2011-04-26 REPORTS: TX/AR/LA/OK/MS/KY

[Connor McCrorey]

We were on the first storm to fire near the triple point west of Ennis, TX, all day. After coming close several times, we finally filmed this tornado from ~1 mile away near Eustace! The rotation in this cone was very intense, but it never managed to do anything more than kick up a little but of dust at the ground. We then saw some very significant and widespread RFD damage, and never saw any more tornadoes. One of many great chases so far this year! Chased with Brandon Sullivan, Donovan Gruner, David Goines, and Dalton Poteet.

 

[Tim Marshall]

race chased 5 supercells today. Sampled wrapped circulations at Italy, Corsicana, Mabank, Mexia, and Groesbeck, TX but no tornadoes. Saw tornado damage in downtown Groesbeck from an earlier storm that had a giant barrel-shaped, striated updraft shown to us by a local who had taken video of it.

 

[Doug Drace]

Myself and Chase Partner Kavin Sconce had an incredible chase day!!! Fortunately we decided to head south from Greenville where we originally positioned for the day and ended up chasing the prolific tornado producers in Henderson/Kaufman Counties. We rolled into Mabank a few minutes before the wallcloud really organized and were treated to a spectacular tornado which started as a cone, the evolved into a tall menacing tornado, which was very intense as it unfortunately went through a residential area on the west side of 175 and damaged several homes/buildings. The tornado then went multi-vortex for a couple minutes as it crossed 175. Once it was on the east side of the highway it nearly became a wedge before it occluded. We were within 2 city blocks of the tornado through most of its lifecycle and had debris flying around us as it crossed the road in front of us. Fortunately emergency crews were immediately on the scene, so we let them do their jobs and moved on to track a gorgous wallcloud west of Kemp and another near Eustace. Amazing day, up close and personal with an intense tornado!

***UPDATE: FULL LENGTH HD VIDEO OF TORNADO LIFECYCLE NOW ADDED:
We do realize we pronounced May-Bank wrong...to late to change that now...never chased that area before yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FirstIntercept1972?feature=mhum

We appreciate all the compliments on our chases lately....Best to Everyone!

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Same story as Tim except I couldn't even get on storms until after 5pm due to work. Ended up playing around in some rain wrapped mess south of Corsicana before the line converged and left us facing a core punch with almost no daylight. Opted to turn around and head for home.

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

Grats Doug... Alittle different story today but same results . Got a late start on the first storm so I waited in Waxahachie. I met this guy from ch 33 (talking) and missed the Palmer sighting. Core punched down I-45 to Angus. Storm structure with this cell was a lot better as it was heading towards Corsicana. Again some pea size hail and maybe a wall cloud. I have to go back and look at the video to confirm. Short video clip http://www.youtube.com/user/dfwchaser#p/u/0/LYf-sl7CKjc

 

[weskranz]

After getting a late start, I was leaving the DFW area and saw the first storm fire off the triple-point so I headed south and spent the afternoon east of Ennis. It was a crazy afternoon jogging between tornado-warned cells. I got 2 strong funnels that didn't quite deliver east of Purtis Creek State Park and finally got a nice tornado near Eustace. I ended my day near Trinidad on 31. It was pitch black with incredibly poor visibility even though we had about 40 minutes of daylight left. The cell had strong rotation with a nice inflow band but the heavy rains and darkness made me wait for better conditions. I'll look forward to chasing west of I35 in May as the tree-lined roads get a little old.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Link to My Video
There is some swearing in the video so don't watch it if you are easily offended. I've got to clean up my language.
Got on the initial triple point storm south of Dallas and stayed with it all afternoon. It produced one weak multiple vortex tornado and possibly two other weak tornadoes that we saw (can't confirm). We could have missed a mile wide wedge and never even known it though. The road networks were bad and the terrain was even worse. There were lots of hills and trees. The tornado wasn't all that impressive, but the thing that was really awesome about this chase was the sound of the multiple vortex tornado. It was one of the louder tornadoes I've heard, probably because we were right next to it. In the video you can hear the sound of the tornado really pick up when we finally jump in the car to get out of the way. That is not a comforting sound when you are that close. We were closer than I care to get on days that have high potential to produce strong tornadoes btw. We didn't have a lot of choice with the road options though. This was the kind of chase that will really make you appreciate the slow moving Kansas storms in May. All in all a good chase day.

 

[Jennifer Palmer]

Wes Carter and I met up at 7am CDT and headed towards our initial target of Corinth, MS. We examined the models, and saw we should move just a bit further west for our best potential before dark. We got to Holly Springs, MS, and saw some creepy abandoned buildings and took a few photos, because honestly.. we were beginning to think we were going to blue sky bust. The cap was strong above us. We headed a bit further west to Tunica, and an outlook upgrade was issued. We were in a HIGH risk! But after reading the text of the outlook, again... everything was supposed to start happening overnight.

Sitting at a gas station in Tunica, we saw a few discrete supercells pop up. The decision was made to cross the Mississippi and head over into Arkansas for our intercept. Just south of Haynes, AR, we approached a beautiful supercell. Classic with a beavertail... and we were rewarded with a wall cloud. We took some photos, and we were starting to think it was going to produce, so we repositioned and paralleled the storm on an East/West road for awhile... The the storm went HP and we lost sight of the wall cloud because every thing got all wrapped up in rain. That's when things got a bit hairy. The road kept winding in and out taking is close to the rotation. We were getting cored, thanks to a slow truck in front of us, but honestly, we both said later, if it hadn't been for that truck, things could have gotten ugly. Not long after that we found damage outside of West Memphis, AR. From that point, most of the way home, we kept struggling to stay out of the rotation. But finally, at 2:30 am... I made it back home to Ringgold.

Radar capture of the storm:

Wes's awesome panoramic shot!