• While Stormtrack has discontinued its hosting of SpotterNetwork support on the forums, keep in mind that support for SpotterNetwork issues is available by emailing [email protected].

4/3/08 REPORTS: OK/TX/AR

Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
207
Location
Norman
I really didn't like the setup today; bad 0-1km SRHEL, and strong westerlies from 850-up would mix the dryline east quickly and mix dry air into the boundary layer east of the dryline, but I went anyways wanting to see a supercell and monster hail.
I saw quarter-size hail, but then again I stayed out of the core. The best thing I saw was some pretty good and brief structure on a storm west of Jacksboro, TX. The Archer County, TX storm was already becoming outflow dominant by the time I intercepted it west of Nocoan, TX.
Pics up later....
 
We were on the Archer county storm early and later the Young county storm. Neither was very exciting, even though the latter had baseball hail. LL winds were were weak but it seemed the instability was never really there as advertised. But oh well, we had more of a chance than those who stayed home.
 
We first started chasing the storm that formed southwest of Wichita Falls. We stationed just south of Ringgold on Highway 81 and watched the massive hailcore pass through and got some good lightning pics. We then saw the discrete storm west of Jacksboro and decided to head there. Got there and viewed a weak wall cloud off of Highway 281 just northwest of Jacksboro and that was about it. Of course the winds were not backed at all so that did not help with that storm. The storm bases also seemed too high. Me and Jake went out expecting a bust and it was but still saw a few neat things.
 
CRW_1515_JFR_med.jpg

near Jermyn, Texas, in western Jack County ~2203z

My first target was Olney, scene of a tactical misadventure of mine back in April, 2000. I wanted to stay south to escape the full influence of the lead wave, hoping surface winds would back more readily, and, by the linear tendencies of the earliest convection near the river, I suspected tail-end Charlie might emerge in that area. Convection seemed to develop repeatedly from this area of agitated cu.

It did, but not before I detoured north to the "second" supercell from Olney up to Scotland and Bluegrove. The storm maintained a wide, impressive wall cloud for some time, but the light was bad, and my positioning was worse. Once, early in my pursuit, around 2030z, I glimpsed a high, brief funnel from the base. Most of the time the storm was either obscured or I was behind. Spotters reported giant hail. The storm became outflow dominant. Scott Eubanks was caravaning with me by this time and, when we reached State Highway 82, we turned back to the southwest for the new storm.

The "third" storm showed an impressive reflectivity presentation while I was racing toward it. It turned due east and showed some modest rotation. But upon our arrival, it shrunk, assumed a quasi-LP appearance with the wall cloud pictured above. Robert Hall joined the group as we followed the weakening storm back east.

Enjoyed a great dinner with Robert, Scott, and Glenn Dixon at Mr. Chopsticks here in Denton.
 
Left Austin at 12:30 - Target: Mineral Wells, Tx
Expected Initiation: 20z

IMG_2046.jpg

Approaching Jacksboro from Mineral Wells on Hwy 281

IMG_2053.jpg

One of the funnels and part of the wall cloud when I finally got stopped a number of miles west
of Jacksboro as the storm approaches from the west

IMG_2054.jpg

Large rain free base and whats left of the wallcloud with a bit of rain foot from the downdraft
on the edge of the inflow

IMG_2059.jpg

Contented cows lounging with 80mph to 91mph wall/funnel pass in the background northeast of
Jacksboro

