3/26/09 REPORTS: TX

[Connor McCrorey]

Great chase day for me! I got my first daytime tornado of the year, and in fact my first since I started chasing last year! Also got a few nice new dents in the truck. Here's the short video of the tornado, and even though you can't quite tell, yes, it is on the ground

EDIT: Sorry, here's the watermarked version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL8g4gjAGEM

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Original target was pretty much near Decatur (west of GLE-DTO line). I was concerned about the limited extent (spatially) of the instability, but I figured it would be worth a shot driving down to at least ADM to check things out. I left OUN around 2:30 pm, and I arrived at Courtney approx 1/2 mile N of the Red River (NE of Nocona, TX) not long after 5 pm. Eventually, a storm was able to sustain itself near Nocona (to become the first GLE supercell)... Watched the storm from just ENE of Nocona and sampled 2" hail (measured - I forgot to include that in the SpotterNet report) at that location. While driving E then S to Saint Jo, I apparently missed the tornado. The base didn't look too impressive when I stayed at the 1st location to sample the hail, which is why I opted to sample the hail vs. to move to stay ahead of the storm. *shrug*

Followed that 1st GLE supercell to I35... It had a nearly ground-scraping wall cloud (and even just ambient cloud base / LCL) at times (not surprising given downstream dewpoint depressions), but I didn't see any ground circulations. The updraft structure of this supercell as it neared GLE was awesome. There was at least one prominent inflow band that arced around the SE through NE part of the updraft, and the updraft itself had a sort of "barrel" appearance. I took a bunch of pics from near the GLE airport, and I haven't had time to process them much. I did quickly convert a RAW to JPG to show some of the structure. It's a shame we didn't have more daylight with which to watch this beauty.

A 2nd supercell developed and intensified W of the 1st GLE supercell, and I headed W to get into better position to view it. Ended up stopping S of Myra, TX, to observe:

Over the next hour, I followed the storm eastward as it went over GLE. Called it quits when the storm looked to weaken as it passed over I35.

Overall, it was a pretty nice chase, particularly given the time of year. I was happy that I didn't commit all the way to Decatur or Weatherford (where the instability corridor was much wider), as I knew I wanted to play the area near the warm front. In addition, there wasn't much of anything in the way of Cu between SEP and Henrietta. It was nice to grab a bite to eat with Amos and co in GLE as well!

 

[Simon Brewer]

Juston Drake and I documented a bowl/cone shaped tornado south of Highway 82 and west (~5 miles) of Saint Jo, TX at ~7:15 to 7:30 pm CDT. Tornadic wind speeds/debris were visible at the surface for ~2 minutes. We had to reposition several hundred meters east of our original viewing location to let the circulation (no longer on the ground at that time) cross Highway 82.

Link to Report Webpage:

http://www.stormgasm.com/3-26-09/3-26-09.htm

YouTube Video Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_vMAfIAntI

A few video stills:

 

[sdienst]

I started off the day watching towers struggle around the Nocona area. I was able to stay under the dominant Nocana storm for much of its life sampling 1-2" hail east of Nocona on FM1956. This storm went through all kinds of apparent splits and structure changes before it began to get its act together. We got to Capps Corner and shot south on 677 towards Hwy 82. On the way we viewed a very low base with a small RFD cut developing. Looking back to the west a couple miles north of St Jo, I stopped to view the developing tornado that was reported near Bonita.

 

[Jeff House]

Chasing solo, I saw a brief tornado northwest of Muenster, TX about 8:15 pm. The tornado was backlit with some lightning, but I did not get any photos.

I was up around Gainseville, TX by 5:30 watching thunderstorms struggle as they crossed the warm front into the cool sector. By 6:00 towers were looking great off to the west but radar echos indicated continued challenges. Around 7:00 structure improved greatly with inflow aloft quite apparent from nearly due east. I sat at a picnic area on US-82, between St Jo and Nocona, for several minutes observing a very low rotating wall cloud. Looked like it was trying with a few fingers lowering, but I did not see much else. Somehow I missed the tornado reported around 7:30. It must have been closer to the forward flank while I was eyeing the new updraft. With the inflow from the due east instead of southeast, perhaps I should have been in a different position.

