COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas

COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas on June 8, 1995.
Alan Moller.
Photograph by
Storm Track is a non-profit publication intended for the scientist and amateur alike who
share an avid interest in the acquisition and advancement of knowledge concerning severe
or unusual weather phenomena. It is published bi-monthly in Lewisville, Texas. David
Hoadley founded the publication in 1977 and STORMTRACK has continued to grow and improve
ever since. Gene Rhoden designed the current cover. David Hoadley still contributes
drawns and sketches. Current, we have about 650 subscribers!
Anyone can submit an article or letter to STORMTRACK. Articles should be single-spaced
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Sell or swap your wares. Only 25c per word (20 word minimum = $5, 160 word maximum = $40).
Quarter page ads are $70, half page ads are $130, and whole page ads are $250. Send your request
for the next issue by June 1, 1996.
StormWatch, Winner: National Weather Association Media Award. StormWatch, the new, official
National Weather Service Advanced Storm Spatting Training Video is now available from the Texas
Severe Storms Association (TESSA). StormWatch introduces the storm spotter and reveals the unique
characteristics of the severe thunderstorm they must know. StormWatch highlights storms which
produce deadly lightning, ravaging flash floods, damaging hail and destructive tornadoes. Send
$24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: TESSA, P.O. Box 122020, Arlington, TX 76012. Allow 3-5 weeks for
delivery. Checks payable to TESSA. No purchase orders please. (1/97)
NEW RELEASE! THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY. This is it! The long-awaited sequel to the awardwinning 1991 Public Television documentary CHASING THE WIND. THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY tells
the true story about storm chasers and how they pursue Nature's most violent atmospheric
phenomenon, the tornado. A unique tale about the storm chaser's love for storms and the Great
Plains. Hosted and narrated by TWISTER's Dean Lindsay. Produced and Directed by Martin Lisius.
Send check or money order for $24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: Prairie Pictures, P.O. Box 122020,
Arlington, Texas, 76012. Please allow 3-5 weeks for delivery. No purchase orders please. (3/97)
"CUT TO THE CHASE"...Join Minnesota stormchaser Scott Woelm for his 1994 and 1995 severe weather
seasons. This quality hi-fi stereo video production includes the spectacular May 12, 1994 Fort
Stockton, Texas "Wall Wall Cloud", and the eye opening June 30, 1994 Winthrop, Minnesota HP
supercell. There are six brief tornadoes on this well produced and entertaining chase video, and
I am confident that you will enjoy it. I offer a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE with every purchase. VHS
hi-fi $25, SVHS or Hi-8 $35. Please send check or money order payable to: Scott Woelm, 8721 Van
Buren St., NE, Blaine, MN 55434-2365. (3/96)
STORMTALK BOOK AND STORMWATCHER VIDEO SET: Book sales are going fast and should be sold out by
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U.S., $60 CANADA, and $75 OVERSEAS, post. paid. Send orders to: Tim Marshall, 1336 Brazos Blvd.
Lewisville, Texas 75067.
A SLOW START TO THE SEASON
I. COMMENTARY
This year's chase season is off to a slow start. The drought in the high plains has extended into
spring leaving many farmers wondering if we are returning to the days of the dust bowl. There
have been few tornadoes except for the outbreak in Illinois in mid-April. Illinois tornado
outbreaks are not unusual. I witnessed three such outbreaks when I was growing up there: April
11, 1965, April 21, 1967, and April 3, 1974. But it was the Oak Lawn, Illinois tornado on April
21, 1967 that jelled my interest in tornadoes when one ripped through my town.
There are many similarities between this season and last. A large trough has been centered over
the eastern U.S. thanks to the persistent "Hudsons Bay" low. This has allowed a ridge to amplify
over the west. As a result, we experienced a mild winter and actually hit 95 degrees in February!
A few troughs have made it through the area causing some severe weather. On March 26, 1996 a
hailstorm passed through northern portions of the Dallas-Fort Worth areas which should keep me
busy the rest of the year. A barber pole updraft passed right over my house. The strong shifting
winds knocked the power out for an evening.
II. CHASER NEWS
The annual chasers picnic will be held on Saturday, May 25th with an alternate date of June 1st.
Enclosed is a slip of paper detailing where the annual chasers party will be. Last minute
updates, changes, or cancellations can be obtained by calling the editors voice recorder at 214317-7910. Bring your own food, beverage, and best storm videotape. The party will be postponed if
there is a slight risk or higher for the plains states. See you there!
The TWISTER movie starts nationwide on May 10th. Please send your movie reviews to STORMTRACK for
publication by June 15th for the next issue. Indicate a rating with your comments:
F0
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
-------
Weak movie. Hardly disturbed my hair. The popcorn machine had more rotation.
Mild movie. Raised a hand to my mouth a few times. Leaned over precariously.
Strong movie. Good parts mixed with bad parts. Could have been better.
Severe movie. Anchored in my seat throughout. Thoroughly entertaining.
Intense movie. Lifted me off my seat a few times and twisted me around.
Incredible movie. Lifted me off my seat and carriers me away. A great movie!
STORMTRACK along with the editor will be moving into a new house. Please note our new address
effective June 15th: 4041 Bordeaux Circle, Flower Mound, Tx 75028.
III. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
John Schroeder, a graduate student at Texas Tech University writes: "For the first time in
several years, TTU is organizing a funded chase team. The team is comprised of Atmospheric
Sciences and Civil Engineering graduate students and will be funded by the Civil Engineering
Department. The effort will operate from March 1 to June 30 and will cover areas close to
Lubbock."
Russ Burke writes about a tornado which struck Great Barrington, MA on May 29, 1995. The tornado
traveled about 7 miles between 7:06pm and 7:16pm and was up to 300 yards wide. Three people were
killed when the car they were in was thrown from the road.
"This tornado was officially listed as F-3/F-4. Is this common practice to give a tornado a
borderline rating? It was difficult conducting a damage survey as the terrain was rugged and
very hilly. Also, it was densely wooded and there were few roads. However, of the homes that
were damaged, I had yet to find or hear of anything that would deserve an F-4 rating. The
tornado touched down just east of the Hudson River and continued up into the Berkshire
Mountains. I was amazed that a tornado could travel over terrain this rugged and with such
ease. I tracked the damage path over an abrupt hill, down into a small valley, and back up a
very steep ridge -all the time remaining in contact with the ground. This tornado was
reminiscent of the "State Line" tornado that occurred in August 28, 1973."
Mark Haas, KC5HTN sent in a list of spotter resources on the World Wide Web.
1) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/spotterguide.html
2) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/glossary.html
3) http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/stormspotters/html/slidel.html
4) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/
5) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/tx/tx.html
6) http://cirrus/sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/states/texas.html
7) http://rampages.onramp.net/ mhaas/dallasraces/
Film critic Rich Herzog sent in his movie review on the little publicized movie- THE CORIOLIS
EFFECT: "The subtitle of this film was a movie about love, and severe weather. In the movie,
the girlfriend of one storm chaser reveals that she was involved with his best friend and
fellow storm chase partner. All of the potential conflicts exist: man vs. man, man vs.
nature. The language and content of the movie made for a definite R rating. The tornado
special effects were nowhere near "Wizard of Oz" standards, though there were many Oz
references in the movie. The meteorological discussions were often inaccurate, such as "a
strong storm system approaching the Texas panhandle from the east." All of this added up to a
disappointing movie which could have been much better. However, it supposedly won awards at
the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. I give it an F2 out of five."
