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3/4/2004 REPORTS: Southern Plains

mrobinson

post em here cause I know people were out in force today. Keep in mind this area is for people who were out chasing today.. Second hand reports belong in the Forcast thread.. Thanks
 
We were in Gainsville at 10am. Gassed up, received a phone call about a High Risk further NW of us, so we went for it. Had zero information all day, as nowcasters/scanner reports/etc etc were all MIA all day.

Thanks to Steve Miller (of TUL fame) for the one small bit of nowcast info we received all day, just before the line blew through and ended our day near Wayne, OK.

Was pretty pissed upon seeing all those red dots reported in NW TX. I think with some info I might have made a better decision, but going visual, and everything looking gray and socked in all over, we decided to just play the High Risk and be closer to home. I don't know that this was a mistake on a day like this when it was difficult anyay, but it sure didn't help.

Report: maybe 50mph wind gust west of Wayne, OK that sent a large plastic trash can airborne just in front of our vehicle.....and I missed getting it on video. This day sucked.
 
HIGH RISK - NO RETURN

The first chase of the new year was a short one for Carson and I. We headed
out I-20 to Baird, TX this morning and watched an HP go across Abilene at
noon. Then gassed up the car just as the electrical power went out and
encountered 50+ knot winds from the south as the shelf cloud blew by. The strong winds
toppled several semi-trucks (doubles) on the westbound side of I-20 (at mile
markers 310, 311, and 373). The overturned truck at mile marker 373 blocked
both westbound lanes. We headed back east on I-20 and encountered white-out
conditions and heavy rain several times with occasional pea-size hail back to
Weatherford. Heard about the rain wrapped meso that moved from Parker Co through
Wise and extreme western Denton County. But, we were too far away to see the
reported tornadoes. Several spotters reported tornadoes on the ground from
near Boyd to Krum from 2:13 to 2:25 pm. Not sure if these were confirmed. Actually, I doubt there were really tornadoes today. Straight line winds can topple an 18 wheeler or power lines, take the roof off a mobile home, or tear sheet metal off a barn. Regardless, Gene Rhoden's target pick of Decatur was correct. TM
 
Headed out about 10:30 after reading the Day1 high risk. I was targeting the area between SPS and DFW last night, and that didn't really change this morning. We headed south on I-35 towards Ardmore, where we were planning on stopping for more info. I had major problems with my mobile internet setup, so we could not get any internet info while on the road. Got a few quick calls to some students back in Norman, however. We got to ADM, after driving through numerous 'blue sky' areas (yes, the sun was out!). In ADM, we headed west on Hwy 70. We knew little of the thunderstorms ahead of us, and I only knew that things were linear. I was able to get sporadic reception of the Gainesville NWR, which was saying how the line was starting to break up into dominant supercells. So, excited, we continued westward, instead of dropping south like originally kinda-planned. Well, the line hit us east of Waurika, where we measured winds near 50mph. We then went north and east and south and east... LOL... All trying to get ahead of this thing to at least give us a chance of getting some tornadic action in pre-frontal supercells. Well, we got to ADM agian and realized that it wasn't going to happen. So, ate and Mazzio's there and headed back to Norman...

This is one of those situations where I can see why the SPC would issue a High and PDS, because the shear was extreme (0-1km shear vectors over 50kts in some places of OK!!!). However, the instability just wasn't high enough. Additionally, and I think more importantly, this goes to show how important convective mode is to tornado potential. Had we had discrete supercells instead of a linear system, there would have been, in my opinion, a couple of long-track, significant tornadoes, as NWS and SPC mentioned. However, both the lack of significant instability (although it was greater than models had progged) and the linear mode squashed any tornadic chances in OK. It was nice to see the 18z FWD sounding with 0-3k helicity >600 m2/s2, not to mention the >65-70kt 0-6k bulk shear (largely unidirectional speed shear, however). Oh well, it is still winter! And I certainly can't pass up a high risk day like today, even if odds were against us...

