5/5/09 REPORTS: TX

[Donald Giuliano]

Short:

A fun day overall since I wasn't expecting too much, but a bit disappointing in that the storm we were on came very close to producing several times but couldn't quite get over the hump.

Long:

Arrived in Throckmorton around 4pm and waited there for a couple hours waiting for the cap to break. Saw the first storm going up near Breckenridge and blasted south, only to watch it die as we pulled up next to it. The next cell then exploded and we got out ahead of it hoping the core would stay north of the road. Then a third cell blew up behind the second and became dominant, which meant we had to drive back west toward Breckenridge.

As this core approached the road, we dove south on some back roads and spent the better part of an hour winding arounding back and forth staying just ahead of the meso. We repeatedly saw very rapidly rotating rain curtains beneath the meso and associated wall clouds, to the point of being borderline tornadic a couple of times. Eventually we got completely road-screwed, with the only option to continue following the storm being a road that went straight through the core to Strawn, where a south road was available. We decided to stop and wait a bit to see what happened, as the storm cycled up and a rotating wall cloud took shape and lowered about halfway to the ground to our south.

At this point we decided the heck with it, we're just going to punch the core and deal with the consequences. So we raced east to Strawn, driving through 2" hail for several miles, and then turned south and drove toward I-20. We had almost escaped the hail core to the south of Strawn and had a clear view of the now much-less-impressive wall cloud when our windshield finally cracked due to the plethora of falling baseballs. We continued racing south to get out of it, suffering about a half-dozen more hail strikes to the windshield. Ironically, all the hail cracks were on the driver's side, LOL.

As we drove south of I-20, a new rotating wall cloud then formed off to our east, but given that a) it was less impressive than what we had already seen, b) it was rapidly getting dark, and c) the only east road option was had, I-20, was directly through the core, we decided to call it quits and head home.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm so sick of every decent storm I get on in 2009 moving into a horrible road network!!!! Can't I get at least ONE good storm somewhere other than treed-out hills and river valleys with windy and muddy roads?!?

 

[Ben Holcomb]

We had much the same as Don, although we ended up missing the first blow up. Got on the second storm and took some dirt roads south. Ended up getting cored pretty good as we were trying to get over to Strawn.

Chased with Hans and Steve Miller (OK) today. Hans will be getting a new windshield in the morning!

I'll have some video and a chase recap on my website tomorrow as well when I finally get a chance.

 

[Connor McCrorey]

No need to specify which storm I was on lol. I wish that thing could have held on to the front for just a few more minutes, but I guess not. Had some excellent structure early, and at one point I thought it was going to do it in the field in front of us. Then a closed road got us out of position, and we got cored by at least tennis balls. Good day overall, somehow the truck is fine...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E71cjcEcrwU

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Same as half of tarnation

Was on same storm as everyone else. Sat near Olney and decided to go South in hopes cap would break so headed for Breckenridge. First storm fell apart and next one didnt. One of the best structured storms ive seen in this part of the country. It isnt a good feeling to be sitting SE of a SE moving wall cloud and the road is gone because a new bridge is going in. Luckily TIV & the rest of us found a good dirt road to keep on things. Followed the cell to Stephenville and watched its demise then came back into Jacksboro to take some good lightning & moon lit towers going up. Back in the falls now.

 

[Jane Herbert]

We were on the same storm as everyone else also...learning the road system as we went.....finally got to eat my Maccas burger at 11pm tonight <g>

Report & photos can be found here.....
http://www.stormchasers.au.com/usa050509.htm

 

[Brad Nelson]

The Storm Everyone Else Was On

Not too bad for the first chase of the year for us! I'll take it. My wife and I started out the day in a cockroach infested motel room in Wichita Falls…actually by far the worst motel room I’ve ever slept in. Ended up in Haskell where we sat around till around 3:30pm and went south towards Abilene. Had a nice CU field upon reaching Anson but noticed the CU was being eroded quickly from the west so we decided to follow the more robust CU on Hwy 180 east towards Albany. We ended up heading southeast to I-20 as a new MD was issued with development being imminent. The thinking here was that storms would develop along Hwy 180 from Albany to Breckenridge and then slide southeast towards the Interstate where we would be in perfect position. Well, the storm near Breckenridge was clearly elevated at first and quickly moving to the northeast as a result. We considered going north to intercept this storm, but decided against it due to the elevated nature and how quick it was moving, not to mention not being all the impressive on radar.