Summary: As expected it was a bit of a tough day for tornadoes since the models changed the other day. With weak sfc flow, veered 850mb winds, stout capping much of the day, the main wave north of this area, and the sfc low staying north too long IMO made it difficult to get a good supercell with tornado potential. Based primarily on NAM forecast soundings earlier Thur I particularly liked Ft Worth and Mineral Wells. Of course the dryline was a bit further west. I was hoping for it to move east into some better higher helicity air, or the NAM showed a small N/S wave at 18z west of this area that I thought would help kick it off. I kept hourly watch on Digital Atmosphere's sfc map and mesoanalysis showing the low in nw OK actually moving east and not diving south as the models had shown. The low did later reform south but it was fairly late. I let the Wichita Falls storm go and didn't attempt to chase it. I figured it was a bit of a sucker storm, but particularly it was not my forecast target. I got to Mineral Wells about 3pm or so I believe and stopped and chowed down on a Subway sandwich while convection was building and increasing just to the west of town. For a while I couldn't tell if that was the storm I expected or if it should really be more on the true dryline which would have been over by Graham (west of Jacksboro). Eventually the showers near Mineral Wells died down and the tail end section of the dryline / boundary extending from the SPS storm began developing supercellular characteristics. I felt the sky had shown it's hand so I took off north for an intercept course to put me in front of the fast approaching cell. It was moving about 48 as I recall at the time.

The cell got stronger and was severe warned. I didn't see any shear markers on Threatnet but I could see some rotation on another velocity product. The storm indicated up to 2" hail, and took on a bit of 'flying eagle' with a hook shape as best as I could tell by using Threatnet. I took 281N out west of Jacksboro to the intersection of it and hwy 114. This put me directly in front of the lowered wallcloud and funnel in the distance. At first as I approached and while still somewhat distant there appeared a very large funnel most of the way to the ground. I took a picture but the contrast isn't very good - so didn't post it. I was too distant to tell if it was in contact or if there was rotation. When I first arrived at the intersection it was somewhat impressive and showed some vertical motion of scud from close to the ground shooting skyward near the funnel / wall cloud. There was a fairly large rain free base as well and this was next to the downdraft interface which had a bit of a rain foot or 'slant' appearance. I watched the storm from this position about 15 to 20 minutes with no sign of any other chasers yet. I was a bit surprised. A bit later the storm started weakening and the lowering moved more to my north and headed northeast or east. Actually the storm was headed almost due east due to it's right turn while it was strong. Once it weakened it began travelling ENE or NE with speeds showing from 80mph to 91mph most of the time according to Mobile Threatnet.

I raced to keep up with the storm and managed to do a fairly good job. As I worked back east I began seeing lots of chasers. Probably I saw close to 20 or 30 different vehicles. I took hwy 59 over toward Cundiff and eventually raced my way with the storm all the way to Alvord. But it was getting away from me and appeared to be weakening. It was starting to show shear markers of 69knots but that was on the front side of the storm so likely turbulence and downdraft shear.

Right at the end while stopping at a stop sign I caught up to one of the vehicles and it had Iowa plates. :eek: :D If it's Thursday it must be Iowa. I don't know I just thought it odd that a chaser had come all the way from Iowa for today's event. Perhaps they had been down for the one the other day as well - not sure. I let them go and Alvord so never found out who it was. Likely they are reading this.

At Alvord I did meet another chaser named Chris Rice (hopefully correct) with Storm Chase Live dot com or something similar. They were from Kansas City and had a little drive back too.

It was a reasonably good chase considering. I didn't expect a lot, but had talked myself into doing it a couple of days ago. I made a good forecast again, and intercepted the cells well again, but circumstances and the atmosphere (primarily) prevented me from scoring a tube. The equipment all seems to be working well though. I may start streaming video of my next chase.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Left Amarillo around 11:00 and targeted Henrietta, TX (east of Wichita Falls) and got to the target around 2:30 or so. Saw the storm forming that went through Wichita Falls but it wasn't anything spectacular. Looked at a little bit of data in Wichita Falls and decided to head south out of Wichita Falls. Saw the storm form on radar which was moving toward Archer City. I got SW of Scotland and the storm formed a wall cloud which was a little tough to film due to low contrast. I let the core pass over Scotland and jetted about 5 miles N of Scotland and found golf ball to tennis ball sized hail. I took a few pics and continued to head North. I eventually ended up in Henrietta and the storm left me out of position. I went South out of Henrietta on 142 and found more golf ball to sporadic tennis ball sized hail. I chatted with Rich Thompson and a couple of other guys (sorry, forgot your names) as we played with the hail stones. I took a few photos and continued south as another supercell was forming near Throckmorton. I hauled south and eventually east to the town of Jermyn. I went south about 2 miles out of Jermyn and witnessed the same storm that Amos saw. I met up with Jay McCoy along with Steve Miller from Amarillo and we eventually decided to call it quits. I then got a spectacular sunset photo just west of Wichita Falls which capped off a great ending to a great chase.


