COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas
Transcription
COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas
COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas on June 8, 1995. Alan Moller. Photograph by Storm Track is a non-profit publication intended for the scientist and amateur alike who share an avid interest in the acquisition and advancement of knowledge concerning severe or unusual weather phenomena. It is published bi-monthly in Lewisville, Texas. David Hoadley founded the publication in 1977 and STORMTRACK has continued to grow and improve ever since. Gene Rhoden designed the current cover. David Hoadley still contributes drawns and sketches. Current, we have about 650 subscribers! Anyone can submit an article or letter to STORMTRACK. Articles should be single-spaced and contain proper english. Right justified margins are preferred or the editor can retype the text. High contrast photographs reproduce best. Diagrams should be clear and legible, subject to photo-reduction. All articles will be edited. Subscription rates are: U.S. First Class mail $14/year, Canada $14/year, and England/Japan $20/year. Each November issue will have a color cover and one issue will contain additional pages of text. Individual issues are $2.35/copy. Back issues are available by year, or the complete 18 year set (1978-1995) can be purchased for $125. To subscribe or renew, send a check or money order PAYABLE ONLY to Tim Marshall, 1336 Brazos Blvd, Lewisville, Texas 75067. STORM TRACK CLASSIFIEDS Sell or swap your wares. Only 25c per word (20 word minimum = $5, 160 word maximum = $40). Quarter page ads are $70, half page ads are $130, and whole page ads are $250. Send your request for the next issue by June 1, 1996. StormWatch, Winner: National Weather Association Media Award. StormWatch, the new, official National Weather Service Advanced Storm Spatting Training Video is now available from the Texas Severe Storms Association (TESSA). StormWatch introduces the storm spotter and reveals the unique characteristics of the severe thunderstorm they must know. StormWatch highlights storms which produce deadly lightning, ravaging flash floods, damaging hail and destructive tornadoes. Send $24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: TESSA, P.O. Box 122020, Arlington, TX 76012. Allow 3-5 weeks for delivery. Checks payable to TESSA. No purchase orders please. (1/97) NEW RELEASE! THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY. This is it! The long-awaited sequel to the awardwinning 1991 Public Television documentary CHASING THE WIND. THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY tells the true story about storm chasers and how they pursue Nature's most violent atmospheric phenomenon, the tornado. A unique tale about the storm chaser's love for storms and the Great Plains. Hosted and narrated by TWISTER's Dean Lindsay. Produced and Directed by Martin Lisius. Send check or money order for $24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: Prairie Pictures, P.O. Box 122020, Arlington, Texas, 76012. Please allow 3-5 weeks for delivery. No purchase orders please. (3/97) "CUT TO THE CHASE"...Join Minnesota stormchaser Scott Woelm for his 1994 and 1995 severe weather seasons. This quality hi-fi stereo video production includes the spectacular May 12, 1994 Fort Stockton, Texas "Wall Wall Cloud", and the eye opening June 30, 1994 Winthrop, Minnesota HP supercell. There are six brief tornadoes on this well produced and entertaining chase video, and I am confident that you will enjoy it. I offer a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE with every purchase. VHS hi-fi $25, SVHS or Hi-8 $35. Please send check or money order payable to: Scott Woelm, 8721 Van Buren St., NE, Blaine, MN 55434-2365. (3/96) STORMTALK BOOK AND STORMWATCHER VIDEO SET: Book sales are going fast and should be sold out by the end of the year. The set is still available until supplies run out at a special price of $50 U.S., $60 CANADA, and $75 OVERSEAS, post. paid. Send orders to: Tim Marshall, 1336 Brazos Blvd. Lewisville, Texas 75067. A SLOW START TO THE SEASON I. COMMENTARY This year's chase season is off to a slow start. The drought in the high plains has extended into spring leaving many farmers wondering if we are returning to the days of the dust bowl. There have been few tornadoes except for the outbreak in Illinois in mid-April. Illinois tornado outbreaks are not unusual. I witnessed three such outbreaks when I was growing up there: April 11, 1965, April 21, 1967, and April 3, 1974. But it was the Oak Lawn, Illinois tornado on April 21, 1967 that jelled my interest in tornadoes when one ripped through my town. There are many similarities between this season and last. A large trough has been centered over the eastern U.S. thanks to the persistent "Hudsons Bay" low. This has allowed a ridge to amplify over the west. As a result, we experienced a mild winter and actually hit 95 degrees in February! A few troughs have made it through the area causing some severe weather. On March 26, 1996 a hailstorm passed through northern portions of the Dallas-Fort Worth areas which should keep me busy the rest of the year. A barber pole updraft passed right over my house. The strong shifting winds knocked the power out for an evening. II. CHASER NEWS The annual chasers picnic will be held on Saturday, May 25th with an alternate date of June 1st. Enclosed is a slip of paper detailing where the annual chasers party will be. Last minute updates, changes, or cancellations can be obtained by calling the editors voice recorder at 214317-7910. Bring your own food, beverage, and best storm videotape. The party will be postponed if there is a slight risk or higher for the plains states. See you there! The TWISTER movie starts nationwide on May 10th. Please send your movie reviews to STORMTRACK for publication by June 15th for the next issue. Indicate a rating with your comments: F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 ------- Weak movie. Hardly disturbed my hair. The popcorn machine had more rotation. Mild movie. Raised a hand to my mouth a few times. Leaned over precariously. Strong movie. Good parts mixed with bad parts. Could have been better. Severe movie. Anchored in my seat throughout. Thoroughly entertaining. Intense movie. Lifted me off my seat a few times and twisted me around. Incredible movie. Lifted me off my seat and carriers me away. A great movie! STORMTRACK along with the editor will be moving into a new house. Please note our new address effective June 15th: 4041 Bordeaux Circle, Flower Mound, Tx 75028. III. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR John Schroeder, a graduate student at Texas Tech University writes: "For the first time in several years, TTU is organizing a funded chase team. The team is comprised of Atmospheric Sciences and Civil Engineering graduate students and will be funded by the Civil Engineering Department. The effort will operate from March 1 to June 30 and will cover areas close to Lubbock." Russ Burke writes about a tornado which struck Great Barrington, MA on May 29, 1995. The tornado traveled about 7 miles between 7:06pm and 7:16pm and was up to 300 yards wide. Three people were killed when the car they were in was thrown from the road. "This tornado was officially listed as F-3/F-4. Is this common practice to give a tornado a borderline rating? It was difficult conducting a damage survey as the terrain was rugged and very hilly. Also, it was densely wooded and there were few roads. However, of the homes that were damaged, I had yet to find or hear of anything that would deserve an F-4 rating. The tornado touched down just east of the Hudson River and continued up into the Berkshire Mountains. I was amazed that a tornado could travel over terrain this rugged and with such ease. I tracked the damage path over an abrupt hill, down into a small valley, and back up a very steep ridge -all the time remaining in contact with the ground. This tornado was reminiscent of the "State Line" tornado that occurred in August 28, 1973." Mark Haas, KC5HTN sent in a list of spotter resources on the World Wide Web. 1) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/spotterguide.html 2) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/glossary.html 3) http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/stormspotters/html/slidel.html 4) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/ 5) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/tx/tx.html 6) http://cirrus/sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/states/texas.html 7) http://rampages.onramp.net/ mhaas/dallasraces/ Film critic Rich Herzog sent in his movie review on the little publicized movie- THE CORIOLIS EFFECT: "The subtitle of this film was a movie about love, and severe weather. In the movie, the girlfriend of one storm chaser reveals that she was involved with his best friend and fellow storm chase partner. All of the potential conflicts exist: man vs. man, man vs. nature. The language and content of the movie made for a definite R rating. The tornado special effects were nowhere near "Wizard of Oz" standards, though there were many Oz references in the movie. The meteorological discussions were often inaccurate, such as "a strong storm system approaching the Texas panhandle from the east." All of this added up to a disappointing movie which could have been much better. However, it supposedly won awards at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. I give it an F2 out of five." Roger Edwards writes: "Fuji Velvia is best for sunsets, brightly-colored mammatus, or any situation with lots of warm colors. This film is superior for reds, yellows, and oranges. It is better for storm structure pictures out away from the storm, especially if the storm is strongly back-lit. The film bleeds colors on lightning; a magnifying glass inspection revealed undesirable thin color bands on the edges of the closer/brighter CG's. I've tried Fuji Sensia. It's an excellent is strongest in differentiating shades of best for under-the-storm shots, including as well. It is also the most versatile of overall film and handles the warm colors well hut cool colors such as blues and grays. Thus, this is most tornado situations. Excellent lightning film all films. Ektachrome film is similar to Sensia but not quite as bold in the warm bands. I can't see why people bash this film beyond its only real weakness: bold bright colors in medium to bright light. Great with cold colors and gray on gray shades, including shadowed storm structure, and "mean" looking dark blue-gray clouds. I find it to be the best lightning film. It has 1520 year lifespan of original colors under good care. The Kodachrome film is somewhat better with bright/warm colors than Sensia and Ektachrome, hut not as hold as Velvia. It is the second most all-purpose film. The main disadvantage is the remote processing (not E-6), with risk of loss. However, it is the hest long-term archive film. When slides are properly stored out of persistent light, I've seen 25+ year old images that looked like they were shot yesterday. Robert Prentice writes: "I have learned a lot from trying to film the giant "meat grinders" last year. First, I hate every type of film but FUJI. FUJI film's saturated colors make every one of my shots look like a picture postcard. I still use "cold-looking" film like Ektachrome 100 for after dusk lightning. Al Moller was right. The Fuji Velvia 50 speed is the way to go for storm structure shots. Second, in low light, use a fast film such as 200 or 400 ASA. According to the magazines I've read, fast film is much better than it used to be with graininess. Now I have two modes of operation for my two cameras. For my regular mode, I keep 50 speed Velvia in my superwide-angle camera and 200 speed Fujichrome in my zoom camera. For my dark clouds or tornado mode, I keep 200 speed film in my super-wide-angle camera and 400 speed Fuji Provia in my zoom." IV. ROSTER The ST Roster lists names, addresses, and brief biographies of those persons who are interested in or willing to correspond with others about storms and storm chasing. Jeff Gammons, 701 High Street, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Home: 407-655-2068, Beeper: 407-731-8241. email: [email protected] "I'm 22 and have been into weather since I was 10. I'm a DJ at many clubs. I want to go on a real tornado chase in the central U.S." V. FUNNEL FUNNIES: Chase Forecasting 101: Mobile Home Parks IMPRESSIONS OF A NOVICE AT HANSTON, KS by John Brosio [ unabridged for CD-ROM ] 1995 was my second year chasing storms in the midwest. I had previously located two full-fledged tornadoes and four near touchdowns in California and considered it time to finally move up to the big leagues. Having seen nothing for over a week, we awoke just north of Lubbock on May 16. May 15 had been a teaser of a day. Our chase group, headed by Marty Feely, had seen all there was to see of a supposed tornado in the Texas panhandle. There were funnel clouds and colors, close lightning, wall clouds, back-to-back bear cages, and golf ball hail, all in the midst of an HP mess. In the end, however, our most impressive twister was a mistakenly placed red triangle by the Weather Channel. Back to May 16. We headed south toward Lubbock from some throwaway town that starts with an F. The five of us had low expectations for the day and wore a variety of groggy, low energy expressions. With no real information, Marty decided to stop by the Weather Service and form a game plan. En route, we were phoned by Bobby Prentice who touted West Central Kansas as the day's best bet. Upon arriving, we met up with Jim Leonard and Roger Edwards who shared this assessment. I don't know Roger well at all, but I recognized him from the previous year when I saw three pounds of colored pencils. Jim was his usual self as far as I could tell, throwing out terms like "high level trash" and "damn cold front" or "damn warm front." It was clear from further analysis that the only chance for any real show was indeed Western Kansas. This news was met with some groaning over the distances involved but those of us in Marty's group (John "bees are cool" Lambert, Rick "the stick" Cline, Kai "I miss your mucous" Esbensen, and myself) succeeded in placing him behind the wheel and getting him to drive. We left Jim Leonard watching a video at the Weather Service. As you may imagine, a trip from Lubbock to Kansas is at first as rivetting as The Weather Channel's Florida Report. We stopped in Lubbock for a quick breakfast, hohum, and then made our way to Amarillo. We also made what turned out to be a crucial decision in choosing to avoid the Amarillo Weather Service. This later became valuable time. At 4:00, not far from Dumas, we were able to see the distant, rising dome of hard cloud tops which would eventually spawn the Hanston, KS tornado. At first sight, the dome of clouds was probably about 30,000 feet tall and coupled with other waxing and waning cloud tops, all outside the edge of an overhead cirrus band. The drive was a non-stop beeline from this point. I watched as the storm pulsated to life. It made several tries before bounding through the cap, sapping the other, smaller updrafts. It began to spread a large and very uniform anvil and we began to eavesdrop on VORTEX over Marty's scanner. The VORTEX Orion P-3 at one point reported that the storm had reached 66,000 feet. Clearly a supercell by now, we watched as an overshooting top both formed and collapsed, followed by reports of an early tornado. The storm was still over 100 miles away. Rifling through the maps, Marty was able to determine his approach in conjunction with VORTEX observations on the storm trajectory. We had the choice of going NE through Dodge City or North and then East to avoid any city traffic. Marty chose the latter and we proceeded, all the while clenching our fists and shifting in our seats as reports of additional tornadoes began to filter in over the scanner. Watching the storm, I noticed some 80 miles distant that the anvil began to disappear. The tower remained hard, but it began to thicken and spread outward. It eventually became apparent that we were watching a supercell split. A smaller anvil returned at one point and then disappeared as the hardest, though smaller, part of the storm sectioned itself off to the south. We were now 50 miles