Large Nado Hits Chasers, Spotters, Locals

[Bill Tabor]

Sunday as the storm near Hamlin finally wound down and darkness was setting in I was travelling southeast on hwy 83 between Hamlin and Anson. Suddenly in the distance - perhaps 1/4 mile a large area of rotation with dirt and debris begins on the right side of the road (headed southeast) crosses the road and remains over it for awhile and eventually moves to the left side. I could see the funnel raising several hundred feet in the air and there was cloud material overhead but not the typical cloud base. At first I thought it was another tornado as we had seen one after another that day and the old weakening wallcloud still wasn't that far behind. Cars on the road (chasers, spotters, and locals) were deluged with dust and dirt / debris. People were hitting their brakes (brake lights coming on), turning wierd ways in the road, pulling off, etc. It lasted awhile and finally cleared them. I suppose it could have been a landspout with a clear vortex, but I am leaning toward a pretty strong gustnado.

Were any of the rest of you on this list in this whirl, or did anyone else on the list see it?

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I was south of Hamlin as the storm was winding down, and we did see a gustnado along the leading edge RFD gust front before the sun set. This isn't the one you are referring to, since we were the only ones on the country road and saw the gustnado develop and dissipate in 30 seconds maybe. We did see a large amount of dust a minute or two later being kicked up along the same gust front to our southeast.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Yeah, there were a couple of decent gustnadoes as the meso transitioned to outflow south of Hamlin ... snapped photos of one or two of them. We moved out of the way of one that came down the gravel road we had been sitting on that formed just ahead of the now transitioned gust front ... this is probably the one Bill saw, as there were maybe two or three other cars sitting on the road watching the storm. Was enough to kick up dirt and look pretty cool, but that was about it. Enough that we still moved out of the way -

There had actually been a pretty good funnel maybe 5-10 minutes before this right on the south side of Hamlin itself ...

 

[Bill Tabor]

Could have been the same one but the one I saw crossed the actual paved highway and messed with a bunch of vehicles. I think there were probably at least 10 to 15 vehicles involved and the rotation was probably almost 1/8 to 1/4 mile in diameter.

 

[David Douglas]

Bill Tabor was driving and I was in the passenger set - I told bill "hurry up and drive up to that gustnado, it looks like fun!" Oh well... We hung back to wach the chaos.. :shock:

What we saw was on the leading edge of the outflow boundary.

David Douglas
Austin, TX

 

[Brandon Clement]

Chris Whitehead noticed it and brought it to our attention. We were standing on the side of the road chatting with Mike Mezuel, David Drummon and a few others. It was hard to tell at first if it was a gustnado or a weak spin up but after a few seconds you could clearly see it was a gustnado. Chris or Mike may have got it on video since they were recording. Even after the storm began to fizzle it gave us some great colors, lightning, gustnado's and contrast. I'm pretty sure this is the same one you were referring to. It was just southeast of Hamlin on Hwy 83.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Probably the same one. I think I got part of it on the dashcam, but it was mostly after it crossed the road and past the chasers. I'll have to check the footage.