1.75 to 2.0 inch hail about 5-7 miles south of Henrietta, TX
img1089ee3.png



Wall cloud looking west from Jermyn, TX
img1109sr8.png



Nice sunset just west of Wichita Falls (Iowa Park)
img1122wb0.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The Archer-Clay Co., TX storm was the one to be on if you like high intensity hail. I mainly appreciated the fact that it was isolated from a photographic standpoint. Made for a couple nice photos anyway.

Started in Gainesville, westbound Hwy 82, picked off cell east of Scottland, followed it to a spot about 5 miles south of Henrietta.

n15601087_34107670_3378.jpg


n15601087_34106647_7309.jpg
 
SHORT: Photographed two supercells today, west of Scotland, TX and northwest of Graham, TX. The second storm was the better photo-op for me.

LONG: Headed to my target town of Wichita Falls, TX then dropped south to intercept a supercell west of Scotland, TX. This storm produced several wall clouds and large hail as it moved fast to the northeast. The light conditions were not the best and the storm was approaching a poor road network along the Red River, therefore, I abandoned this storm and dropped southwest to another supercell northwest of Graham. This storm was more picturesque with knifing anvil in the blue sky, vertical cloud towers, and had higher contrast wall clouds. The storm had a pretty high base and could not concentrate what little rotation it had. I followed the storm north of Jacksboro, where I gave up on it and headed back to Dallas. One of my shorter chases of the year - for sure, but, it still cost me $50 in gas. TM
 
This was a neighborhood chase for me, so as soon as the first storm went up southwest of Wichita Falls, I jumped in the Jeep!
The first storm passed over Wichita Falls when I was trying to drive through Wichita Falls. They had a mandatory detour off of the overhead highway which really chewed up time, especially when you have a hail producing thunderstorm overhead. This storm quickly made its way into northern Clay county and looked pretty good on radar, but was just a mess visually. I ushered it into Oklahoma and strategized to intercept the storm gaining strength over western Archer county.

Texas State Hwy 148 that bisects Clay county north and south is a dream. Its in a great state of repair and very little will prevent you from making good time. I targeted Bluegrove, Texas and waited as the action area moved into my location. At a distance, it was becoming clear that I was in a great spot if a tornado was to form. That was made even more clear as chaser convergence reached a maximum.

What appeared to be a wall cloud from a distance was morphing into a gust front. This was about the time I was hearing the reports of baseballs 3-5 miles to my north (per SPC LSR). Even though I knew the surface wind field was not ideal...I was hoping this storm was cycling and a new wall cloud would soon form. So, I headed east attempting to find a quick route from Bluegrove to US 287. All I had was a paper state map and that route was not to be found. I drove about 4 or 5 miles on a dirt road hoping for a shortcut, but when I passed over a cattle guard, I chickened out and turned back for pavement.

(BTW I passed several chasers going the other way on the dirt road. So, for those of you who saw a dark green Jeep Wrangler w/ Spotter magnet on the driver's door....HELLO!! :) welcome back to North Texas!)

Pretty much downhill from here. I had to go roughly 8-10 miles south in order to hit a paved road east to continue the chase. From a distance the storm looked good but the closer I got to 287, the more high-based the storm became. I lost interest and headed home.

I think every chaser between Mexico City and Montreal was in Clay county, Texas yesterday afternoon!
 
