6/21/04 REPORTS TEXAS

[Jay McCoy]

Since there isnt a reports thread I will put it here for now. Beautiful storm in Amarillo today. Caught 3 small tornadoes that were very brief and f-0 types and missed all the hail (thankfully). The first was west of amarillo on I-40 near bushland. the second was due south of bushland by just a bit and the last was just north of canyon by about 4 miles. The west side of amarillo has major hail damage from softball hail. multiple car dealerships, the Mall and a hospital have a ton of damage along with power lines down all over town. Amarillo did dodge a huge bullet today. that wall cloud came right over the west side of town and could have easily wiped it out. the DEM went to the highest warning criteria we have and we did sound the sirens for the entire city as I and the other AES spotters were calling in our reports. This will be a multiple million dollar storm with all the glass and roof damage (sure a few million with the dealerships alone)

 

[Gayla Drummond]

Hi...it was interesting, to say the least.

http://wx5gal.com/Archived/2004/06213004/06212004.htm

Jay, exactly what time were these tornados? I live just five miles down the road from Bushland (due south)! I never heard the sirens (it was said on the news when I stepped inside once that the sirens had just been sounded for Bushland), though I was outside taking photos of this storm.

 

[Jason_Politte]

Perhaps this can be moved to the reports thread when one is created.

I also intercepted the supercell northwest of Amarillo yesterday and observed two weak tornadoes with it, as I chased it from Bushland to east of Canyon.

Supercell structure:
http://www.onthefront.ws/images/dsc00468.jpg

The first tornado was a dust whirl that persisted for a couple of minutes before a funnel formed above it at 7:14 just north of I-40 and west of Bushland:
http://www.onthefront.ws/images/dsc00456.jpg
http://www.onthefront.ws/images/dsc00457.jpg

The second tornado at 7:34 was a multi-vortex dust whirl under a rapidly rotating meso located southwest of Bushland:
http://www.onthefront.ws/images/dsc00460.jpg

After letting the cell go southeast of Canyon, I bumped back northwest to intercept another supercell moving once again toward Amarillo and observed what appeared to be a large and persistent funnel northwest of the city:
http://www.onthefront.ws/images/dsc00467.jpg

Eventually this feature dissipated as the storm continued southeast and became disorganized.

A great chase yesterday and a good way to end the year. It was good to finally meet up with friends Gene and Karen Rhoden in the field while observing the second tornado, and I must also extend my appreciation to Dave Lewison for his excellent nowcasting and timely updates. Once again, he did a fantastic job.

Jason Politte
Conway, AR

 

[Jay McCoy]

Gayla, the first tornado was somewhere around 7:15 and the next was about 15-20 minutes later. The second was almost due south of Bushland just north of Hollywood rd and west of the road that runs south from bushland. it dropped about 200 yards from me and I can verify jasons report that it looked to be multiple vortex. The sirens should have been going off since I reported both tornadoes directly to our EOC (they were in amarillo). The last one was about 5 miles NNW of canyon. it came down and up a couple of times. By reading the amarillo LSR it looks like a NWS employee saw it also which helps confirm my reports. I was lucky that I was able to stay south of the hail core.

 

[Gayla Drummond]

How we missed seeing those two around Bushland...I'm not sure. The first was probably too far or it was too small for us to see at that distance, even though both or one of us were outside and staring down there, :lol: from 7:12pm on. (Edit: Like I said in my account, I did not have a good view of the main area of activity!) The second...well, maybe that one was when we were out feeding the horses, and unable to see what was going on at ground level in that direction. Go figure.
The Canyon one, we didn't go there, which explains missing that one.

Congrats you two on the viewing and taping!

The sirens though, we never heard'em. The wind was blowing due north, but I think we still should have been able to hear them! Bushland's are located at the gas plant? (That was what our neighbors have said.)

 

[Jay McCoy]

Originally posted by GaylaDrummond
How we missed seeing those two around Bushland...I'm not sure. The first was probably too far or it was too small for us to see at that distance, even though both or one of us were outside and staring down there, :lol: from 7:12pm on. (Edit: Like I said in my account, I did not have a good view of the main area of activity!) The second...well, maybe that one was when we were out feeding the horses, and unable to see what was going on at ground level in that direction. Go figure.
The Canyon one, we didn't go there, which explains missing that one.

Congrats you two on the viewing and taping!

The sirens though, we never heard'em. The wind was blowing due north, but I think we still should have been able to hear them! Bushland's are located at the gas plant? (That was what our neighbors have said.)

It would have been easy to miss them if you werent close. They never did have full condensation to the ground. just great rotation, small funnels and debris on the ground so if you were more than a few miles away you would miss them. Also there was alot of dirt blowing around in the RFD winds. In fact I think that is what kept us from having a sustained tornado. Soon as a tornado would develope the RFD would undercut it which I think saved the west side of Amarillo from a disaster. Especially with all the civilians that came out to look at the storm after the tornado warning was issued. If a large tornado would have dropped from that wall cloud over Soncy rd we would have had at least 1000 casualties. it was bumper to bumper at times with folks out looking for the tornado with family in tow. kids and all.

Here is a ling to some photos from the amarillo globe news showing damage http://www.amarillo.com/galleries/gallerie.../16/photo1.html

 

[Michael Linneer]

I caught up with this storm just north of Lorenzo at 10:45 looking northeast and snapped this:

http://www.webphotoforum.com/artist_pic.asp?pid=50199

While I do some chasing, my primary interest is lightning... from a safe distance and a zoom lens. The amount of C to C in this tower was amazing. I rarely see such an active storm, with dozens of sprites and crawlers every minute. I got several good shots before the outflow shelf obscured the tower and 40mph winds forced me back into the van.

Mike Linneer
Lubbock, TX

 

[Gayla Drummond]

Originally posted by Jay McCoy
....of dirt blowing around in the RFD winds. In fact I think that is what kept us from having a sustained tornado. Soon as a tornado would develope the RFD would undercut it which I think saved the west side of Amarillo from a disaster. Especially with all the civilians that came out to look at the storm after the tornado warning was issued. If a large tornado would have dropped from that wall cloud over Soncy rd we would have had at least 1000 casualties. it was bumper to bumper at times with folks out looking for the tornado with family in tow. kids and all.

Here is a ling to some photos from the amarillo globe news showing damage http://www.amarillo.com/galleries/gallerie.../16/photo1.html

I'd bet money you're right about that. As it was, just from the little bit we got out and looked at today, it was bad enough.

Those people...I know why we got out, :lol: but I, too, saw several vehicles full of families out on the sides of the roads....we didn't actually ever make it down Soncy, of course, since that's not our way home, but you probably saw were I described getting stuck under the underpass at Hollywood and I27. There was three vehicles pulled under there when we went west, and my high estimate while stuck there was 20 at one point in time...not that 20 vehicles fit underneath an overpass very well.

When we first encountered the large hail, and whipped a U-turn to go back west, we spotted at least three trucks pulled over, with teenaged drivers standing outside their vehicles watching the storm. One was just about 10 yards from where the hail first started falling...I rolled down the window and yelled at him to get back in his truck...don't know if he listened or not. It's not like you couldn't see something was happening!

I'm just glad our daughter was at her aunt's house, and not here, or I might have second thought getting away from it. It was bad enough worrying about our horses and what might happen to them.

I just don't understand the taking of small children out to try to hunt down a tornado. Never have.

BTW, Jay, thank you for the specifics on that second tornado...that was probably just around a mile from our house.

 

[Jay McCoy]

The latest damage etimates are $100 million from the softball hail.

here is a link for more info.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/062304/new...w_havocon.shtml