovis had to dodge tumbleweeds knocked loose in the incredible inflow. The storm was still west and northwest of us in Clovis, so we headed southwest on US 70 hoping to beat the storm to Portales. But the hail core overtook us shortly after leaving Clovis, and we missed our east option, which led us to.....
An 18-wheeler on its side!!! Hail from dime to ping pong ball size continued to pummel us for 20 minutes while were stopped here. Amazingly the truck driver escaped injury. A white pickup had also collided with the back of the 18-wheeler, although the pickup did not appear to suffer serious damage.
After the backup emergency vehicles arrived 20 minutes later, we finally proceeded into the town of Portales, where power was out and roads were flooded. After seeking refuge underneath a gas station awning, we drove back to Clovis where we stayed for the night.


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