The climatological maximum for tornado activity across West Texas runs from about May 20 to May 28. The year 2000 was no exception. May 25th was a classic severe weather day across the region...with the development of severe thunderstorms...including a few tornadic supercells.>
The first views of the pre-tornadic supercell were obtained from the northwest edge of the city of Lubbock...near the loop. This view shows a narrow, but obviously supercellular storm to the west.>
The storm went through several cycles over the next half hour. Finally...a low wall cloud formed...and the storm developed a well defined beaver tail. A clear slot began to form to the left of the wall cloud...and occlude the updraft.>
As we continued to approach the storm southeast of Shallowater...a small tornado developed under the lowering. The tornado appeared as a rapidly rotating column of dust which extended to the cloud base. The column developed into a tube as rain began to wrap the mesocyclone. In the second photo...a second weak tornado can be seen on the right hand side of the photo. This weak tornado was very brief.>
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