2001 Chase Summaries
May 11 - May 29:
Trip One
Brian A. Morganti
MAY 11: Fri - Day 1
- Travel
Day:
Terry Fisher and I left Bernville at
1322 EDT with a goal to reach Indianapolis, IN for our first nights lodging.
That is where the “dreaded” decision would need to be made Saturday morning to
either head NW via I-74 for what may be a slight risk of severe in Iowa or SW
via I-70 to the southern Plains in order to be near OKC for my commitment
as tour driver with Tempest Tours starting on Tuesday, May 15th.
After intercepting a few weak, but gusty, storms in eastern Ohio we made our
destination to Indianapolis by 2345 PM CDT with 622 miles behind us.
NOTE: Tempest Tours is new storm chasing
tour company founded by Martin Lisius, president of TESSA (Texas Severe Storms
Association) and owner of Prairie Pictures, which produces severe weather
productions. My friend and chase partner William T. Reid who was serving as
Tempest Tours tour director and lead forecaster hired me. Terry Fisher (from
Lancaster County, PA) would be among the first six tourists to traverse Tornado
Alley with this new tour group, and I would be their first tour driver!
MAY 12: Sat - Day 2
- Travel
Day:
The
decision was made – head to the southern Plains. I abandoned plan A, which was
to head for the Sioux City, IA since there did not appear to be sufficient
moisture for the development of severe storms in that area. Besides, I wanted
to attend the annual Stormtrack picnic at Tim Marshall’s house in Flower Mound,
TX on Sunday since this would be their final picnic and I had never had the
opportunity to attend one in the past. We drove a total of 830 miles to El
Reno, OK without the slightest possibility of seeing any storms!
MAY 13: Sun – Day 3
- ST Picnic Day:
We drove from the
Oklahoma City area to Flower Mound, TX in order to share an afternoon of fun,
food, and plenty of storm chaser video at what was billed to be the final
Stormtrack picnic ever. Stormtrack is the name of a bi-monthly magazine geared
for the hard-core Plains chaser and severe storm aficionado. The magazine will
end later this year, but articles will still be available at their on-line web
site. There were dozens of highly outfitted chase vehicles lining the streets
in this normally quiet community—I’m certain much to the dismay of the
neighbors. All had a great time and the videos were still running when I left
around 2130 CDT. We drove to Ardmore, OK for the night with only 308 miles
logged.

MAY 14: Mon – Day 4
- Visitation Day:
I arranged a lunch
meeting with Bob Conzemius who is studying for his doctorate in meteorology at
OU in Norman, OK. Bob is also assigned to the DOW (Doppler on Wheels) team that
studies the formation of tornadoes with a goal for better understanding, thus
faster warnings. We had the opportunity to visit the DOW “barn” and get a close
up look at these trucks and the equipment used in these studies. We finished up
the day back in OKC (Oklahoma City) and watched a few weak storms on radar well
to our west in the TX Panhandle. No storms encountered today—280 miles logged.
May 15: Tue – Day 5 -
Orientation Day:
Today was the orientation
day for the six Tempest Tourists who would be arriving in OKC by 1500 CDT. We
would chase if any storms are within range, but none formed. Tomorrow would be
the first official chase day. All the tourists arrived; there were two from CA,
one from WV, one from KY, one from PA, and one that endured an 18 hour flight
all the way from Sweden in order to experience the storms in the Great Plains of
the United States. We would also have Lance, a reporter from WBAP news talk
radio in Dallas, following us for a couple of days for a special feature he was
working on about Storm Chasing tours in Tornado Alley.
May 16: Wed – Day 6 (TT Day
1) Funnel East of Fairbury, NE:
Today was the first chase
of the season for me, which also happened to coincide with my first day
as
“driver” for Tempest Tours. We headed north from OKC targeting an area along
the KS/NE border somewhere east of a McCook to Hill City line. There were a few
anemic looking towers going up to our south while we were traveling west along
RT 36 as we approached Smith County in KS around 1330 PM CDT. We decided to
have lunch before things got too hectic at a place called the Lyon’s Den in
Smith Center, KS along RT 36. Only one waitress (Karen), but the food was
great, the prices were cheap and the service was unbelievably fast!