away and chasing the southern portion from the west. Six tornadoes had been reported to this point. Finally busting through the 55 mph speed limit, Marty and his gallant crew drove under the orbit-reaching wall of clouds near Jetmore, Kansas. It was somewhere close to 8:20 as I began to notice other chase vehicles parked along the road, VORTEX vehicles, and people who didn't give a damn and just wished we'd all go home. This was the moment when that crucial decision in Amarillo paid off. A flat, rain free base revealed itself both East and South of the van. The cloud bottoms were gray-green over low, grassy hills, and silhouetted in front of other activity miles to the southeast. I began to notice some dust being driven up to the cloud base off to our right, but it seemed to be some distance from any promising cloud feature. Praying that the storm had not exhausted itself, I stared ahead into what was clearly the focus of any convergence. Slowly, there descended a rotating, bowl shaped portion of clouds due east of us. Its parent motion took it some way to the cloud feature which had previously hovered over the aforementioned RFD dust. Despite what we were seeing, however, Eric Rasmussen called an end to VORTEX activity for the day. Marty stopped the van near a small congregation of chasers after a non-stop four and a half hour drive. I jumped out and looked at the bowl in the sky as a needle began to descend and broaden. It sank, all of us looking for any ground disturbance and it followed directly, dust kicking up. "Tornado, folks," announced Marty. "That ends a two year drought for me." He was referring to the twister. My first midwestern tornado, I felt compelled to run forward a bit, isolating myself in the RFD. It continued to pick up size and speed, little bits and shapes of cloud spinning around in a way that no video ever really reveals. We had been under the clouds for no more than 5-10 minutes and success had found us. The twister seemed to briefly dissipate and then the ground surged up, massing dust into the rotation of what was becoming a half mile wide, multi-vortex tornado and the sirens of Hanston, Kansas let out a wail. I had John Lambert photograph me in front of the twister as it moved into an obscure, rainy area. Once it began to truly hide, I again focused on my immediate surroundings. Among the small army of chasers was Jim Leonard who we had left in Lubbock. Also present was Matt Crowther, wild eyed and celebratory, along with Betsy Abrams. I really, really enjoyed the sense of community, despite what some say about wanting one's own storm. The stories and experiences were immediate and shared. As a matter of fact, no one seemed to want to leave. People immediately jumped into tales of how they had tracked this particular storm through the day and it was clear that as a sole experience, I would have gone mad without anyone to share it with. High on the outcome, we eventually climbed back into the van. Darkness gave way to lightning and the death throes of our storm illuminated the way to Great Bend, Kansas. It was there we spent the night under a continued tornado watch. Only recently was I told that our twister, by far the most picturesque of the day, stayed on the ground for over 50 minutes. MISSION SUMMARY: MAY 16, 1995 by Erik Rasmussen and Jerry Straka On Tuesday, May 16th, VORTEX intercepted a supercell in southwest Kansas that produced at least four tornadic circulations. We targeted southwest Kansas because we expected that region to be at the left side of a nose of a strong jet, with the associated deepening of a surface low and hacking low-level winds. Further, it appeared that CAPE would be best there because of the clearing of a thick cirrus shield. We gathered a good INIT data set on a stationary confluence line (and radar indicated fine line) near Sitka, Kansas while we were waiting for the surface features to evolve. A storm formed near a cold front/dryline intersection near Garden City late in the afternoon. It quickly became a supercell and produced its first, large tornado near Garden City before the surface armada arrived. The surface armada arrived in time to observe a second, smaller tornado just east- northeast of Garden City, extending from a very occluded, weakening flank of the storm. The entire storm seemed to weaken temporarily, and then reintensified in the vicinity of Kalvesta where it produced at least one tornado. Several mobile mesonet teams operated near that tornado. The Kalvesta circulation, or a new one near it, moved to just northwest of Jetmore, Kansas. The surface armada deployed in a north- south section of road north of Jetmore as the mesocyclone moved across the highway about six miles north of Jetmore. This was a good deployment, and included all mobile mesonet teams, turtles deployment, and attempted soundings to assess the forward-flank baroclinity. However, this mesocyclone did not produce a tornado in the same manner as the previous ones had. Instead, as the gust front south of the mesocyclone surged over Jetmore, a circulation developed on the gust front. Several teams passed under this gust front in the vicinity of the developing circulation as we maneuvered to get ahead of the storm. This was near sunset, the circulation was weak and elongated, and there were no suitable road options for data gathering. Thus, operations were officially ended. Within minutes, the circulation intensified into a strong low-level mesocyclone, and a tornado formed just southwest of Hanston, Kansas. This tornado intensified and grew in size, remaining on the ground for at least thirty minutes (perhaps more) as it moved over open country south of Burdett and Rozel. We obtained very exciting mobile scanning Doppler data of this tornado, video from numerous angles, and mobile mesonet data from one team that managed to stay ahead of the tornado. The NOAA P-3 managed to continue collecting data during the tornadic phase as they were providing communications support to the armada. MAY 16, 1995 CHASE FRENZY by William Reid The spring of 1995 was an active one for this chaser. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to stay with my friend Charlie Sill in Amarillo, Texas from early May through mid-June. My five weeks of chasing in and around the Texas Panhandle were filled with spectacular storms, several tornadoes, and only a couple of total-bust days. I drove from Los Angeles on Friday, May 5th, and reached Amarillo the next day. The occasion was marked by lightning and marble-size hail. On May 16th, the upper low that was stuck off the California coast the past couple of days, finally began to make its way eastward. Upper winds over the Panhandles were out of the southwest and midday surface analyses indicated that the "lee-low" was developing in extreme southeast Colorado. Bary Nusz, Charlie, Kinney Adams, Chris Larson, Roy Britt and I finally headed north from Amarillo, Texas about 3pm. We had high overcast despite the strong southwest winds, and the dewpoint was 62 degrees F. Towards Guymon, the dewpoint dropped to 50 degrees F as the dryline was bulging eastward through the Oklahoma Panhandle. But the high clouds were history and cumulus congestus was organizing about 75 miles to our north. By the time we reached Hugoton, Kansas, this activity had evolved into an impressive, isolated supercell, with a very pronounced back- and side-sheared anvil. The storm was moving east about 30 mph, so we took U.S. 56 northeast to intercept it. Playing catch-up seemed agonizingly slow as we monitored the tornado and hail reports in and around Garden City. Frustration and depression mounted as we arrived in Ingalls as our supercell was fizzling fast. But VORTEX reported new, strong updrafts to our north near Kalvesta, so we pressed on. We finally reached this storm near 8pm along Highway 156, west of Jetmore. Rockhard cumulus towered above us, and a vertical, needle-shaped tornado came into view to our east-northeast, about five miles away. The tornado was brief, but the long sinuous rope funnel lingered for a minute or two. After a nerve-wracking four-gallon gas purchase in Jetmore, we were quickly back on the cell's rear-end just east of town. Very impressive cumulus