3/23/07 REPORTS: NM, TX, OK, KS, CO

[Tony Laubach]

COMPLETE MARCH 23, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!

Took the local day-before-the-day chase with Jon Van de Grift and Jennifer Brindley here in Northeastern Colorado and were rewarded for our patience as we got on a storm shortly after 3pm which moved off the Palmer Divide and slowly trekked north and east towards Fort Morgan. After nearly bailing on it a couple times, we finally watched it move into the higher dew air and quickly go severe over Fort Morgan. By this time, dark had fallen, but we were greeted with a great light show and incredible structure which quickly made the trip worth-while. All this was basically to position ourselves for Saturday's setup. We met with Mike Umscheid in Deer Trail and chased around with him today!

COMPLETE MARCH 23, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!

COMPLETE MARCH 23, 2007 STORM CHASE LOG HERE!

 

[Jay McCoy]

I will post a full report tomorrow but a quick summation. I, Kanani, And Bill Turner chased the tornado warned storm in SE New Mexico that went through crossroads and up through Rosevelt and Curry counties and ended up hitting Clovis. We had to backtrack numerous times due to limited roads but finally got in the right spot at the right time about 2 miles east of Arch, NM on hwy 746 just before 8:30pm where it dropped 3 tornados simultaniously. 1 small cone, 1 banana shaped, and 1 large multiple vortex. All 3 were backlit with lightning and a number of powerflashes from each. Looking west they were at 11:30, 1:00, and the wedge at 3:00 in relation to our position. All maybe a mile or less away. We had to backtrack once again and didnt get close to it again until near Farwell due east of Clovis. As we pulled in to Farwell for a quick splash of gas the sirens were going off and we were getting reports from Jason Boggs of a large tornado striking Clovis at that moment. By then it was well after dark and the whole system was rapidly coming at us so we decided to head NE on hwy 60 and call it a night.

Hopefully the video turns out. The only way we could see them was the lightning and powerflashes.

****Edit*** I ran into a couple of chasers in a white vehicle with a mesonet on top west of Bledsoe on NM hwy 262 that I had met before but I coulnt think of your names to save my life. If you read this let me know your names. I was in the white explorer with the lights. After the wall moved north you went west and I backtracked east to try and keep up with it. ****

 

[Jason Boggs]

Short report here. Like Jay said, I saw a large wedge tornado east of Portales with multiple power flashes. Here is a video link to the power flashes. I will try to upload the tornado video later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZCNjioF0TI

 

[Simon Brewer]

Solo chase in SE New Mexico: 2 tornadoes north of Lovington, got in bad possition and missed one or two on my storm, but had a great time. Favorite part of the chase was when the 'Lovington' storm was in 'LP-Mode'; absolutely gorgeous!

Simon

 

[Jim Bishop]

I left Work/Houston at 8:30am and gunnned it to extreme Eastern New Mexico. I missed the tornadoes Simon and Reed got by about 10-30min! Actually, after speaking with Simon last night, I now know that I saw the funnel stage of the last tornado way of to my northwest as I crossed into New Mexico, but I didn't get to my north road option in time to see the tornado. Ran into Simon and Aaron northeast of Tatum, NM. The storm did get better organized before dark and really wrapped up, showing a nice meso, beaver's tail and spectactular lightning. Stopped for the night in Lubbock.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I headed out from Wichita Falls about 11am and headed for the Lubbock area hoping storms would move into or eventually form in the Northern Part of the moderate risk. I was surprised as many were of the storms firing North of AMA but I was also a little upset storms had formed further West than I had hoped. I finally decided in order to see anything at all Id have to book it toward the cell that was producing tornadoes which moved into the Crossroads NM area. This perfect isolated storm jsut did not want to cross over into Texas at all. I finall caught the storm near Crossroads as it was putting down a rather impressive stovepipe type tornado under a nicely rotating wall cloud. As I got closer wanting to better my view the tornado dissipated quickly and all I could film was some low contrast video. I did watch the wall cloud change or morph into a numerber of scary looking things for awhile tho. I finally headed home from Dora NM and back to Wichita Falls. Ill post pics video and all that good stuff later this weekend perhaps. A tornado in March in New Mexico...I never thought I myself would have believed it. Lets hope nature has more storms left for April and May.
Again there was problems with chasers parking in the road again. I wont mention whom they were. I know the side of the road way muddy...but thats why you find a dry mud free place to pull over. I know we all wanted to see the tornado but the spotter and I who were coming down the road 60mph hate surprises. New Mexico should install some shoulders tho thats for sure.

 

[Eugene Thieszen]

Walt Gish, Eric Sipes and I left Cordell around noon headed for an initial target on the NM border west of Lubbock. At Plainview we headed west toward Portales as cells fired along the front range, initially heading toward the cell coming N from near Roswell. When it began to disintegrate we instead chose to go South from Portales on 206 to meet the cell coming N from south of Tatum. Saw three relatively brief touchdowns looking to the W along SR 125 between 6:30 and 6:40 CDT. Then later on after dark saw what we thought were three tornados around 8:15 - 8:30 ESE of Portales.

Link to chase account and vid captures: http://www.geocities.com/genet_99/wxtreme_2007_031.htm

 

[edward oneal]

Quick chase south of Dodge City got off work after 5:30PM headed south to severe warned storm near Minneola lots of hail dime to nickel size covering US 283 snowplows had to be called out to clear roadway.

 

[Reed Timmer]

Here is a link to the video clip from yesterday in NM...the last stovepipe shown in the video was actually the first tornado seen about 20 mi north of Lovington. THere's also a radar image at approximately the same time...I believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0wQdRcgSoI

 

[BrandonWhittington]

Went after the supercell that was increasing in intensity over in Moore County, TX. Intercepted it around the Stratford area and chased it all the way past Turpin. Video stills below are in order from the time I saw them. Congrats to all the NM chasers...

 

[Jay McCoy]

Then later on after dark saw what we thought were three tornados around 8:15 - 8:30 ESE of Portales.

I can confirm that. That would be the 3 tornados we caught just east of Arch which is ESE of Portales on hwy 746 (NM hwy88). Arch is maybe 10-12 miles SE of Portales. Read my report for more info on them.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Here are some video stills when the tornado was south of Clovis near Cameo.

HERE ARE SOME DAMAGE SHOTS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF CLOVIS:

HERE IS A VIDEO CLIP OF THE POWER FLASHES ALONG WITH THE WEDGE TORNADO:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=b3_8AcIh0NA

 

[Dal Archer]

Wow! Congrats to all. (Reed, you and Joel got some great footage once again!)

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

I started the day with no plans of chasing, so I actually got a full nights sleep before this one. After seeing the models that mourning I was convinced enough to move south from Borger to Amarillo and make a decision from there. I was able to talk my friend Andrew into going after his plans for the evening got cancelled. We went SW and ended up in Muleshoe, got internet and notice the storms SW of us in NM. We vetured futher SW till we got the north side of Lovington, NM where we met up with the first storm to cross our paths. The storm intensified rapidily dropping a few small funnels followed by a large lowering just west of Lovington. As the storm moved north of the city, the structure got better every minute. It then dropped the first tornado near Tatum, NM, the largest tornado of the afternoon that we saw. After going through Tatum we took a road NE out of town (state highway 125) figuring the storm had made a right turn more to the east at this point, but it didn't. It cycled up and down over the next 30 minutes dropping a decent needle and then a small rope to our west. Our road took us a good ways east of the storm till we got into the TX panhandle again. We found a northbound road and got back in range just before dark. Structure of this storm was still amazing, but it only dropped one more funnel that we saw NW of the Bledsoe, TX area. We stayed with this storm up to Rogers and lost good visibility and broke of the chase due to a lacking of road options.

As we began to venture home, about a mile into TX we came across another chaser who got stuck on the worst muddy road I have ever seen. While trying to flag down other vehicles to get enough rope to try and pull out the SUV out, one guy who stopped told us he didnt have any rope but said he was trying to get back to his house, because it had been hit by a tornado. This was the first I had heard of any damage of the day, but would not be the last. After failing to get enough rope, we went to Muleshoe for gas and then turned back into the storms to go to Clovis to drop off our new passenger at a hotel so he could get someone to tow him out in the mourning. We had no clue Clovis had no power. Clovis was a mess, to say the least. He was able to get a hotel even though they had no power. We then ventured futher into Clovis, to find out that everyone in town driving around trying to find damage. Every street had an inch to over a foot of water flowing down it and it was still raining. After seeing a destroyed house and trees everywhere, we called it quits for the day and returned to Amarillo. Then, this mourning I came across 3 snapped powerlines north of Panhandle, TX. I figured they were the result of straight line winds last night.

2 for 3 this year on chases, with 5 tornadoes. Starting to make up for the 0 for 20+ for the past 2 years.

Here are a couple photos:

damage in Clovis

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSvQFtnLxg

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Ive added some pics of the Crossroads area wall cloud as well as some lightning shots from Near Dora. I will post some video later on youtube and you can find that link by going to http://www.texhomastormchasers.com and you can see the pics by looking under the profile pics at http://www.myspace.com/texhomastormchasers