About an hour later there was a severe
warning on a storm off to our southwest in Sheridan County KS that was putting
down 1- ¼” hail near Hoxie. We plotted an intercept course turning south on RT
183 in Phillipsburg. There was a nice circular anvil for awhile, but it was
rather evident that this storm was loosing it’s punch. We soon stopped to
better asses the situation and Bill noticed right away that we were already in
north winds—and, the area back to our northeast showed a well defined line of
broken Accas and developing Tcu, no doubt the result of convergence along the
boundary. Back to RT 36 and east we must go!
During the next stop we spotted a distant
(60-70 miles) rapidly developing tower on the northeast horizon. A minute or so
later a Pileus cloud developed. The rock hard towers were easy to spot even at
that distance, so we now had a clearly defined target storm! Martin could not
find any radar reflectivity when we first spotted this updraft, but a return
phone call 15 minutes later indicated the explosive nature of this cell—and that
it was moving slowly eastward. We all had an incredible view of this storm for
the next hour on our approach. It had just about everything, large circular
anvil in the distance, with closer rock hard updraft towers on the western flank
that soon pushed out a nice back sheared anvil with inverted knuckling!

We
finally got a good look at the base between RT 81 and Fairbury, NE. It looked
rather high based and without much organization. We could see the back edge of
the rain shaft (no rain foot) that exhibited occasional hail shafts off to our
north. We stopped to get a better look and shoot some footage just east of
Fairbury. There was almost continuous thunder for a while, but not much visible
lightning. All of a sudden we had quite a surprise when a narrow “shear” funnel
snaked about a fourth of the way down from the ragged southwestern edge of the
updraft base.

I zoomed in as much as I could while hand
holding the camera (no time for getting the tripod) and could find some evidence
of rotation. Bill and I decided that maybe we had just better go and grab our
tripods—and of course that killed it for sure! The funnel showed us a brief,
but distinct, rope stage until only a small piece of the funnel remained before
that too quickly evaporated. The time was about 1846 CDT. We had a few more
looks at a rather unusual looking V-shaped updraft “appendage” that persisted
below the updraft base as we approached Beatrice around 1900 CDT. The show was
over, but what a great looking storm to start the season for all of us! We
logged a total of 745 miles for TT’s first official chase day and spent the
night in Salina, KS.
May 17: Thu – Day 7
- (TT Day
2) Pretty Plainview Sunset:
Bill Reid, Tempest Tours, and myself left Salina KS late
Thursday morning with an initial target around Woodward, OK. A couple of hours
later we were headed straight south towards a large cell with a huge blow off
anvil that had just gone severe over
Major
County
in NW OK. We could have easily intercepted the base of this storm just east of
Waynoka, but this thing started to die fast. We didn’t want to waste time
now—it was only around 1330
CDT and conditions looked much more favorable to our southwest
from about Hollis,
OK to Lubbock, (LBB) TX. We could see clearing skies
off to our distant south as we crossed a wind shift line somewhere around
Taloga,
OK and it felt great to be back in 68-70 degree dp’s and experience winds coming
in from the south.
Another data stop in Weatherford, OK
confirmed we were still on target, and that some cells were initiating to our
west and southwest in the TX Panhandle. We headed west on I-40 and were soon
passed by several other chasers including Keith Brown--the DOW trucks had gone
by while we were getting gas in Weatherford. We could see another large blow
off anvil to our west but soon learned that this one was already dead. However,
a much more potent tower well off to our SW near LBB (Lubbock, TX) came into
view with a nice back sheared anvil and a decent size dome on top. This one had
the best structure of the day by far! Radar also indicated some newer
development hidden from our view behind this CB, so we figured these would be
the dominant cells by the time we could approach the base.