Left Norman around 11AM for Wichita Falls with Mike Imgarten, Tiffany Meyer and Lacey Evans. Watched the very first cell go up on radar from a McD's and then blinked and it was into Oklahoma. Sat at a gas station east of Wichita Falls as the second storm got its act together. We made out way down to north of Scotland (Hwy 281 and Coleman Rd). There watched as the storm tried to do something interesting and then went outflow dominant. Hail started falling at our location and after a measurement of a 1.5" piece we decided points south were much safer. As I packed my tripod into the back of the car, a 2" piece fell about 4' from my car. As we were turning onto 281 to head south, Kevin Scharfenberg called me and suggested I might leave; not too long after we did a 4.25" report was made by the media. After the storm made it's way a little to the ENE of Scotland, we followed in behind it on Farm Road 172. After making it to Farm Road 148, we drove around on some local dirt roads to make it over to Hwy 287. We headed north on Hwy 287 where we found a 2.75" spiky hail stone. After updates/suggestions from Scharf and Darren Clabo, we looped back around to the storm NE of Throckmorton. Not too much to write about that storm except had I known it was going to basically die north of Jacksboro, I would have gone hail hunting as we sat north of Jermyn and let the core pass just a couple miles to the north.

Basically what I expected today (...or yesterday as it was). I'm glad at least I found the hail to take pictures of. I will note that the hail was not very dense; very light in weight. Most pieces weren't balls either...the "flat" oval kind were dominant. Most of the 2"+ stones had about 1-1.25" cores of opaque ice and the rest of the ice was clear.
 
I left Hastings, Ne at 3am Thursday and got to Ardmore at a decent hour. As soon as I figured out the wifi at McDonald's, the first tornado watch of the day was in motion. I took off up 35 North to take 53 west to intercept a severe t-storm. Not much of anything from that storm. I was fortunate enough to catch up with a fellow chaser who was getting now-casting help. We we're given good info on where to go to intercept that first big supercell that came out of Wichita Falls. It was hard to see storm structure because it was so cloudy. Saw t.v. crews from a few different stations and a crazy guy in a helicopter. I'll put a couple of pictures up later. Great warm up chase to start the season. Long drive home. Heard reports on the radio about airplanes being damaged in Arkansas. SPC shows 7 tornadoes in Arkansas yesterday. Where's the love for Texas and Oklahoma?
 
Jacks County Intercept

I really should call this the chase where I did everything right. I left San Antonio around 12:50. I headed north on 281. After checking radar updates in Stephenville and at the junction of route 20, I saw two cells of interest, one in Montague county that looked very impressive with a possible hook echo that was too far north and east of me, and a second developing cell in Throckmorton county racing the the northeast at 46mph according to the noaa radio. So I kept blasting north on 281 past mineral springs, at times seemingly exasperatingly slow behind an slow slow RV and on into Jacks county. A severe storm warning had been issued in adjacent Young's county with reports of baseball size hail south of Olny. I finally made it into Jacksboro in Jacks county, and decided to head north on highway 148, as 281 made a sudden dog leg to the northwest and into the baseball sized hail. I headed north a couple of miles while gaping west seeing a well defined flanking line feeding into a beautifull supercell. I finally turned left onto a graveled county road. I cannot recall the name, but it should be evident on my video. Parking on the county road, I saw several wall clouds form and dissipate in quick succession under what appeared to be the main updraft. Several other chasers showed up, whose names I have forgotten in all the excitement(sorry about that). In fact I was pleased to see that numerous other chase vehicles had joined us. As the storm approached my location, I felt that it was prudent to leave the gravel road and head south a bit on 148. Further south, I found a new location with good firm gravel off the road. I continued to video the main updraft, and finally got my borrowed digital camera to work. I photodocumented more occluding wall clouds and got to see some picturesqe hail shafts in the distance. After the cell passed over 148, I drove north again and got some video of the back of the storm hoping to get a back lit view of anything occuring, but was confounded by some hills to the east. Calling it a day, I headed back to Jacksboro and finally to 281 south with the storm in my rear view mirror as a source of contentment for a change instead of exasperation for having arrived to late. South of jacksboro, I took a few more shots of the storm in the distance showing no signs of glaciation or dissipation.