THE storm developed near Breckenridge in the wake of the first and we came up on this cell from the southeast on some unmarked road and Road 717 as it was starting to mature and become surface based fairly quickly. The first shot below is what I believe to be a large funnel that did form near Necessity to the southeast of Breckenridge. In the picture you can see the RFD cutting in from the left. This funnel had to have only lasted around a minute, if that, but it did get rather far down and looked very impressive for a moment. Thereafter, we drove underneath the meso on I-20 to try and get ahead of the storm with a south road option and encountered some rather interesting wind shifts and incredibly fast moving rain curtains as we did so, but nothing appeared too threatening. I have some video of this and, if it looks alright, I may post it later. Saw the TIV on our south road option of Hwy 16 and then got some lightning shots as it turned dark just west of Stephenville as the storm really started to die.

 

[Paul Redmond]

Compared to the folks who lost their windshields on this storm, I apparently lucked out big time, though it did not seem that way at the time. I was waiting on 180 west in central Palopinto county. The first convection was a joke and faded quickly. Though it was a loaded gun scenario, midlevels were apparently too warm? I was about to leave and then the second area of convection directly west of the first started up. This time the gun fired! At first it was moving east towards Mineral wells and was severe warned.

As the storm approached it appeared to be becoming a right mover. So I ducked south on 919 to I20 hoping to catch up with the core. Be warned 919 is like going through a tree lined tunnel and it slopes down a lot. Did I also mention that it is slippery and prone to hydroplaning? Anyways the beast in the sky had turned into a real rapid right mover and seemed to be making a beeline for stephenville with huge VIL's and a very pronounced hook echo. (Yup, my aircard worked like a champ the whole trip)

So I raced east on I20 and then south on 281. Passed under the outer bands of the precip without any hail. I then faced northwest on 281 maybe 4 miles from stephenville and saw the most beautifull updraft I have seldom seen, just as it was getting dark. Unfortunately those photos did not pan out, but the video was little better. That scene alone was worth the trip. After my photo op, the storm seemed to be diminishing. Since it ws then 9pm, I had to go to work tomorrow, and I was facing a 4 plus hour drive, I figured that it was time to head home.

 

[Brett Roberts]

Brandon Lawson, Bryan Putnam, Trey Perry and I targeted Throckmorton, arriving by 4pm. After waiting around long enough to start getting restless at the local Allsups parking lot (with just about everyone else and their mother), we took off after the initial cell that developed near Breckenridge during the 5:00 hour. It didn't take but half an hour after initiation for that storm to dissipate as it moved into western Palo Pinto Co., where we found ourselves without any data or cell service. As we meandered back west in search of even a weak signal, we ran into Sam Dienst, who fortunately had his WxWorx up and running. Once "THE" storm went up over Breckenridge, we decided to give it a few scans before calling off the chase, despite the approaching cirrus and the new cell's rather thin-looking updraft. Obviously, waiting was a good decision - less than 30 minutes later, we were approaching Breckenridge from the east and viewing a substantial wall cloud.

For the next hour or so, we leisurely followed the southeastward-moving supercell down FM-207 towards Ranger, during which time numerous wall clouds were produced to the E of the road. Here is a shot looking NE at a wall cloud from FM-207 somewhere N of Ranger, near the Stephens/Eastland Co. line:

The real fun began once we reached I-20 and headed E in an attempt to stay between the RFD and FFD until we could reach a suitable S option. We opted to pass up the exit for TX-16 (exit 361), and shortly thereafter started getting pummeled by dense hail that looked to average golfball size at its peak (with a few tennis balls perhaps mixed in). The next decent S road was TX-108, a good eight miles farther down the interstate, and by the time we reached it Brandon's windshield had a nice circular pattern of cracks right in the middle! Given that the hail must've been quite dense to do that kind of damage despite its mediocre size, I can only imagine what the vehicles of chasers who reported >3" hail to the N of there looked like.

