Dustin Wilcox
EF5
Significant damage in Tulia, Sean and Katie McMullen and I filmed a very significant torando while it developed in town. Damage in town and damage in rual areas outside of town as well.
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4/21/07 REPORTS: TX / KS / NE / CO
- Thread starter Dustin Wilcox
- Start date
Matt Chatelain
Me, Curtis McDonald, Matt Van Every, and Daniel Betten saw the Tulia tornado as it touched down in Tulia. We were located about 1 mile east of downtown, and we really didn't see any major damage, just emergency vehicles everywhere. We were tracking the tornado north of Tulia and it appeared to be a large cone, but we lost it due to down power lines across the road we were on. Have also added the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzb7TSjf2uc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzb7TSjf2uc
Attachments
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Donald Giuliano
EF3
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2005
- Messages
- 226
WOW, what a day. Saw at least 7 tornadoes, 3 large, over a 2 hour span near Dumas on 3 separate supercells. At two different times we saw 2 tornadoes occurring simultaneously. Thankfully did not see any damage as it all occurred over open country, except for a house one of the tornadoes passed over right after touching down. Probably blew out some windows, but we didn't see any structural damage, as the tornado had not really gotten going yet. Good thing for the homeowner, as it morphed into a wedge later on.
Dustin Wilcox
EF5
Must have been in the wrong part of town as there was SERIOUS damage. Mainly shot video but I took a couple pictures when it was developing.
BIG RFD
Tornado Just Touching Down
Will sort through other stuff after some rest.
Verne Carlson
EF5
Witnessed 5 tornadoes today from the supercell that formed near Channing, TX, moved west of Dumas, TX and then did significant damage along the highway north of Dumas. At one point we had two tornadoes on the ground at the same time. A long rope with incredible drill bit motion on the ground and then close to a half mile wedge west of Dumas. We encountered numerous powerlines down and had to drive under cables to keep following the wedge at one point. Heading back to Denver now completely exhausted.
Full report here:
http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2007/04/2007-04-21-report.html
YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gBYgHszK-Y
Large cone tornado just east of Channing, TX
Wedge tornado crossing HW287 and doing significant damage in Etter, Bryden and Cactus, TX.
Full report here:
http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2007/04/2007-04-21-report.html
YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gBYgHszK-Y
Large cone tornado just east of Channing, TX
Wedge tornado crossing HW287 and doing significant damage in Etter, Bryden and Cactus, TX.
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Reed Timmer
EF1
Here are some frame captures of the Tulia tornado...sadly it appeared the damage was substantial. We were about 1/4 mile from the tornado at the time of these captures.
kenny_allen
Landspout in SD
Hey Everyone,
Lots of hail and wind in SD tonight. We observed a few wall clouds, funnels, and one landspout. We did not see any major damage tonight. Lots of rain and hail in the I-90 corridor of Central SD. Golfball size in White Lake and this landspout was near Plankinton.
I have edited up a short video of some things we caught on tape tonight, including the brief landspout.
Sounds like the major action was to the south of us! Great job to all of you in Texas tonight.
Our short video is at www.SevereStudios.com
Hey Everyone,
Lots of hail and wind in SD tonight. We observed a few wall clouds, funnels, and one landspout. We did not see any major damage tonight. Lots of rain and hail in the I-90 corridor of Central SD. Golfball size in White Lake and this landspout was near Plankinton.
I have edited up a short video of some things we caught on tape tonight, including the brief landspout.
Sounds like the major action was to the south of us! Great job to all of you in Texas tonight.