Once again we succeeded to kill off the
dominant cell (which was severe with half dollar size hail) immediately upon our
arrival, but the one that was hiding back to its SW was exhibiting a rather
sculpted updraft tower. It gave us a good show as the setting sun began to
light up its main updraft tower just as we approached the town of Plainview,
TX. We decided to stop and set up our camera equipment about a mile west of
Plainview for an incredible show. There were multiple towering cumulus clouds
framing the setting sun. These towers were set aglow in reds and oranges with
beautiful orange ribbons in fanned out rays. These rays disappeared directly
overhead, only to reappear back to our east adding just a tinge of color to a
nice dark gray bulbous mammatus field. At the same time the sky was
electrified to our south with an occasional blue anvil crawler. We then
continued west on RT 70 after sunset to intercept a decent looking cell that was
becoming more electrified. We enjoyed the light show just west of Earth, where
we finally called it a day—the second in a row that we witnessed some very
pretty convection. Miles logged: 640

May 18: Fri – Day 8 (TT Day
3) - The Capulin Volcano Chase:
What a fantastic
chase day we had! This is another one of those days that targeting the axis of
a Theta-E ridge pays off. I've attached Bill Reid's excellent chase summary
below (it's okay since he attached my last two summaries to his e-mail :-)).
I'm now in Dalhart, TX (NE TX Panhandle) and it's almost 2:00 AM (again)..I need
to get some rest, the next couple of days are going
to be busy..Sunday could be significant!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Tempest Tours had a really fun chase today!
We stopped at Gandy's in Tulia for data around 2:30 p.m., and noted that the
best surface moisture and CAPE were directed towards the region where TX/OK/NM
and CO all come together. The latest radar scan showed a small cell just west
of Clayton, NM. This seemed to be in just about the right spot, and we could
easily see the cell from Tulia after leaving the Gandy's restaurant. It was
about 150 miles to the north-northwest.
The cell slowly died as we (including Bary Nusz!) approached it from Dumas and
Dalhart, but a new tower was going up a little farther west, near the
Union/Colfax county border. This new storm quickly developed very near Capulin,
which is west of Des Moines in Union County. A severe tstorm warning was issued
just as we came up on it from the southeast. The Capulin Volcano was just east
of the updraft base! East winds were blowing into the rain-free updraft base,
and a light precip core was east of the base. There was little or no rotation
apparent. Another developing cell merged into the first cell from the
southwest, the entire complex intensified, and CG activity quickly increased.
We were chased east a little as rain fell on us near Capulin, and we stopped in
the rain and pea-to-dime-sized hail. Here we were treated to several nearby CG
strikes and wonderful thunder crashes! Brian caught a very close CG strike on
video, right next to the volcano. The cell was practically stationary, and
we decided to try to get out of the precip. We went southeast of Des Moines a
ways and had a pretty view of the low sun light hitting the back of the updraft
base. One of the tourists, Robin Mack, asked "Is my hair standing on end?" We
all rushed back into the van. I even felt a slight tingly feeling on my head.
We changed our minds and decided to head back NW and west of Des Moines, where
the light of the sun on the storm was a wonderful yellow hue. Again we plowed
through the hail core, and an inch of hail covering the pavement for a few
miles. On the west edge of the precip area, at the Capulin Volcano Natl
Monument road turnout, we had a spectacular view of the updraft tower to the
southeast. It featured a bell-shaped flange for a little while, and lightning
flickered in the bluish-gray precip core to the east. As dusk settled in, the
cell weakened considerably and surged off towards the east. All in all, I'd
have to say that this was my best chase ever at elevations between 6500 and 7000
feet, while within several miles of a volcano. Miles logged: Appx 400"
May 19: Sat – Day 9 (TT Day
4) - Mud Messy Chase Day:
When I got up this
morning I noticed a few storm cells initiating in Sherman County TX to the east
of our previous nights stay in Dalhart, TX. By late morning these storms had a
severe warning. And then a tornado warning (radar indicated). Bill Reid,
myself, and Tempest Tours decided we might as well have a look at this stuff
since we had some extra time before we needed to be in our target area further
to our south and east. We soon abandoned this plan however, due to the storm
being imbedded in a large cloud shield and poor visibility due to fog. The TOR
was soon canceled.
Around 1330 CDT we downloaded data in Tulia, where we had drying west winds and
breaks in the cloud cover. We could see the towers through those breaks off to
our east from a well-established line of on going convection. We made a brief
stop further to our east along RT 86 just east of Silverton, TX and could see at
least three distinct bases and one decent tower briefly thru an
opening in the low clouds. Visual clues in Turkey, TX where not any better, but
radar indicated a couple of cells starting to show promise, again to our east.