Once we dropped S on TX-108 a few miles from I-20, we got a glimpse of the beautiful updraft structure to our SW (pic #1), along with a nice wall cloud and very cool-looking inflow band (pic #2).

I can only imagine how nice the updraft must have looked from farther S viewed in its entirety; hopefully someone was down by Huckabay or Stephenville at the time and will post pics.

Afterwards, we hung out on the side of the road to watch the now-weakening LP until complete darkness set in.

 

[Kris Hair]

Not much difference in everyone elses account... I was in Graham and saw the cells fire to the south, so I headed toward Breckenridge just in time to see the first cell fade away. Got to the RFD about the time I was at 717. I had one of those gut feelings and turned around

It was the right move... I missed most of the hail on 180, and ventured south on SH16 where I encountered golfball hail and the occasional tennis ball. That hail was SOLID!

Video of the storm on 180:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbV4574Y7u4

Couple pics:

 

[Brandon Lawson]

I won't add anything to what Brett posted, but like he said, yesterday's hail resulted in my first cracked windshield. We were a couple cars behind Jeff Snyder trying to fly east on I-20 when it occurred. I was lucky and only suffered damage from one hail stone. It may have been golf ball size, but I can't recall and I'll have to watch Trey or Bryan's video to see if I can tell. I only know that it was definitely not 3-4 inch hail, so I consider myself lucky not to have been in closer proximity to the heart of the core. I'm really interested in seeing the hail damage that other people suffered if anyone has pics. Here's my windshield:

 

[Paul Sherman]

Great Chase, Targeted Breckenridge and Sat under the 2nd Cell that went up after the 1st one died, road options out of Breckenridge were kind stairstepping down South and East until we hit I20
Just out of Interest did anyone else see this Roping out stage about 6 Miles SE of Breckenridge

Paul Sherman

 

[Doug Raflik]

Yeah I was on that storm to...

View thru my sun roof as I got to I-20

More pics here...
http://www.wxnut.net/5-05-09.htm

Doug Raflik

 

[Ben Holcomb]

I got my chase report posted at http://www.benholcomb.com/20090505.html

 

[Bill Tabor]

Guess I better get some of the account in here as it is getting old. Been running behind and still almost no pics up on my site or here for the chases. I apologize but I will post soon...another possible chase today. I've been researching camcorders...

Anyway, left Austin early enough this time and went to Cisco. There I sat at the Alsups for over an hour monitoring the boundary/vis sat / mesoanalysis for breakout. Eventually cu built near Albany/Breckenridge and I heard Tony Cook and Randy Denzer were up there too. As towers broke around 5:30 I headed north and at first split the difference between Albany and Breckenridge as I expected storm motion to the ESE with inflow area on the trailing nw side. Headed up hwy 6 to ranch 1853 and then came out on 183 south of Breckenridge after I realized the cell had already moved to Breck and even east of there. Raced east to try and catch up on hwy 180, but it became apparent this storm was weakening. It reminded me of a balloon that someone had let go and it was shooting across the room with all the air let out.

As I continued east I came upon a road side park (7 to 9 miles east of Breck) with what I thought was a large group of townspeople having a local picnic. Turns out it was a big chaser convergence. I immediately recognised Randy's van along with the Tornaodovideos.net group and I pulled in front of Reed's red 'Dominator' tornado intercept vehicle. Long story short I said hi to Randy, Tony showed up. I said hi to Reed and chatted a bit. I told him my little red Suzuki SX4 was like the 'Mini-Dominator' aka like Mini-Me (Austin Powers). He got a chuckle out of that.