Our short video is at www.SevereStudios.com
Ray Walker
We saw a possible tornado touchdown NE of hereford texas but can not confirm it. We had an incredible chase experience today as I chased the supercell from hereford up close to I-40 and then dropped south on the storm that formed in randal co and watched a nice meso to our north for a bout 25mins and then decited to head south toward the tulia tornadic supercell. As we did this the storm to our north Rapidly gained strength and visually the meso rapidly got larger and much stronger and then a HUGE lowering formed underneath the messo. We were on the south sides of Amarillo at the time and could see this thing and it was all the way up near Dumas. However by the time we entercepted the Tulia storm it was dark
Jason McKittrick
EF3
Chased from Amarillo today with a good friend of mine Bill Turner. Initially we were on the storms near Hereford. These storm had some impressive structure and incredible inflow. At times I would estimate it was over 60mph. However, every time they seemed to be ready to produce they would interact with new storms to their southwest and begin to lose the appeal. Eventually decided to give up on the stuff near Hereford and go after the Tail End Charlie approaching Tulia. This was a difficult decision considering we lost all warning and radar data right at that time. We did manage to make it to Tulia in time, we were about 1.5 miles east of downtown when the tornado hit. This was the first time I have ever seen a tornado hit something up close. I feel differently about tornadoes after today.
Kevin Walter
EF1
WOW indeed. Drifted west from Plainview to intercept the junk coming out of NM. Figured it might get its act together once it got to the better moisture and sure enough it did. Watched the Olton tornado form from just east of Olton; hung with it for almost its entire duration:
This storm went from unorganized junk to large-tornado-producing mothership in about 7 minutes. In fact, I happened to be time-lapsing the rain-free base through this transition. View that time-lapse here:
http://www.atmo.ttu.edu/walter/Storms.html
Continued on to intercept the new meso as it manifested a new wall cloud and put down the Tulia tornado. Drove through Tulia about 2 minutes after the twister, damage was bad:
Chased the churning meso and intermittent tornado north about 10 miles until the road was blocked by power poles:
Another local late-afternoon multiple-tornado chase from Lubbock in spring 2007.
Kevin Walter
This storm went from unorganized junk to large-tornado-producing mothership in about 7 minutes. In fact, I happened to be time-lapsing the rain-free base through this transition. View that time-lapse here:
http://www.atmo.ttu.edu/walter/Storms.html
Continued on to intercept the new meso as it manifested a new wall cloud and put down the Tulia tornado. Drove through Tulia about 2 minutes after the twister, damage was bad:
Chased the churning meso and intermittent tornado north about 10 miles until the road was blocked by power poles:
Another local late-afternoon multiple-tornado chase from Lubbock in spring 2007.
Kevin Walter
Brian Emfinger
EF4
Chase Report Here
Video Here
After jetting up to the area that spawned those storms that formed near the corner of New Mexico/Texas/&Oklahoma, we jetted back south after not being impressed and somehow ended up in perfect postion to get a few tornadoes. We were just east of Channing, Tx when the wall cloud we had been watching put down a tornado.
The tornado evolved quickly to a much large cone:
Then RFD cut off our view until we headed further east and we could barely see what was now a huge wedge to our north.
Later we caught back up to a long slender rope tornado:
Saw I believe only 3 tornadoes but will have to look over radar and everything to make sure. More pictures are on the chase report and should have some nice video tomorrow.... http://www.realclearwx.com/42107.htm
Video Here
After jetting up to the area that spawned those storms that formed near the corner of New Mexico/Texas/&Oklahoma, we jetted back south after not being impressed and somehow ended up in perfect postion to get a few tornadoes. We were just east of Channing, Tx when the wall cloud we had been watching put down a tornado.
The tornado evolved quickly to a much large cone:
Then RFD cut off our view until we headed further east and we could barely see what was now a huge wedge to our north.
Later we caught back up to a long slender rope tornado:
Saw I believe only 3 tornadoes but will have to look over radar and everything to make sure. More pictures are on the chase report and should have some nice video tomorrow.... http://www.realclearwx.com/42107.htm
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Bobby Prentice
Channing-Dumas-Sunray, TX Tornadoes
RJ Evans, Gene Rhoden and I observed numerous tornadoes of all shapes and sizes (from rope to wedege) from three tornadic supercells between Channing-Dumas-Sunray. Since the storms were moving NNE at a rapid rate, we did the passing train chase. Latch onto a supercell and chase the tornado as long as possible before moving east to intercept the next supercell moving up the line. Our emotions swung throughout the day from optimistic to pessimistic to euphoria.
