The Great Plains Storm Chase 08

Day 12:

We slept a little later then headed off to the Palo Duro canyon. It's the second largest canyon in the U.S. at 800 ft deep and 20 miles wide at its widest point. The canyon was formed due to weathering of the Red River. We drove to the top and took a few group pictures with the fabulous view in the background. What amazed me most about the canyon was that before we got there the land was extremely flat.... then all of a sudden there was a hole in the ground. After we left the canyon to grab lunch a few wanted to go back and hike. I was content resting at the hotel and remaining snake free and out of the dry heat. We squeezed in a weather briefing that discussed our last day we chased. We had one super cell that broke into two. Mike Brown showed us the reasons why this happens and the turbulent and laminar flow associated with this. It was interesting to find out that one cell will be cyclonic and the other anticyclonic. Each cell has the ability to produce a tornado it's just the matter of them doing it. The main reason why we had the splitting of cells was that there was very little curvature shear in the low levels. Later that night we ate dinner at a local restaurant called Feldman's Wrong Way Cafe. The food was delicious! We ended the night relaxing in the hot tub and playing a new card game called Shang Hai.

~Leah Dailey
X-Ray