We all hung out and eventually a new storm formed just to our west with core stretching E along 180 and over us. At the time it mostly just grew in size slowly swallowing us up in the core. We began getting rain and maybe an occasional tiny hail drop here or there. Reed's group broke and went west toward the larger developing wallcloud due west and just east of Breckenridge. I pondered the tactical plan based on storm movement, road networks and then decided to follow suit. We all drove right up to it basically and it appeared very active in my opinion. When we got to the wallcloud it was just south of the road and still moving most E or slightly south of east. Time: 7:17CDT just a few miles east of Breck. There were actually 2 funnel appendages in different parts of the wall structure. I was a bit concerned realizing I might be in the path if it decides to drop just a bit further to the ground. It had quite a bit of up/down motion and some rotation. I thought a tornado was imminent. Surprised this cell was never tornado warned. Anyways...after a while of shooting pics/streaming video I decided I could either go back into the developing core and try and find a road directly in the path, or I could break to the back side through town and catch the road south of town that zig zagged to the SE. I opted for the latter worrying that at any moment the dreaded RFD would decend on me as I drove past the wallcloud/funnels to the west. I lucked out got into town, broke south and shot some video and pics off of 183 where at one point I had a nice overlook / overview of the storm and inflow area. Next I took ranch 576 east along with FM1852 and followed along just on the edge / backside of the hook and often precip filled inflow region / wallcloud etc. I had a good view much of the time, but precip sometimes blocked a clear view of the wallcloud. According to Threatnet and GR3 I was very close to the rotation so I was trying to be careful and not drive under / into something I shouldn't. Much of this time I was streaming video although my vx2000 turns off after 5 min of standby so I had to keep briefly hitting the REC button to try and keep it on.

At 7:56 on FM207 just nw of Ranger and near intersection of 207 and 717 I noticed what appeared to be the RFD just a minute or so before it had caused the inflow region to appear somewhat wrapped up, but looked like something tornadic may have been going on. GR3 next show 2 Tvs's and areas of rotation. One is almost directly in front and over me. The next is ahead down the road a mile or so more up. I immediately see a large lowered funnel cloud associated with the TVS near me and it is very near - just ahead. I turn around and back off at least a few hundred yards and watch. It shows some rotation. Behind is another lowered area associated with the other TVS. I monitor closely. Eventually these areas lift and I continue. Somewhere around this area I shoot into the primary inflow region and take a picture of what appears to be a tornado. It is a laminar funnel completely vertical (black) headed straight down but into the tops of trees so I can't see the base. Therefore I can't confirm a tornado. Possible tornado would likely be 6 to 9 miles NE of Ranger around general 7:56 time frame.

After this it begins to get dark and later as I approach Ranger and I20. I head east on I20 and decide to follow the storm toward Stephenville. Chatting on the phone with Tony, and Bill Combes and eventually Randy I learn that Tony and Randy will be in Stephenville also. I propose we meet up for dinner and a beer. Randy is all for it. It is Cinco De Mayo and there is a Mexican food place in Stephenville that Gene and I sometimes visit. After I hook up with Randy and Tornadovideos.net entourage somehow I eventually end up leading the caravan quest in search of food. Good thing I Google and call the restaraunt only to find they closed minutes before. So I lead everyone down Washington street through downtown toward the Chili's that should be open late, but along the way pass Montana's Restaurant. Randy agrees this looks like a good place. So we all pile in there and have a nice social chaser gathering. The food was pretty good, and they have some nice cold beer too. I enjoyed talking with Reed, Chris, Randy, their production crew (Mary Ann / Lisa), and even the chase tour group was behind us at another table. Tony and his friend John were briefly there as well. It's always fun to talk to the people on the tours because they are green and are really excited about the storms. Tornadovideos.net is a great group of people and they are serious about their chasing. After a nice rib eye steak and a couple beers... Randy and I headed back to Austin. No definite tubes scored, but a fun productive chase day regardless.

I promise pics soon.... Hopefully.