4/13/07 DISC: TX

[Bill Tabor]

Eugene Thieszen, saw your post in reports of wedge and find it very interesting. It's possible this was obscured to us from all the precip and hail in between us and the position of the tornado you mention. Our position at 2:44 was about 5 miles or so SW of Seymore on hwy 277. About this time we were viewing the large hail fall, wall clouds to our southeast, and very heavy baseball hail core to our east. We did observe the wall clouds and we saw rotating rain curtains. Seems your tornado would have been directly east and adjacent the wall clouds we were seeing. We were on the very edge of the threatnet shear marker at the time. We were stuck behind this thing the whole time with no decent way to get back in front quickly.

We'd love to see a short link to some of your video of the tornado if possible.

Did anyone have an opportunity to examine a damage track?

Congratulations to all of you that ended up catching this elusive wedge.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I was on 114 as the wedge passed over 114 to my due West ABOUT 1/4 mile away at most. One had to be in perfect position to see the thing. It appeared at first as tho strong inflow was pushing dirt off the fround then it was wrapping upward into the updraft as I watched a wall cloud to the SW. However a new wall cloud had formed closer to the precip core and when the tornado touched down it wrapped this precip around it very quickly. Ill have to review the video but until the thing was about to cross 114 to my West I wasnt even aware it was a huge tornado. You could see the massive inflow and upward vertical motion jsut before this occured however. It was actually some of the most intense VERTICAL motion ive seen on a storm. I will have to post video and pics later however as my laptop is having issues. There ertainly was a tornado....you jsut had to be in perfect position for a great shot of it....better poition thatn I was anyways :-(. I heard Tony Laubach has a great pic of this wedge. Maybe he can shed more light on the subject.

BTW If anyone has saved radar images of this cell at the time of the tornado id like to see it very much....either post in this thread or PM me. I noticed this tornado was also not listed on the SPC reports. Only a brief touchdown in Haskell county is mentioned. It seems for some the crappy roads of Throckmorton & Haskell County got us again. I hate that place.....hate is a strong word.....id rather jsut stay away from it :-(

 

[Glen Romine]

If you go back and review the radar evolution around the time of the tornado (2:40 pm based on Tony's siting) the storm was undergoing some unique evolution around that time. The tornado looks to have been where you would expect it though - out on the tip of the hook appendage, but immediately thereafter that circulation rapidly tracked northeast while a new core extended to the southwest, later crossing along a similar path, but perhaps that trailing mesocyclone is the one you met as you exited Seymore. Sorry to hear you were on 277 - there was chatter regarding what an unfortunate place that would be to try and navigate the storm.

 

[Bobby Prentice]

BTW If anyone has saved radar images of this cell at the time of the tornado id like to see it very much....either post in this thread or PM me.

Two of the best/easy sites to view recent past radar data are:

Plymouth St College NIDS Radar (15-day Archive)

NCAR/RAP Radar (5-day archive)

The WSR-88D radar sites that sampled the Seymour, TX tornadic supercell were Dyess AFB (DYX) and Frederick, OK (FDR). The best TVS signatures appeared on the DYX radar.

The NCAR/RAP site also maintains a good 5-day satellite and surface obs archive as well.

Other sites that provide good archived weather data:

UCAR Image archive meteorological case study selection kit (1998-present)

NSSL/SCP Severe Thunderstorm Events Archive (2000-present)

SPC - Archived national Sector (s4) SPC Hourly mesoscale analysis (2005-present)

 

[Marko Korosec]

BTW If anyone has saved radar images of this cell at the time of the tornado id like to see it very much....either post in this thread or PM me.

Hope this helps, Jason...



Also congrats to those saw that incredible wedge, I am waiting for grl2 scans to come out, should be an excelent hook to see. I've been on grl3 during that tornado, but forgot to save some grabs.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I had GRLevel3 running the entire time, however am not sure if it archives radar automatically. Would love to think so. None-the-less, our lack of road options pretty well set us in the best possible position considering our arrival. The only other option was to be east of the thing, and judging by our route, would've required us to be another 10 to 15 minutes earlier to get position as Seymour was getting cored pretty bad long before the tornado formed. None-the-less, our timing was perfect as we were able to get on it as it formed even as we lost it due to the RFD and wrap-around precip.

The 240pm timing I gave the tornado was pulled from my video camera, still camera, and my cell phone in which I made the 9-1-1 call. There may be a minute or two difference, but its pretty close.

I'm not sure what happened with the 9-1-1 report. The police department actually called me back a short time later to update us on another report they got from a woman east of town. I informed her of the damage (flood/hail) in Seymour as we were slowly making our way through town. I haven't seen the tornado on SPC's report page, so I don't know what came of our report.

 

[Dave Carroll]

Seymour TX Radar

Here is a link to the Seymour cell on radar about 20 minutes prior to Tony's awesome wedge intercept:
http://www.icsrc.org/ICSRC/TILT/Weatherline/seymourstorm.htm

 

[Amos Magliocco]

I'm sure there were other angles, but from what I could tell, anyplace within the green shading would have offered a relatively clear view of the tornado between 2:38 and 2:44 PM.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

At risk of some slight self-promotion, my own Digital Atmosphere Equinox program will fetch the historical radar imagery you all are wanting. I was able to pull up yesterday's imagery with no problem as it goes out to TAMU's servers to get the old NIDS data. Basically this is how to do it:

1. Get Digital Atmosphere Equinox off my website at weathergraphics.com.
2. Go to File > Preferences > General > Preferred Radar Source Override > Texas A&M.
3. Radar > Set Date-Time.
4. Set your desired radar site in Radar > Set NEXRAD Station.
5. Uncheck "live" and pick the UTC date-time on the calendar and text box.
6. Pick any product you like, Base Reflectivity, Velocity 0.5, VIL, etc.

The clip of the Seymour storm on the Stormtrack front page was constructed in this manner, using the TPC chart underlays (a Pro version feature, but not necessary). Anyhow if you need technical assistance with it, it would be better to start a thread in Equipment. Images from the program can be shared and distributed freely or copyrighted as your own; no permission of any kind is needed.

Tim

 

[Tony Laubach]

I've posted my raw video on my website...

http://www.tornadoeskick.com/videos/TNL20070413a.html

Forgive the breaks in video as I either went to driving and left the camera in my lap or was shooting stills.

Also worth noting that SPC updated their reports to include the wedge..

 

[Bill Tabor]

I'm sure there were other angles, but from what I could tell, anyplace within the green shading would have offered a relatively clear view of the tornado between 2:38 and 2:44 PM.

Amos, I've been studying and plotting this today on Street Atlas and notice that you mention your location and that of the torn near 4 and 6 miles south of Seymore, but Tony Laubach and Eugene Theiszen agree about 3 miles south. That is a bit of a difference, can we all see a bit more agreement?

This is very interesting. I've been plotting this data all out with times, and comments, examining radar and video, noting our position, etc. Also compared our options, choices and roads with those of Tim Marshall who was in a similiar situation but running a hair earlier apparently. Trying to figure out what our best option would have been to see this wedge. So far I find no solution based on our original position near Weinert. Going north cuts ahead of meso and into baseball or larger hail (chase over), and going east and round about through Throckmorton seems to take too much time.

It's starting to look like storm motion, positioning, and road options left us with no option and killed our luck on this Friday the 13th chase.

 

[John Cameron]

I hope that anyone on the Seymour wedge with ham radio or cell made at least one attempt to report the tornado to local authorities or the Norman ham link. Thats great vid considering its a typical north Texas HP and the road grid is not chase friendly. You must always think there may be unsuspecting souls in its path.

I was doing the on-air play-by-play for the local CBS affiliate, and I was never made aware that there was touchdown. Wichita Falls based spotters couldn't get a good angle on the cell thanks to the core going straight up 277/82.

I know chasers dont have a rolodex full of numbers to county offices , TV stations or ham frequencies, and I understand you thinking that members of spotter nets are seeing what you're seeing, but I feel this may have been worth a 911 call. This info would have been of tremendous value to me and my peers considering the storm vector toward a major population center.

Love you guys, and what you do, just rembember you cant always be just a spectator.
My number at the station is (940)-322-1153 if you have a wedge, I'll put you on the air.

 

[Sam Barricklow]

Funnel over western Tarrant County

see:

http://www.k5kj.net/20070413.htm

Also includes a satellite image of the Seymour supecell during tornado time.

Congrats to all who intercepted the Haskell/Seymour storm.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Amos, I've been studying and plotting this today on Street Atlas and notice that you mention your location and that of the torn near 4 and 6 miles south of Seymore, but Tony Laubach and Eugene Theiszen agree about 3 miles south. That is a bit of a difference, can we all see a bit more agreement?

Bill, I can't speak for Eugene; I don't know where he was. But Tony was right behind me, so he and I were in approximately the same place. According to my GPS log file, the spot where we stopped to film the tornado was 5.98 miles from the center of Seymour. My StreetAtlas uses the Seymour Dairy Queen as the center of town. The tornado crossed the road in front of us no more than one-half mile, then fully condensed east of the road while moving east-northeast. So while we observed it, this tornado was probably never closer than four miles from Seymour, but my truck was parked 5.98 miles south of the Seymour Dairy Queen.

In my report I mentioned some roads I believe the tornado crossed. Another one to look for is Kubala Road, just west of 114 and south of the intersection of CR 221 and CR 226. I would imagine the tornado, as large as it was, probably passed over this rural road. Hope that helps!

PS: I would think it's possible the tornado was visible to anyone between 2 and 8 miles south of Seymour, depending on how quickly the wrap-around precip closed the curtain behind us. I'm sure chasers to the south of us would have lost visibility a little sooner.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Tony called 9-1-1 and reported the tornado. They promised to notify the Norman NWS and failed to do so, despite calling Tony back moments later to give HIM an update on the location of the tornado from another source. Since they had the time to do this, I thought surely they would have contacted OUN.

We only called 9-1-1 after we were unable to place cell phone calls because of a busy network and I failed to break squelch into the linked repeaters. I don't know if I had a more distant frequency or if there was a PL tone I didn't have programmed, but we tried. It's too bad 9-1-1 didn't relay the report as they promised.

PS: as a member of the media, it might be worth your time to investigate what procedures are in place for 911 operators in Baylor County to relay tornado reports and to whom. Most chasers don't consider themselves only spectators.

I hope that anyone on the Seymour wedge with ham radio or cell made at least one attempt to report the tornado to local authorities or the Norman ham link. Thats great vid considering its a typical north Texas HP and the road grid is not chase friendly. You must always think there may be unsuspecting souls in its path.

I was doing the on-air play-by-play for the local CBS affiliate, and I was never made aware that there was touchdown. Wichita Falls based spotters couldn't get a good angle on the cell thanks to the core going straight up 277/82.

I know chasers dont have a rolodex full of numbers to county offices , TV stations or ham frequencies, and I understand you thinking that members of spotter nets are seeing what you're seeing, but I feel this may have been worth a 911 call. This info would have been of tremendous value to me and my peers considering the storm vector toward a major population center.

Love you guys, and what you do, just rembember you cant always be just a spectator.
My number at the station is (940)-322-1153 if you have a wedge, I'll put you on the air.