By 8:00 I was near Muenster and drove north on First St. Ran into a few other chasers from Oklahoma but we were all too busy to say much beyond storm observations. The wall cloud was impressive, large, and low. When the cool northwest wind came in I was about to give up. Then a few minutes later winds returned to southeast. About the same time a funnel cloud lowered for a couple minutes, during which a brief 15-30 second touchdown occurred. Thankfully lightning promoted a decent view. Then the northwest wind was back so I returned to US-82 to move east and follow it but never saw an encore.

All in all it was a nice storm chase close to home, DFW. Ended the chase around 9:00 when it crossed I-35.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

3/26/09 chase

Me & Jeremy Wilson of holytornado.com were on the the cellsin Montague county. The 1st cell of the day went off toward the North and died out. We then shot south at the new impressive looking updrafts and around Muenster all heck broke loose. I stayed back for more structure shots and driving around the SW side of the cell around it while Jeremy ended up getting right next to the meso and brief tornado near Muenster. I followed in behind this cell as it went just North of the Airport on the West side of Gainesville. Coming into the airport I was seeing power flashes as Jeremy was reporting a tornado. The last mean cell of the day was coming down 82 towards us so we went back south a tad and sat just south of Myra after dark watching the beast move off into Gainesville.
Was a great chase after a Target of Bowie Texas. One of the darkest storms ive seen right before sunset very close to the meso. Forgot my still camera and GPS but I was able to grab some good video. Jeremy also got some great video which may be seen on the local news this afternoon if your in the DFW area.

THIS WEEKS CHASE VIDS WILL BE UP BY END OF WEEKEND AT HOLYTORNADO.COM

 

[Brandon Lawson]

For a day that had many questions, it turned out to be pretty fun. Brett Roberts and I met up with Sam Dienst with the intention of tagging along in my car, but ended up riding with Kiel Ortega instead, since he had 2 open seats. We took I35 south with an original target of Gainesville. About halfway down, the 20z sounding out of the DFW office came out showing a nasty inversion. We laughed at how bad it looked and joked about turning around, but kept on.

Shortly after this, Kiel noticed some cu bubbling up on visible satellite just ahead of the dryline and south of the river around St Jo, TX, so we turned west. Watched a cell go up and sustain itself for a bit, before scooting off to the north into a cooler enviornment, and dying off. A couple more updrafts later, and a healthier looking cell popped up.

We followed this storm as it slowly lumbered east, noting how crisp the blue sky was against the developing anvil clouds. With low expectations, we ventured under the core multiple times to sample some small hail. As the storm grew in strength, we were gifted with ping pong ball size to golf ball size hail. After sitting in the hail for 5-10 minutes, we dropped south to get ahead of what might have been a right split from the storm we were on. We arrived just in time to see the developing tornado that Simon posted pics of. Didn't last long, but was a refreshing change for me, since I hadn't seen a legitimate tornado since January 7, 2008.

Also, I wanted to thank Kiel for letting us ride with him. I had a good time.

 

[Aaron Estman]

Headed out with not to high hopes. Steve Miller convinced me to come out, and for the most part I'm glad I did.

Started out just off the highway in Gainsville, as the first storm fired, we followed it into southern oklahoma, where it died out. Another storm fired to the south of it and quickly gained strength. We headed back into Texas, coming in Muenster. As we are going through the town, what has to happen? Tornado reports. Missed my opportunity to see the tornado because going through a town.

On the other hand, saw some quarter to golfball sized hail, which put some nice dents (aka battle scars) in my hood.

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaqcDD0SJ84

 

[Steve Miller TX]

I finally got around to uploading my video from this day. I didn't capture the initial tornado due west of St. Jo because of dirty tape head hosing the first 30 seconds of video and making calls to 911. But, I did catch a second funnel and *possible* brief spinup under it which developed immediately after the first tornado....same circulation.

Then, you'll see an interesting night time capture of *something*. I'm thinking it might have been a tornado as the visual appearence was even better before I could stop and roll video. Then, a special clip of a blaring tornado siren for the audio junkies out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2bmske7oqM

 

[Kevin Rider]

I also finally got around to editing my video from the 26th. I was not able to get video of the initial tornado because we were driving through St. Jo. I did see the funnel at its lowest point which I assume is when it touched down but the ground view was obstructed due to driving through town. As soon as Cat Taylor and I got east of St. Jo we pulled over and I started rolling the video. The beginning of the video is when the funnel was going back up. A few seconds into the video is the second funnel that I saw, which is what I believe Steve Miller has on his video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfnZAMlX0kg