Day 2: 715 miles, my first mammatus clouds, and the smallest county in the US

Today was a roller coaster!

The day began with some optimism after the Storm Prediction Center upgraded the severe risk to Enhanced from Slight. Significant hail, damaging winds and some tornadoes were expected to pop over west Texas, far eastern New Mexico and perhaps a storm or two over western Oklahoma. Energy Helicity Indices were looking good, Lifted Index numbers were in the -10 to -11C range, CAPE was projected at over 5000 in the Midland area, and a dryline was moving eastward toward Carlsbad... it seemed too good to be true.

Since it was 511 miles to Midland from our base in OKC, we left early. Making good time on the fast and sparsely trafficked freeways, we were positioned in Odessa by 2pm.

The entire crew! Can you tell the winds were starting to pick up?

Storms were firing nicely along the dryline in eastern New Mexico, producing the first of over 200 damage reports today - but were moving at a snail's pace - even the severe-warned storms were moving at a scant 10-15 mph, and a stubborn inversion between 850-925mb remained in place as of the 18z sounding. At this point, our options were limited to another 4 hours headed back north in an attempt to catch some stronger stuff firing near the OK/TX border, or heading further west toward the NM storms.

Hoping to catch the dryline action, we went west.

My excitement grew as we neared a place on the map that has fascinated me for years - Loving County, TX. Less than 100 people live in the 670 square miles of arid, forsaken plateau just south of New Mexico and 75 miles west of Odessa. Stop lights? Yeah right. We traveled over 20 miles without seeing a house -  let alone a gas station, restaurant, or hospital. It was the least populous county in the United States as of the 2010 Census.

Dr. Brown was gracious enough to stop the van so I could get a picture at the county line! I'm standing on a pile of used tires (???) that were stacked to the right of the sign. For good measure, a severe thunderstorm is photobombing about 40 miles behind me!

As I was posing with the sign, I heard, "look!" We were nearing the outflow from a severe-warned thunderstorm to the west, and in the blowoff to our south were my first-ever mammatus clouds! This was, to put it mildly, breathtaking.

Mammatus clouds over Loving County, TX.

It was becoming clear that the dryline wasn't budging, though, and that meant the lifting mechanisms were not there to support continued strong convection. We circled back around to Midland, but skies were clearing and there was almost nothing on radar within 150 miles - essentially the entire area the SPC warned for an enhanced risk

We decided to call it a night, heading north with some disappointment to Brownfield, TX.

The story's not over yet, though. About 50 miles north of Midland we caught a wicked outflow boundary booking south at 35 or 40 mph from a complex of storms near the OK/TX border. It was just after sunset, and suddenly our van was hit with a violent shock while visibility instantly dropped to less than a quarter mile. Dust choked the air and wind gusts howled to what must have been at least 50mph! The van rattled and groaned as the wind shrieked by us in the pitch dark for the next 50 miles. What an ending.

Tomorrow things look just as iffy as today. We're positioned in a large area of Slight risk according to the SPC. We'll be on the road by 9am looking for trouble!

Good night from west Texas!