Jeff Snyder
KC0HJX
www.TornadoCentral.com
 
Well, I was able to get off work at 145pm and at the time I thought that I would have plenty of time to see some cells fire up ahead of the squall line just southeast of Norman down around Ada. So, Jason and I busted tail down to Purcell when we realized that the dry slot had pretty much been plugged and the line was moving at nearly 70mph now. So, basically the line had caught up to us before we could even get far enough in front of it to catch any discrete cells out ahead. Needless to say, those discrete cells never materialized anyway, but to say this was a fast moving line is an understatement, lol. So, to sum it all up, today ended up being a bust, but it was nice to get out in the field and get a look at some new equipment Jason had purchased.
 
I got a brief 30 min wall cloud with rotation in one of the storms (in comanche county) (thanks to great nowcasting) before it ran off and left me. A challenging chase but I must admit, one more high risk day with storms moving 70 mph so help me...Ok I'll stop there. I'm going to enjoy any slow moving storms from now on :)
 
We were at Eastland on I20 when we first saw the parker county meso that wrapped a clear slot and totally wrapped in rain in less than one minute as the line quickly overtook us. There appeared to be two very brief low contrast funnels viewed during the time it was wrapping up, I need to go back over the video when I get home to look it over more closely (still in FTW).

Needless to say all attempts at getting back ahead of the line were fruitless as we wound up heading east out of Mineral Wells were we pulled up to what we first thought was a truck blown over, or people hiding under the railroad bridge crossing over the road. The road was blocked and on further investigation the underpass under the bridge was completely blocked by tornadic debris. There were numerous wires all over the road, some wrapped up around the truck (the one I first thought was turned over but wasn't). The wires I later learned were the old telegraph wires that ran down the railroad tracks. Interviewed the truck driver who said he saw swirling trees and wire in air as he approached, then the wires caught on a westbound truck who then drug the wires into him. There was a fair amount of debris/mud splashed up under the girders/supports of the overpass similar to what you often see when a tornado passes over them.

After the fire dept arrived and cleared the debris I interviewed one of them that live just down the road. Said he saw the rotation and followed it til it disappeared in the rain and then he came across the debris.

After giving up the chase and deciding to see just how far we could find tree damage, to make a long story short we spent the next 4 hours zigzagging the countryside north and south of that and found what appears to have been either a skipped or continuous small tornado damage path averaging about 50 yards wide in almost a straight line north. The path was readily evident through a narrow swath of trees and we did later find several structures consisting of outbuildings, a home, several sheet metal barns and one large steel beam structure that was heavily damaged. After showing the video to the NWS guys tonight in FTW they think it might possibly be F1 MAYBE low end F2 damage. They are going out to do surveys tomorrow but wasn't sure if they would have all the personnel they need to look at all the events that need looking at.

I certainly am no damage path expert, but I saw several things that indicates to me this was definitely a compact fast moving tornado and not straight line wind damage.

Will post pics either late Friday night or Saturday when I get back home.
 
Forgot to mention two other eye witness accounts, one said he saw rotating clouds above but no funnel but there was rotating trees in the air below it. Another stated they saw their barn (which the main post beams were set in 2 feet of concrete in the ground) lift completely up and rotate about half way before smashing into the ground totally destroying it. The concrete was still intact on the end of the support beams. Also stated they had a boat that had completely disappeared into the trees somewhere.
 
[Broken External Image]:http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/v38/mrobinson68135/thumb.gif Niiiice! looking forward to the pictures.

I'm curious what other areas if any did you survey for damage other than the Parker County one.
Click to expand...

We heard reports of some damage in Springtown and tried to go look there. Found a one block area in town that on 51 just north of 199 the police and blocked off. We circled the entire area there and saw nothing more than minor tree damage and in that block off area there were some power poles down and maybe some roof damage from where we could see from. Can't speculate on the cause other than it seemed to be very localized. We heard other reports from that town but didnt see any ourselves.
 
Southern plains

We left Norman about 10:30 A.M. and went south on I-35. We could not decide whether to go to Lawton or Ardmore, so we decided to go to Velma, Okahoma (my hometown). I went to my parents house where we got radar data. The squal line passed about 2ish. The mesonet about 3 miles from where we were located reported 58 mph winds. It was really neat to watch the gust front accompanied by sheets of rain. My mom called my cell and she was hearing reports of houses with roofs blown off in Velma. I went to investigate the possible hear-say and found out she was right. The winds apparently snapped a telephone pole and stadium light pole at the football field. Directly northeast of there, two houses had their roofs completely blown off. One of the roofs somehow slid underneath a car. I thought it was possible tornado damage because the winds that I whitnessed was not even close to being that damaging. I talked to some people who said they heard a humming sound that did not sound like a typical wind. It was probably straight-line winds, because the path of the destruction was in a straight path and no tornados were reported in the area. The SPC has it reported as straight line winds, but it was an interesting site and makes for a nice debate.
 