Roger Edwards writes: "Fuji Velvia is best for sunsets, brightly-colored mammatus, or any
situation with lots of warm colors. This film is superior for reds, yellows, and oranges. It
is better for storm structure pictures out away from the storm, especially if the storm is
strongly back-lit. The film bleeds colors on lightning; a magnifying glass inspection
revealed undesirable thin color bands on the edges of the closer/brighter CG's.
I've tried Fuji Sensia. It's an excellent
is strongest in differentiating shades of
best for under-the-storm shots, including
as well. It is also the most versatile of
overall film and handles the warm colors well hut
cool colors such as blues and grays. Thus, this is
most tornado situations. Excellent lightning film
all films.
Ektachrome film is similar to Sensia but not quite as bold in the warm bands. I can't see why
people bash this film beyond its only real weakness: bold bright colors in medium to bright
light. Great with cold colors and gray on gray shades, including shadowed storm structure,
and "mean" looking dark blue-gray clouds. I find it to be the best lightning film. It has 1520 year lifespan of original colors under good care.
The Kodachrome film is somewhat better with bright/warm colors than Sensia and Ektachrome,
hut not as hold as Velvia. It is the second most all-purpose film. The main disadvantage is
the remote processing (not E-6), with risk of loss. However, it is the hest long-term archive
film. When slides are properly stored out of persistent light, I've seen 25+ year old images
that looked like they were shot yesterday.
Robert Prentice writes: "I have learned a lot from trying to film the giant "meat grinders" last
year. First, I hate every type of film but FUJI. FUJI film's saturated colors make every one of
my shots look like a picture postcard. I still use "cold-looking" film like Ektachrome 100 for
after dusk lightning. Al Moller was right. The Fuji Velvia 50 speed is the way to go for storm
structure shots. Second, in low light, use a fast film such as 200 or 400 ASA. According to the
magazines I've read, fast film is much better than it used to be with graininess. Now I have two
modes of operation for my two cameras. For my regular mode, I keep 50 speed Velvia in my superwide-angle camera and 200 speed Fujichrome in my zoom camera. For my dark clouds or tornado mode,
I keep 200 speed film in my super-wide-angle camera and 400 speed Fuji Provia in my zoom."
IV. ROSTER
The ST Roster lists names, addresses, and brief biographies of those persons who are
interested in or willing to correspond with others about storms and storm chasing.
Jeff Gammons, 701 High Street, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Home: 407-655-2068, Beeper:
407-731-8241. email: jeff.gammons@hughestech.com "I'm 22 and have been into weather
since I was 10. I'm a DJ at many clubs. I want to go on a real tornado chase in the
central U.S."
V. FUNNEL FUNNIES: Chase Forecasting 101: Mobile Home Parks
IMPRESSIONS OF A NOVICE AT HANSTON, KS by John Brosio
[ unabridged for CD-ROM ]
1995 was my second year chasing storms in the midwest. I had previously located two
full-fledged tornadoes and four near touchdowns in California and considered it time
to finally move up to the big leagues. Having seen nothing for over a week, we awoke
just north of Lubbock on May 16. May 15 had been a teaser of a day. Our chase group,
headed by Marty Feely, had seen all there was to see of a supposed tornado in the
Texas panhandle. There were funnel clouds and colors, close lightning, wall clouds,
back-to-back bear cages, and golf ball hail, all in the midst of an HP mess. In the
end, however, our most impressive twister was a mistakenly placed red triangle by the
Weather Channel.
Back to May 16. We headed south toward Lubbock from some throwaway town that starts
with an F. The five of us had low expectations for the day and wore a variety of
groggy, low energy expressions. With no real information, Marty decided to stop by the
Weather Service and form a game plan. En route, we were phoned by Bobby Prentice who
touted West Central Kansas as the day's best bet. Upon arriving, we met up with Jim
Leonard and Roger Edwards who shared this assessment. I don't know Roger well at all,
but I recognized him from the previous year when I saw three pounds of colored
pencils. Jim was his usual self as far as I could tell, throwing out terms like "high
level trash" and "damn cold front" or "damn warm front."
It was clear from further analysis that the only chance for any real show was indeed
Western Kansas. This news was met with some groaning over the distances involved but
those of us in Marty's group (John "bees are cool" Lambert, Rick "the stick" Cline,
Kai "I miss your mucous" Esbensen, and myself) succeeded in placing him behind the
wheel and getting him to drive. We left Jim Leonard watching a video at the Weather
Service. As you may imagine, a trip from Lubbock to Kansas is at first as rivetting as
The Weather Channel's Florida Report. We stopped in Lubbock for a quick breakfast, hohum, and then made our way to Amarillo. We also made what turned out to be a crucial
decision in choosing to avoid the Amarillo Weather Service. This later became valuable
time.
At 4:00, not far from Dumas, we were able to see the distant, rising dome of hard
cloud tops which would eventually spawn the Hanston, KS tornado. At first sight, the
dome of clouds was probably about 30,000 feet tall and coupled with other waxing and
waning cloud tops, all outside the edge of an overhead cirrus band. The drive was a
non-stop beeline from this point. I watched as the storm pulsated to life. It made
several tries before bounding through the cap, sapping the other, smaller updrafts. It
began to spread a large and very uniform anvil and we began to eavesdrop on VORTEX
over Marty's scanner. The VORTEX Orion P-3 at one point reported that the storm had
reached 66,000 feet. Clearly a supercell by now, we watched as an overshooting top
both formed and collapsed, followed by reports of an early tornado. The storm was
still over 100 miles away.
Rifling through the maps, Marty was able to determine his approach in conjunction with
VORTEX observations on the storm trajectory. We had the choice of going NE through
Dodge City or North and then East to avoid any city traffic. Marty chose the latter
and we proceeded, all the while clenching our fists and shifting in our seats as
reports of additional tornadoes began to filter in over the scanner.
Watching the storm, I noticed some 80 miles distant that the anvil began to disappear.
The tower remained hard, but it began to thicken and spread outward. It eventually
became apparent that we were watching a supercell split. A smaller anvil returned at
one point and then disappeared as the hardest, though smaller, part of the storm
sectioned itself off to the south. We were now 50 miles away and chasing the southern
portion from the west. Six tornadoes had been reported to this point.
Finally busting through the 55 mph speed limit, Marty and his gallant crew drove under
the orbit-reaching wall of clouds near Jetmore, Kansas. It was somewhere close to 8:20
as I began to notice other chase vehicles parked along the road, VORTEX vehicles, and
people who didn't give a damn and just wished we'd all go home. This was the moment
when that crucial decision in Amarillo paid off.
