Day 9: Hobbs to Van Horn

 As one of our last opportunities to see severe weather, we needed to carefully decide our target for May 31. A dry line had set up in East NM and West TX, which would initiate some strong thunderstorms. The SPC was predicting an area south of Hobbs, and Dr. Kalkstein agreed that we needed to go back to Texas. After breakfast, we drove through the oilfields of the Permian Basin once more and into the Texas desert. Some strong cells were forming near Fort Stockton, so we ate lunch there and got into position. From a vantage point 15 miles away, we observed one storm organize itself and form a significant rotating wall cloud. We got on the move and intercepted it, hoping to see a tornado. Although there was none, it boasted a menacing dark green color and turbulent downdraft that came with heavy rain. Once it passed, we backtracked through the hail that had dropped, and there were some golf ball sized stones. Being that the road network in West Texas was very spread out and unreliable, we had to abandon this storm and follow the one behind it. We later learned that this storm produced a tornado, after we stopped following it, sadly.

In no time at all, we were close to the second storm. Although it was strong, it didn’t have the characteristics to produce a tornado. We observed it for a while, and Dr. Kalkstein caught some lightning strikes on camera. Satisfied, we called it a day and headed westward. While we made a stop for gas, we met a veteran by coincidence as we helped a woman with her truck. He was excited when he found out we came from West Point, since he'd served with some USMA Lieutenants in the Gulf War. He told us his story and that he respected what we were doing. More importantly, we thanked him for his service this Memorial Day, and it seemed like this interaction was meant to be a reminder of what our nation's heroes have sacrificed. Our morale boosted, we drove a few more hours until reaching Van Horn. We ate dinner locally and decided to visit Fort Bliss and White Sands the next day, since there'd be little storm activity. For the next few days, we'll have to find a lot of things to do on the way to Oklahoma if there are no storms!