March 25th 2005 Kimble and Mason County Texas Supercells

Special thanks to Scott Blair (www.targetarea.net)for nowcasting

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A local chase day as I left work at 4pm targeting just north of Junction, TX. The day was characterized by a stationary boundary draped along a line from FST to just north of JCT to near AUS at 21Z. The moisture best convergence and instability values were also pegged along and south of the JCT area. In addition, a mid-level trough was also evident across the four corners with increasing mid and upper level flow increasing acoss southwest and south-central Texas.. I witnessed an increasing Cu field by 23Z with a few cells warned in Crockett and Schleicher counties at this time. I intercepted a picturesque LP supercell approxiametly 10-15 miles north of JCT between 00Z and 01Z.

The storms early on this day seemed to be under the influence of strong shear in the mid-levels as the towers were being drastically tilted with the appraoch of an upper impulse. However, this didn't keep supercells from developing in the modest instability charcterized by ML Cape values on the order of 500 to 1000 J/Kg. This storm eventually pushed to my east after briefly producing some small hail between JCT and Menard. A new dominate cell then quickly developed to my east, engulfing the old cell as it fed on the moisture rich air mass to its south. This storm moved quickly off the east along the boundary, consistently under TOR warning. However, with limited road networks and Hill Country terrain, I was unsuccessfull at attempting to pull ahead of the storm. Although, I did encounter nickel sized hail approximately 10 to 15 miles west of Llano, TX.

I ended the day with a moonlit storm top as it continued towards the AUS and SAT areas. Again a special thanks to Scott Blair for his timely and helpful nowcast updates.