Somewhere around Cee Vee we could see our "target storm" ahead of us. We soon
had a look at a well-defined rain free base tilting into the downdraft region to
our northeast. The only negative was that the base was rather stretched out in
linear fashion. In order to get closer to our storm we had to plot a course
thru CDS (Childress, TX) where the streets were flooded and barely passable.
We exited the core around Kirkland and were
treated to an eerie under the base view, but we knew this thing was now outflow
dominant. Our plan was to now get south of this outflow, unfortunately our chase
day ended while taking a shortcut on a dirt road (the heavy rain band was just a
tad faster than our chase vehicles). Bill may want to elaborate on this part of
the summary...I'm heading to bed; Sunday looks to be another busy day. 319
Miles.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Brian M. was kind enough to leave the
mud ball in my hands!
Tempest Tours was on a good storm by about 4 p.m. Saturday, near Cee Vee (in
Cottle County, I think). As Brian noted, the base was large but somewhat
linear. This area seemed to be on the boundary between very humid air to the
south and southeast, drier air and west winds to the west, and cool air with
easterly winds behind the outflow boundary to the north.
Apparently we were near a triple point.
We were on the west side of the cell, with no east-road option once we reached
the intersection, 15 miles south of Childress. (Sorry, I don't recall the route
numbers!) The storm was moving NE, so we went north into Childress, and got
into very heavy rain and strong outflow winds. We had to go through ALL of
Childress, and most of the intersections were flooded.
Towards Goodlett, on 287, we broke out of the precip, and were beneath the large
and black updraft base again. It was a little surprising that we had no hail,
and that the storm was not more severe. Martin Lisius, the president of Tempest
Tours, was watching the same storm southwest of Goodlett, and was eager to meet
up with the Tempest group. One mile before reaching Goodlett (and a paved road
which went south), Martin had us (via cell phone) jump on an unpaved road so
that we could quickly reach his location, which was along 104 southwest of
Goodlett. He guided us WESTWARD one mile to get on another dirt road which went
south three miles to 104, where he was. I advised him that rain was not very
far away, and that it was possible that we might have problems if the road got
wet. Martin was insistent that we continue. Bary Nusz was following us in his
Chevy Tahoe. Our one-mile westward jog was the killer, as rain began to fall as
we turned south. The road wasn't bad at first, but after a mile it became very
slick. Brian (our driver) made it through the first slick stretch, then there
was a short section that was okay, and then a second slick stretch offered zero
traction whatsoever. We slowly slid into a shallow ditch along the left side of
the road. The rear left tire was the only tire not on the road. Bary became
stuck, too. The tires just spun, as if we were on black ice.
I called Martin on the cell phone. He was one mile to the south, on the
pavement of 104. He said that he would come get us out. About 100 yards to the
south, we could see Martin approach. He got stuck.

So, it was raining, and we had three stuck vehicles on a muddy road.
Fortunately, we were in no danger weather-wise. I called AAA, but the closest
business which could offer help was out of Wichita Falls, about 90 minutes
away. Martin called Quanah police, only 7 miles to the east. They contacted a
wrecker in Quanah, and, about 90 minutes after we became stuck,
the wrecker arrived. We were on Sparkman Road, and two of the three Quanah Boys
in the wrecker were named Sparkman. One by one they pulled each vehicle
southward along the slick road and onto 104. Fortunately, the rain had ended by
now. I got it all on video, but I don't know if Martin will want it these
segments on the Tempest highlight reel! It was amazing that
the wrecker (and its six tires) was able to manage the muddy road.
The delay caused us to miss an impressive storm which trekked south of Wichita
Falls towards dusk, but it did not produce any tornadoes. We had dinner and
found rooms in Vernon. Later today there is a good chance of severe storms in
the jungles near and east of I-35 from about Gainesville, TX, to OKC."
May 20: Sun – Day 10 (TT Day
5) - The Ada Tornado:
Here's our report
from May 20th...Bill typed this up while I was driving. We had another great
day, The Weather Channel is interested in our footage, but I don't know if we'll
have the time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Martin Lisius, Brian Morganti and I led
the Tempest Tours group into the jungles east of Ardmore on Sunday, and we
caught the tornadic supercell which went up in southwest Pontotoc County and
moved eastward through Coal County. We had an exceptional view of the
tornado/slender funnel cloud southwest of Ada, and later on of the large funnel
cloud near Stonewall. We were unable to confirm with 100 percent certainty that
the Ada "tornado" produced circulation on the ground, but the slender funnel was
a good 3/4 of the way from wall-cloud base to the ground. Extended chase account
version follows:
We began the day in Vernon, TX, and
decided to kind of split the difference between the dry line south into Texas
and the moderate risk area covering much of central and eastern OK. When
surface winds in north Texas began backing to the SW and WSW, and when cumulus
clouds began to bubble to the north and northeast, we left Jolly, TX, and drove
into southern OK. Decent storm towers were building to our east as we approached
Ardmore, and soon we had a target storm to our northeast, near Roff, in
southwest Pontotoc County. We measured dew points of about 72F just east of
Ardmore, and winds were southerly. Martin checked the SPC site online, which
showed that the best and strongest supercell potential was around the Ardmore to
McAlester area. So, though we knew of big nasty supercells near Ponca City and
Oklahoma City, we thought that our new cell near Roff would be just as super, if
not more so. I should add that SPC had much of central and eastern OK in a PDS
tornado box beginning at 3:30 p.m. We struggled to keep up with the Roff cell.

A terrible detour around Sulphur on 177 cost us about ten minutes. The cell was
severe-warned, but appeared rather soft, mushy, and leaned-over as it sailed
northeastward up the Chickasaw Turnpike and past Ada. About 5 miles beyond Ada,
on Highway 1, the tree situation worsened and the cell remained rather
unimpressive. Fortunately, a new storm tower was exploding to our WSW, back near
Roff and the southwest corner of Pontotoc County. This was a very easy
intercept: several miles back to Ada and south a ways to get in front of the
updraft base. The time was about 7:30 p.m. Just as we jumped onto U.S. Highway
377/State Route 99 from Highway 3, on the southeast side of Ada, Martin spotted
a tornado on the ground to the WSW.
This funnel was steeply angled to the ground, wide at the top, narrow at the
bottom, rather brief, and approximately six miles distant. The subsequent lull
in tornadic activity allowed us to move south a couple of miles-----out of some
light rain and directly east of the updraft base. The storm was heading
eastward, directly towards our location, about halfway between Ada and
Fittstown. At our new filming site a good lowering formed, and a slender funnel
cloud snaked earthward along the side of the wall cloud. This one lasted a
couple of minutes, and the condensation funnel came tantalizingly close to the
ground----perhaps 80 percent of the way down from the updraft base. Funnel No.
2 dissipated, but soon another very slender funnel was doing just about the same
thing. It also tried hard to touch down, but could not quite make it. The
backlighting was excellent during this time, but light rain pestered us. It
appeared that a new cell that was just southwest of us was causing the unwelcome
rain.

The area of rotation seemed to weaken as it moved closely to our northwest,
perhaps because of the influence of the new development to its southwest. We
scampered south and east through Harden City, and a new, larger wall cloud took
shape to our north. An impressive and well-backlit wall cloud...or should I
call it a very large funnel cloud??!!... loomed just east of Stonewall. It
looked to be about halfway to the ground, but again we never saw any effects on
the ground. We followed the storm into Coal County, but it seemed to become a
little more linear and HP-ish as it moved north of Coalgate. We set up tripods
north of Cairo, hoping for a nice lightning show as the cell moved away at dusk,
but lightning was practically absent, and the storm weakened.
I don't know why the first Roff cell had such a hard time, as it was a
tail-end Charlie. However, perhaps its effects aided the tornado formation on
the second Roff cell, which trekked eastward on a path just south of the
previous one. Miles logged = 419"
May 21: Mon – Day 11 (TT Day
6) - Non Chase Day Visit to NWS FTW:
The entire Plains region would be
completely shut down from any storm activity for at least a couple of days, or
more! Today (Monday) the Tempest Tour gang visited the FTW (Ft Worth, TX) NWS
office for a tour arranged by Martin Lisius. After that we began our trek
westward. Tonight we would stay in MAF (Midland-Odessa), TX. Tomorrow we would
continue further west, possibly to visit Carlsbad Caverns or White Sands, NM.
We felt the first moisture return would occur in this area from the GOM (Gulf Of
Mexico) by mid/late week. The southern Plains would continue under a NW flow
aloft, with a SE low level and surface flow (known as upslope flow) from the
Gulf. These patterns can be very good for severe storms coming off the High
Plains . It was a long shot, but it was all we could shoot.
The highlight of the day occurred at dinner
while dining at Joe Allens BBQ in Abilene, TX, which was one of the
recommendations from the TESSA guide. The place wasn’t much to look it, but it
sported a fantastic menu of ribs and steaks with all the trimmings. The food
was great and the prices were very reasonable. Joe kept a sharp eye on things
too! 460 miles.
May 22: Tue – Day 12 (TT Day
7) - Dust Devil Festival:
This was the second non-chase day
in a row, AND we lost one tourist! RJ decided to visit his brother in CO since
the pattern looked rather slow for the next couple of days. We visited the
Midland Petroleum museum in the morning. I didn't take my camera for the
outdoor equipment tour since I was there before. What a mistake! This caused
me to miss the most fantastic white tube dust devil any of us had ever seen.
This thing was huge and extended hundreds of feet into the clear blue sky!
Countless more dust devils were encountered on our trek northward to Amarillo.
We ate at the Big Texan and later went to Bary Nusz’s house along with Matt
Crowther and Betsy Abrahms for a mini video festival. Miles logged – 350
May 23: Wed – Day 13 (TT Day
8) - Eastern OK Thunder Bust:
Well, we got suckered into SC OK
anyway. Bill and I both agreed that if this had been are last shot of chasing
with the tourists, we would have gone for a somewhat marginal area of severe
storms in SC or Eastern OK. A call from Martin as we were on our way for the
Edwards Plateau region (which held a small promise of supercells, if everything
went just right) prompted us to head for OK anyway. The SPC had issued a MCD
(Mesoscale Convective Discussion) for a region I had looked at closely earlier
in the morning...so we thought lets give it a try. We followed an area of
agitated cumulus clouds along a windshift line for a couple of hours...right up
until sunset, but nothing happened. Well, except a couple of severe storms well
off to our east that were elevated (high bases) and racing along at nearly 50
MPH. We had a semi-decent photo op at sunset near Rt 7 and I-35 in the Arbuckle
Mountain region of SC OK. The storms waited until after dark.

We spent the night in Arlington, TX (Dallas-Ft Worth area) in a Baymont Hotel
(Martin lives and runs his business from near there)--in fact it's right across
the street from Six Flags and the Convention Center. We had some problems with
some of the vans wiring and communication equipment, I think we fixed most of
it, but Martin wanted to make sure in the morning. Thursday we woke up early
and tried to pick a forecast target, possibly somewhere around Austin - San
Angelo or further west. So far we had had 5 excellent chase days in a row, then
2 days with absolutely no storms to chase, and 1 day (today) with only a poor
chase potential at best. I hoped the next two days would be good ones for the
tourists to remember. We're even starting to all watch for "cow's circling" a
sure sign that there will be big storms--according to Terry, aka "BUG MAN",
since he has now been permanently assigned to windshield cleaning duty by all of
us (and he loves it!). Miles logged: 410
May 24: Thu – Day 14 (TT Day
9) - South to the Border Chase!
Today was the
6th day out of 9 that Bill Reid, Tempest Tours and myself found ourselves
photographing storms that featured either a SEV or TOR warning. The storms we
found today in Real and Edwards County TX were simply spectacular! After getting
a late start Thursday morning in Arlington, TX we headed down I-35 thinking
initiation of storms looked likely in a triangle bounded by Junction to
Fredericksburg to Hondo...and back to Junction.
We crossed the wind shift line somewhere
just north of Austin (I believe) and were pleased to be getting dp readings in
the high 60's and southeasterly winds. At this point the decision was made to
head further south to SAT (San Antonio) before heading westbound. We wanted to
be certain we would be able to have storms coming to us, rather than playing
"catch-up". We were just on the west side of SAT when we received a call from
Martin Lisius that storms had initiated about 60 - 80 miles to our west. I
believe one cell was near Junction at that time (around 5:40 PM). A few minutes
later we could see the distant anvils from these storms as we blasted west (NW)
on I-10, but new convection was rapidly organizing between the distant anvils
and us. In less than 20 minutes one small, but intense updraft displayed a nice
anvil and began developing a mammatus field. It was time to get off I-10, and
head south and west in order to stay to the southeast of this developing storm.
I believe we
exited on RT 16 (Kerrville).

More bases came into view from storms that were apparently back building to the
NW as we entered Real County. We had an almost a continuous show to the NW as
storm bases tended to organize nicely from time to time, some with a nice RFB to
their SW and developing rain shafts to the north with imbedded CG's. As we
drove thru the town of Rocksprings in Edwards County the tornado sirens were
sounding while some of the curious inhabitants were milling about looking up at
the sky. We were not able to pick up NWS radio at this time, but later learned
that there was a TVS with this storm. We were able to see very little rotation
in the cloud base, but there were signs of a clear slot trying to take shape
from our film point just west of town. We continued on 377 enjoying some of the
most colorfully lit storm bases, rain curtains, and CG's that I have ever seen,
definitely calendar material. Unfortunately, the trees and hilltops only
allowed us a rare unobstructed glimpse of this spectacle, and the expanding rain
core was fast on our heels. We were able to make one last photo stop near Carta
Valley just as the base structure developed a semi-circular multi-tiered shelf
cloud look which took on a pretty orange/pink glow to our west and a dark
blue/gray color with intense bluish white CG's to our NE. It was at this time
(8:04) that another TVS was issued for this cell. We were all flying around like
gnats trying to capture it all on film before the gust front blasted us...it was
wild!
We finished up the chase along RT 277 near Loma Alta filming a few anvil
crawlers...what a fun chase, AND my most southern chase ever! We stayed in Del
Rio for the night and looked forward to more action to our NW on Friday. Miles
logged at 514.
May 25: Fri - Day 15 (TT Day
10 – Final) Edwards Plateau Bustola:
We hung around the area from Ozona, TX to Eldorado, TX for hours waiting for
storms to form along the convergence boundary. We were right where we should
have been, but the storms never initiated. The risk of severe looked good, but
there just was not enough moisture until after dark. We met up with Dave Fogel
and crew, Amos Magliocco, and a bunch of other chasers, so at least we didn’t
bust alone! We had to get the tourists back to the base hotel in OKC, which
meant we had a long drive with nothing to show for it. We arrived back at the
base hotel at 4:30 AM totally exhausted. 540 miles logged.

May 26: Sat - Day 16 (TT Day
11 – Bonus) - Chase to Post—Texas:
Today (Saturday) Bill Reid & I along with a few hold-outs from the Tempest Tour
group decided to head west from OKC in hopes of actually seeing some storms,
unlike the big bustola near Eldorado, TX on Friday. We were initially thinking
somewhere around CDS (Childress, TX), but a data stop near Texola around 1330
CDT convinced us we needed to move a little further west. A few miles west on
I-40 we could clearly see a persistent updraft tower to our SSW. This appeared
to be the only game in town so we exited south near McClean (Rt 273 I believe)
and had a great view of this storm as a large anvil quickly formed followed by
several stair stepped flanking line towers back to the west.
We stopped briefly to study this storm near Silverton and to ascertain if there
was anything else really going on...there wasn't. We got a call from Steve
Sponsler (around 1830 PM) who was near Floydada and to the south of this storm,
we weren't really that impressed at this point but felt the potential was still
there as the storm moved into deeper moisture further to the east. We were also
getting reports of another storm going severe further to our SW near LBB that
might have an even better potential (I believe this is the one that was later
reported to have produced a tornado).