continued to build above us at sunset, but the updraft did not exhibit any obvious signs of low or mid-level rotation (at least from our perspective) and lightning was noticeably infrequent. Nonetheless, a classic-shaped twister slithered to the ground to our northeast. The tornado lasted perhaps a minute or two, but it was part of a much larger low-level circulation. We joined a group of chasers just were of Hanston, Kansas and watched the tornado churn the ground east of Hanston. Even though the large condensation funnel failed to extend to the ground, enough dirt got caught up in the circulation to give it an impressive wedge appearance. Six exhausted but happy chasers watched the tornado fade into the Kansas night. Large tornado south of Garden City, KS on May 16, 1995 (Jim Reed) Truck was turned 180 deg by tornado (Jim Reed) VORTEX-NCAR AIRCRAFT MISSION: MAY 22, 1995 by Roger Wakimoto Severe weather was forecast for the Texas panhandle. The Electra flew over Hobart and Frederick, Oklahoma before heading northwest to intercept developing convection near Amarillo. Several thunderstorms were identified on the nose radar. The Electra descended to 1000 feet above ground level (AGL) at 2023 Universal Time Code (UTC) and flew an east-west leg between two thunderstorms. The legs were terminated when the two cells began to merge. The numerous thunderstorms in the area made flight patterns difficult to set up. As a result, approximate north-south legs were flown on the west side of the storms. At 2118 UTC, a tornado was spotted visually by the crew. It appeared to develop from one of the earlier storms that the Electra collected data on when it first arrived on the scene. A decision was made to break off the flight pattern and fly north to the tornado to collect dual-Doppler radar data on the vortex. The tornado appeared to dissipate after the first pass. At 2245 UTC, the Electra flew to the southern-most cell in a line of storms for data collection. Coordination with the P-3 aircraft began at 2252 UTC. The patterns continued until 0059 UTC when operations were terminated. The coordinated flight patterns were successfully implemented with very little difficulty. Unfortunately, the supercell storm did not produce a tornado during the entire collection period,. THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CHASE SEASON by Robert Prentice My first real storm was Monday May 22, 1995, east of Hugoton, Kansas. Roy Britt and I met up with Roger Edwards in Dodge City. We thought the best location for tornadoes would be east and northeast of the main surface low across far southwest Kansas. Roger was having problems with his camcorder so he asked to borrow mine so we could share the video. Roy and Roger concentrated on video while I shot stills. By mid-afternoon, it seemed every storm in the region was tornadic except where we were. Fortunately, we followed the chasers rule of sticking with our forecast and storms developed west of Liberal by late afternoon. On the Dodge City WSR-88D, the storms looked weak and multicell at first. The storms had tremendous storm-relative inflow of 30 to 40 knots. We parked our vehicles several miles east of Hugoton for about 30 to 40 minutes while the storms evolved into a classic, nearly stationary, supercell. We observed strong rotation in the wall clouds and saw two brief touchdowns: one was a rope, the other an elephant's trunk. The storm gusted-out north of Liberal and we ended up eating dinner at the Meade, Kansas Pizza Hut! MAY 22, 1995 CHASE by Kevin Larkin [ unabridged for CD-ROM ] Our chase team consisted of Mike Helwig an Kevin Larkin, both employees of the FAA at the Williamsport Automated Flight Service Station, and Donald DeLeo, an undergraduate student in meteorology at Millersville University. We arrived in Norman,OK early in the afternoon of Sunday, May 21st, and since the weather was terrible for chasing, with sunny skies and a dry northwesterly flow, we decided to look up Hugh Johnson, an NWS employee and Millersville University alumnus, who was attending WSR88D school. Finding Hugh was easier than we expected, for as we drove between the airport at Norman and the Holiday Inn, where we learned Hugh was staying, who should Mike spot, pedalling along on a bicycle? There was Hugh, headed for the airport. It was a surprised Hugh Johnson who approached our group in the parking lot of the apartment complex we had pulled into after shouting to him as we drove by. He was headed to the NWS office at the airport to visit with another Millersville University alumnus, Cindy (Eggert) Chrisman, who worked in the technical support office for the WSR-88D radar network. Cindy works a rating shift on the 'hotline', answering questions on the operation and maintenance of the WSR-88D radar. Her workload that afternoon allowed her time to give us a thorough tour of the facility, and we were all quite impressed. Cindy was impressed at the impromptu gathering of Millersville-connected folks, as Mike and Hugh are MU grads, Don is currently an undergraduate, and Kevin's daughter ia also an undergraduate. Bidding goodbye to Hugh and Cindy, we returned to the Ramada Inn in Norman to prepare for our first chase day, Analyzing the data available to us early Monday morning, May the 22nd, we decided that Kansas looked like the place to be. We further concluded that Dodge City would be a good cerebral point to shoot for, as it appeared to be a good place to wait and see what might develop in the afternoon. We headed for Dodge City, KS via I40 and US281 but, southeast of Woodward, OK, we heard reports of a severe thunderstorm moving across Woodward and into Major county, so we headed north on US281 near Waynoka, OK., This proved to be a real 'rookie mistake' as Mike described it later. The storm was neither particularly photogenic or severe, and so we wasted almost 4 hours on what turned out to be a 'wild goose chase', as we paralleled it eastward into Alfalfa and Grant counties. Eventually we headed north into Kansas. By mid afternoon we were sitting at a highway rest area on US160 west of Medicine Lodge, KS, questioning our ability to ever intercept a supercell. The local radio station advised us that a cell near Pratt, KS that we had decided NOT to chase had spawned a weak tornado as it moved across Pratt county, Around 6 PM we decided to head further west on US160. Ae we approached Ashland, KS we realized we were under a large anvil cloud, and as we proceeded further west we witnessed classic mammatus clouds under the anvil. We learned that this was part of a supercell that had formed west of Woods, KS earlier in the day, had also spawned a weak tornado, and was now west of Meade, KS and moving slowly eastward. We were able to shoot pictures and video of this storm as we continued west toward Meade, KS. We continued under the anvil for nearly 80 miles, straight toward the storm. There was no precipitation visible and we witnessed occasional lighting, both cloud to ground and incloud. The storm was decaying as we neared Meade, KS, We proceeded to Liberal, KS for our first overnight atop on the chase, Later we learned that the Project Vortex team encountered considerable supercell activity in southwest Oklahoma that afternoon, with reports of softball size hail. We felt somewhat absolved, since we had seen a classic midwest supercell, and would have been in the right spot at the right time had we gone on to Dodge City as planned if we hadn't allowed ourselves to be 'suckered' into chasing the early morning storm across northern Oklahoma Tuesday morning, May 23rd, we agreed that it was back to Oklahoma, particularly southwestsouth central Oklahoma that looked the most promising, The IV weather forecasters seemed to agree with us, too. (hah hah). It was very cool as we left Liberal, in the mid 40's, but by the time we neared Altus, OK at about 2 PM, the temperature was near 80 and dewpoints were close to 70 degrees. As we headed south on state route 6, north of Altus, we observed a developing storm to the southeast. We turned east on US62, and unsure as to whether this may have been a 'gustnado', an area of strong down draft action, or a brief, small tornado. We saw many chasers racing, (some