5/20/10 REPORTS TX

[Paul Stofer]

Very quick summary... Today was a very marginal tornado day down here in the Dallas area. When I noticed storms fire South of the Metroplex I flied down loop 12 to observe what I could. The storms were linear in an East to West line stretching from Eastern Dallas County to Western Tarrant County. Around 2PM a storm fired just south of this line near the town of Mansfield and within 10 minutes became Tornado warned. At 2:06PM I observed a very large rope tornado from the split of Spur 408 and Interstate 20. I immediately reported the tornado on the Dallas County RACES net. By the time I could get the camera out and set it up the tornado had diminished in size, however was still doing damage in the town of Midlothian in Ellis County. This tornado lifted and touched back down multiple times for a period of about ten minutes. Eventually it became wrapped in rain and moved to the East of town. Below are still video captures from my Sony EX-3.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

I left work around 2:45pm to catch this storm. Headed southeast on 287 and intercepted the wall cloud near Waxahachie. Observed 2 downed semis on I-45 and observed some stronger low level rotation once again as the storm passed through the Powell area and again became tornado warned.

It quickly became disorganized after passing to the east and I headed for home as things became progressively more linear. All in all a fun few hours. Wish I had been able to leave work a little sooner.

 

[RobertMoney]

Hi Paul, I ended up leaving dallas sometime around 7pm & found myself in Waco TX, what an event it turned out to be, although i did not happen upon any other tornadoes, i did happen to get some spectacular footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfa6MZfwl1g

as well as some great photos!

Edit:

I was envious of you when i saw you parked next to my car at work before you headed out... as i was stuck at work, and you were out and able to catch a tornado

 

[Bill Schintler]

We started in OKC today and intercepted the cell near Waxahachie, TX - shortly after it produced the tornado in Paul Stofer's post above. We observed a low-hanging wall cloud from a distance of about 10 miles just west of Waxahachie on the west side of the storm. We eventually let that cell go and turned our attention to a new supercell further west near Barry, which tracked through Corsicana. We followed that to Palestine, where it died a sudden death. While chasing that storm within a lousy road network, we observed a large meso and good storm structure at several points along the track of the supercell, with the storm maintaining HP characteristics from Corsicana to just west of Palestine. A great chase for a "low expectation" day. The best thing about today: In over 200 miles of active chasing, we saw one other chaser. …Quite a change from the convergence circus in OK yesterday.

Bill Schintler

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I also was on these storms in Texas (near Navarro county) but got on them a bit late. I was able to catch 2 HP supercells in the line of supercells around 6 PM or so.

Above: Shelf cloud over Fairfield Lake, Texas on eastern side of HP supercell.

Above: Rotating bowl-shaped wall cloud near Fairfield Lake.

Above: HP storm near Wortham, Texas in Navarro County.

Above: Mammatus at sunset west of I-45.

 

[James Langford]

Quick chase recap, with video coming later. I was able to leave out of DFW around 1:30 to chase the cells that were firing just to the South of Dallas. Headed down highway 45 and punched through some heavy rain to get south of the now two dominant cells. Took highway FM660 to the East, and observed a small wall cloud on the Eastern cell. This cell quickly fell apart as the cell to the West of I45 organized. Went back West and ended up on the service road of I45, just south of Palmer. The cell had a well defined hook on radar, and was moving very slowly SE along I45. I was able to film from this position for close to 30 minutes, and I believe I observed a large cone funnel back in the darkness under the wall cloud, but I couldn't tell if it was touching the ground. It quickly became stretched and dissipated as the storm became more outflow dominant. I had to head back to Dallas due to commitments that evening, so was unable to observe anything after that point.

 

[Ric Burney]

Great little spur of the moment chase in southern Dallas Co. and Ellis Co. TX this day. Full report w/ pics at: http://www.wxdallas.com/wx05202010.html

 

[David Conaway]

I left work and traveled south on I-45 towards Ennis to intercept the storms. The Original Waxahachie storm was moving east and I had to try and beat the storm to I-45. I was able punch the storm and get South of it before the core reached Palmer. I did experience some blinding rain with small hail, but nothing to bad.

I did get to watch the mesocyclone as it moved accross I-45. I did see a lot of scud and lowerings, but I did not see any funnels from my vantage point. There was another supercell off to the east between Kaufman and Mabank. The outlfolw from this storm was being ingested into the Ennis storm.

As the storm begin to take a Southeasterly track, I moved to the Corsicana area. I did witness a funnel as it tracked to the East of Corsicanna along highway 287. Because of the terrain and another storm developing, I tracked back to Richland on I-45.

This new storm really had it's act together but was moving faster and right down I-45. The storm had excellent structure and a tightly wound up mesocyclone. I did get a funnel that ran parallel to I-45 between Richland and Streetman.

This day was a nice little surprise and bagged a few funnels close to home

David Conaway

 

[Albert Rodriguez]

5/20/10

If I remember correctly headed out on I-35 south after seeing the NWS issue a tornado watch. My intentions were to get south of the storms and watch when I looked to my right and BOOM there was my first tornado. I pulled over and took the first picture you see (1:09 p.m.). I couldn't figure how to zoom and save the picture so you could see it more clearly. I watched the cell cross over I-35/Waxahachie picture 2 which looks like a funnel cloud. The last picture was taken looking north on FM 877.