A flat, rain free base revealed itself both East and South of the van. The cloud
bottoms were gray-green over low, grassy hills, and silhouetted in front of other
activity miles to the southeast. I began to notice some dust being driven up to the
cloud base off to our right, but it seemed to be some distance from any promising
cloud feature. Praying that the storm had not exhausted itself, I stared ahead into
what was clearly the focus of any convergence. Slowly, there descended a rotating,
bowl shaped portion of clouds due east of us. Its parent motion took it some way to
the cloud feature which had previously hovered over the aforementioned RFD dust.
Despite what we were seeing, however, Eric Rasmussen called an end to VORTEX activity
for the day.
Marty stopped the van near a small congregation of chasers after a non-stop four and a
half hour drive. I jumped out and looked at the bowl in the sky as a needle began to
descend and broaden. It sank, all of us looking for any ground disturbance and it
followed directly, dust kicking up.
"Tornado, folks," announced Marty. "That ends a two year drought for me."
He was referring to the twister.
My first midwestern tornado, I felt compelled to run forward a bit, isolating myself
in the RFD. It continued to pick up size and speed, little bits and shapes of cloud
spinning around in a way that no video ever really reveals. We had been under the
clouds for no more than 5-10 minutes and success had found us. The twister seemed to
briefly dissipate and then the ground surged up, massing dust into the rotation of
what was becoming a half mile wide, multi-vortex tornado and the sirens of Hanston,
Kansas let out a wail. I had John Lambert photograph me in front of the twister as it
moved into an obscure, rainy area. Once it began to truly hide, I again focused on my
immediate surroundings.
Among the small army of chasers was Jim Leonard who we had left in Lubbock. Also
present was Matt Crowther, wild eyed and celebratory, along with Betsy Abrams. I
really, really enjoyed the sense of community, despite what some say about wanting
one's own storm. The stories and experiences were immediate and shared. As a matter of
fact, no one seemed to want to leave. People immediately jumped into tales of how they
had tracked this particular storm through the day and it was clear that as a sole
experience, I would have gone mad without anyone to share it with.
High on the outcome, we eventually climbed back into the van. Darkness gave way to
lightning and the death throes of our storm illuminated the way to Great Bend, Kansas.
It was there we spent the night under a continued tornado watch.
Only recently was I told that our twister, by far the most picturesque of the day,
stayed on the ground for over 50 minutes.
MISSION SUMMARY: MAY 16, 1995 by Erik Rasmussen and Jerry Straka
On Tuesday, May 16th, VORTEX intercepted a supercell in southwest Kansas that produced at
least four tornadic circulations. We targeted southwest Kansas because we expected that
region to be at the left side of a nose of a strong jet, with the associated deepening of a
surface low and hacking low-level winds. Further, it appeared that CAPE would be best there
because of the clearing of a thick cirrus shield. We gathered a good INIT data set on a
stationary confluence line (and radar indicated fine line) near Sitka, Kansas while we were
waiting for the surface features to evolve. A storm formed near a cold front/dryline
intersection near Garden City late in the afternoon. It quickly became a supercell and
produced its first, large tornado near Garden City before the surface armada arrived.
The surface armada arrived in time to observe a second, smaller tornado just east- northeast
of Garden City, extending from a very occluded, weakening flank of the storm. The entire
storm seemed to weaken temporarily, and then reintensified in the vicinity of Kalvesta where
it produced at least one tornado. Several mobile mesonet teams operated near that tornado.
The Kalvesta circulation, or a new one near it, moved to just northwest of Jetmore, Kansas.
The surface armada deployed in a north- south section of road north of Jetmore as the
mesocyclone moved across the highway about six miles north of Jetmore. This was a good
deployment, and included all mobile mesonet teams, turtles deployment, and attempted
soundings to assess the forward-flank baroclinity. However, this mesocyclone did not produce
a tornado in the same manner as the previous ones had. Instead, as the gust front south of
the mesocyclone surged over Jetmore, a circulation developed on the gust front. Several teams
passed under this gust front in the vicinity of the developing circulation as we maneuvered
to get ahead of the storm. This was near sunset, the circulation was weak and elongated, and
there were no suitable road options for data gathering. Thus, operations were officially
ended.
Within minutes, the circulation intensified into a strong low-level mesocyclone, and a
tornado formed just southwest of Hanston, Kansas. This tornado intensified and grew in size,
remaining on the ground for at least thirty minutes (perhaps more) as it moved over open
country south of Burdett and Rozel. We obtained very exciting mobile scanning Doppler data of
this tornado, video from numerous angles, and mobile mesonet data from one team that managed
to stay ahead of the tornado. The NOAA P-3 managed to continue collecting data during the
tornadic phase as they were providing communications support to the armada.
MAY 16, 1995 CHASE FRENZY by William Reid
The spring of 1995 was an active one for this chaser. I was fortunate to have had the
opportunity to stay with my friend Charlie Sill in Amarillo, Texas from early May through
mid-June. My five weeks of chasing in and around the Texas Panhandle were filled with
spectacular storms, several tornadoes, and only a couple of total-bust days. I drove from Los
Angeles on Friday, May 5th, and reached Amarillo the next day. The occasion was marked by
lightning and marble-size hail.
On May 16th, the upper low that was stuck off the California coast the past couple of days,
finally began to make its way eastward. Upper winds over the Panhandles were out of the
southwest and midday surface analyses indicated that the "lee-low" was developing in extreme
southeast Colorado. Bary Nusz, Charlie, Kinney Adams, Chris Larson, Roy Britt and I finally
headed north from Amarillo, Texas about 3pm. We had high overcast despite the strong
southwest winds, and the dewpoint was 62 degrees F. Towards Guymon, the dewpoint dropped to
50 degrees F as the dryline was bulging eastward through the Oklahoma Panhandle. But the high
clouds were history and cumulus congestus was organizing about 75 miles to our north. By the
time we reached Hugoton, Kansas, this activity had evolved into an impressive, isolated
supercell, with a very pronounced back- and side-sheared anvil.
The storm was moving east about 30 mph, so we took U.S. 56 northeast to intercept it. Playing
catch-up seemed agonizingly slow as we monitored the tornado and hail reports in and around
Garden City. Frustration and depression mounted as we arrived in Ingalls as our supercell was
fizzling fast. But VORTEX reported new, strong updrafts to our north near Kalvesta, so we
pressed on. We finally reached this storm near 8pm along Highway 156, west of Jetmore. Rockhard cumulus towered above us, and a vertical, needle-shaped tornado came into view to our
east-northeast, about five miles away. The tornado was brief, but the long sinuous rope
funnel lingered for a minute or two. After a nerve-wracking four-gallon gas purchase in
Jetmore, we were quickly back on the cell's rear-end just east of town.
Very impressive cumulus continued to build above us at sunset, but the updraft did not
exhibit any obvious signs of low or mid-level rotation (at least from our perspective) and
lightning was noticeably infrequent. Nonetheless, a classic-shaped twister slithered to the
ground to our northeast. The tornado lasted perhaps a minute or two, but it was part of a
much larger low-level circulation. We joined a group of chasers just were of Hanston, Kansas
and watched the tornado churn the ground east of Hanston. Even though the large condensation
funnel failed to extend to the ground, enough dirt got caught up in the circulation to give
it an impressive wedge appearance. Six exhausted but happy chasers watched the tornado fade
into the Kansas night.