literally) up and down I44 and US281, as we continued to prowl Cotton and Comanche counties for more storms, encountering periods of heavy rain and up to nickel size hail at times. We concluded the day sitting at the intersection of state route 36 and US70 near Devol, OK watching a good lightning display from a storm across the Red River, northwest of Wichita Falls, TX, As the afternoon gave way to evening, we elected to head for Lawton, where the brilliant lightning continued well into the night. Dynamics were very marginal for severe storm/supercell development on Wednesday, May 24th. We decided to head south into Texas, with the Gainesville area as our 'bulls-eye'. We arrived there about noon time, enjoyed lunch in the park and walked through the Frank 'bring em back alive' Buck Zoo in Gainesville. We then found a good vantage point outside of Era, TX, southwest of Gainesville on state route 51, Sitting there, watching the sky for any promising vertical development, and monitoring NOAA weather radio, 2 meter ham radio, and the AM/FM broadcast bands, we learned of thunderstorms beginning to develop west and southwest of Dallas, Jumping on I44 south, we headed into the Ranger, TX area, just north of the Dallas Metroplex region, and spent the afternoon moving around Denton county, as thunderstorms popped up throughout the area. No strong or severe storms were observed, We spent the night in Denton, TX. Thursday, May 25th, and the weather was lousy across all of north Texas. We decided to head back toward the panhandle region, which meant another long drive. Childress was our original destination, but as we drove west on US287 through intermittent heavy rain toward Wichita Falls, we decided that Altus, OK, being a larger city, might be a better destination. We stopped briefly in Wichita Falls, swung by the airport, but decided that there was little reason to visit the NWS office, since between the 2 meter ham radio severe weather nets and NOAA weather radio broadcasts, we felt well informed of the situation, which was embedded thunderstorms and moderate rainshowers throughout the Red River Valley, After getting settled in Altus, OK, we spent Thursday afternoon tending to 'house-keeping' functions like laundry, etc. as there was no severe weather occurring, or forecasted for the rest of the day. Friday, May 26th, and the decision is made to head into the high plains. Lubbock, here we come. Getting there we crossed some of the most desolate parts of Texas we had seen since the long trip across the Oklahoma panhandle on Tuesday, when we made the long drive from Liberal, KS to Altus, OK and then east to Lawton, OK. Between Turkey, TX and Matador, TX, state route 70 is a long desolate stretch of highway, at least to Easterners used to small towns every 15 to 20 miles, We approached Lubbock from the northeast, on US 62/82 and after locating suitable lodging decided to head southeast from Lubbock, and went as far as Post, TX on US84. Stopping for lunch at a roadside picnic area, we saw showers off to the west, but nothing that looked like any promising convective activity, We headed back to Lubbock, and just in time. Strong storms had developed west of Lubbock, in Yoakum and Hockley counties and were moving east, We were able to video-tape the impressive cloud formation as the storm approached Lubbock, We found a good observation site east of Lubbock and watched the storm move across that plains city. Wind gusts approaching 50 mph were recorded at the airport, making this storm marginally severe. It also made for a beautiful sky as we headed back into the city later that afternoon, Saturday, May 21th we set our own personal endurance record. Determining that what weak dynamics existed pointed toward north central Texas, we headed back to the Gainesville area, arriving shortly after 1 PM. After the long drive east across almost half of Texas, we watched the little vertical development that there was get pushed over by the strong upper winds. It became increasingly apparent that there was not going to be any severe weather in that part of Texas that day. After discussing our options, we decided that the only hope left was to head northeastward, toward home, and perhaps intercept any severe weather that might develop from the vigorous low pressure system that was moving into the Missouri/Mississippi river valleys. Stopping to spend the night in Texarkana, TX, we got a room in a motel that didn't have the Weather Channel. Big mistake! After supper we decided to get some weather maps from the fax service to see what might be developing in the Ohio River Valley region and further east as we headed back towards Pennsylvania. Did we get surprised! The low had triggered thunderstorms in the very region we thought we would find them, only we were still 6 to 8 hours drive away. The composite radar summary chart showed at least five active weather watches in effect. What a blow! It seemed clear to us from this point that we would simply head home and if we encountered any severe weather, that would be our good luck, but there would be no more active storm chasing. Storm Chase 1995 was at an end, and the trip home was generally uneventful, except for the mechanical difficulties that forced us to say good-bye to the old Suburban that had served us well getting us out to the plains, all around Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, and back as far LaGrange, KY. While we didn't see any tornadoes, Donald and Kevin at least got to see a funnel cloud. We also felt that our prediction methodology seemed to work, at least getting us into a general area of severe storm activity on those days that there was a real possibility for severe thunderstorms or supercell development. We encountered a few supercells, but no 'world class' hail. We saw a good deal of the country, including the remains of the Alfred P.Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on Sunday, May 21st, just two days before it was leveled, We saw parts of United States that are still the wild west. I sometimes wished we didn't need to be so focused on the pursuit of severe weather that we couldn't stop and learn more about some of the interesting sights we passed. From Medicine Lodge, KS to Canadian, TX to Sanger, TX and Altus, OK and on to Lubbock and Gainesville, TX, it was a worthwhile, rewarding trip, and one we hope to make again, next spring, when the cold Canadian air heads south to the Red River Valley and meets up with the warm, moist flow from the Gulf of Mexico and the atmosphere becomes explosive with the potential for supercells and tornadoes. Besides, we all want another great Mexican meal at the Casa Torres on University Blvd, in Lubbock. TX. THE MAY 22, 1995 TX PANHANDLE “ICE MACHINE” by Rich Thompson [ unabridged for CD-ROM ] This day started with optimism during the morning VORTEX forecast discussion. Extreme instability was expected by afternoon from SW KS to the eastern TX Panhandle, where forecast; .. CAPEs approached 4000-5000 J/kg (LI near -10). Moderate southwesterly flow in the mid and upper levels also gave rise to optimism, as did a well defined dryline in the central Panhandle and an outflow boundary across the NE Panhandle. Storm relative winds and helicity values were favorable for supercells with tornadoes, so lead forecaster Steve Corfidi (SPC, formerly SELS) and myself hurried to finish our probability forecasts so we could get out there! Around 2:30 pm, Steve and I left Norman heading W on l-40. Our best guess for maximum tornado potential (based on our VORTEX forecast) was the NE Panhandle near the outflow boundary, but road options gave us a better chance to go W instead of NW. We blasted W to Elk City, OK, and then state highways to Wheeler, Tx. West of Wheeler, we talked with Al Moller and viewed 5 bell-shaped Cbs to our west on the dryline. After a couple of distant high based funnels formed on the north side of several different updrafts, we decided to go SW for the anchor cell near McLean, TX. Following the Roads of Texas, we zig-zagged S and W to I-40. At this point, a fatal mistake was made: Steve had the maps, but I was making most of the navigation decisions. My plan was to go W a mile or two and turn south before