Shane Adams
Chad, Mick, and myself observed a few brief tornadoes with the Abilene area storm early into its life. The one reported on I-20 was about 1/3 mile south of us. A few minutes later while moving east on I-20 we observed a minute-long dust whirl tornado in a field, about 3/4 mile north of the interstate. (The tornado report 2 NE Tye was mine).
We were right on the Breckenridge storm but didn't like our position as we were driving north right into the circulation, with rapidly rotating rain curtains all around us and zero visibility ahead. So, we turned back south...as it turned out, it was the right move to make. We came in minutes behind the Breckenridge tornado, observing damage south of town as well as in town. Every road out of there east north and south was blocked by debris, so we went back west and sorta "made up" a way around town and back to 180. We finally caught back up to the storm in Sanger, where we had crazy inflow winds which would switch from SE/due east/ENE. We never saw a tornado, so apparently we missed the one reported by the local FD.
The damage in Breckenridge pretty much killed what had been a good chase to that point. Hopefully the injuries were not life-threatening to those in that community. Currently northbound on I-35 headed home.....we have no desire to fight with this stuff in the dark.
The area from Abeline through Weatherford has got to be some of the most horrific chase terrain we've ever encountered. And Sanger's tornado sirens are the loudest damn sirens in the world....we had to roll the windows up each time we passed by, because they were blowing our eardrums out.
We were right on the Breckenridge storm but didn't like our position as we were driving north right into the circulation, with rapidly rotating rain curtains all around us and zero visibility ahead. So, we turned back south...as it turned out, it was the right move to make. We came in minutes behind the Breckenridge tornado, observing damage south of town as well as in town. Every road out of there east north and south was blocked by debris, so we went back west and sorta "made up" a way around town and back to 180. We finally caught back up to the storm in Sanger, where we had crazy inflow winds which would switch from SE/due east/ENE. We never saw a tornado, so apparently we missed the one reported by the local FD.
The damage in Breckenridge pretty much killed what had been a good chase to that point. Hopefully the injuries were not life-threatening to those in that community. Currently northbound on I-35 headed home.....we have no desire to fight with this stuff in the dark.
The area from Abeline through Weatherford has got to be some of the most horrific chase terrain we've ever encountered. And Sanger's tornado sirens are the loudest damn sirens in the world....we had to roll the windows up each time we passed by, because they were blowing our eardrums out.
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