04/23/04 REPORTS OK TX TN MO

[Larry J. Kosch]

This Thread is being started due to NOW reports from storm chasers that are currently tracking storms and tornadoes. Post your chase reports here. 8) LJK

P.S. Slight correction of Thread heading (Date, Report, Locations) LJK.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Ok, first let me apologize to the storm chaser community as it seems I am extremely bad luck right now. The Southern OK storm held together another 30 mins after I arrived then it was all outflow from there. Sorry about that guys, I know it was my bad luck that changed things for the worst.

Now 3 days in a row and 3 supercells cut off by a storm and the organized meso and good looking storm gone. My luck is not good at this point :cry: <-Yes that smilie is crying

Full report soon, once I get through the 21st video

 

[Jason Montano]

Yeah Chris I feel the same way. I got to Duncan right before the rain shaft did and got around the RFB just East of Duncan on hwy 7. I followed the storm for awhile on hwy 7. It had a nice wall cloud and beavers tail but slow broad rotation. That seems to have been the case for the majority of the storms this whole week. I dont know about the storm before that, I heard reports of a tornado but have not yet confirmed. Was anyone on the storm from the beginning?

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Well, I didn't like today from the beginning. With shear vectors along the front in OK, the storms were likely to go linear rather quickly. Additionally, ~700mb is quite weak. Again, like Weds., mid-level flow was quite weak, which tends to favor HP formation. As it seems, the cell south of Lawton was HP before gusting out...

Whatever the case, I was just sitting around, and decided to look at radar. Lo and behold, I saw a monster supercell south of Lawton. Well, I gathered my stuff quickly, had to drop off my gf in Moore, then headed south on I-35 with a friend. we went west on Hwy29 through Elmore City and then south on 76. We then skipped west on Hwy 7 towards Duncan. West of Duncan, we took a po-dunk road south as we couldnt' decide if we wanted to pay attn to Duncan area or more towards Comanche area. Well, we stopped halfway between the two to as we heard signficant rotation reported near Duncan. It was semi-impressive for short while too... As the storm approached, we made our way back to Hwy7 and east towards Velma. It was very obvious at this time that it was becoming outflow dominant. We experienced some strong winds (~45mph) west of Velma. Other than that, nothing very impressive.

Again, I think our shear profiles needed some help. This storm, which started as an excellent supercell, likely fell victim to weakness in the flow around 700mb (which was likely only near 5-10kts storm-relative), and the alignment of the shear vector parallel to the front.

This kind of seems to be recurrent thus far this year -- we just seem to be missing one thing each time. Earlier this week it was surface moisture (~60 tds), and since then it's been a general weakness in storm-relative winds at some level. I'm still quite surprised, as I don't think northern TX has had a single real tornado event thus far this year, and it's already almost May. Hopefully as we get into May (or mid-late next week if the Gulf doesn't get wiped by the currently-developing system) we can get into a more typical synoptically-favorable tornado pattern.

P.S. -- I was reminded why I don't like to do "warning-chases". When I don't like the situation, and decide not to chase, but then chase based on a tornado warning, they often tend to be short-lived (thus the reason why I chose not to chase to begin with usually)... Oh well... Couldn't deny that sw OK storm based on the very nice radar appearance.

Chris: LOL Sure I accidentally hit the N key... hmm... err... lol

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Jeff please tell me you were hitting the N key accidently? Velna? VELMA, why mispell my hometown incorrectly?! :wink: j/k bud, just giving you a hard time

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Did anyone get any pics or video of the Tornado reported east of Duncan? I was on the storm for most of its lifecycle from Walters on, but I did miss a few minutes repositioning to Highway 7 going east to Velma. So I might've missed the Tornado then, if there was one.

 

[Shane Adams]

Headed out around 12:45pm, targeting the area south of SPS. As we approached the TX border, we were hearing about the multiple storms firing along the boundary in N Texas. Fearing the realtively weak shear would cause multiple storms to fire and compete (thus dis-allowing any discrete cells to mature), I ignored the storm moving across the river into southwestern Tillman county. (I had said to Jo before we left, "If I mention anything other than chasing along the boundary today, slap me." She shoulda slapped me...

After hearing spotter reports of "suspicious lowerings" and the radar guy talking about a developing notch, we stopped in Holiday to call Dwain. He told me the Tillman CO storm was along the boundary/dryline intersection, but that there was also an isolated cell near Haskell. I figured the Haskell storm had a better chance of staying isolated, so we bailed and kept going south. A few minutes later, the spotter reported that the "mean-looking cloud" had vanished, so I was thinking we'd made the right decision.

About 2 minutes after that, I hear over the scanner: "BREAK - TORNADO."

Long story short, the original boundary storm went nuts along the river while our storm conveniently lined out just as we reached it (although it reportedly produced a tornado earlier).

The last chapter of a horrid, disappointing week. Four days, four chases, all had tornadoes, and we saw ZERO. The bonus is I all but broke myself doing it, lol. So now it's back to work for a few weeks to catch back up, then hope that things are good later on in May/June.