The early storms over northwest TX Panhandle appeared to struggle as they moved NNE, so we dropped south after a supercell moving NNE roughly along US285 from Vega-Channing. Our road options were poor in the Canadian River Valley so we parked on TX354 about halfway between Four Way and Channing and let the storm approach. The storm appeared to have decent separation from the storm to its south. We continued to meander further west to get closer to the wall cloud moving N-NNE to our southwest.
The obedient supercell waited until we were in perfect position before the tornado formed ~4-7 miles to our southwest. It touched down as an elephant trunk for about 10 minutes before evolving into a multivortex cone then truncated cone that passed just east of Channing. We lost sight of the tornado to our northwest, caught on the wrong side of the hook. So we headed east and north to obtain a view from TX2202 southwest of Dumas (DUX).
Not sure what all happened during the time we lost sight of the tornado, but when we saw it again it was a truncted cone in the rain curtains to our W. An occlusion occured and we observed a new truncated cone and transparent rope (old meso?) from US87 ~7-10 miles west of Dumas. The large tornado was escaping our sight in the rain to the northwest, so we backtracked east a few miles then drove north on a paved county road about 4 miles or so.
Loe and behold the rain cleared and we saw the wedge about 1 mile to our NW moving NNE toward US287. This is very likely the same tornado which struck Cactus, TX. I haven't been so close to a wedge since Allison, TX (6/8/1995). We couln't keep up on the muddy roads and US287 looked closed, so we dropped south on US287 to Dumas then east on TX FM 152 about 15 miles or so to intercept the next supercell coming up from the south.
The supercell produced a multivortex cone about 5-7 miles to our WSW and a rope about 2-4 miles to our SSW that lifted about 1-2 miles before it hit us. We finally gave up on this storm at TX 281/1060 in extreme northeast Moore County (~10 E of Sunray) and waited as the next supercelll in the line approached.
Our final tornado of the evening was after dark around 0200z or so on the wsw-nw horizon. Appeared as a stovepipe with two power flashes observed. Might have morphed into a cone, but I couldn't tell for sure.
We decided to give the southern mega tornadic supercell a wide bearth and dropped south to Conway, TX before heading east on I-40. Fortunately, the squall line wasn't too bad where we crossed it between Groom-McLean even though GR level 3 showed supercell structures and periodic TVS's.
RJ's summary for the day...WOW! Gene says we should have our lucky donut box bronzed.
The 00z/SUN NAM suggests that monday looks like a probable day before the "big day" along the southern plains dryline with a MT airmass in place and good shear profiles. Tuesday looks like an outbreak over the southern plains with western OK in the crosshairs. Tuesday could be an historic outbreak if the NAM is correct.
RJ Evans, Gene Rhoden and I observed numerous tornadoes of all shapes and sizes (from rope to wedege) from three tornadic supercells between Channing-Dumas-Sunray. Since the storms were moving NNE at a rapid rate, we did the passing train chase. Latch onto a supercell and chase the tornado as long as possible before moving east to intercept the next supercell moving up the line. Our emotions swung throughout the day from optimistic to pessimistic to euphoria.
The early storms over northwest TX Panhandle appeared to struggle as they moved NNE, so we dropped south after a supercell moving NNE roughly along US285 from Vega-Channing. Our road options were poor in the Canadian River Valley so we parked on TX354 about halfway between Four Way and Channing and let the storm approach. The storm appeared to have decent separation from the storm to its south. We continued to meander further west to get closer to the wall cloud moving N-NNE to our southwest.
