Kem Poyner
EF2
A few nights ago I thought I would do a search on the net to see if any other chasers may have shot video from another angle of the May 15th 2003 Lela TX tornado. My video I shot while hanging on for dear life to the side of the overpass (not under it!).
I did not find any other video, I did find however find a very in-depth study and findings from Michael French and Howard Bluestein. It covers some problems with accuracy from NWS in Amarillo's finds of the events from that night.
This image depicts what they found. ONE tornado that seemed to not follow the parent storm. It crossed the overpass on I-40 just like a car as it turned Northeast. (where I was located)
The storm was scanned by two mobile Doppler radars that contradict Amarillo's findings. The French/Bluestein report claims it was either two separate tornados or just one. They suspect just one tornado started on the North side of the overpass (my exact location) and tracked Northeast. The damage observed West of that location was probably straight line winds from a later storm that followed.
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2008WAF2222147.1
The above link is the report from French/Bluestein.
The above link is to my video that to me verifies the Amarillo report. Though it could show the demise of one tornado and a second spin up just to my East.....Any thoughts?
I did not find any other video, I did find however find a very in-depth study and findings from Michael French and Howard Bluestein. It covers some problems with accuracy from NWS in Amarillo's finds of the events from that night.
This image depicts what they found. ONE tornado that seemed to not follow the parent storm. It crossed the overpass on I-40 just like a car as it turned Northeast. (where I was located)
The storm was scanned by two mobile Doppler radars that contradict Amarillo's findings. The French/Bluestein report claims it was either two separate tornados or just one. They suspect just one tornado started on the North side of the overpass (my exact location) and tracked Northeast. The damage observed West of that location was probably straight line winds from a later storm that followed.
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2008WAF2222147.1
The above link is the report from French/Bluestein.