we got in the hail. However, Steve couldn't exactly read my mind, and we were actually SIX miles from our next S option. I ended up driving W on the interstate into the big hail core, with nowhere to hide! We scurried off 1-40 into McLean, but all the good overhangs were already taken. We pulled up to an abandoned gas station and decided to ride it out. Over the next 20-30 minutes, hail' ranging from 1" to 2.5" pounded my car, resulting in 3 windshield "spiders" and numerous dents. To top things off, the tornado sirens (mounted only 50 yds away) started blaring near the end of the hailstorm! All I could think was "what a way to go!". Thankfully, the mesocyclone passed just S of our location, and did not produce any tornadoes. Gathering our collective thoughts, we managed to get out of the core and drive a big loop around to the SW of the ESE moving supercell. As we neared the TX/OK stateline, we caught up with much of the VORTEX armada. We stopped before entering Ok and observed roughly 45 kt SE inflow into the large, striated updraft a few miles to our NW. In the span of about 10 seconds, the inflow completely subsided as the edge of the flared base drifted overhead! We also saw what appeared to be weak clear slot/occlusion attempt, but again no tornadoes. The supercell resumed chasing us after we got back into OK, and we nearly bought the farm (again!) to the S of Reed, OK. The Backroads of Oklahoma showed a paved crossing of the Salt Fork of the Red River, but the road ended at the water's edge. I hope nobody else has to experience the dread of having to turn around and drive BACK INTO a long lived "ice machine" with softballs! Luckily, the hail remained near 1" until after we got back through Reed. 4" hail was reported in Reed about 5 minutes after we left there for good! After our second harrowing experience of the evening and ensuing darkness, we "got outta town". I'd never been in a serious hailstorm by accident, and I don't recommend it for anyone who doesn't own a "meatwagon". There were some interesting notes on this storm: though it produced up to softball size hail for 3-4 hours and showed strong mid level rotation on radar, low level rotation was never strong and the rear flank downdraft was neither cold nor wet. This may be just another example of how complicated, supercells and tornadoes can be, and that impressive shear and instability may not be enough to guarantee a tornadic chase. Perhaps the VORTEX datasets may shed some light on why this storm did not produce any tornadoes and so much hail, while other storms to the north were tornadic (congrats to Chuck Doswell and others near Pampa, and Roger Edwards and Bobby Prentice in SW KS). Tornado 6 W of woods, KS on May 22, 1995 (Roger Edwards) Tornado 3 SSW of Tipton, OK on April 16, 1995 (Robert Satkus) Striated barber-pole updraft near Madge, TX on May 22, 1995 (Steve Corfidi) JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by Rich Thompson Robert Prentice and I left Norman, Oklahoma and drove west-southwest towards the suspected outflow boundary/weak dryline intersection. Some rotating storms formed in Oklahoma, but they were outflow dominant. Thus, we went southwest to the area west of Vernon, Texas to intercept a newly developing southern storm. Soon after we arrived, the festival of dust whirl tornadoes began. We observed at least six different tornadoes, most of which were small dust whirls beneath a rotating base. Two of the small tornadoes occurred simultaneously within one mile to our south. The funniest event of the day was a tornado that formed within 150 yards to our north-northeast as a small dust whirl. The dust cloud intensified and expanded while drifting toward us, so we backed up, turned the corner and let the vortex cross the road about 150 yards to our west! Unfortunately, I left the camcorder on STANDBY for much of this tornado, but managed to record the later multivortex dust stage. Fortunately, Robert did video the entire sequence. Once again, another successful chase. THE END OF SEVEN ROARS by Robert Prentice Friday, June 9, 1995, Rich Thompson and I chased the Red River Valley and saw one of the most unusual storms we had ever observed. Our first storm near Roosevelt was gusting out so we dropped south to a new storm near Chillicothe, Texas. We observed multiple dust swirls that apparently formed on the forward flank gust front and got stretched into weak (but real) tornadoes as they hit the mesoscale triple point. We also observed rain-wrapped funnel clouds that may have been associated with stronger tornadoes. We played tag with Gene Rhoden and Tim Marshall for much of this event and they observed the closest tornado I have ever been to. We were near the Wilbarger county line facing north on a paved road just about 200 yards from an east-west intersection. Tim and Gene were just to our south. A 20 yard wide dust whirl formed about 150 yards to our north-northeast and moved south. Rich and I laughed it off until it grew in size to about 100 yards wide and seemed to intensify coming straight for us. Gene and Tim filmed us driving backwards trying to escape while trying to film at the same time. We drove east a few hundred yards then stopped to film the orangish tornado to our immediate west. I snapped a wide angle picture of the tornado before it moved southeast into a field and broke up into multiple vortices. Each subvortex would make a hissing sound like a steam vent. The storm pretty much gusted out after that. On US Highway 287 in Vernon, we saw the ultimate chaser convergence with every TV station in the region, every storm chaser on vacation, every trucker on the road, and every local yocal gawking at the gusting out storm. Even after the chase we had excitement as tornado sirens sounded and patrons ran out to their cars. A close lightning bolt then struck a power pole and we watched sparks fly from it for a few minutes. Needless to say there will be all meat on this years highlights tape! JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by William Reid [ unabridged for CD-ROM ] The past week has been very eventful for me -- stormchase speaking. I finally have a chance to write up a little summary. Last Monday, June 5, 1995, was a long and rather frustrating chase way down into the BIG COUNTRY, as they call the area around Abilene. Charlie Sill and I left AMA around 2 p.m. for Silverton, where a tornadic storm was indicated. A tornado was reported near South Plains as we drove towards the impressive-looking, supercellular storm. As we approached the storm from the west, near Floydada, we saw Martin Lisius watching the storm. He had videoed the cone-shaped tornado near South Plains less than an hour earlier, but it quickly wrapped in rain after forming. The cell was moving SSE or SE at about 30 mph and off of the caprock---into a poor road network (at least compared to the caprock's road network). Tornado warnings continued with the storm, and we struggled to get in front it. Poor road judgement led us east towards the precip core at one point, with the next road option about two miles into heavy hail. A truck came out of the core with a couple huge softball-sized craters in the windshield. We turned around to take another road south. We sped through Spur, Clairemont, Roby, and Sylvester and finally were in decent position around sunset, but we never saw a tornado. There were a lot of nasty-looking cloud bases and dusty-inflow winds, and the base took on a smooth-laminar appearance at sunset, but no cigar. We became part of a five-car caravan including Martin and his wife, a chase team from Idaho/Colorado, Bobby Prentice and a friend, and a salesman who hopped onto the storm when he saw it from Plainview. Charlie and I were very reluctant to continue with the storm once we got to Spur (around 7 p.m.), but how can you abandon a tornadic storm once you've gone so far already? Charlie had to be back to work at AMA at 5 a.m. the next morning. We got back home to AMA around 2 a.m. Martin got some of the mammatus and gustnado video from this storm on TWC the following day. What I remember most was getting eaten by mosquitos near Sylvester at sunset. Winds weren't strong enough to blow 'em away, and I had to put my