Large tornado south of Garden City, KS on May 16, 1995 (Jim Reed)
Truck was turned 180 deg by tornado (Jim Reed)
VORTEX-NCAR AIRCRAFT MISSION: MAY 22, 1995 by Roger Wakimoto
Severe weather was forecast for the Texas panhandle. The Electra flew over Hobart and
Frederick, Oklahoma before heading northwest to intercept developing convection near
Amarillo. Several thunderstorms were identified on the nose radar. The Electra
descended to 1000 feet above ground level (AGL) at 2023 Universal Time Code (UTC) and
flew an east-west leg between two thunderstorms. The legs were terminated when the two
cells began to merge. The numerous thunderstorms in the area made flight patterns
difficult to set up. As a result, approximate north-south legs were flown on the west
side of the storms. At 2118 UTC, a tornado was spotted visually by the crew. It
appeared to develop from one of the earlier storms that the Electra collected data on
when it first arrived on the scene. A decision was made to break off the flight
pattern and fly north to the tornado to collect dual-Doppler radar data on the vortex.
The tornado appeared to dissipate after the first pass.
At 2245 UTC, the Electra flew to the southern-most cell in a line of storms for data
collection. Coordination with the P-3 aircraft began at 2252 UTC. The patterns
continued until 0059 UTC when operations were terminated. The coordinated flight
patterns were successfully implemented with very little difficulty. Unfortunately, the
supercell storm did not produce a tornado during the entire collection period,.
THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CHASE SEASON by Robert Prentice
My first real storm was Monday May 22, 1995, east of Hugoton, Kansas. Roy Britt and I
met up with Roger Edwards in Dodge City. We thought the best location for tornadoes
would be east and northeast of the main surface low across far southwest Kansas. Roger
was having problems with his camcorder so he asked to borrow mine so we could share
the video. Roy and Roger concentrated on video while I shot stills.
By mid-afternoon, it seemed every storm in the region was tornadic except where we
were. Fortunately, we followed the chasers rule of sticking with our forecast and
storms developed west of Liberal by late afternoon. On the Dodge City WSR-88D, the
storms looked weak and multicell at first. The storms had tremendous storm-relative
inflow of 30 to 40 knots. We parked our vehicles several miles east of Hugoton for
about 30 to 40 minutes while the storms evolved into a classic, nearly stationary,
supercell. We observed strong rotation in the wall clouds and saw two brief
touchdowns: one was a rope, the other an elephant's trunk. The storm gusted-out north
of Liberal and we ended up eating dinner at the Meade, Kansas Pizza Hut!
MAY 22, 1995 CHASE by Kevin Larkin
[ unabridged for CD-ROM ]
Our chase team consisted of Mike Helwig an Kevin Larkin, both employees of the FAA at the
Williamsport Automated Flight Service Station, and Donald DeLeo, an undergraduate student
in meteorology at Millersville University. We arrived in Norman,OK early in the afternoon
of Sunday, May 21st, and since the weather was terrible for chasing, with sunny skies and
a dry northwesterly flow, we decided to look up Hugh Johnson, an NWS employee and
Millersville University alumnus, who was attending WSR88D school. Finding Hugh was easier
than we expected, for as we drove between the airport at Norman and the Holiday Inn, where
we learned Hugh was staying, who should Mike spot, pedalling along on a bicycle? There was
Hugh, headed for the airport.
It was a surprised Hugh Johnson who approached our group in the parking lot of the
apartment complex we had pulled into after shouting to him as we drove by. He was headed
to the NWS office at the airport to visit with another Millersville University alumnus,
Cindy (Eggert) Chrisman, who worked in the technical support office for the WSR-88D radar
network. Cindy works a rating shift on the 'hotline', answering questions on the operation
and maintenance of the WSR-88D radar. Her workload that afternoon allowed her time to give
us a thorough tour of the facility, and we were all quite impressed. Cindy was impressed
at the impromptu gathering of Millersville-connected folks, as Mike and Hugh are MU grads,
Don is currently an undergraduate, and Kevin's daughter ia also an undergraduate. Bidding
goodbye to Hugh and Cindy, we returned to the Ramada Inn in Norman to prepare for our
first chase day,
Analyzing the data available to us early Monday morning, May the 22nd, we decided that
Kansas looked like the place to be. We further concluded that Dodge City would be a good
cerebral point to shoot for, as it appeared to be a good place to wait and see what might
develop in the afternoon. We headed for Dodge City, KS via I40 and US281 but, southeast of
Woodward, OK, we heard reports of a severe thunderstorm moving across Woodward and into
Major county, so we headed north on US281 near Waynoka, OK.,
This proved to be a real 'rookie mistake' as Mike described it later. The storm was
neither particularly photogenic or severe, and so we wasted almost 4 hours on what turned
out to be a 'wild goose chase', as we paralleled it eastward into Alfalfa and Grant
counties. Eventually we headed north into Kansas.
By mid afternoon we were sitting at a highway rest area on US160 west of Medicine Lodge,
KS, questioning our ability to ever intercept a supercell. The local radio station advised
us that a cell near Pratt, KS that we had decided NOT to chase had spawned a weak tornado
as it moved across Pratt county, Around 6 PM we decided to head further west on US160. Ae
we approached Ashland, KS we realized we were under a large anvil cloud, and as we
proceeded further west we witnessed classic mammatus clouds under the anvil. We learned
that this was part of a supercell that had formed west of Woods, KS earlier in the day,
had also spawned a weak tornado, and was now west of Meade, KS and moving slowly eastward.
We were able to shoot pictures and video of this storm as we continued west toward Meade,
KS.
We continued under the anvil for nearly 80 miles, straight toward the storm. There was no
precipitation visible and we witnessed occasional lighting, both cloud to ground and incloud. The storm was decaying as we neared Meade, KS, We proceeded to Liberal, KS for our
first overnight atop on the chase, Later we learned that the Project Vortex team
encountered considerable supercell activity in southwest Oklahoma that afternoon, with
reports of softball size hail. We felt somewhat absolved, since we had seen a classic
midwest supercell, and would have been in the right spot at the right time had we gone on
to Dodge City as planned if we hadn't allowed ourselves to be 'suckered' into chasing the
early morning storm across northern Oklahoma
Tuesday morning, May 23rd, we agreed that it was back to Oklahoma, particularly southwestsouth central Oklahoma that looked the most promising, The IV weather forecasters seemed
to agree with us, too. (hah hah). It was very cool as we left Liberal, in the mid 40's,
but by the time we neared Altus, OK at about 2 PM, the temperature was near 80 and
dewpoints were close to 70 degrees. As we headed south on state route 6, north of Altus,
we observed a developing storm to the southeast. We turned east on US62, and unsure as to
whether this may have been a 'gustnado', an area of strong down draft action, or a brief,
small tornado.
We saw many chasers racing, (some literally) up and down I44 and US281, as we continued to
prowl Cotton and Comanche counties for more storms, encountering periods of heavy rain and
up to nickel size hail at times. We concluded the day sitting at the intersection of state
route 36 and US70 near Devol, OK watching a good lightning display from a storm across the
Red River, northwest of Wichita Falls, TX, As the afternoon gave way to evening, we
elected to head for Lawton, where the brilliant lightning continued well into the night.