The obedient supercell waited until we were in perfect position before the tornado formed ~4-7 miles to our southwest. It touched down as an elephant trunk for about 10 minutes before evolving into a multivortex cone then truncated cone that passed just east of Channing. We lost sight of the tornado to our northwest, caught on the wrong side of the hook. So we headed east and north to obtain a view from TX2202 southwest of Dumas (DUX).
Not sure what all happened during the time we lost sight of the tornado, but when we saw it again it was a truncted cone in the rain curtains to our W. An occlusion occured and we observed a new truncated cone and transparent rope (old meso?) from US87 ~7-10 miles west of Dumas. The large tornado was escaping our sight in the rain to the northwest, so we backtracked east a few miles then drove north on a paved county road about 4 miles or so.
Loe and behold the rain cleared and we saw the wedge about 1 mile to our NW moving NNE toward US287. This is very likely the same tornado which struck Cactus, TX. I haven't been so close to a wedge since Allison, TX (6/8/1995). We couln't keep up on the muddy roads and US287 looked closed, so we dropped south on US287 to Dumas then east on TX FM 152 about 15 miles or so to intercept the next supercell coming up from the south.
The supercell produced a multivortex cone about 5-7 miles to our WSW and a rope about 2-4 miles to our SSW that lifted about 1-2 miles before it hit us. We finally gave up on this storm at TX 281/1060 in extreme northeast Moore County (~10 E of Sunray) and waited as the next supercelll in the line approached.
Our final tornado of the evening was after dark around 0200z or so on the wsw-nw horizon. Appeared as a stovepipe with two power flashes observed. Might have morphed into a cone, but I couldn't tell for sure.
We decided to give the southern mega tornadic supercell a wide bearth and dropped south to Conway, TX before heading east on I-40. Fortunately, the squall line wasn't too bad where we crossed it between Groom-McLean even though GR level 3 showed supercell structures and periodic TVS's.
RJ's summary for the day...WOW! Gene says we should have our lucky donut box bronzed.
The 00z/SUN NAM suggests that monday looks like a probable day before the "big day" along the southern plains dryline with a MT airmass in place and good shear profiles. Tuesday looks like an outbreak over the southern plains with western OK in the crosshairs. Tuesday could be an historic outbreak if the NAM is correct.
Jason A.C. Brock
I swear I had A gremlin with me today. I started out on the cells near Hereford filming what was a very nice structured rotating wall cloud.....them boom.... My camcorder shorted out. The storms did to....too much competition and the storm to my North near Dumas and the Storm to the South went wild.....I finally headed South Just in time to catch the Tulia tornado and at least got some stills of the amazing structure. Alot of excellent structure on all these cells today. Even a nice little LP behind the line was spinning like a top for awhile.
Camcorder is headed for the shop tomorrow but I do have a backup.....its jsut sad I didnt have it with me today :-(. I would have had some amazing timelapse of just the updrafts and rotating mesos on these beasts today.
Some other chase buddies of mine did better today tho tornado wise. Kenneth Mccallister I heard nabbed the Dumas tornadoes. Robert Sternadel was on the large Wedge down near Plainview and the tricountyweather.com guys got some very close video of the tornado near at Tulia. I believe their video may be on the Local Wichita Falls News tomorrow for those in this area.
These storms had it ALL WALL CLOUDS, LARGE HAIL, TORNADOES, MASSIVE ROTATION ON EVERY PART OF THE STORMS GREAT LIGHTNING
I was perturbed about my camcorder but I still got some amazing structure shots and did technically witness one tornado. Unfortunately it also had to be so damaging :-(.
Next time Im gonna hold back on the carebear kisses and rainbow hugs! ;-)
Im glad the chasers who were in the accident are ok....well as ok as you can be when a truck falls on you IM STILL THERE ARE SOME SHOT NERVES. :-(
Ill try to have some stills online tomorrow at http://www.texhomastormchasers.com and on the myspace page perhaps.
Panhandle magic is back in 2007!
