3/4/2004 REPORTS: Southern Plains

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.

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

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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