raincoat/windbreaker on to keep them off of me. They even would land on your clothes and try to bite through jeans and t-shirts. That was like adding injury to frustration. Dozens of mosquitoes met there maker, however. At least I got some some pretty pictures and video. Tuesday, June 6, was a day of rest---though I was drooling over a very isolated cell which was going up in extreme W KS around 5 p.m. This cell fell apart, though, and I was happy that I had stayed put. On Wednesday, June 7, 1995, I had a tough time deciding whether to make the drive up into E CO, where severe looked likely, or to let that pass and to wait for Thursday's activity, which looked to be very promising near a triple-point (forecast to be) in W KS. I've had good luck in CO, and the discussions were talking up severe and tornados there, so at 1 p.m. I was on my way by myself towards someplace in E CO. When I got to about Lamar near 5 p.m., a severe tstorm watch was in place for most of E CO north of Lamar. I was hoping that strong to severe storms near Denver would march eastward out onto the Plains, where I would easily intercept them. The problem was that these storms were slowly moving NE and NNE, into Weld County. By 7 p.m. I was around Last Chance and I could see the now tornadic storms about 60 miles to my NW. They were the only game around, so I continued north and west. I finally got to Fort Morgan and Wiggins around 8 p.m. MDT (about a half hour before sunset), and tornados continued to be reported with the storms just NW of me. I could see some very low appendages along the cloud base, but contrast was terrible. I drove north towards Goodrich, and inflow winds from the east became extremely strong---perhaps 40 mph sustained. I could see tremendous turbulence and rotation in the cloud bases a few miles to my west, but contrast continued to be poor. I taped from the car and later tried to get some tripoded footage, but it got pretty hairy as winds were screaming and very low and black scuddy funnels approached. I sped east to get safe, and saw Tim Samaras and several other chasers/storm spotters. By now it was past sunset and very dark, and the storm drifted off to the northeast, drenching Morgan County. By the way, the South Platte River was running very high through the area, and flood warnings were all over the place. I haven't had a chance to see my video yet, but I'm certain that I got some tornado footage--though it is probably not particularly obvious due to the poor contrast. It's another one of those cases that seems to be plaguing me this year- ----I'm on tornadic storms and I'm shooting video of something which may or may not be tornadic----either the contrast is bad, I'm too far away, or the funnel isn't all the way to the ground, etc., etc. Thursday, June 8, looked very promising. I made a huge mistake, though, by sleeping in too late and getting out of Fort Morgan around 11 a.m. The triple point was supposed to be in W KS---maybe 3 to 4 hours away, but as I left town TWC showed it near DALHART, TX----AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was quite perturbed around 2 p.m. when, near Lamar, I learned of the tornado box for the TX and OK Panhandles. Why couldn't the convection wait until 6 p.m.??? A large tornado hit Pampa, TX, around 4:45 to 5 p.m., but I was barely into the OK Panhandle, near Hooker. Martin Lisius and others got awesome video of the large Pampa tornado---with great backlighting, etc. (The Pampa tornado destroyed a few dozen homes and businesses.) I was aiming for a tornadic storm approaching Canadian, TX, and held my breath as I went through a core of heavy rain and very strong winds. Hail stayed less than marble-sized, thankfully. That was in Ochiltree County, south of Perryton. I quickly broke out of the precip to see a churning (though rather high-based) sky, a little north of Canadian. Towards the east a funnel cloud reached halfway to the ground, but it didn't last long. At Canadian I heard reports of a tornadic cell moving NNE through Wheeler County, to my south, so I had to decide whether to core punch a little or to come around the west side of the storm. I chose the latter, and while near Briscoe I could see a rain-wrapped "area-ofconcern" to my east. I didn't know it at the time, but this "area" contained the milewide wedge tornado which was bearing down on Allison, TX. I saw rain curtains, low scud stuff and rotation, but I never thought that I was looking at a tornado. The tornado wiped out at least one (once) sturdy farmstead, with the family surviving while huddling together and holding on to each other. Numerous cattle were killed, and large trees were stripped and uprooted. This is one storm where a decision to play it safe may have saved my life. I had driven about 1200 miles by myself in two days and wanted a rest day, but Martin called at 9 a.m. and said he thought today (Friday, June 9) could be great, maybe up near Medicine Lodge, KS. I said, "forget it---that's too far," but I agreed to meet him at the AMA NWS office to look at data. He showed me video of the Pampa tornado--it's just awesome, as I said! Marty Feely, Herbert Fiala, Martin, and I read discussions and looked at maps -- it looked like SW OK and NW TX---perhaps Childress to Altus, would be the spot today--not Medicine Lodge. Outflow boundaries, the dry line, and very juicy air were converging near Childress around noon. I decided to go. Martin and Herbert (who comes from Austria to chase---yes, the Austria in Europe) and Rob Allison and I converged at the tail-end Charlie storm base southwest of Vernon around 3:30 p.m. The Altus area was already full of tornados from the next storm up the line, and our storm was strengthening and organizing. The storm slowly moved east and started to develop good rotation SW of Vernon, and lightning activity picked up incredibly fast. We were in danger under this electrical base, with numerous circulations, inflow jets, etc., so we headed east fast. On the way I have my video camera pointed towards the base to the north and I mention how incredible the lightning is---one second later a lightning bolt fills the frame---maybe a half mile away, with a loud boom---about two seconds later another bolt descends and hits the ground only 50 or so yards to my north, with an almost instantaneous crash!! I got it on video, too!! The bolt is so close that, on a frame-by-frame sequence on the video, it is slightly blurred and burned into the tape. It appears on only one frame, with the next frame showing faint beading. The bolt is blurred because I was going about 40 to 50 mph---and the shutter speed was likely 1/60 of a second----too slow to allow a sharp image of something so close while travelling at that speed. We found a safer spot and watched a couple of debris-cloud/dust spin-ups, and a spotter nearby reported these to the proper authorities. We had to move east again, but about 10 seconds later Rob saw a tornado behind us! I quickly tripoded the camcorder and I got about 10 seconds of decent, good contrast footage of a dusty tornado about three miles down the road west of us. There was a faint condensation funnel associated with this tornado. I then got some overall storm structure video, but unfortunately the tornado weakened pretty rapidly and the show was over within a minute. We went back to 287 to get a little south of Vernon, which was in the path of this developing, now tornadic, storm. Very black, wide and threatening funnels hung over Vernon, but the town escaped disaster. We decided to take U.S. 70 into OK instead of staying in TX. The storm looked a lot more disorganized and HP-ish as we stayed in front of it along U.S. 70 and into Grandfield, OK. We were a little disappointed as we got gas and food in Grandfield---and we had basically given up on the cell. A clerk in the little store there said that she gets nervous when we (i.e., stormchasers) come through town. About 10 seconds later the town's sirens went off! The storm had re-organized in about tenminute's time, and was now showing a much more classic structure, with a good-looking wall cloud. The base was just SW of town. We decided to stay away from the precip by going a little east of town. We sacrificed a lot on contrast while doing that, however. A couple of tornadoes appeared to be on the ground SW of town for several minutes, though our poor contrast against the dark precip area makes it difficult to see much. We were perhaps 4 to 5 miles away. I wish we had tried the "west of town option," in hindsight. Grandfield was not struck by these tornados, to my knowledge. We closed out the chase day at sunset by watching another very threatening base (in front of an HP cell) bear down on Burkburnett, TX. This spun up some gustnadoes, and at dark we got the heck out of the way of the storm's fury by taking I-44 up towards Lawton. Rob and I got back to Amarillo around 2 a.m I thought for sure that I would not chase on Saturday, June 10, but the southern TX Panhandles were in moderate risk area, and at 1 p.m. Bary Nusz was here to pick me up for another chase---Swisher County was already under a tornado warning! We drove south under dreary skies with upslope east winds to Swisher County----no storm. We headed to Hale County which had a tornado warning---but couldn't find an updraft. There was a lot of low cloud stuff and rain and lightning, so we decided to continue south to find warm air. We went south past Lubbock and we were still in the cool air, with NE winds of 30 mph! Lubbock had been 89 at 1 p.m.---at 3 or 4 p.m. they had about 60 degrees. Towards Tahoka and La Mesa we were driving though billowing dust clouds with numerous gust-front "gustnados." This was the leading edge of the southward-plunging cold front/outflow boundary. Several times we stopped in the warm air---94 degrees---just south of this wedge of dust---and watched it descend upon us. It was very interesting to watch---but not good for the insides of the car, the cameras, or the contact lenses. Cloud towers were going up along this haboob-front, but it was a dusty mess as we threw in the towel at La Mesa. We decided to eat the Pizza Hut there, thinking out loud that the best way to get a storm would be to ignore the atmosphere for a little while. It worked!! About 5 minutes after ordering, the sky darkened in the west and lightning began zapping away. While waiting impatiently for the food Barry and I kept checking outside---the mid-levels had striations, rain was getting closer, the cloud base better organized---hurry up pizza! We ate up and stepped into moderate rain. The storm was not severe, though, and we drove home, butting up against those darn, chasekilling NE winds. FARMERS VALLEY, TX TORNADOES: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall After our successful chase on June 8th, Gene Rhoden and myself were ready for another chase day. We stayed the night in Clinton, Oklahoma and awoke to the rumbles of thunder from a severe morning storm. Convection continued overnight leaving an east- west outflow boundary across central Oklahoma. Today's target was where the outflow boundary intersected the dryline in southwestern Oklahoma. Since we were close to the target area, we decided to have leisure breakfast, then head toward Altus. On the way south, Gene's car blew a fuse and we had to divert to a Radio Shack. As soon as we were back on the road, around 1:30pm, a tornado warning was issued for Greer and Jackson counties just to our west. Within thirty minutes, we closed in on the rain free base near Mangum, OK. The storms inflow was weak and the updraft soon occluded in heavy precipitation. As the storm moved east of town, the outflow kicked up some dust and novice spotters reported it as a tornado. Arriving north of Blair, OK at 3 pm, we stopped and met chaser David Hoadley. Then we heard of a severe thunderstorm warning for Hardeman County, Texas, about 60 miles to the southwest. Gene and I decided to give up on our disorganized storm (it was also heading into the Ouchita Mountains) and we headed southwest to tail-end Charlie. (We found out later that the northern produced a tornado east of the mountains). We arrived at Chillicothe, Texas around 4pm and stopped to top off the tank as the local service station. The rain free hase was approaching the town and large drops of rain began to fall. We then parked south of town and watched a stubby beaver tail form on the north side of the updraft. Just like the previous storm to the north, it hal weak surface-based inflow. However, we remained optimistic given the clear sky to the south and rock hard anvil overhead. We watched the storm for an hour. As soon as we came upon fellow-chaser Robert Prentice, the storm started getting its act together (Thanks Robert!). A wall cloud developed to our northwest and a persistent dust whirl occurred below cloud base. At the same time, another persistent dust whirl developed to our west underneath an elevated updraft that was thinly veiled by precipitation. The storm began to drift slowly to the southeast and we Rept pace with it. As the wall cloud passed overhead, there was differential movement in the dust indicating ground-based circulation just to our north. Gene and I retreated to the car as we found ourselves being bombarded by cloud-to-ground lightning. Two bolts struck the power lines overhead leaving us temporarily deaf from the crack of thunder. We proceeded east and stopped at Farmers Valley, a two-house town in the middle of nowhere. I started to video Gene and asked him how he liked the chase so far. He gazed straight ahead and let out a resounding "WHOAAA!" Panning the camera northward, could see dust quickly gathering at the ground and shooting skyward. We were within one hundred yards of a developing tornado. Robert Prentice and Rich Thompson (who were even closer) began backing up to get out of the way. Gene and I followed, then we stopped only a few hundred yards east of the tornado. I braced myself against the car in the howling inflow as the large rotating dust bowl lumbered across the road in front of us. The tornado moved southward into an open field then broke up into fast- spinning subvortices that would periodically form and dissipate. TIM: Well, well, well (laughing). I don't believe it. What are we doing? In with the bear -do you dare? We've seen five dust whirls so far! GENE: At very close range. Fantastic. Next stop east was Vernon, Texas. As we arrived, a new wall cloud began to occlude and a funnel extended about half way to the ground. Sirens sounded in town but the storm soon became outflow dominant. Later, a series of spectacular downbursts kicked up walls of blinding dust. The season ended on a high note as the summer death ridge set in the next day. WEATHER SITUATION: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall This was a classic June situation in which there were weak environmental winds aloft, however, those storms that could drift to the right of the mean wind could enhance their storm relative inflow and helicity enough to produce weak tornadoes. There was tremendous wind and moisture convergence along the stationary front in southwest Oklahoma. At noon, Altus had a south wind gusting to 25 knots with a 71 dewpoint. In contrast, Hobart had east winds at 9 knots with an air temperature 18 degrees cooler. As the day progressed, the front slipped southward due to the enhancement of the cold air boundary generated by the new convection. A mesolow developed in the vicinity of Vernon, Texas. It is conjecture whether the mesolow produced the storm or the storm produced the mesolow. The surface dryline did not appear to be a major player except for perhaps the initial formation of the storm. There may have been an upper dryline at work here. The storm grew in strength as it moved east into the deeper, moist air. It is interesting to note that the tail-end Charlie storm was similar to the Mangum, Oklahoma storm with regards to the character of the tornadoes, however, these storms appeared to have different structures.(ie. the northern storm appeared more outflow-dominant than the southern storm). Satellite view of Farmers Valley supercell WSR-88D reflectivity of Farmers Valley storm Wall cloud NE of Mangum, OK on June 9, 1995 (Robert Satkus) Gene Rhoden's expression at seeing tornado (Tim Marshall) Tornado 2 NNE of Lugert, OK on June 9, 1995 (Robert Satkus) Farmer's Valley tornado crossing road (Tim Marshall)