Camcorder is headed for the shop tomorrow but I do have a backup.....its jsut sad I didnt have it with me today :-(. I would have had some amazing timelapse of just the updrafts and rotating mesos on these beasts today.
Some other chase buddies of mine did better today tho tornado wise. Kenneth Mccallister I heard nabbed the Dumas tornadoes. Robert Sternadel was on the large Wedge down near Plainview and the tricountyweather.com guys got some very close video of the tornado near at Tulia. I believe their video may be on the Local Wichita Falls News tomorrow for those in this area.
These storms had it ALL WALL CLOUDS, LARGE HAIL, TORNADOES, MASSIVE ROTATION ON EVERY PART OF THE STORMS GREAT LIGHTNING
I was perturbed about my camcorder but I still got some amazing structure shots and did technically witness one tornado. Unfortunately it also had to be so damaging :-(.
Next time Im gonna hold back on the carebear kisses and rainbow hugs! ;-)
Im glad the chasers who were in the accident are ok....well as ok as you can be when a truck falls on you IM STILL THERE ARE SOME SHOT NERVES. :-(
Ill try to have some stills online tomorrow at http://www.texhomastormchasers.com and on the myspace page perhaps.
Panhandle magic is back in 2007!
Shane Adams
Difficult but rewarding chase for Chad Lawson, Mickey Ptak, and myself in the northern TX panhandle. We managed to stay ESE/SE of the middle Deaf Smith county storm upon initiation and followed it north of I-40 as it dropped tornadoes from NW of Vega through southwest of Dumas. Not sure of exactly how many because of terrain/rain. and storm speeds, but we observed 4-6 tornadoes.
#1 NW of Vega from occluded meso
#2 SW of Channing
#3 SE/E NE Channing (long track wedge)
#4 (not sure if this was the same as #3 but have heard reports it was a different tornado)
#5 Just south of Dumas, from occluded meso, serpentine tornado maybe a half mile east of us......looked very much like the 1989 Hodges, TX tornado....incredible.
#6 Possible tornado just south of I-40 near Groom...so close to us we had to make a decision whether to stop or gun it...we gunned it. Feature appeared as a cigar-shaped tornado, then gradually tilted and elongated, lasted a few minutes...maybe half mile south of the interstate....still not certain it was on the ground or even a tornado but warning statements and wx-worx shear markers matched the location.
#1 NW of Vega from occluded meso
#2 SW of Channing
#3 SE/E NE Channing (long track wedge)
#4 (not sure if this was the same as #3 but have heard reports it was a different tornado)
#5 Just south of Dumas, from occluded meso, serpentine tornado maybe a half mile east of us......looked very much like the 1989 Hodges, TX tornado....incredible.
#6 Possible tornado just south of I-40 near Groom...so close to us we had to make a decision whether to stop or gun it...we gunned it. Feature appeared as a cigar-shaped tornado, then gradually tilted and elongated, lasted a few minutes...maybe half mile south of the interstate....still not certain it was on the ground or even a tornado but warning statements and wx-worx shear markers matched the location.
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Eugene Thieszen
EF0
Olton-Tulia-Happy Brief Chase Summary
The WXtreme Chase Team intercepted and chased the Olton-Tulia storm (after briefly checking out a storm near Hereford) and saw several tornadoes. In addition observed a night-time tornado E of Happy from about 9:00 - 9:10pm on the storm that followed after. Here are several quickly posted pics. Website update and full chase account to follow:
http://www.geocities.com/genet_99/wxtreme_2007_039.htm
Gene
WXtreme Chase Team
The WXtreme Chase Team intercepted and chased the Olton-Tulia storm (after briefly checking out a storm near Hereford) and saw several tornadoes. In addition observed a night-time tornado E of Happy from about 9:00 - 9:10pm on the storm that followed after. Here are several quickly posted pics. Website update and full chase account to follow:
http://www.geocities.com/genet_99/wxtreme_2007_039.htm
Gene
WXtreme Chase Team
