2012-4-3 REPORTS: TX

[Shane Adams]

I gambled that Monday would be the better day, which meant I was committed to work on Tuesday. I decided to just throw myself into work, and not worry about the weather (impossible to do both for me). I never even knew what was unfolding until my boss walked up and said "Just finish this last install and take off. I know you're dying." I was like "huh?" He'd been watching radar looking for rain (which adversely affects our work) and saw the storm in S Ft Worth. So around 12:30pm, I made a mad dash back west from Grand Prairie to North Richland Hills, picked up Bridget and our gear, then raced back south and east, already behind everything. We were fortunate enough to catch the last few minutes of a tornado in east Ft Worth, as we were rounding the 100-ft eastbound overpass at the 820/I-30 interchange. 30 was at a stand still as we were on the bridge, which is what allowed us to get this shot. Unfortunately, traffic, wrecks, buildings, trees, roads, and whatever else you can think of that a metropolitan area offers killed our ability to move swiftly eastward, and we were never able to get completely in front of anything. We did manage to fight our way to Greenville, as a reported large and violent tornado was just southwest. We dove southeast on TX69, noting inflow bands flowing in from both the northeast and southeast, meeting inside a dark, rainy core. The base came into view as we drove southeast, but at the same time, the line of storms south and west of our supercell caught up to it, absorbed it, and either wrapped the tornado in rain or destroyed it, because we never saw anything but a lowered base, which quickly became obscured by rain as the line crashed the storm. That was all she wrote for us. Considering I was never planning to chase, was still at work while the first tornado was down, and had to drive in the opposite direction for a half hour before starting our chase way behind, I'm thankful we got anything.

Here's a clip from what we saw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WlByH5LAtQ (sensitive ears beware; R-rated)

 

[James Clarke]

I posted some tornado pictures from my chase yesterday in DFW area on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62089649@N07/?saved=1

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Much like Shane I had committed to Monday and had to work Tuesday so I didn't bother to throw my gear in the car, but upon seeing the gorgeous structure this storm took on I decided to shoot down 35W right before it had become tor warned. After a quick core punch on 35 and a few new dents from the golf ball sized hail, I came upon a few cars (and accompanying emergency vehicles) that had been thrown off the road just a minute or two prior to my arrival. Immediately to the east of 35 in Burleson I observed the tornado in multivortex form as it passed over a hill and out of sight. The next 10-15 minutes were spent navigating traffic and back roads to get to HWY 287 where I caught a brief glimpse of the tornado but was stopped by Police blocking all traffic on the access roads and the highway. Needless to say this put an early end to my pursuit of the storm with nothing to show for it.

Congrats to everyone who got video of these tornadoes, quite a surprise setup considering the prospects the day before.

 

[Bret Hendrickson]

What a day!

After dabbling around with the line of storms near Weatherford, I noticed the supercell forming out ahead of the main line near the Joshua area. I jetted east and was able to punch the core of the storm near the I-20/287 interchange. I parked on the on-ramp to 287 and watched as the tornado crossed the highway about a 1/2 mile to my south. Watch video >

After the tornado passed, I drove back to I-20 and headed east where I saw the tornado rope out over Arlington.


I stayed on the storm for the next 45 minutes or so but couldn't get into position because of the traffic. Decided to call it a day.

Glad to hear that there were no fatalities from any of the tornadoes.

 

[Tim Marshall]

Was up-close and personal with the Kennedale, TX tornado on business 287. Video and pictures are posted on my FB page.