Dynamics were very marginal for severe storm/supercell development on Wednesday, May 24th.
We decided to head south into Texas, with the Gainesville area as our 'bulls-eye'. We
arrived there about noon time, enjoyed lunch in the park and walked through the Frank
'bring em back alive' Buck Zoo in Gainesville. We then found a good vantage point outside
of Era, TX, southwest of Gainesville on state route 51, Sitting there, watching the sky
for any promising vertical development, and monitoring NOAA weather radio, 2 meter ham
radio, and the AM/FM broadcast bands, we learned of thunderstorms beginning to develop
west and southwest of Dallas, Jumping on I44 south, we headed into the Ranger, TX area,
just north of the Dallas Metroplex region, and spent the afternoon moving around Denton
county, as thunderstorms popped up throughout the area. No strong or severe storms were
observed, We spent the night in Denton, TX.
Thursday, May 25th, and the weather was lousy across all of north Texas. We decided to
head back toward the panhandle region, which meant another long drive. Childress was our
original destination, but as we drove west on US287 through intermittent heavy rain toward
Wichita Falls, we decided that Altus, OK, being a larger city, might be a better
destination. We stopped briefly in Wichita Falls, swung by the airport, but decided that
there was little reason to visit the NWS office, since between the 2 meter ham radio
severe weather nets and NOAA weather radio broadcasts, we felt well informed of the
situation, which was embedded thunderstorms and moderate rainshowers throughout the Red
River Valley, After getting settled in Altus, OK, we spent Thursday afternoon tending to
'house-keeping' functions like laundry, etc. as there was no severe weather occurring, or
forecasted for the rest of the day.
Friday, May 26th, and the decision is made to head into the high plains. Lubbock, here we
come. Getting there we crossed some of the most desolate parts of Texas we had seen since
the long trip across the Oklahoma panhandle on Tuesday, when we made the long drive from
Liberal, KS to Altus, OK and then east to Lawton, OK. Between Turkey, TX and Matador, TX,
state route 70 is a long desolate stretch of highway, at least to Easterners used to small
towns every 15 to 20 miles,
We approached Lubbock from the northeast, on US 62/82 and after locating suitable lodging
decided to head southeast from Lubbock, and went as far as Post, TX on US84. Stopping for
lunch at a roadside picnic area, we saw showers off to the west, but nothing that looked
like any promising convective activity, We headed back to Lubbock, and just in time.
Strong storms had developed west of Lubbock, in Yoakum and Hockley counties and were
moving east, We were able to video-tape the impressive cloud formation as the storm
approached Lubbock, We found a good observation site east of Lubbock and watched the storm
move across that plains city. Wind gusts approaching 50 mph were recorded at the airport,
making this storm marginally severe. It also made for a beautiful sky as we headed back
into the city later that afternoon,
Saturday, May 21th we set our own personal endurance record. Determining that what weak
dynamics existed pointed toward north central Texas, we headed back to the Gainesville
area, arriving shortly after 1 PM. After the long drive east across almost half of Texas,
we watched the little vertical development that there was get pushed over by the strong
upper winds. It became increasingly apparent that there was not going to be any severe
weather in that part of Texas that day. After discussing our options, we decided that the
only hope left was to head northeastward, toward home, and perhaps intercept any severe
weather that might develop from the vigorous low pressure system that was moving into the
Missouri/Mississippi river valleys. Stopping to spend the night in Texarkana, TX, we got a
room in a motel that didn't have the Weather Channel. Big mistake! After supper we decided
to get some weather maps from the fax service to see what might be developing in the Ohio
River Valley region and further east as we headed back towards Pennsylvania. Did we get
surprised! The low had triggered thunderstorms in the very region we thought we would find
them, only we were still 6 to 8 hours drive away. The composite radar summary chart showed
at least five active weather watches in effect. What a blow! It seemed clear to us from
this point that we would simply head home and if we encountered any severe weather, that
would be our good luck, but there would be no more active storm chasing. Storm Chase 1995
was at an end, and the trip home was generally uneventful, except for the mechanical
difficulties that forced us to say good-bye to the old Suburban that had served us well
getting us out to the plains, all around Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, and back as far
LaGrange, KY.
While we didn't see any tornadoes, Donald and Kevin at least got to see a funnel cloud. We
also felt that our prediction methodology seemed to work, at least getting us into a
general area of severe storm activity on those days that there was a real possibility for
severe thunderstorms or supercell development. We encountered a few supercells, but no
'world class' hail. We saw a good deal of the country, including the remains of the Alfred
P.Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on Sunday, May 21st, just two days before it
was leveled, We saw parts of United States that are still the wild west. I sometimes
wished we didn't need to be so focused on the pursuit of severe weather that we couldn't
stop and learn more about some of the interesting sights we passed. From Medicine Lodge,
KS to Canadian, TX to Sanger, TX and Altus, OK and on to Lubbock and Gainesville, TX, it
was a worthwhile, rewarding trip, and one we hope to make again, next spring, when the
cold Canadian air heads south to the Red River Valley and meets up with the warm, moist
flow from the Gulf of Mexico and the atmosphere becomes explosive with the potential for
supercells and tornadoes. Besides, we all want another great Mexican meal at the Casa
Torres on University Blvd, in Lubbock. TX.
THE MAY 22, 1995 TX PANHANDLE “ICE MACHINE” by Rich Thompson
[ unabridged for CD-ROM ]
This day started with optimism during the morning VORTEX forecast discussion. Extreme
instability was expected by afternoon from SW KS to the eastern TX Panhandle, where forecast;
.. CAPEs approached 4000-5000 J/kg (LI near -10). Moderate southwesterly flow in the mid and
upper levels also gave rise to optimism, as did a well defined dryline in the central
Panhandle and an outflow boundary across the NE Panhandle. Storm relative winds and helicity
values were favorable for supercells with tornadoes, so lead forecaster Steve Corfidi (SPC,
formerly SELS) and myself hurried to finish our probability forecasts so we could get out
there!
Around 2:30 pm, Steve and I left Norman heading W on l-40. Our best guess for maximum tornado
potential (based on our VORTEX forecast) was the NE Panhandle near the outflow boundary, but
road options gave us a better chance to go W instead of NW. We blasted W to Elk City, OK, and
then state highways to Wheeler, Tx. West of Wheeler, we talked with Al Moller and viewed 5
bell-shaped Cbs to our west on the dryline. After a couple of distant high based funnels
formed on the north side of several different updrafts, we decided to go SW for the anchor
cell near McLean, TX. Following the Roads of Texas, we zig-zagged S and W to I-40. At this
point, a fatal mistake was made: Steve had the maps, but I was making most of the navigation
decisions. My plan was to go W a mile or two and turn south before we got in the hail.
However, Steve couldn't exactly read my mind, and we were actually SIX miles from our next S
option. I ended up driving W on the interstate into the big hail core, with nowhere to hide!
