A lot of good plans become unstuck in regards to weather, and today, the near stationary front had shifted further south than expected. This was caused by large scale outflow from the previous day's supercell activity. We were having some trouble with our wireless connection, and we make for the nearest McDonalds to make use of their WiFi facility. As we walk in the door, we instantly recognise a couple of colleagues from Australia, although to put that in perspective, 2 New Zealanders, 1 expat New Zealander living in Darwin and Dean Narramore from Mildura in Victoria. Dean is a bright fellow who has just graduated in atmospheric sciences and is an avid storm chaser. It has become obvious that you will find Australian / New Zealand weather enthusiasts either under a supercell or in a McDonalds in the USA! We have a very enjoyable hour or so chatting about some of the prize storms we have scored. While all the socialising was going on, we were also keeping an eye on radar for the first convective reflection. By mid afternoon the first radar reflectivity appeared around Glass Mountains to the south. It's relatively weak but it's better than nothing. We shake hands, pass pleasantries, such as "see you under a storm, guys!", and we drive south.

We drive south on Hwy 67 towards Alpine - the flat country around Fort Stockton and to the south could be regarded as semi arid. The region barely scrapes in with 12"
of rain a year! but occasionally Gulf air sneaks into the district from the east. It's the Gulf air that the chasers are after, interacting with the locality. As we drive south we note towering  cumulus along the Glass Mountains. A few of them are high enough to glaciate. We also notice their rather ragged bases, they are scavenging for moisture - it's the high elevations that have managed to convect the airmass here. Although we hope that these cells will drift off the mountains and work with the abundant moisture of the lower valley around Fort Stockton, they just don't do it.....they consistently fall apart on the lower terrain on the north side of the mountains. As we draw closer to the Glass Mountains, the structure of these peaks comes into clear view. They are highly photogenic, mainly rocky with deep, cutin valleys. The backdrop of large cumulus against the rocky peaks looks great!

Instead of driving to Alpine, we turn left and head for Marathon. This small town is located on the south side of the Glass Mountains at an altitude of over 4,000'. A short main street is obviously designed to cater for tourists. We walk into a gallery and notice a 20" x 10" photograph of a mountain selling for $2000 USD!!!!! We pass on the gallery and head for a bookshop...where us big spending Aussies spend $20 on a geology book. Meanwhile, the cumulus are rebuilding to our south....and we drive out of town and head north on Hwy 385 where we find already a storm brewing about 10 miles north of Marathon.

Although these storms never achieve anything other than a weak status, they provide us with an opportunity to photograph the Glass Mountains in a stormy environment. We drive in and out of rainshafts replenishing this arid country. We would recommend anyone travelling to Texas to spend time in the Big Bend region, especially in the high mountains. We head back to Fort Stockton, and that evening we watch a supercell grow in no-man's land well to our southeast over Mexico.