Do I ever get scared?

[David Drummond]

An incident happened when I was chasing the other night. I wrote a story about it the next morning. After sharing it privately with some of my closer chaser friends, I was encourage to go ahead and share it publicly. Perhaps it will help some newer folks (and maybe some more experienced chasers) in some way.

Due to the post text limitations, I will post in in two part posts to follow....

 

[David Drummond]

05/24/07
Do You Ever Get Scared?

I am often asked that by regular, non-storm chasing folks. I’ve gotten a little nervous from time to time, but what I am going to share with you is probably the scariest thing that has EVER happened to me in my entire life. It quite possibly changed me as a person and may possibly affect any future storm chasing I might do. In fact, I am not even sure at this point if I ever want to chase again. I am not much of a writer, so please bear with me...

On the night of 5/24/07, I ended up northwest of Canadian, TX on an absolutely incredibly intense supercell that I had been chasing since Stinnett, TX. I had already seen a couple of tornadoes and experienced some 2+ inch hail along with all the other chasers that got stuck on Hwy 70 by the Canadian River Valley.

I had just repositioned to re-intercept this storm NW of Canadian. The lightning was INCREDIBLE....continuous. Very much like strobe lights. It was very easy to see the storm structure/features. I could see a beautifully sculpted mesocyclone to my northwest with LOTS of scud/wall cloud activity under it. Inflow into this storm was in excess of 60 mph! It was HOWLING in to it!

It was not long until another tornado had formed, and then quickly dissipated, and then another. I was amazed there wasn't a wedge sized tornado down the whole time. I repositioned again to SW of Lipscomb. The storm had been tracking northeast and I was stair-stepping the roads northeast with it. There was a HUGE rotating bowl shape under this updraft. The lightning was so repetitive you could actually SEE the rotation. I don't recall EVER seeing something like that at night before.

It was time to reposition again and my plan was to go up Hwy 305 from Lipscomb where CR-N goes east. Every map I have looked at shows this road to be paved, and my Delorme mapping program on my laptop did as well...it was my next east option to stay out in front of the storm.

When I got to it...it was a MUD road...not paved at all. Earlier storms had made it unsafe as a chase road. Oh no! My next east option was several more miles north at Hwy 15. I could still see the mesocyclone to my NW and made a judgment call that I could "just" make it to that in time.

I could see a HUGE precipitation core to my west coming in and I KNEW there was HUGE hail in that, which I wanted to avoid. So I punched the accelerator and moved forward. What happened over the next half hour or so will be forever engrained in my memory.

As I proceeded quickly north, I could see some of the rain starting to wrap around the huge rotating lowering. The storm seemed to accelerate at this point, and what I didn't know at the time, but saw later on the radar loops, made a brief right turn and went due east. It was the combination of that and my originally planned east option being mud that almost cost me my life.

I floored it trying to hurry and get to Hwy 15, but it was just not meant to be. I became engulfed in the rain wrapping around the rotating lowered area, near the ground now. Visibility was ZERO and I could barely make out a center road stripe just off the left fender. This would become my guide for what seemed like an eternity.

Blinding rain and hail came from the west horizontally at well over 80 mph. I am pretty sure about the speeds because I was barely moving at the time and that was what the weather station on my vehicle was showing. All I could concentrate on was getting to Hwy 15 so I could blast east and get away from it.

Then the wind began to shift to the south, and was "pushing" me to the north. The rain was more like a vaporized mist/fog, moving very rapidly. Then it began to shift around in all sorts of directions. There was a little bit of small hail, but for the most part it was this very spooky, fast moving mist/fog that would shift around quickly from all directions, sometimes even going UP! If felt as if several people were outside my chase vehicle shaking it from different directions.

I thought “Oh my God, NOOOOO! OH please NO!” I knew there either was a tornado very nearby or was right on top of me. In my mind, I decided, “OK I would just stop where I was and maybe it will miss me”. That was a worse idea. It turned out that misty/foggy rain was actually moving at 107 mph and really WAS pushing me.