We scurried off 1-40 into McLean, but all the good overhangs were already taken. We pulled up
to an abandoned gas station and decided to ride it out. Over the next 20-30 minutes, hail'
ranging from 1" to 2.5" pounded my car, resulting in 3 windshield "spiders" and numerous
dents. To top things off, the tornado sirens (mounted only 50 yds away) started blaring near
the end of the hailstorm! All I could think was "what a way to go!". Thankfully, the
mesocyclone passed just S of our location, and did not produce any tornadoes.
Gathering our collective thoughts, we managed to get out of the core and drive a big loop
around to the SW of the ESE moving supercell. As we neared the TX/OK stateline, we caught up
with much of the VORTEX armada. We stopped before entering Ok and observed roughly 45 kt SE
inflow into the large, striated updraft a few miles to our NW. In the span of about 10
seconds, the inflow completely subsided as the edge of the flared base drifted overhead! We
also saw what appeared to be weak clear slot/occlusion attempt, but again no tornadoes.
The supercell resumed chasing us after we got back into OK, and we nearly bought the farm
(again!) to the S of Reed, OK. The Backroads of Oklahoma showed a paved crossing of the Salt
Fork of the Red River, but the road ended at the water's edge. I hope nobody else has to
experience the dread of having to turn around and drive BACK INTO a long lived "ice machine"
with softballs!
Luckily, the hail remained near 1" until after we got back through Reed. 4" hail was reported
in Reed about 5 minutes after we left there for good! After our second harrowing experience
of the evening and ensuing darkness, we "got outta town". I'd never been in a serious
hailstorm by accident, and I don't recommend it for anyone who doesn't own a "meatwagon".
There were some interesting notes on this storm: though it produced up to softball size hail
for 3-4 hours and showed strong mid level rotation on radar, low level rotation was never
strong and the rear flank downdraft was neither cold nor wet. This may be just another
example of how complicated, supercells and tornadoes can be, and that impressive shear and
instability may not be enough to guarantee a tornadic chase. Perhaps the VORTEX datasets
may shed some light on why this storm did not produce any tornadoes and so much hail,
while other storms to the north were tornadic (congrats to Chuck Doswell and others near
Pampa, and Roger Edwards and Bobby Prentice in SW KS).
Tornado 6 W of woods, KS on May 22, 1995
(Roger Edwards)
Tornado 3 SSW of Tipton, OK on April 16,
1995 (Robert Satkus)
Striated barber-pole updraft near Madge,
TX on May 22, 1995 (Steve Corfidi)
JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by Rich Thompson
Robert Prentice and I left Norman, Oklahoma and drove west-southwest towards the
suspected outflow boundary/weak dryline intersection. Some rotating storms formed in
Oklahoma, but they were outflow dominant. Thus, we went southwest to the area west of
Vernon, Texas to intercept a newly developing southern storm. Soon after we arrived,
the festival of dust whirl tornadoes began. We observed at least six different
tornadoes, most of which were small dust whirls beneath a rotating base. Two of the
small tornadoes occurred simultaneously within one mile to our south. The funniest
event of the day was a tornado that formed within 150 yards to our north-northeast as
a small dust whirl. The dust cloud intensified and expanded while drifting toward us,
so we backed up, turned the corner and let the vortex cross the road about 150 yards
to our west! Unfortunately, I left the camcorder on STANDBY for much of this tornado,
but managed to record the later multivortex dust stage. Fortunately, Robert did video
the entire sequence. Once again, another successful chase.
THE END OF SEVEN ROARS by Robert Prentice
Friday, June 9, 1995, Rich Thompson and I chased the Red River Valley and saw one of
the most unusual storms we had ever observed. Our first storm near Roosevelt was
gusting out so we dropped south to a new storm near Chillicothe, Texas. We observed
multiple dust swirls that apparently formed on the forward flank gust front and got
stretched into weak (but real) tornadoes as they hit the mesoscale triple point. We
also observed rain-wrapped funnel clouds that may have been associated with stronger
tornadoes. We played tag with Gene Rhoden and Tim Marshall for much of this event and
they observed the closest tornado I have ever been to. We were near the Wilbarger
county line facing north on a paved road just about 200 yards from an east-west
intersection. Tim and Gene were just to our south. A 20 yard wide dust whirl formed
about 150 yards to our north-northeast and moved south. Rich and I laughed it off
until it grew in size to about 100 yards wide and seemed to intensify coming straight
for us. Gene and Tim filmed us driving backwards trying to escape while trying to film
at the same time. We drove east a few hundred yards then stopped to film the orangish
tornado to our immediate west. I snapped a wide angle picture of the tornado before it
moved southeast into a field and broke up into multiple vortices. Each subvortex would
make a hissing sound like a steam vent. The storm pretty much gusted out after that.
On US Highway 287 in Vernon, we saw the ultimate chaser convergence with every TV
station in the region, every storm chaser on vacation, every trucker on the road, and
every local yocal gawking at the gusting out storm. Even after the chase we had
excitement as tornado sirens sounded and patrons ran out to their cars. A close
lightning bolt then struck a power pole and we watched sparks fly from it for a few
minutes. Needless to say there will be all meat on this years highlights tape!
JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by William Reid
[ unabridged for CD-ROM ]
The past week has been very eventful for me -- stormchase speaking. I finally have a
chance to write up a little summary.
Last Monday, June 5, 1995, was a long and rather frustrating chase way down into the
BIG COUNTRY, as they call the area around Abilene. Charlie Sill and I left AMA around
2 p.m. for Silverton, where a tornadic storm was indicated. A tornado was reported
near South Plains as we drove towards the impressive-looking, supercellular storm. As
we approached the storm from the west, near Floydada, we saw Martin Lisius watching
the storm. He had videoed the cone-shaped tornado near South Plains less than an hour
earlier, but it quickly wrapped in rain after forming. The cell was moving SSE or SE
at about 30 mph and off of the caprock---into a poor road network (at least compared
to the caprock's road network). Tornado warnings continued with the storm, and we
struggled to get in front it. Poor road judgement led us east towards the precip core
at one point, with the next road option about two miles into heavy hail. A truck came
out of the core with a couple huge softball-sized craters in the windshield. We turned
around to take another road south. We sped through Spur, Clairemont, Roby, and
Sylvester and finally were in decent position around sunset, but we never saw a
tornado. There were a lot of nasty-looking cloud bases and dusty-inflow winds, and the
base took on a smooth-laminar appearance at sunset, but no cigar. We became part of a
five-car caravan including Martin and his wife, a chase team from Idaho/Colorado,
Bobby Prentice and a friend, and a salesman who hopped onto the storm when he saw it
from Plainview. Charlie and I were very reluctant to continue with the storm once we
got to Spur (around 7 p.m.), but how can you abandon a tornadic storm once you've gone
so far already? Charlie had to be back to work at AMA at 5 a.m. the next morning. We
got back home to AMA around 2 a.m. Martin got some of the mammatus and gustnado video
from this storm on TWC the following day. What I remember most was getting eaten by
mosquitos near Sylvester at sunset. Winds weren't strong enough to blow 'em away, and
I had to put my raincoat/windbreaker on to keep them off of me. They even would land
on your clothes and try to bite through jeans and t-shirts. That was like adding
injury to frustration. Dozens of mosquitoes met there maker, however. At least I got
some some pretty pictures and video.
