Brandon Clement
EF4
LONG day of chasing. I checked in to a hotel in Grenada, Ms about 1:30Am and crashed about 2. I knew storms were going to go early so I was out the door at 7am. I was hoping to get some discrete cells going in the Ms Delta early then move East through the day until I found myself in Al. We hung around the I-55 corridor waiting for something to happen but it seems like everything went at once and nothing really exploded. Most of the storms took at least some linear nature and I knew it was going to be a crapfest so I decided to dive down towards I-20 and come out around Meridian. The winds at the surface were SW or just west of South all through Western and central Ms but they began backing nicely right at the Ms/Al line. As I was making my way down through the middle of BFE when a cell in Rankin County (just E of Jan) was tor warned and that particular cell had been looking pretty good since it formed back in La. I made my way down to intercept it in Scott County and just as I got to the storm and punched the core it died out. However, the cell had split and still was better than anything else. Instead of trying to chase it through a poor network of roads in the woods I decided to stay south of it on I-20. It became severe again about 30 minutes later and went tornadic just before crossing into Al. I-20 goes due E from Jackson to Meridian then it goes NE to Tuscaloosa, Al. I shot up 20 and caught it in Jena, Al (about 20 miles SW of Tuscaloosa). At this point it was showing great rotation but another storm that had formed just south began to merge. There were two wall clouds. The first was on the southern part of the storm that was merging and the second was the main rotation. I drove directly under the first wall and the second looked terrific but I could not see over the hills/trees and there were absolutely no roads going farther north. I followed it NE on 156 and until the storm was not as impressive and another cell had developed just behind it and was becoming severe quickly. Within 20 minutes the wxworx was showing a TVS in nearly the same area the first rotation died out. I still could not get into position due to the lack of roads and just stayed a few miles south until 156 turned NE and I was in perfect position. The only problem was the cell was looking less than impressive by this time.
I continued up to HWY 82 and then went East near the airport. The cell was farther back to the West and did not look good. At this point Taco Bell was calling my name and I pulled in the drive-thru and placed an order. After I ordered the next scan came in and it looked great on radar, the TVS popped back up and I was stuck in a drive-thru with 3 cars in front and 2 behind. By the time I get to the window I could see the hail shaft (was quite impressive) and it was bearing down on me hard. I pulled out of Taco Bell and shot back West on 82 because I could barely see a dry slot back off to the W. As I was making my way up 82 I could make out the corner of the wall as it was wrapped in the core and I was in big trouble. I quickly turned around and it became quite a race. I was getting hit with some small hail but could see just a few hundred yards behind me and there was a wall of hail/rain. I managed to stay ahead of it until we hit a two lane bridge and the cars in front of me decided to go 10mph because of some penny hail. Little did they know reports were coming in over the radio of a large tornado on the ground just 2 miles back. I finally got out to I-20 and made it east a few miles to a shopping center on top of a hill just south of the interstate. I pulled to the top of the hill and got a very nice view of the hail shaft, dry slot and a new wall that had formed. The wall was well organized with scuds dancing as it came over the hill about a mile to my NE when it was just shredded apart. It came right over the truck and I think the rear flank choked off the inflow because the temp dropped off 12 degrees in about a minute.
After this I had enough and figured if I could not see a tornado in hills, trees, bad roads and racing storms then adding the element of darkness would not help. I would not call it a wasted day but when your target is 150 miles from the nearest tornado warned storm it sure makes things tough.
I continued up to HWY 82 and then went East near the airport. The cell was farther back to the West and did not look good. At this point Taco Bell was calling my name and I pulled in the drive-thru and placed an order. After I ordered the next scan came in and it looked great on radar, the TVS popped back up and I was stuck in a drive-thru with 3 cars in front and 2 behind. By the time I get to the window I could see the hail shaft (was quite impressive) and it was bearing down on me hard. I pulled out of Taco Bell and shot back West on 82 because I could barely see a dry slot back off to the W. As I was making my way up 82 I could make out the corner of the wall as it was wrapped in the core and I was in big trouble. I quickly turned around and it became quite a race. I was getting hit with some small hail but could see just a few hundred yards behind me and there was a wall of hail/rain. I managed to stay ahead of it until we hit a two lane bridge and the cars in front of me decided to go 10mph because of some penny hail. Little did they know reports were coming in over the radio of a large tornado on the ground just 2 miles back. I finally got out to I-20 and made it east a few miles to a shopping center on top of a hill just south of the interstate. I pulled to the top of the hill and got a very nice view of the hail shaft, dry slot and a new wall that had formed. The wall was well organized with scuds dancing as it came over the hill about a mile to my NE when it was just shredded apart. It came right over the truck and I think the rear flank choked off the inflow because the temp dropped off 12 degrees in about a minute.
After this I had enough and figured if I could not see a tornado in hills, trees, bad roads and racing storms then adding the element of darkness would not help. I would not call it a wasted day but when your target is 150 miles from the nearest tornado warned storm it sure makes things tough.