At this point I became more scared that I have ever been in my entire life. I have been in (and in close proximity to) low-end tornadoes before, but this was different somehow. I was never scared before. Perhaps it was because I knew this storm had the potential to produce a large and violent tornado? Perhaps it was being alone, at night in a very rural area? Perhaps it was the fact I couldn’t see a thing? I don’t know, but this time was different, I was scared beyond all belief that I was about to die. I would die alone.

Thoughts rapidly ran through my mind how to make the best outcome of this. I grabbed my cell phone and shoved it in my pocket, thinking if I got separated from my vehicle maybe I could call for help if I was injured. I fully believed I was about to be flung across the countryside. Despite all the stuff you hear about getting in low lying areas etc, there was no way I could even FIND a low lying area, and even if I could it was most likely flooded.

I saw some lights on the side of the road ahead, and thought there might be a house or something there. I could just barely make out the orange sodium lights. Just then, there were multiple green power flashes very near me...some sparks coming from some unknown place flying around with the rain/fog. I still could see nothing and KNEW I had to do something. I decided if the tornado was moving northeast as it had been, I could keep going north and it would move northeast away from me. I knew I would be in the precipitation core, but anything was better than the tornado! So on northward I crept. I am not very religious normally, but I began seriously praying to God. I guess the old saying is true...there are no atheists in a foxhole.

...continued next post....

 

[David Drummond]

I was just saying out loud, “Oh please God don't let this be a tornado...please, please, please, oh God please”. That went on for some time. I could feel my heart racing and realized I had a death grip on the steering wheel with both hands. I have literally never been so scared in all my life and for the first time in my whole life I seriously thought I was about to die and there was literally nothing I could do at this point to prevent it.

I don't know how long this went on exactly. I was expecting side windows to be blown out at any time. I could hear stuff hitting the van...some of it I know wasn't hail. But nothing sounded big. I finally made my way to Hwy 15 and thought, “I could blast east now and escape this nightmare”. As I started heading east, it got even WORSE. I finally just stopped in the middle of the road, turned my windshield in to the wind, (which was coming from the northwest now)....in the middle of the road....and just stopped. I figured my windshield at least won't shatter like the side windows will. I briefly wondered again why they had not broken yet. I grabbed a thick towel I had in the vehicle and put it over my head and laid my seat back. I was shaking uncontrollably at this point and just praying it would be over soon. ...and then it all just stopped instantly. Just like that. I could see around me again!

There were no lights anywhere to be seen. No other cars, nothing. It was pitch black except for the lights from my vehicle. I straightened my vehicle up on the side of the road. It was still raining, but only lightly now. I quickly checked the radar to see just where I was in reference to the storm. To my surprise, my Sprint data card was still active and connected and feeding my radar. The worst had passed...although there were some other storms lining out to the southwest...but it looked like most of it was going to miss this area.

I had had enough. I was done chasing storms for the day. I just wanted to get home as fast as I could. I slowly drove back to the 305/15 intersection and turned south on 305. After a mile or so I saw several cows standing on the side of the road. They appeared to be injured...there was some blood, but nothing gushing and they were still walking. I think there were 3 of them. I continued on…

I saw a power pole with transformers lying beside the road. I was thinking to myself, “This isn’t good!”. I was STILL very much physically shaking. I then turned all the perimeter lights I have on my vehicle to light the area and proceeded slowly southward, thinking there might be some power lines on the road I didn’t want to drive in to. For three tenths of a mile, power poles and lines were strewn all about the area. Some poles were still standing and leaning way over and others were snapped off only a couple of feet above the ground. There were a lot of them. I began seeing parts of some trees. I could see some trees off the road that had that "tornado shredded" appearance that is unmistakable. Then I noted large and small pieces of mangled sheet metal strewn all over. I could see in the lightning it was all over the fields too, both east and west of the road. Some of it was wrapped around the tops of the downed power poles, as if it was wrapped on there before they went down. Some of the large water troughs used for cattle were lying around, some other stuff I couldn't identify. This is when it really hit me...I had been there...RIGHT THERE...just moments before. I don't know why, but I just immediately and uncontrollably began to cry. I really don’t even understand why actually. I am normally a very strong person in the face of difficult times and this was very uncharacteristic of me, but I guess it was partly in relief, maybe partly in thanks for what I had just survived. I felt a huge amount of tension drain out of me and I stopped shaking. For the first time in my life I believe I finally realized what tornado victims feel. I just sat there in the vehicle in the middle of the road and cried for a bit.