Anyway, we knew we were on the wrong side of the storm and time was running out,
so after another hour or so of pursuit it was time to end the chase. Prior to
that, however, we were given several photogenic views of this storms
northwestern updraft towers and later its western flank main updraft tower,
complete with a pure white hail core that exhibited a bright hailbow and nearby
rainbow simultaneously at one point! We also drove through one area with
red/orange blowing dust below the blue sky to our south and the white updraft
towers to our east, which was rather dramatic. We then lingered just South of
Post until after Sunset enjoying the ever changing colors of the departing storm
towers and extensive mammatus field, very pretty! Miles 450.

May 27: Sun – Day 17 Final Day – The SW Kansas Haboob:
When I went to bed last night I had a pretty good idea that I
would be chasing in SW Kansas on Sunday. I could not find anything to change
that notion when I checked data after I woke up (SW KS had a Moderate Risk for
severe issued by the
SPC), or later still at a data stop in Perryton, TX. I thought
storms may initiate on a Ulysses to Hugoton line by 4:00 PM, so I drifted around
in Seward County to the east of this area between 3:30 and 4:00. It was at that
time that I heard the first severe warnings for storms firing to my north in NW
Finney County. I contemplated intercepting these 30
MPH SE moving storms, but decided to hold my ground and stick
with my initial plan, especially since the north storms would likely line out
quickly.
Right on cue, a decent looking tower went up to my west in Stevens County. On my
approach I could see that this storm was rather high based, and was showing
signs of splitting. The left split soon shot northward and died. The right
split moved ESE slowly and had an explosive updraft tower leading up to an
extremely elongated anvil being blown off well to the SE. Unfortunately, the
base was very disorganized and remained quite high. After about 40 minutes, I
abandoned this cell and headed NE on RT 56 to just north of Moscow, KS. It was
at this location that I saw the most incredible outflow beast I have ever
witnessed! To my SW I could see a very pronounced dust foot under a blue sky
that was racing well ahead of the shelf cloud.
The other end of the gust front was directly opposite to my NE and exhibited a
light brown dust foot that extended almost to the base of the turbulent shelf
cloud. I barely got my cameras back in the truck before being blasted by
blinding dust and gusts to 61
MPH. For over
10 minutes I experienced sustained winds between 43 and 56 MPH.

After the show was over and all that dust cleared out I could see a new and
massive updraft tower back to my SW where I had just come from..."where DID that
come from"! I blasted back south on RT 56 and sure enough, a severe warning was
issued for this storm which was now located in Morton County, near Rolla. It
looked real promising for a while, but just like it's earlier
cousin, the base was very high. By the time I got west of Hugoton, this storm
was history and all that was left was the line of storms to my South and East
moving into the OK PH. All in all it was a fun chase and I got to experience
something I had not seen before, but it was not the isolated rotating storm I
was hoping to find. Ended the chase day (and chase vacation) in Great Bend,
KS. Miles logged: 495.

May 28: Mon – Day 18
(Memorial Day) - Travel Day:
Traveled from Great Bend, KS to
Richmond, IN from 0830 CDT to 2330 EDT for a total of 803 miles. This was
painful since I was turning my back on a slight risk of severe for the western
TX Panhandle region.
May 29: Tue – Day 19 Final
Travel Day:
Traveled from Richmond, IN to home from about
0800 EDT to 1700 EDT for a total of 497 miles. This was even more painful since
this was an even better day in the TX Panhandle, which produced some of the most
photogenic storms that were ever witnessed, as claimed by experienced chasers
with 10 or more years under their belt!
As usual, the pattern for the southern and
central Plains looks to be excellent for the next 7 to 10 days!!!
Some Interesting Details:
Total Miles Logged w/Tempest Tours:
4797
Total Miles Logged on my Own: 4285
Total Miles Logged for Trip One: 9082
Average Miles per Day:
478
Total Days on the Road:
19
Total Days in Chase Mode:
10
Total Days Severe Storms Intercepted:
8 (6 with Tempest Tours)
Earliest to Bed:
1:00 AM
Latest to
Bed: 4:30 AM
Average Time out of Bed:
8:15 AM
Highest Gas Price Paid: $1.89 per
gallon in Ohio
|