05/05/09 Now:Tx

[Richard Dickson]

Looks like they chose not to extend the warning even though the last scan still showed 1.25" hail.

 

[Justin Teague]

Just spoke with Greg McLaughlin...he has a "crater" in his windshield and lost a sideview mirror in baseball to softball sized hail.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

That storm has acted about like one would expect with too much directional shear(eating too much of its own core on the ese sfc winds). Longevity and radar appearance reminds me quite a bit of April 7 last year...not far from there. If they don't do it really early they'd better be making a real hard turn or it's only a matter of time till they croak on themselves.

 

[Steve Miller]

Hans and I along with Ben Holcomb, managed to get in the same network of roads as those who got cored. There was no way around this incident, I assure you!
We have multiple hits to the windshield, considerable body damage and amazing video (I hate to admit). This was all streamed live so for those who got to see it, hope it was as insane for you as it was for us - although I'll bet it wasn't!
Hail made it to 3" in our location and was very dense in coverage. Most times hail that size is somewhat random. This was everywhere.
Video will be posted on my blog tomorrow PM.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Many of those caught in the core may have not done so intentionally. I received a call that there was a southbound bridge out in Breckenridge forcing chasers to go east into the core before being able to head south.

True... but if an NWS warning text even says the storm is producing 4"-5" hail, you have to -know- what you are getting yourself into by risking it.

I don't know what data coverage is out there, but with technology out there it is getting harder and harder to have an "oops". You know where the hail is, and if you put yourself in that core I just hope you have deep enough pockets to support your choice.

 

[Jeff Piotrowski]

New Storm Graham TX

New Radar echo NE of Graham TX

 

[Zac Goode]

Many of those caught in the core may have not done so intentionally. I received a call that there was a southbound bridge out in Breckenridge forcing chasers to go east into the core before being able to head south.

I took a unnamed rural road that parralled the core and the hook. I still got some golf balls though.I didnt get into the bigger stuff until 207 when i tired to run form the hook right into the core then turned back west and discovered the hook wasnt so bad!!!

Sorry for posting in the now thread...

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Looks like something's trying to pop up near Graham inside that tongue where the 700mb temps are below 10c. Will it survive? Likely not, but it's something to watch, at least.

 

[Greg McLaughlin]

True... but if an NWS warning text even says the storm is producing 4"-5" hail, you have to -know- what you are getting yourself into by risking it.

I don't know what data coverage is out there, but with technology out there it is getting harder and harder to have an "oops". You know where the hail is, and if you put yourself in that core I just hope you have deep enough pockets to support your choice.

That sounds good and all, but for me it was impossible to avoid. Just for the record, Sprint data coverage sucks east of Breckenridge and west of Dallas. I wasn't getting radar to update and the last hail report I had was for golfball size hail. To top it off, the road options were horrible and once we committed to the road we went on there was no turning back. It seemed like a good choice at the time, but it cost me a windshield. Fortunately for me it won't hurt my pocketbook too much to replace it. I can't find any fault for those chasers who got cored by this storm. I was there and I know what difficulties they faced while chasing this storm.

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Storm still gaining momentum in Jack Co. Anyone still up?

 

[Steve Miller]

Yeah, I think we might go take a look at it and possibly shoot some lightning. Last two scans have shown an upswing.

 

[matt patterson]

Anyone that might be traveling up I-35 North of Denton all the way to Pauls Valley needs to be aware of the very dense fog. Visiblity less than 1/8 mile in many locations

 

[Kris Hair]

That was some of the hardest hail I think I've ever encountered. I didn't get into the 4 - 5 inch variety like some did... I backtracked down 180 and headed south on 16 towards I-20. We did, however encounter 2-3 inch hail going that way. I've been in hail that big before with no damage, but I took some pretty big whelps out of this storm.

And for the naysayers, that say, "you should know" because of "technology"...

I can verify that cell coverage was absolutely horrible out there. And this storm went from a marginally severe cell at best to a monster in just a few minutes... To say someone "should have known better" is totally misguided and not true.

 

[Rich Thompson]

The large hail could be avoided, because I stayed out of it. Part of the reason was becoming aware of the bridge out on FM 717 before it became critical, so we decided to move east ahead of most of the other chasers and cut S through Strawn about 15 minutes ahead of the big hail (we got a few peas going through town in the eastern extent of the forward flank core). Was that luck? Maybe, but we didn't push it to the last second. I don't trust taking those secondary roads unless it's a sure tornado bet and I have some option to stay out of the baseballs. The downside of our strategy would have been missing a good view of the meso *if* it had produced a tornado well before I-20.

Another problem which hasn't been discussed may have been storm motion. I know most on here are aware that you have to rotate your frame of reference about 90 degrees clockwise from the "typical" newd moving supercell when dealing with yesterday's storm in TX. However, it seems far more people were willing to come in at the storm from the E and SE yesterday (partly because the roads) - this is loosely equivalent to approaching a newd moving storm from the N and NE. Given those directions of approach, as well as poor roads and data coverage (which many people place way too much faith in to get close, IMHO), it shouldn't be surprising that somebody got hammered in the core.

I've made my share of mistakes in the past, but none of them were truly unavoidable. My big hail encounters have always been a result of getting too aggressive with the road options compared to storm motion. If I only owned a tank, none of this would matter

Rich T.

 

[Shane Adams]

True... but if an NWS warning text even says the storm is producing 4"-5" hail, you have to -know- what you are getting yourself into by risking it.

I don't know what data coverage is out there, but with technology out there it is getting harder and harder to have an "oops". You know where the hail is, and if you put yourself in that core I just hope you have deep enough pockets to support your choice.

There's a difference between taking a risk and deliberately seeking out large hail. I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but when I drive the miles and spend the money to see a tornado, I'm not going to throw that opportunity away because I *might* get into some big hail. But because I'm willing to gamble doesn't mean it was "intentional" to get into hail. Being willing to risk the chance encounter of large hail was the intent. I might not make the right decision, or might make the right decision too late, but I trust myself enough out there to warrant the risk if I feel the situation works.

I'll say to you what I say to everyone who posts from the comfy chair at home: you weren't there, you don't know what the environment was like, and making split-second decisions in heavy rain, under mesos, on slippery muddy roads, and trying to avoid everyone else is a bit more difficult then your armchair analysis would lead one to believe. I seriously doubt you've much experience dealing with a yesterday type situation in Illinois.

I'm not crying on anyone's shoulder about getting slammed by tennis/baseballs, so I really don't need the "got what you deserved/you should know better" speech, especially from someone who watched it from a computer chair.