Tuesday, June 6, was a day of rest---though I was drooling over a very isolated cell
which was going up in extreme W KS around 5 p.m. This cell fell apart, though, and I
was happy that I had stayed put.
On Wednesday, June 7, 1995, I had a tough time deciding whether to make the drive up
into E CO, where severe looked likely, or to let that pass and to wait for Thursday's
activity, which looked to be very promising near a triple-point (forecast to be) in W
KS. I've had good luck in CO, and the discussions were talking up severe and tornados
there, so at 1 p.m. I was on my way by myself towards someplace in E CO. When I got to
about Lamar near 5 p.m., a severe tstorm watch was in place for most of E CO north of
Lamar. I was hoping that strong to severe storms near Denver would march eastward out
onto the Plains, where I would easily intercept them.
The problem was that these storms were slowly moving NE and NNE, into Weld County. By
7 p.m. I was around Last Chance and I could see the now tornadic storms about 60 miles
to my NW. They were the only game around, so I continued north and west. I finally got
to Fort Morgan and Wiggins around 8 p.m. MDT (about a half hour before sunset), and
tornados continued to be reported with the storms just NW of me. I could see some very
low appendages along the cloud base, but contrast was terrible. I drove north towards
Goodrich, and inflow winds from the east became extremely strong---perhaps 40 mph
sustained. I could see tremendous turbulence and rotation in the cloud bases a few
miles to my west, but contrast continued to be poor. I taped from the car and later
tried to get some tripoded footage, but it got pretty hairy as winds were screaming
and very low and black scuddy funnels approached. I sped east to get safe, and saw Tim
Samaras and several other chasers/storm spotters. By now it was past sunset and very
dark, and the storm drifted off to the northeast, drenching Morgan County. By the way,
the South Platte River was running very high through the area, and flood warnings were
all over the place. I haven't had a chance to see my video yet, but I'm certain that I
got some tornado footage--though it is probably not particularly obvious due to the
poor contrast. It's another one of those cases that seems to be plaguing me this year-
----I'm on tornadic storms and I'm shooting video of something which may or may not be
tornadic----either the contrast is bad, I'm too far away, or the funnel isn't all the
way to the ground, etc., etc.
Thursday, June 8, looked very promising. I made a huge mistake, though, by sleeping in
too late and getting out of Fort Morgan around 11 a.m. The triple point was supposed
to be in W KS---maybe 3 to 4 hours away, but as I left town TWC showed it near
DALHART, TX----AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was quite perturbed around 2 p.m. when, near Lamar,
I learned of the tornado box for the TX and OK Panhandles. Why couldn't the convection
wait until 6 p.m.??? A large tornado hit Pampa, TX, around 4:45 to 5 p.m., but I was
barely into the OK Panhandle, near Hooker. Martin Lisius and others got awesome video
of the large Pampa tornado---with great backlighting, etc. (The Pampa tornado
destroyed a few dozen homes and businesses.) I was aiming for a tornadic storm
approaching Canadian, TX, and held my breath as I went through a core of heavy rain
and very strong winds. Hail stayed less than marble-sized, thankfully. That was in
Ochiltree County, south of Perryton. I quickly broke out of the precip to see a
churning (though rather high-based) sky, a little north of Canadian. Towards the east
a funnel cloud reached halfway to the ground, but it didn't last long. At Canadian I
heard reports of a tornadic cell moving NNE through Wheeler County, to my south, so I
had to decide whether to core punch a little or to come around the west side of the
storm. I chose the latter, and while near Briscoe I could see a rain-wrapped "area-ofconcern" to my east. I didn't know it at the time, but this "area" contained the milewide wedge tornado which was bearing down on Allison, TX. I saw rain curtains, low
scud stuff and rotation, but I never thought that I was looking at a tornado. The
tornado wiped out at least one (once) sturdy farmstead, with the family surviving
while huddling together and holding on to each other. Numerous cattle were killed, and
large trees were stripped and uprooted. This is one storm where a decision to play it
safe may have saved my life.
I had driven about 1200 miles by myself in two days and wanted a rest day, but Martin
called at 9 a.m. and said he thought today (Friday, June 9) could be great, maybe up
near Medicine Lodge, KS. I said, "forget it---that's too far," but I agreed to meet
him at the AMA NWS office to look at data. He showed me video of the Pampa tornado--it's just awesome, as I said! Marty Feely, Herbert Fiala, Martin, and I read
discussions and looked at maps -- it looked like SW OK and NW TX---perhaps Childress
to Altus, would be the spot today--not Medicine Lodge. Outflow boundaries, the dry
line, and very juicy air were converging near Childress around noon. I decided to go.
Martin and Herbert (who comes from Austria to chase---yes, the Austria in Europe) and
Rob Allison and I converged at the tail-end Charlie storm base southwest of Vernon
around 3:30 p.m. The Altus area was already full of tornados from the next storm up
the line, and our storm was strengthening and organizing. The storm slowly moved east
and started to develop good rotation SW of Vernon, and lightning activity picked up
incredibly fast. We were in danger under this electrical base, with numerous
circulations, inflow jets, etc., so we headed east fast. On the way I have my video
camera pointed towards the base to the north and I mention how incredible the
lightning is---one second later a lightning bolt fills the frame---maybe a half mile
away, with a loud boom---about two seconds later another bolt descends and hits the
ground only 50 or so yards to my north, with an almost instantaneous crash!! I got it
on video, too!! The bolt is so close that, on a frame-by-frame sequence on the video,
it is slightly blurred and burned into the tape. It appears on only one frame, with
the next frame showing faint beading. The bolt is blurred because I was going about 40
to 50 mph---and the shutter speed was likely 1/60 of a second----too slow to allow a
sharp image of something so close while travelling at that speed. We found a safer
spot and watched a couple of debris-cloud/dust spin-ups, and a spotter nearby reported
these to the proper authorities. We had to move east again, but about 10 seconds later
Rob saw a tornado behind us! I quickly tripoded the camcorder and I got about 10
seconds of decent, good contrast footage of a dusty tornado about three miles down the
road west of us. There was a faint condensation funnel associated with this tornado. I
then got some overall storm structure video, but unfortunately the tornado weakened
pretty rapidly and the show was over within a minute. We went back to 287 to get a
little south of Vernon, which was in the path of this developing, now tornadic, storm.
Very black, wide and threatening funnels hung over Vernon, but the town escaped
disaster. We decided to take U.S. 70 into OK instead of staying in TX. The storm
looked a lot more disorganized and HP-ish as we stayed in front of it along U.S. 70
and into Grandfield, OK. We were a little disappointed as we got gas and food in
Grandfield---and we had basically given up on the cell. A clerk in the little store
there said that she gets nervous when we (i.e., stormchasers) come through town. About
10 seconds later the town's sirens went off! The storm had re-organized in about tenminute's time, and was now showing a much more classic structure, with a good-looking
wall cloud. The base was just SW of town. We decided to stay away from the precip by
going a little east of town. We sacrificed a lot on contrast while doing that,
however. A couple of tornadoes appeared to be on the ground SW of town for several
minutes, though our poor contrast against the dark precip area makes it difficult to
see much. We were perhaps 4 to 5 miles away. I wish we had tried the "west of town
option," in hindsight. Grandfield was not struck by these tornados, to my knowledge.