When I finally began to compose myself, I realized I STILL had not seen any other vehicles out there. I know this is a rural area, but there are some small towns near there. Were they not watching this storm? Did they get wiped out? I had no idea. But I remembered the sodium lights that went out earlier and thought there might be people living there, so I went looking for them. I did find them; they were flagging me down with a flashlight. Most of their property remained intact. It was an elderly couple and they were very much shook up. They said they thought their house was going to go. Sound like a jet was sitting on top of their house, they said, and they knew the roof was going to go any minute. They had heard the warning just before the power went out, but their cellar was outside and it hit so fast they could not even get to it. So they hid in their house. They were shook up, but OK. They were thankful I had checked on them. Seems the tornado passed just south of them, between their place and another one down the road. I could find no one home there. Between the two places the pivot irrigation systems had been mangled, almost beyond recognition.

She told me of a neighbor’s house on the small hill to her northwest. I later learned that house had a large metal barn. The type that would have had sheet metal like what I had seen strewn about the countryside. I could not see the house in the lightning, and the road to it was mud and covered in power lines. As of this writing I don't know if it was intact or not. The last volunteer firefighter I talked to said they had not been able to reach the people on the phone.

It was about that time I realized something. There was a lot of this debris lying around....exactly in the location where I had just experienced all that I have just told you about. I had been there...in the middle of all the chaos. Yet, somehow...I remained untouched by ANY of it. Not a single piece of it hit me. Aside from a few new hail dents, not a single bit of damage to my vehicle. Not a single power pole lay on the pavement. Not a single piece of power line was on the pavement. In fact....there wasn't even as much as a piece of vegetation on the pavement. It was very unsettling as you always at least see leaves and grass and rocks plastered on the pavement when a tornado passes. Not this time. The route through the mess remained clear. How could this happen? How did all of that stuff flying around miss me?

I ended up calling the Amarillo National Weather Service, reporting what I was seeing. Then I went to the nearby small community of Darrouzett, TX to tell them what had happened. They had just got their power back on and were sending some volunteers out already.

I tried to make my way back home and it was difficult finding a way out of the area. Many roads were either blocked with debris from the storms or flooded and low crossings.

I can't explain what happened to me or rather what didn't happen to me, other than someone was definitely looking out for me. How I made it through that unscathed is beyond my comprehension right now. Perhaps guardian angles really do exist? I am still very emotional about this today. As of this moment, I don't even want to ever chase another storm again. I have seen much over the last 23 years, but maybe it's time to move on to something else. I don't know, maybe I will feel differently in a few days, or when the next severe weather setup comes around. But right now, I just want some nice days with no significant weather to deal with.

I may get blasted or ridiculed by certain other storm chasers for sharing this. I really don't care. It was a trying, horrifying and extremely emotional experience. I feel like I would be letting myself and others down if I didn't share it. I feel like I HAVE to share it to get past it somehow.

For the first time in my chasing career, I feel like I finally understand the tornado fear.....

THE END

 

[Jason Boggs]

Dude, your definitely not going to get blasted or ridiculed by me. THAT"S FOR SURE!! That's one heck of a nightmare you went through and I'm glad you made it without being hurt. I'm really glad you shared this because MANY people including myself can learn a lot from what you just wrote. It may sound cheesy, but I always say to myself before I go out that this might be my last chase. If and when that ever happens, at least I would die doing what I love to do.

I hate it when Delorme shows a road that's paved and it isn't. I also hate it when the road is paved but turns into dirt. I think since this did have something to do with you getting in harms way, we should have a sticky or at least a thread of some sort that shows dirt roads (when we think they're paved) or roads that turn into dirt. I'm sure a lot of us can contribute to something like this and it definitely will keep a lot of us safer. Again, glad your ok and thanks for the story.