Prob was straight line winds in Velma, but how that roof ended up under the car and such was strange. Also draw a line further northeast and a few mobile homes were destroyed on that same line (around Claud). I'll put some pics up of the damage in a couple of hours as soon as I get home.
 
3/4/04 NORTH TEXAS CHASE REPORT

Chased the Bow Echo storm that hammered Wichita Falls area and then chased line as far as possible to near Sunset Texas. Full chase report & pics can be foundt at http://www.texhomastormchasers.com/page10.html.

More will be added to this page over next few days including Damage reports & Pics.

This will all be on this one webpage probbaly until the next big event then it will move to the 2004 accounts page.

Jason A.C. Brock
 
Jason Politte and I intercepted the fast-moving squall line along I-30 near Greenville, TX. The highlight arrived around 4pm when the sky turned ominously green while a shelf associated with a line echo wave pattern approached from the west. As the line neared, a rain-wrapped meso became noticeable to the northwest with a strong RFD punching around and quickly occluding the area of rotation.

After filming for three minutes, we blasted east on I-30 but were brutally overtaken by the squall. We tried for several miles to pull ahead but to no avail due to hydroplaning and the ~70 m.p.h. winds battering the area. Several structures were reported damaged north of Greenville where we observed the line echo wave pattern and embedded meso. Video capture courtesy of Jason Politte.

Scott Blair
http://www.targetarea.net/

549129b83f09e50a19660ec05b924bf0.jpg
 
That scene looks identical to a rain-wrapped meso Matt Sellers and I witnessed NW of Walters, OK on 5-4-01. We watched a feature just like this one, then moved north to pace it. Moments later, a large tornado became visible (already mature) through the wrapping rain curtains. From this picture, the tornado (as was with our 5-4-01 event) would've been in the far left side of the picture, or just off to the left. Since damage was reported, I'm curious if there was a tornado that never revealed itself to you guys.
 
That scene looks identical to a rain-wrapped meso Matt Sellers and I witnessed NW of Walters, OK on 5-4-01. We watched a feature just like this one, then moved north to pace it. Moments later, a large tornado became visible (already mature) through the wrapping rain curtains. From this picture, the tornado (as was with our 5-4-01 event) would've been in the far left side of the picture, or just off to the left. Since damage was reported, I'm curious if there was a tornado that never revealed itself to you guys.
Click to expand...

Yeah, at the time, we were wondering if the rain curtains might part just enough to reveal a tornado, but the mesocyclone was so heavily wrapped, it was just impossible to tell whether or not it was producing.

Jason
http://www.onthefront.ws/
 
David,
Great work! I did find it slightly confusing how you labeled the first SPC Day1 and Torn Prob graphics on there, though. You caption them by writing that they are the 1pm outlook. True, they are the 13z Day, which is 1pm UTC/Z time, but I think almost everyone uses 24-hour time when dealing with UTC. The first time I saw it, I thought you meant the 1pm Local time update (which doesn't exist, hehe). OBviously I know what you mean, and technically it is correct, but I just feel it were help clarify things if you either wrote 13Z or 7am CST ... :)

Jeff
 
David,
Great work! I did find it slightly confusing how you labeled the first SPC Day1 and Torn Prob graphics on there, though. You caption them by writing that they are the 1pm outlook. True, they are the 13z Day, which is 1pm UTC/Z time, but I think almost everyone uses 24-hour time when dealing with UTC. The first time I saw it, I thought you meant the 1pm Local time update (which doesn't exist, hehe). OBviously I know what you mean, and technically it is correct, but I just feel it were help clarify things if you either wrote 13Z or 7am CST ... :)

Jeff
Click to expand...

Thanks for noticing that... I was doing that stuff at 4 am!! :lol: I was seeing 13:00 and thinking 1pm :? I just fixed that! :roll:
 
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