05/13/05 Reports: Southern Plains / TX

[David Schuttler]

After an unexpected delay on leaving Tulsa prevented me from heading to southwest Oklahoma. I decided to try the outflow boundry in the area of Enid and Stillwater. I made it to 412 and hwy 74 but not with enough time to get south of the storm southeast of Enid , without driving into it.Channel 9 had already showed a decent looking wallcloud and an inflow on their radar. I went back east on 412 to find another road to go south on without driving 15 miles back to I-35. I turned down a road about 4 miles east of 74 (6:30?)and made it about 2.5 miles south then my back end slid out to the edge of the road.STUCK
After spending about 2 hours trying to get out , it was time to concede to defeat ( should have done that after 15 minutes...lol) I did get to see the mass amounts of lightning after I walked up the road to get a cell phone signal, should have grabbed the camera , oh well.

Finally got it out saturday afternoon. Hats off to the owner and workers of Tim' Wrecker Service out of Enid.They went out of their way to take care of me that night and the next day.


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If you ever end up needing help out around Enid give Tim's Wrecker Service a call 580-894-TIMS

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Like half the country, I was on the HP beast near Benjamin, TX. Didn't see the tornado (was repositioning at the time), but the structure far out-weighed what ever wimpy tube it put down. Simply put, it was one large, amazing supercell. With wicked inflow and killer lightning, the storm kept everyone on their toes.


[Broken External Image]:http://www.convectionconnection.com/pano051305.jpg

Pictures:
http://www.convectionconnection.com/CHASE-051305/

Aaron

 

[Jeff Gammons]

Little time tonight but I was able to get a few images up from the tornadic supercell between Childress and Throckmorton, Texas.

Saw one low contrast tornado and another weak dusty one. Click below for a few images.
http://weathervine.com/plains/2005/plains_051205.html

Still working on my Plainsview, Tx storm pics as well.

JG

 

[Melanie Metz]

Here is a photo of the low contract tornado we saw on the TX storm I already logged. More photos will be up on the website when we return home. Nice photos everyone! It was a beutiful cell.

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Mel

 

[Tony Laubach]

http://www.tornadoeskick.com/log050513.html

I completed the May 13 log and you can view it using either of the links...

http://www.tornadoeskick.com/log050513.html

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I told Montano that I would put this up on Stormtrack after his Chicken Dance distracted me from a gorgeous CG. Thanks for the laugh, Jason!

 

[Nic Wilson]

FULL REPORT AND PICS: http://weather.ou.edu/~nwilson/chase7.html

Had a great time with Kenny Tapp and Aaron Kennedy chasing the most picturesque supercell I have ever seen. We missed the small tornadoes while we were repositioning, but captured some excellent photos of the structure and gust front. The road network definitely didn't help matters trying to reposition further south, but managed to be in a great spot for the arrival of the gust front just to the west of Throckmorton. I believe Amos, Eric Nguyen and Scott Currens were close by as well at that time. After 3 straight 12+ hour chase days it was nice to sleep most of the day Saturday haha...will we ever get to play a home chasing game in Oklahoma ever again???

 

[Jeff Snyder]

The final in a 3-part report from Rocky from May 11-13.

Originally posted by Rocky Rascovich
Finally, Friday the 13th...Rick and I rode with Hank Baker and Gene Rhoden...in short, another one of those \"few fries short of a happy meal\" days but still very rewarding...after a late start, we blazed west on I-40 to the Hwy 30 exit, we set up cameras about 10 mi. or so to the south around 1500cdt...I was flabergasted by the speed of which the updraft we were watching materialized from a multicell thundershower, to a supercell with an attendant wallcloud literally within 20min. Anvil to ground staccato bolts began to occur which precluded me from joining the rest of the guys from venturing outside the vehicle most of the time as I had no desire to be reduced to a blob of smoldering protoplasm.

Unfortunately, this storm became a P.O.S in short order, probably from anvil seeding from other updrafts..we vectored south after looking at the Barons XM radar that offered more hope just below the Tx. border south of Hollis, that got pretty adventurous as we crossed some rain soaked dirt roads in areas you did not want to break down in...we crossed a bridge with a 3 ton limit over the Red River and after a few minutes were treated to one spectacular LP/Classic supercell just to our west...this had to be some of the best structure I've seen in these parts since May'97. Still, it did not produce any visible funnels although rotation was quite evident at cloud base. The one thing we lacked on this day as you probably know was low level flow, both the 11th in Ks. and the 12th in TX. saw bountiful amounts of surface wind ..but not this day...highest wind was only 10-15kts from 150-180deg. Interesting observation...wind was at least 20-30kts earlier in the day across central OK. Once we got to Erick..winds were almost calm to very light west at 1500cdt. Anyway...we missed the stuff further south in Knox Co. we headed home where we were met with a much needed deluge back in Yukon at around 2130.

In conclusion...A couple of dusty forward flank tor's on Thurs. in Texas..but the real treat was just being out in the wide open enjoying the weather with like minded folks...I am pretty much sold on the Baron's XM threat net for next year..however this year, thankfully, I'm off to a good start with a new laptop, GPS and a Cingular data card...I'm most relieved that I won't be bugging people for data like before. Thanks to Hank Baker, Roger Hill, Dave Ewoldt for info on the 11th and 12th! Also, it was an absolute thrill to chase with Hank Baker and Gene Rhoden...Gene is truly one of the masterminds in responsible chasing...my hats off to him especially!

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

WEATHERCHASE.COM BACK ONLINE

REPOST: Website had problems last night so am reposting this. Both websites should be up and running now.

Robert Sternadel has his pics up now on his website with the May 12th and 13th events as well as some other. Amazing pic of the Truscott Texas area Tornado which was rain wrapped but amazingly some people were able to bring the contrast out and make soma pretty good pics out of a very rain wrapped nader.
http://www.weatherchase.com
Ill also have pics up later tonight at http://www.texhomastormchasers.com
Ill add some non altered vidcaps of the tornado so everyone can see how low contrast this baby was in person. This is one of the things that scares me about newbie chasers out alone. Monsters hiding in the shadows.
Jay

 

[Kurt Hulst]

Finally got this days report posted on the site

http://midwestchasers.com/2005/May/13.html


my favorite from the day

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[Blake Michaleski]

Little update in case anyone is interested.

I contacted WFO OUN regarding this tornado and inquired as to weather a damage survey was performed. They did not but they did say that based on photos and accounts from myself and other chasers that the tornado will go in storm data as an F0 or F1. Derek Deroche rode up in the area of gilliland and Truscott and did not see any sort of damage. The other photos with teh dust whirl are what let OUN go ahead and confirm this.


Also I have a friend who is a freakin GrlevelX genius and he hooked it up with some street level stuff.

enjoy.

According to the time stamp on my camera, the tornado was occuring during the 643 frame.

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