Actually, I will start a thread and post some dirt roads that I know show to be paved.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Wow, that was horrifying just to read. Glad you made it out ok, although it left you emotionally shaken up and rightfully so. I can't even begin to imagine what you felt during that nightmare.

Like Jason said, we've gotten screwed because of the roads. Back on March 24th Chris Wilburn and I were chasing in NW Kansas and our chasing came to a halt when the pave road we been going down for the past 15 miles or so suddenly turned into pure mud.. the roads east and west were the same. We actually met up with Verne and Michael Carlson here because they to got caught by the "mud trap".

 

[Brian Emfinger]

Great story! Glad you made it out of that ok. We all take chances on roads being represented accurately on our maps/gps and so really that can happen to any of us on any chase.

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Glad you are ok David. This type of stuff happens and there is nothing we can really do about it. I got about a mile away from the Macksville wedge north of Greensburg and the inflow alone scared the heck out of me it was so intense. What time was this David? I was chasing that night and remember 3 different tornadic supercells passing over the exact same area after dark. The location was the highway 23/highway 83 junction southwest of Lipscomb. Each storm was well lit with lightning illuminating the base of the storms. Each one had a very well defined wall cloud and some funnels off and on, but we never saw a tornado. Glad you are ok.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

David, I'm very happy that you are not hurt and alive. I hope other chasers can learn something from this.

I disagree with the other posters that there is nothing we can really do about this. A couple of lessons to take away from this and other very close nighttime encounters this year that will make your nocturnal chasing safer:

1. When trying to "thread the needle" at night, never trust your radar data to be precise. There are limitations with radar data. For example, Darouzette is near the maximum distance between three radars (KAMA, KDDC, KVNX) such that the radar beam is very wide and far above the ground. Also, never trust the data values to accurately portray the actual intensity. As we remember from a similar encounter on 5/5/07, the KVNX radar beam at 0.5 degrees is severely attenuated to its southwest. On 5/12/05, MTN users only saw a core of 55 dBZ before they got munched by massive hail, because MTN maxes out at that value. Also, never trust your radar software to be timely. GR3 can be up to 6 minutes old, and MTN data can be up to 10 minutes old, even when they are downloading data on time .

2. Never trust DeLorme to tell you what county roads are paved and which are not. In fact, in states where available, I highly recommend supplementing your DeLorme software and paper atlases with the paper Shearer "Roads of" atlas series. "Roads of Texas" was their first publication (it's at least 20 years old), and I've never encountered a situation where they marked a road as paved and it was actually not paved. In fact, I've even found a few roads marked as dirt which were actuallly paved.

3. Always trust your eyes. This is so vital during daytime chases, so at night, you basically lose your most important meteorological sensor.

What does this all mean? Keeping a wider-than-daytime-normal berth from the business end of the storms is suggested. I really don't want to sound like "I told you so", especially after David was so shaken up by this, and I hope this doesn't come across as completely insensitive. But a seasoned chaser learns to really respect the storms, and learns to understand a lot of the limitations of the tools we use to chase storms. This is what helps us live another day to chase more storms.

Perhaps revealing that I too had a similar encounter, during the day with a killer tornadic HP supercell in my very early days of chasing (while chasing with Gene Rhoden and Dave Gold) helps in showing that we are all not perfect and learn our lessons. We use the lessons to improve our chasing, and hopefully impart the lessons learned to other chasers so they can avoid similar situations.

 

[Dave Lewison]

I was watching the spotternetwork overlay on GR3 that night while nowcasting for some other chasers, and I remember seeing a few chaser vehicles ahead of, and some *in* the core of that storm. I think you were one of them, and I know Hank Baker was (I hope he's okay too). Night chasing is a dangerous prospect, even with all the data at your fingertips. But I realize it's not always feasible to be able to break off a storm when you want to...especially with the crappy road network where you were.

