February 23, 2004 - My folks were down to visit. We took a small trip to Kingsland, TX to visit my Great Aunt. On the way back from a nice Mexican food lunch we encountered a marginally severe storm as we entered Kingsland from the south. It was severe warned for hail and high winds. We drove into the core and picked up nickel to quarter size hail and pretty gusty winds. We pulled under a garage cover to keep the hail off. This occurred probably about 12:50 to 1:20pm. Later after our visit we headed back to Cedar Park. On the way we stopped at Lake Buchanan near the dam, and I shot a nice thunderstorm in progress to the north at about 3:50pm. I later determined by comparing to doppler radar images that the distance these pictures were taken at was about 57 miles. Those pictures appear below. “Ah, Spring is in the air again. Texas in February”.

Bill

Click images for larger views of the images.


West of Buchanan Dam pic 1 - backend of storm.	Larger view with part of anvil downstream - pic 2

At Buchanon Dam pic 3 - back end with flanking small towers.	At the Dam more of a full shot and the beautiful Tx Hill Country.

The top radar echo shows the storm being photgraphed (above) in Mills and Hamilton counties about the same time the pictures were taken. It’s about 57miles away from where I shot the pictures.

This GOES satellite image shows both storms in progress at 20:45z (2:45 cst)

This is the radar image of the Llano county storm about 25 minutes after we drove into it.

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX
135 PM CST MON FEB 23 2004

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AUSTIN SAN ANTONIO HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN TEXAS...
BURNET
LLANO

* UNTIL 215 PM CST

* AT 135 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OVER CASTELL...OR ABOUT 7 MILES EAST OF
LLANO...MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE...
5 MILES SOUTH OF BUCHANAN DAM AT 145 PM
4 MILES NORTH OF KINGSLAND AT 150 PM
6 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BURNET AT 215 PM

THE MAIN THREAT WITH THIS STORM IS LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.

IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SHELTER FROM THE WEATHER IN A STRONG
BUILDING. DAMAGING WIND...LARGE HAIL...VERY HEAVY RAIN...AND DEADLY
LIGHTNING ARE ALL POSSIBLE IN SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. STAY INSIDE AWAY
FROM WINDOWS UNTIL THE STORM HAS PASSED.

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase