4/21/07 DISC: TX/KS/NE/CO

[Jeff Miller]

Major information and transmission outage occured during the severe event of 04/21/07 resulting in warning and radar transmission errors.

The information outage apparently was not confined to the central region - OAX and FSD also were having transmission errors - radar and current reports both non functional as of 0755 CDT.

Any information as to what the primary outage cause was?

 

[Van DeWald]

There was a problem with the uplink to the SBN. No uplink equals no data on NOAAPORT. It all looks OK now, data is flowing again.

 

[Jeff Miller]

Information still not being accessed in Topeka, Omaha, or Sioux Falls just as an FYI... bad timing for this to occur.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Eric and I were in the Xterra.

We observed four tornadoes tonight including an approximately thirty minute (or longer) tornado that crossed SR 70 and struck homes on the eastern edge of Olton. But the one we’ll always remember was Tulia, where we were struck by the compact but vigorous initial circulation as it entered town.

We were repositioning on the storm and observed what we both agreed was, at the time, an elevated and ragged updraft base. Moments before entering the city, we observed small lowerings but each weakened and the rotation lost focus. When we were in the center of Tulia, neither of us imagined anything like what was about to happen. I was scouting navigational options on StreetAtlas, with my camcorder turned OFF (that’s how nontornadic it appeared at that moment) when Eric shouted “tornado.†Imagine looking over your left shoulder to see, about 100 yards away, a tornado that looked like nothing if not Chuck Doswell’s and Al Moller’s Pampa video: a violent circulation swirling with industrial debris. We accelerated, our ears popping, but the inflow jet tugged us off the road and we came to a stop in front of a small brick building, what might have once been a gas station or a general store. When the tornado reached us, it collapsed the building, blew out our windows, and tipped a parked semi tractor trailer onto the driver side front of Eric’s Xterra. We huddled in the center of the truck and shut our eyes.

When it was over, we climbed out to find a scene straight out of the movies, a wasteland of debris and downed power lines. A police officer passed us and we waved for him to keep going; we didn’t need help and were already feeling the guilt of potentially distracting emergency services. Our friends from OU took us to Amarillo where we’re spending the night.

We’re neither proud nor ashamed of our actions. I’ve taken some calculated risks in ten years of chasing; this wasn’t one of them. We thought we were repositioning between tornadoes. We had talked about how the storm had crossed the baroclinic boundary oriented northwest to southeast and might have become fully outflow dominated. I was wondering if it would produce another tornado at all.

We both regret that it happened, that we put our own lives in jeopardy and threatened to distract emergency personnel. Tonight, I’m glad that I’m alive and uninjured, that my friend is alive and uninjured, and that, from what I have read, the residents of Tulia are mostly safe. I’ll never release the videotape of this incident, publicize or profit from it in any way. If there’s any lesson it might only be that life is precious. We’ve ransacked our minds for the tiny detail or decision that might have kept us safer, and found nothing. What we did I would likely do again, because there seemed nothing unsafe about where we were at the time. Obviously we were wrong. Our choice was a mistake and we paid for it.

 

[Graham Butler]

First off let me say that I am VERY glad to hear that you and Eric are alright.

One hell of a storm:

Tornado over Tulia, highly edited for contrast.

Graham Butler
http://www.darkskyproductions.com

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Exactly Amos. Mother nature can and will never be able to be fully forecast down to minute detail. We can only hope to make the best decisons on the info we have readily available and on our experience and a little added luck to boot. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time and you learned a great lesson today...perhaps many...some of the leasons you already knew....but sometimes mother nature needs to tap us on the soulder or kick us in the backside and say....Im still a god.....and your only little old you.
The Tulia tornado was odd tho....the whole time I was getting closer there was just an odd feeling about. You almost didnt get excited.....you almost lost all feeling at all....at times it even seem like it was in slow motion..I think a few more than Just Amos had their guardian angels out there this evening. I am not catholic....does anyone know who the patron saint of storms is? or if there even is one? after today.....I may look for a trinquet.
Congrats to all....recharge those batteries folks....camcorders and your body.

If any of you guys need some extra cameras or scanners or anything for chasing next week you may have lost in the accident. Be sure to email me and ill see what I have laying around.

 

[Jay McCoy]

This had a huge impact on a few chases yesterday. Right in midle of our chase with numerous cells around us we lost WxWorx radar coverage along with GR3 coverage and were blind for a good 30 minutes. Not having data killed us when we were trying to decide which storm to go after and we actually broke off the northern tornadic cell to go after ones coming up from the SW.

At 1st I thought it might have been my wxworx system so I rebooted but when I would click on radar coverage I would only have 1 or 2 stations like Salt Lake City or denver. On the 3rd try i wa lucky enough to get Clovis for a bit but would opnly get updates every other cycle so maybe every 10 minutes. Not good when your surrounded by storms.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I'm anxious to hear from Amos and Eric and anyone else who was in Tulia. Might they have been somewhere else at the time if it weren't for the outage?

 

[Tony Laubach]

Fortunately my Sprint data connection remained up and running throughout our entire venture... I did have issues making calls on my cell as I was getting "all circuits are busy" errors.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

I was punching the core of a potentially tornadic supercell in SE CO trying to get to the eastern side of the storm when the WX Worx gave out right as the hail started falling. It really could have been dangerous if the tornado was rain-wrapped. I have a Verizon wifi card, but I had no service either it was quite an adventure.

 

[mike scantlin]

well, me and the group i was with were trying to get back east of the line by squeezing between two cells. our radar hadnt updated for about 10 minutes, but it looked like a moderate rain core, so we went for it. we were on i40 west of ama, and as we were getting out of the rain, a whirl of derbris went up literally 100 feet in front of us in the median, lifted up, and then spun up again just south of us. at first we thought it was just a gustnado, than at that exact second the new gr3 info downloaded. 2 tvs rigfht on top of us. that was at 7:03:18. needless to say, we were already hauling balls to get out of that situation. when we got out east of the rain, i looked back and saw the tornado. there was not condesation to the ground, but there was debris spinning on the ground. we almost became the debris. luckily it wasnt strong. it was probably the scariest thing i have ever been through. information blackout almost got the best of us. lesson learned. dont depend on data.

 

[Rebecca Robinson]

Gald to hear your both ok

Amos, I am glad to hear that you and Eric are ok.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

I was punching the core of a potentially tornadic supercell in SE CO trying to get to the eastern side of the storm when the WX Worx gave out right as the hail started falling. It really could have been dangerous if the tornado was rain-wrapped. I have a Verizon wifi card, but I had no service either it was quite an adventure.

It appears to me that WxWorx has little to do with the situation being dangerous. If I recall, WxWorx simply gives you composite reflectivity with shear markers... tools I wouldn't base my life on.

 

[Daniel Christianson]

Man... im glad you guys are ok, someone was watching out for you that night, i couldnt even begin to feel what it was like, im glad you guys made it out...

 

[David Drummond]

We of course lsot everything too. Luckily we were already in position on the storm of choice and having chased in the old school days (prior to having mobile radar) we just chased the old fashioned way. I was pleased to learn that still worked.