This is now officially "The Black Week of April." This week will live forever in Shane Adams lore as the single-most disappointing/costly week in history. Yea.............. :arrow:

 

[Jeff Wear]

Like others I was wanting to blow this day off as well. But when I saw that big supercell on radar between LAW and SPS I couldn't help myself. Got to cell around Ratliff City where I saw a bunch of other chasers, spotters, media, etc. Cell was looking very outflowish at this point and fizzled pretty rapidly after that. Heard about new stuff going up in Marshall and Johnston Counties and briefly entertained thoughts of going after that but by this time there was only about an hour of daylight left and I was still a good ways west of it so I turned around and went back.

 

[Wayne Miller]

Like many others, underestimated start time of show. Nonetheless was in position to intercept Haskell storm near Throckmorton. Although HPish and somewhat linear at that time, the storm made couple of attempts to regroup;however, each met with outflow kill soon. A third significant last gasp came near Olney; which coincided with about the time the line had broken. Nice wall cloud formed along with briefly exhibiting rapid upward scud movement into base. So, while no tornado was not bad chase as some nice photos of storm structure.

8) Meso madness will soon arrive (optimistic thoughts).

 

[Chad Ringley]

Dropped southwest on I-44 shortly after tornado watch was issued...and like many others, I was already planning a route on intercepting the storm in Haskell County, because I thought that was going to be the show...

However, thanks to a great nowcaster heads up, we were alerted to the consolidating cells in Tillman County, and since we were in good intercept position, headed east on Hwy 70 just north of the Red River and toward Grandfield.

Got to the wall cloud, with moderate rotation, about 3 E of Grandfield on Hwy 70. Shane, perhaps this will clear up the spotter reports you heard of "tornado on the ground"...

Basically, the meso was really close to the ground. There was some condensation near the ground and dust was being kicked up below the wall cloud, and for a second, we had a funnel above the dust. However, the rotation on the ground was quite slow, so....I dunno. I've went back and forth on it all night. I did report this to the NWS in OUN to see if they wanted to verify the warning by taking a look at our video. They may do that early this week, we'll see. I very seriously doubt OUN will verify this report 1 S Grandfield.

In addition, to note, a small landspout formed to the south and moved away from the meso. It's hard to determine if any of this was a "tornado", but it was really nothing of substance...just some dirt being kicked around at low rates of speed. Of course, I thought at that point that the storm was ready to go bonkers as it went NE, and after I heard how good the storm looked on radar, I was pretty optimistic about this being the first really long-tracked tornadic supercell of this 3-day setup. However, I was for the most part wrong again. Wall cloud was pretty menacing for most of it's lifecycle.

Hopefully will have some vidcaps/video/still images soon....but nothing to get too excited over. 3 days, 6 supercells, and really, no real tornadoes. Yak!

 

[Melissa Moon]

Originally posted by Chris_Sanner
Did anyone get any pics or video of the Tornado reported east of Duncan? I was on the storm for most of its lifecycle from Walters on, but I did miss a few minutes repositioning to Highway 7 going east to Velma. So I might've missed the Tornado then, if there was one.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this storm ever actually produced a tornado. I'm just hearing this through the grapevine so I am probably wrong, but I heard that all the stuff that was reported was actually your typical "sheriff-nados".

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Originally posted by Melissa Moon+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Melissa Moon)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Chris_Sanner

Did anyone get any pics or video of the Tornado reported east of Duncan? I was on the storm for most of its lifecycle from Walters on, but I did miss a few minutes repositioning to Highway 7 going east to Velma. So I might've missed the Tornado then, if there was one.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this storm ever actually produced a tornado. I'm just hearing this through the grapevine so I am probably wrong, but I heard that all the stuff that was reported was actually your typical "sheriff-nados".[/b]

I was pretty sure that was the case, but couldn't say for sure since I was off the storm for 10 mins in between Comanche and Duncan.

 

[Jay McCoy]

I and my partners for the day Bill Turner and Jason Boggs targeted an area WSW of Wichita Falls near Benjamin. We left from Amarillo and headed down 287 to Quanah and dropped south on hwy 6. About the time we got to Crowell he started gettting reports of storms building SW of Aspermont heading NE towards the Haskell area. At this time we were still North of the warm air and had north winds.

WE took a small farm to market (cant remember the #) that cut SE from rochester to just west of Haskell. We did have to come in through the backside of this storm but ran into nothing but heavy rain and pea size hail. As we got to the intersection of 380 and that FM road we could clearly see this large menacing wall cloud just a few miles to our SW. We headed east towards Haskell and stopped about 1 1/2 miles west of the town. Sonn as we got out to take a look and set up our tripods to get some video it dropped a small ttornado. it was only down maybe 15-20 seconds and never did have a full condensation funnel. I never even had time to turn my camera on so I missed it. Jason may have it but We got back so late I havent confirmed he does yet. I am guessing this is the same one that was reported 2 miles south of Haskell on SPC.We then drove through Haskell to about 2 miles east so we wouldnt get caught in a traffic jam with this thing moving through town.

