John Farley
Supporter
Fifteen years ago today, on December 23, 1996, I had my first tornado intercept near Evansville, IL, southeast of St. Louis. Anyone else on this list who intercepted their first tornado in December? Nothing is ever typical about my storm chases, LOL.
It was a chase full of rookie mistakes, and I nearly got intercepted BY the tornado instead of the other way around, but I had just enough of a combination of luck and knowledge to get in the right area then avoid getting munched. I observed the beginning stages of the tornado, then lost it in the rain, lost track of what direction I was going, and ended up going through the town just a block or two ahead of the tornado. One interesting feature of this tornado was that it downed numerous very large trees, but just a short distance away left Christmas decorations untouched.
The tornado was associated with an HP supercell embedded in a squall line. It was rated F1 and damaged several houses and destroyed Evansville's bowling alley. Here are a couple pictures:
The report, on my old SIUE page, is still oneline:
http://www.siue.edu/~jfarley/chased23.htm
It oozes of inexperience, but does not lack for excitement or enthusiasm. BTW, the girlfriend I mention dropping off at the airport before the chase is now my wife or more than 14 years.
It was a chase full of rookie mistakes, and I nearly got intercepted BY the tornado instead of the other way around, but I had just enough of a combination of luck and knowledge to get in the right area then avoid getting munched. I observed the beginning stages of the tornado, then lost it in the rain, lost track of what direction I was going, and ended up going through the town just a block or two ahead of the tornado. One interesting feature of this tornado was that it downed numerous very large trees, but just a short distance away left Christmas decorations untouched.
The tornado was associated with an HP supercell embedded in a squall line. It was rated F1 and damaged several houses and destroyed Evansville's bowling alley. Here are a couple pictures:
The report, on my old SIUE page, is still oneline:
http://www.siue.edu/~jfarley/chased23.htm
It oozes of inexperience, but does not lack for excitement or enthusiasm. BTW, the girlfriend I mention dropping off at the airport before the chase is now my wife or more than 14 years.