Despite the fact that no tubes occured, I would call this a successfull chase because:
  • I got to observe good storm structure, wall clouds, and hail shafts.
  • The sprint air card worked like a heavy weight champ.
  • I left SA in a timely manner.
  • All the equipment worked.
  • I got home in one peice and made my Friday 9AM teleconference. :)
 

Attachments

  • P4030007-1.jpg
    P4030007-1.jpg
    11.5 KB · Views: 93
  • P4030012-1.jpg
    P4030012-1.jpg
    14.3 KB · Views: 83
Last edited by a moderator:
Young/Jack County Supercell

Left Austin shortly after 1:30, after trying in vain to talk myself out of going.
Headed north on 281 watching the initial North TX supercell on radar well to my north and obviously uncatchable. Started seeing the Southernmost supercell that would track through Throckmorton, Young and Jack counties to my NW. Visual indications were good, with a nice anvil and solid tower. I caught up to the RFB just south of Loving in Young county, where I ran into Shane Hale and his crew from Austin. Ragged wall cloud with some disorganzed roatation and attendant transient lowerings just to the SW of Loving, looking west from Hwy 16:

LovingWall.jpg



Storm seemed to cycle a bit, and I moved east on 114 and then SE on 281 to Jacksboro. Persistent wall cloud formed and seemed to approach the ground a few times. Due to storm speed, I never really stopped for more than a moment, so I am not sure what the rotation was like at this point. Second image was taken from 281 looking N or NE, somewhere just NW of Jacksboro:
JacksboroWall.jpg


Tried in vain to keep up with the storm into Wise county, but it fell apart rapidly at that point anyway, with new cells firing South of it. With sunset approaching, I got a nice consolation rainbow . Enjoyable chase. I managed to avoid the hail cores and stay in good position on a fast-moving supercell for a little while. Alltel coverage was good, although there were still problems (see "Staying Connected" thread).

605 miles,10h40m, 1 dead muffler

TonyC
 
Well keep this short as theres really nothing much to add that my pics or anyone else hasnt already said. Basically I targeted about 15-30 mi W of the metroplex. I left Norman at 9am in thick fog. Got to Turner Falls at about 10 and fog thickened to 1/4-1/10mile. Then exactly 1 N of ADM immediately fog lifted, stratus broke, and sun peeked thru with stratus racing northward. I had obviously hit the warm front that was hauling northward. Anyways I got to my house in Cresson about noon and watched the midday news/weather, analyzed everything then made decision to head off to Mineral Wells. From there the chase was on.
Heres link to my pics:
http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/ouweatherboi69/04-03-08%20TX%20chase/
Heres a track of my chase:
http://maps.yahoo.com/print?ard=1&v...Bowie, TX, 76230&q5=Norman, OK, United States

I arrived back in Norman at 10p....exhausted..and hungry.

Chase music of the day:
"Wild West Show" Big & Rich
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Loving, TX

Our team left the Austin metro area about 1:30 and made a shot for Eastland, TX. My initial thought was to hang around I20 an see if things would get hopping at an along the highway. After a few updates we noticed a few little cells starting to fire up in SW Throckmorton county so we head up towards Mineral Wells to check out the Baker Hotel built in 1926 in this really small town. Its huge in comparison. As the cell started to organize we headed NW to Graham and then up to Loving where we ran into Tony Cook and had a nice view of a small wall cloud. We moved up between Jacksboro and Loving for a nice setup for a small wall cloud an lowering, but nothing happened. We ended up staying with the cell over into Wise county where we then decided to head home. It was great to finally get up to something that looked worth chasing. I made a quick video from a few minutes of time lapse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XseBlOaN7Q
 

Attachments

  • Throck1.jpg
    Throck1.jpg
    7.3 KB · Views: 89
  • Throck2.jpg
    Throck2.jpg
    9.1 KB · Views: 76
  • Throck3.jpg
    Throck3.jpg
    8.7 KB · Views: 86
  • Throck4.jpg
    Throck4.jpg
    8 KB · Views: 84
  • Throck5.jpg
    Throck5.jpg
    9.2 KB · Views: 107
Back
Top