As we set up again just east the sirens started going off in Haskell. The wall cloud was really getting cranked up with good vertical motion in the scud and pretty rapid rotation. We just kept moving east a few miles at a time staying just ahead of the wallcloud. We ran into (as usual) David Drummond and chased together most the rest of the day. The storm staryed to loose its supercell characteristics and developed a shelf cloud and became outflow dominant. We had a number of good gustnados close by including one that went right doen the fence line beside us and then onto the road up ahead where some "local boys" had come out to see the chasers. They had no idea this wasnt a tornado and went scrambling for their truck thinking they were going to get sucked up. That video alone was worth the entire trip :lol: I also has a gustnado right after that about 100 yards away that looked to be multiple vortex. never seen that before. We moved east again a few miles ahead of the outflow and stopped again about 5 miles west of Throckmorton where we witnessed a large gustnado just North of the road moving SE. A spotter and chaser reported this as a tornado (check SPC) but this was definitely a gustnado like the ones we had seen right before and not a tornado. it was under the shelf cloud in outflow winds and there was no rotation above it at all so sorry guys but that report was inaccurate.

David then discovered he was dropping oil. He had hit some debris in the road (a rock he thinks) and put a hole in his oil pan so he went ahead on into Throckmorton for repairs. This storm was starting to line out and we had reports of another storm going up SW near Anson so we dropped south on 283 and headed for Albany and then west on 180 where David caught back up to us. By the time we got to this storm it had lost its hook but was dropping large hail in Anson. We were now getting tv coverage from Abilene and could see a storm near Sweetwater that had some rotation in it. We decided to play this storm as it was all alone south of the line. As usual by the time we got to it it had split and gusted out but was trying to rebuild SE of Sweetwater. We dropped south on 70 and then came back up NE on 277 towards Abilene.

We came up on a wreck where a pickup had spun and backed into a rock cliff but law enforcement was there so we kept going. A few minutes later we came up on a SUV that had hydroplaned and spun up onto an embankment and through a few shrubs. Nobody was there yet (just happened) and since I and david are both first repsonders we stopped to help but the guy was not hurt. An ambulance responding to the first wreck came by and stopped at this one thinking it was their wreck but I told them about the one further up so they called their dispatch to let them know about this one and asked me to stay for traffic control until DPS arrived since I have red/blue lights. After responders got on scene we drove on into Abilene and decided the chase was over and to eat and go home (alot of flooding in Abilene). In all we drove 740 miles and caught 1 tornado, a few great gustnadoes, and some funny video. David will be updating his page with a report soon I am sure also with pics.

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by Melissa Moon+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Melissa Moon)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Chris_Sanner

Did anyone get any pics or video of the Tornado reported east of Duncan? I was on the storm for most of its lifecycle from Walters on, but I did miss a few minutes repositioning to Highway 7 going east to Velma. So I might've missed the Tornado then, if there was one.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this storm ever actually produced a tornado. I'm just hearing this through the grapevine so I am probably wrong, but I heard that all the stuff that was reported was actually your typical "sheriff-nados".[/b]

The tornado event I heard live coverage of on the scanner was 4 west of Grandfield, not 1 south. In fact, the guy said it had begun to weaken and dissipate soon after it passed south of town. He was west of Grandfield throughout the duration, and described it as a large dust bowl under a rotating wallcloud, and commenetd a minute or so later about multiple vortices and increasing rotation on the ground. I saw a video of this on KWTV and it looked like a tornado to me. There was never a condensation funnel, but that is moot.

As far as the Duncan thing, never heard a word until the local news, where they had interviewed a guy who's truck had "been picked up on one side" byt the supposed tornado. Gary England commented that there had been "several small tornadoes along the storm front," which is simply a dumb-downed way to explain to 150,000 viewers that "these were actually gustandoes." I've noticed that local TV mets prefer to catagorize gustnadoes as "weak tornadoes" to their audience; it's just easier than trying to explain the differences, and it helps ratings.

But to make my point, based on the live reorts I heard and the video I saw, I'd call the thing west of Grandfield a tornado - without question. WX5OUN (Mike) didn't seem the least bit skeptic while issuing the tornado warning moments later.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I was starting to feel desperate to hear some firsthand report off of the Lawton cell yesterday when it was at it's peak ... see now that Roger Hill came through (can't believe I ever doubted) ... part of his report:

Caught the supercell that crossed into the Grandfield, OK area as it developed just east of Vernon, TX. This BEAST developed a HUGE bowl shaped wall cloud just south of the Red river that morphed into a rather large, but fairly weak multivortex tornado as it crossed the river. We stayed with this monster through its demise well east of Walter. I was on it when the spotternado reports came in for a tornado 4 northeast of Grandfield. It was a LARGE RFD dirt plume kicking up and being injested into the updraft, NO tornado, I beg to differ with those reports. There were also several large gustnadoes at this point on the outflow.

Guess we'll be able to see the video at the end of the season, along with the other 947 incredible events he chased.