2013-05-15 REPORTS: TX

[jeremy wilson]

Ended up on the Clay/Wise county monster. Had a late start so we didn't intercept until it was north of Decatur on HWY 51. We witnessed a large cone emerge from the rain and nearly gobble us up. Also witnessed a multi-vortex a little further north on 51 with an insane amount of powerflashes under it. This tornado had some of the most crazy motion I've ever seen. I promise to post pics very soon, probably tomorrow. All in all a great backyard chase on a super marginal day.

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

Left Dallas around 4:00 p.m. Watched the first towers go up around Mineral Wells. I positioned myself (US281/SR254) on a hill looking due south into the town. Soon the storm became tornado warned. Time 6:26 p.m. After that it was HP mess trying to get south to intercept the other tornado warned storms. While driving south on SR171 via Cresson,Tx I encountered debris on the median and what looked a halfway funnel with the RFD soon pounding my car. The video taken US67/FM2331.
Watch video >

 

[R R Smith]

Our Tempest Tours chase group intercepted the Millsap Texas tornado yesterday afternoon. Led by Bill Reid, Brian Morganti and Chris Gullikson, we started out the day watching a storm go up near Anson, TX. It quickly croaked and we were left wondering what next. As we were trying to decide, we were drifting east. The storm towers going up to our east looked too good so we targeted a cell between Breckenridge and Mineral Wells, about 60 miles east along US 180. We rolled into Mineral Wells just as the hail core had departed, littering the town with baseball and a few softball sized hailstones. Bill elected to go southeast towards Millsap where a good looking mesocyclone was just southeast of town. There was no tornado yet. About a mile or so from Millsap, rapidly rotating rain curtains were circulating around a funnel cloud just to our south - no more than a mile away. Seconds later some debris was kicked up and we were in business! We were able to stay and watch in relative comfort, as the tornado actually moved slowly to the west or northwest.
See Bill's account here: http://stormbruiser.com/chase/
and Brian's here: http://www.stormeffects.com/recent_events.htm

 

[Robert S. Thompson]

We started near Abilene and crept a little east. Saw the towers exploding around 5 PM and decided to see if we could catch up with the storms. Somehow managed to get to Mineral Wells and as we were jetting down to I-20 we saw the Millsap tornado. Realized the southern storm was strengthening and saw the tornado signatures on radar as we went through Granbury, but blocked by rain shafts as darkness fell. Eventually saw the Cleburne tornado as it crossed US 67 but things were dark then. Storm had awesome structure. Then had to deal with torrential rain to get to Ft Worth.

A good chase day in terms of intercepts, but really saddened that evening once the reports started coming in.

Also another example of the randomness of chasing. Had we gotten there earlier we probably would have gotten all jumbled up along TX-171 or in Millsap and missed the second storm.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

We started this day, like many others, targeting the area north of Abilene. After the initial attempts at convection failed we noted the robust convection that had fired well east of our location and after some debate we headed east towards the Mineral Wells storm. Upon arrival in Mineral Wells we observed copious amounts of baseball-softball hail and resultant damage. We headed south toward the airport where we observed the old wall cloud/meso as it was winding down. It produced a couple of brief funnels but eventually fell apart so we found an E/W and eventually wound up face to face with the Millsap tornado.

After cresting that hill we quickly realized the tornado was moving N/NW back across the road so we had to quickly reposition as we were only ~200 yards to the west as it transitioned across the road. Due to this I wasn't able to snap any pictures from up close but my chase partner was shooting video which may eventually make it here. After the tornado roped out we made our way S/SE to Cleburne HWY where we observed the vault structure and large wedge tornado roughly 2-3 miles to our S/SE. As we neared Cleburne the storm turned violently left and we were forced to wait outside of the city on 67 as it passed/dissipated. All in all a very stressful night given the proximity of the storm to my house (20 miles NE of Granbury) and the fear of what could have been as we entered Cleburne. I was extremely thankful to see that the city was largely spared any significant damage, I wish the same could be said for Granbury.

 

[Shane Adams]

Here's my chase summary from this event:

http://www.passiontwist.com/51513chase.htm

 

[Julien Batard]

Two pic's of the Graham supercell...