I've felt what you're feeling to an extent before (although not nearly as severe or life-threatening). I'd say the May 12 2005 gorilla hail-fest in S. Plain TX was the scariest I've been through. It's not a nice feeling sitting in a vehicle, helpless, unprotected, no ability to go anywhere (road blocked by power poles), and wondering which is gonna be the hailstone that comes through the window or caves in the windshield! Scott McPartland's XTerra was absolutely destroyed by these huge hailstones, and I felt mostly to blame for having gotten us into that predicament. For a few days, I thought I'd had enough of chasing, period. But that went away. And now, a couple years later, Scott & I still enjoy the comments on the vehicle's numerous hail dents.

You'll get back on the horse too. It may take longer than it did for me, but you'll get there. Next time you see a Cb exploding skyward, you'll still wanna go after it. Trust me.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I've never been through anything that bad, but many lesser incidents early in my chase career. Spending the night in my car stuck in mud on May 2, 2001 SW CDS was one. A rotating WC passed within 100 yards of me. Wrecking my car the very next night. May 27, 2001, S of Meade KS, which scared me because I was a newbie then, had almost no meteorological knowledge, and didn't understand what was happening. A couple others.

I've always been extremely reluctant to admit that one of my chasing accessories is a helmet, because I know many of you would double over in laughter at me for chasing with a helmet. Well, I do, I've worn it a few times in bad situations, and now you know.

 

[David Wolfson]

Each to his/her own in chasing, but I have to say I'm very glad you came out all right from the experience and that we all can learn from it.

Personally, we parked off FR1920 at several locations on a hill about two miles southwest of Lipscomb and watched the progress of the storm past us for the better part of an hour with low enough lightning risk and precip for limited excursions outside the car. Beautiful structure and trying very hard to tornado. As it was getting pretty dark, we began to book our rooms for the night. Right at that time the larger storm had spun up a full-featured forward slant-topped bowl on its south side at a location I'd estimate as something like four or five miles to our nne somewhere north of Lipscomb. I remarked to Dean's guest that there was probably a weak tornado in there but you'd never see it, and that I hoped none of the bazillion chasers we saw had wandered too far north on 305. Among other things south road options were very limited because of the Wolf River.

I dunno if this was the storm you got caught in, but it sounds like the same considerations applied. Our personal risk/reward checklist kept us south of Lipscomb. Your experience reinforces the lesson, I think, that it's important to have such a personal checklist, especially when solo chasing.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I do remember that night looking at GRLevel3 and I had the spotter network place files loaded and there was a point I saw David on there and I thought "holy crap, I hope he's still not there". I'm wondering if this was at the time he had his experience.

 

[Walker Ashley]

First, I completely agree with Greg's post above. Also, not to knock you, but I gotta ask why ...

Why continue to go north on 305 when you clearly knew you were about to get cored? CR-N never should have been an option to begin with ... just the name of that road alone spells "dirt road."
Why did you continue north (and east) when turning around and heading south was your best escape route? Even after you knew you were in trouble you continued north, why?
Why play so close to HP'ish mesos at night with little or no road network?

Maybe I misinterpreted the chain of events?

I was on this stuff that evening and I had not intention of playing the "game" at night with that road network. It makes no sense to me why someone would place themselves in this situation to begin with. Different strokes ... I guess. Nevertheless, I'm glad you made it out okay!

 

[Joey Ketcham]

First, I completely agree with Greg's post above. Also, not to knock you, but I gotta ask why ...

Why continue to go north on 305 when you clearly knew you were about to get cored?

The main reason David got caught was because the storm took a right turn rather than continuing it's track to the northeast. If the storm had not done that, David would have been fine, and he knew this. But obviously that didn't happen, the storm too an unexpected right turn. It's times like this that we are reminded that thunderstorms can sometimes throw a curve ball.

Back on May 29th, 2004 me and a few others were east of a tornado watching it as it tracked to the northeast, suddenly it took a right turn. It happens. I've been in similar situations knowing that I could go north a few miles and make it to the next east road option just fine.

It's even more difficult too when chasing at night.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

...the storm took an unexpected right turn.

"Right turning" is typical supercell behavior. Hardly something that should be unexpected.