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VERNON, Texas -- The storm chasers finally chased storms today.

Two pretty good storms, at that. Both exhibited some supercell characteristics at times, but upper-level winds were insufficient to maintain the storms for more than about an hour or two.

The first storm formed less than 20 miles from our target, Childress, Texas. We enjoyed Memorial Day afternoon at a lakeside park in Childress, waiting on the storms to begin. A few popped here and there, but the closest one just north of the park quickly developed into a strong storm with a rain-free base and a slight lowering. We pursued it northward and watched it slowly unwind near the Texas-Oklahoma border.

The second storm was over western Oklahoma, north of where we expected the biggest stuff to fire. It took us more than an hour to get close to see it, but there were some supercell-like characteristics, like a pronounced wall cloud in a forward part of the southeast-moving storm where rotation was briefly observed on radar a time or two. But this storm also fizzled over the Oklahoma prairies, leaving a pleasant evening rainbow.

Throughout the afternoon, we zigzagged in and out with the VORTEX2 procession of more than 100   about 40 vehicles, (CORRECTED: More than 100 scientists in about 40 vehicles) engaged in a massive experiment to surround a tornadic thunderstorm and measure data over five weeks. The same weather pattern that has limited our chase opportunities has restricted the opportunities for VORTEX2 to collect data on storms.

On Tuesday, we'll aim to catch something more intense and longer lasting as the best setup of the trip occurs in north Texas ... though it, too, may have some screws loose.