After the excitement of the massive supercell the previous day, we had blundered into exactly the same motel in  Shawnee as we'd stayed last year after another massive supercell!! The cold front had passed over through the night and headed south and it was a blustery cold morning in the low 50'sF / 12C with occasional light rain. Our target area today is north Texas and we need to get south of the front into the warm, moist Gulf air again. Our overnight stay is in American Indian country and the towns give away the tribes...Shawnee, Seminole.....it appears these Indians are also serious God fearers - there are Indian churches everywhere...mixed with the odd Casino.

Heading south, we arrive at Coalgate where we encounter the frontal boundary, and the temperature rises 20F!! We pull over at Atoka into an Indian Trading Post (aka Shell gas station) and fill up on coffee and cake. The weather remains drizzly with a low deck of stratiform coming in from the south, but at least it's warmer. Most of the big towns are traffic traps - there's just no other means of getting around, everyone drives cars, or as they say here...trucks....mainly Ford F150's and Dodge Rams. With petrol up near $4 a gallon, the truck drivers are not happy.

Pretty soon we are heading west again on Hway 82 - it's a case of dejavu!! We keep coming back to this part of America. When conditions are ripe for storms, north Texas can be a mecca for chasers with clear views west of Dallas and good roads. The sun is breaking through and the temperature is in the high 80'sF in the late afternoon. A weak frontal boundary is located to the west, about 50 miles....skirting boundaries is a good place for storm hunting.  Texas is the state for drylines and discrete frontal boundaries. Although the forecast today is for isolated tornadoes and supercells, mainly late afternoon and evening, there is something not quite right with the midlevels, and we note big towers struggling beyond 15,000'. We head further SW closer to the boundary, the Texas haze inhibits our view. Soon we spot a much bigger tower, and it's broken through midlevel inhibition to glaciate around 30,000'. At last the cap is broken!!

Over the next hour, towers poke up all over the place, but they lose their updraft bases very quickly. Later towards evening more substantial convection gets going and this time they're not worried about midlevel inhibition - they get very big! We follow a rainfree base to Cundiff - this storm is sparking freely and we hold back from the precipitation core. Holding back didn't stop us being caught in a hailshaft and we are pelted by golfballs before we have a chance to turn around. Escaping west from the mayhem we are then engulfed in a microburst of immense proportions - a complete whiteout!! and our car is buffeted by winds of up to 140kmh. The storm moves northeast and we are immersed in bright sunshine. We measure a few hailstones and head southwest for another storm. We note a tornadic supercell is located to our south but its getting dark...these Australian black ducks do not chase tornadic supercells after dark. We find a hotel in Mineral Wells and bed down for the night.

Nothing like a good horn burger!! Horntown, OK

The border crossing from Oklahoma into Texas....the not-so-fast flowing Red River

We found it!!!!!Chocktaw - Atoka region, OK

Quality accommodation for puppets, Atoka, OK

Roadside flowers, Dennison, OK

Don't go a'messin with Texas...dude!

Initiation near Bowie, TX

Waiting for the fireworks, Cundiff, TX

Bloody good updraft Cundiff

Solid rainfree base, Cundiff

Happy hailstone Easter eggs, Cundiff

Discrete updraft, Cundiff

Behind an outflow boundary N of Mineral Wells

A protuberance spins under an outflow boundary, N of Mineral Wells

Behind the outflow boundary, N of Mineral Wells