We closed out the chase day at sunset by watching another very threatening base (in
front of an HP cell) bear down on Burkburnett, TX. This spun up some gustnadoes, and
at dark we got the heck out of the way of the storm's fury by taking I-44 up towards
Lawton. Rob and I got back to Amarillo around 2 a.m
I thought for sure that I would not chase on Saturday, June 10, but the southern TX
Panhandles were in moderate risk area, and at 1 p.m. Bary Nusz was here to pick me up
for another chase---Swisher County was already under a tornado warning! We drove south
under dreary skies with upslope east winds to Swisher County----no storm. We headed to
Hale County which had a tornado warning---but couldn't find an updraft. There was a
lot of low cloud stuff and rain and lightning, so we decided to continue south to find
warm air. We went south past Lubbock and we were still in the cool air, with NE winds
of 30 mph! Lubbock had been 89 at 1 p.m.---at 3 or 4 p.m. they had about 60 degrees.
Towards Tahoka and La Mesa we were driving though billowing dust clouds with numerous
gust-front "gustnados." This was the leading edge of the southward-plunging cold
front/outflow boundary. Several times we stopped in the warm air---94 degrees---just
south of this wedge of dust---and watched it descend upon us. It was very interesting
to watch---but not good for the insides of the car, the cameras, or the contact
lenses. Cloud towers were going up along this haboob-front, but it was a dusty mess as
we threw in the towel at La Mesa. We decided to eat the Pizza Hut there, thinking out
loud that the best way to get a storm would be to ignore the atmosphere for a little
while. It worked!! About 5 minutes after ordering, the sky darkened in the west and
lightning began zapping away. While waiting impatiently for the food Barry and I kept
checking outside---the mid-levels had striations, rain was getting closer, the cloud
base better organized---hurry up pizza! We ate up and stepped into moderate rain. The
storm was not severe, though, and we drove home, butting up against those darn, chasekilling NE winds.
FARMERS VALLEY, TX TORNADOES: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall
After our successful chase on June 8th, Gene Rhoden and myself were ready for another chase
day. We stayed the night in Clinton, Oklahoma and awoke to the rumbles of thunder from a
severe morning storm. Convection continued overnight leaving an east- west outflow boundary
across central Oklahoma. Today's target was where the outflow boundary intersected the
dryline in southwestern Oklahoma. Since we were close to the target area, we decided to have
leisure breakfast, then head toward Altus. On the way south, Gene's car blew a fuse and we
had to divert to a Radio Shack. As soon as we were back on the road, around 1:30pm, a tornado
warning was issued for Greer and Jackson counties just to our west.
Within thirty minutes, we closed in on the rain free base near Mangum, OK. The storms inflow
was weak and the updraft soon occluded in heavy precipitation. As the storm moved east of
town, the outflow kicked up some dust and novice spotters reported it as a tornado. Arriving
north of Blair, OK at 3 pm, we stopped and met chaser David Hoadley. Then we heard of a
severe thunderstorm warning for Hardeman County, Texas, about 60 miles to the southwest. Gene
and I decided to give up on our disorganized storm (it was also heading into the Ouchita
Mountains) and we headed southwest to tail-end Charlie. (We found out later that the northern
produced a tornado east of the mountains).
We arrived at Chillicothe, Texas around 4pm and stopped to top off the tank as the local
service station. The rain free hase was approaching the town and large drops of rain began to
fall. We then parked south of town and watched a stubby beaver tail form on the north side of
the updraft. Just like the previous storm to the north, it hal weak surface-based inflow.
However, we remained optimistic given the clear sky to the south and rock hard anvil
overhead. We watched the storm for an hour. As soon as we came upon fellow-chaser Robert
Prentice, the storm started getting its act together (Thanks Robert!). A wall cloud developed
to our northwest and a persistent dust whirl occurred below cloud base. At the same time,
another persistent dust whirl developed to our west underneath an elevated updraft that was
thinly veiled by precipitation. The storm began to drift slowly to the southeast and we Rept
pace with it. As the wall cloud passed overhead, there was differential movement in the dust
indicating ground-based circulation just to our north. Gene and I retreated to the car as we
found ourselves being bombarded by cloud-to-ground lightning. Two bolts struck the power
lines overhead leaving us temporarily deaf from the crack of thunder. We proceeded east and
stopped at Farmers Valley, a two-house town in the middle of nowhere.
I started to video Gene and asked him how he liked the chase so far. He gazed straight ahead
and let out a resounding "WHOAAA!" Panning the camera northward, could see dust quickly
gathering at the ground and shooting skyward. We were within one hundred yards of a
developing tornado. Robert Prentice and Rich Thompson (who were even closer) began backing up
to get out of the way. Gene and I followed, then we stopped only a few hundred yards east of
the tornado. I braced myself against the car in the howling inflow as the large rotating dust
bowl lumbered across the road in front of us. The tornado moved southward into an open field
then broke up into fast- spinning subvortices that would periodically form and dissipate.
TIM: Well, well, well (laughing). I don't believe it. What are we doing? In with the bear -do you dare? We've seen five dust whirls so far!
GENE: At very close range. Fantastic.
Next stop east was Vernon, Texas. As we arrived, a new wall cloud began to occlude and a
funnel extended about half way to the ground. Sirens sounded in town but the storm soon
became outflow dominant. Later, a series of spectacular downbursts kicked up walls of
blinding dust. The season ended on a high note as the summer death ridge set in the next day.
WEATHER SITUATION: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall
This was a classic June situation in which
there were weak environmental winds aloft,
however, those storms that could drift to
the right of the mean wind could enhance
their storm relative inflow and helicity
enough to produce weak tornadoes. There was
tremendous wind and moisture convergence
along the stationary front in southwest
Oklahoma. At noon, Altus had a south wind
gusting to 25 knots with a 71 dewpoint. In
contrast, Hobart had east winds at 9 knots
with an air temperature 18 degrees cooler.
As the day progressed, the front slipped
southward due to the enhancement of the
cold air boundary generated by the new
convection. A mesolow developed in the
vicinity of Vernon, Texas.
It is conjecture whether the mesolow produced the storm or the storm produced the mesolow.
The surface dryline did not appear to be a major player except for perhaps the initial
formation of the storm. There may have been an upper dryline at work here. The storm grew in
strength as it moved east into the deeper, moist air. It is interesting to note that the
tail-end Charlie storm was similar to the Mangum, Oklahoma storm with regards to the
character of the tornadoes, however, these storms appeared to have different structures.(ie.
the northern storm appeared more outflow-dominant than the southern storm).
Satellite view of Farmers Valley supercell
WSR-88D reflectivity of Farmers Valley storm
Wall cloud NE of Mangum, OK on June 9,
1995 (Robert Satkus)
Gene Rhoden's expression at seeing
tornado (Tim Marshall)
Tornado 2 NNE of Lugert, OK on June 9,
1995 (Robert Satkus)
Farmer's Valley tornado crossing road
(Tim Marshall)