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2007 Chase Accounts |
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April 13th, 2007 The first big chase of the season began today in Northwest Texas. The day started off as a moderate risk, but around 2pm it was upgraded to a high risk. I met up with chase partner Jeremy Wilson and left Denton and went West on 380. We started the afternoon in Bridgeport TX, watching a few cells start to organize and move from SW to ENE. I was interested in the furthest Southern Cell which was getting the most inflow and energy. I called and talked with Mike Burger, meteorologist with CBS11, about what his thoughts were and my current observations at my location. After looking at the radar, surface maps and getting a little bit of nowcasting from Mike, we went South on 114 through Boyd. At this time the storm SW of Boyd and Rhome TX went Tornado warned and began to pick up incredible speed and started to shoot due East. Our road options got very limited so we continued to have the storm race us SE on 114 and then South on 287. The storm motion was incredible and the rotation and movement on the front of the line was amazing. The leading edge of the line looked very much like a shelf until a wall cloud dropped and began to rotate. We continued East, letting the storm follow us and approached Texas Motor Speedway and began to see quarter to golf ball hail. The storm had decayed significantly and appeared to just be a shelf again with a mean looking core behind the gust front. At this time the sirens were sounding at the race track. I feel they probably set them off because of the possibility of straight line winds and large hail. The core just to our West, according to NOAA, was producing Orange sized hail. We continued North on 377 and East on 1171 knowing that the core to our due South was on the verge, if not already, producing a rain-wrapped tornado along with gorilla size hail. We continued East looking due South at a rain and hail core which at this time was producing baseball hail. On the other side of this core was an EF1 Tornado doing damage in Haltom City. We couldn't see the tornado due to the core, but were about 5-7 miles North of the tornado. We chased the now linear storm system East all the way to I35. We went South on 35 then East on 30 to get the Rockwall tornado but we kept playing the catch-up game. With some new equipment, a new vehicle, and an early starting season it was a great way to test all of the new tools and get prepared for the 2007 Spring tornado season.
ONLY VIDEO CAPTURES ARE AVAILABLE FOR THIS CHASE... CHASE PHOTOS AND DATA
April 21st, 2007
Today I left Dallas
around 8:30AM and headed for my initial target around
Lubbock, Texas. I went West on I-20 past Abilene and then
North towards Lubbock on 84. I arrived in Lubbock around
1:30PM and gathered data while grabbing a quick bite to eat.
I shifted my target a little and continued North on 27
towards Plainview. I traveled North and eventually got to
Tulia, Texas. I met with a few other chasers and sat on the
Western side of Tulia watching the dryline move East. While
watching the dryline, I poured over some data and got some
nowcasting from my Friends
Jeremy Wilson and
Aaron Hughes.
Storms began to fire to our Southwest so I, along with a
female friend we met at our observation point, blasted West
on 86 towards Dimmit to try to intercept the now rotating
storm. As we passed through Nazareth, Mobile Threat Net
radar was showing incredible shear on our storm. We went
North on 385 and intercepted the storm near Hereford, TX.
The storm now had a Tornado Warning on it and had great
structure. We pulled to the side of the road and watched the
storm develop a wall cloud. About a minute later a very
raggedy looking funnel dropped, and we watched Tornado
number 1 for the day move slowly to our North. We took some
photos and video, then continued to chase the tornado until
it disappeared into a rain and hail core. We began to get
quarter sized hail, and our route to follow the storm turned
into a very muddy 1 lane road. Before we got stuck, I kicked
on the 4x4 and we turned around and got back to paved road.
At this time the tornado turned into a very large cone, but
we were blinded by the core and had no road options. We went
back North and eventually made it to US60 and made our way
towards Canyon, Texas. At this time a very large "wedge"
tornado was being reported near Tulia. We raced Southeast
and made it to Ranch Road 2698, which is a few minutes north
of downtown Tulia, as the Tulia tornado and its core passed
in front of us through town. We parked near an overpass in
the grass while golf ball hail fell and the tornado passed in
front of us. The core of the storm passed to our East and we
got back onto the highway and continued South to attempt to
find an exit to turn around and go back North on 27. We
found the exit and went back Northbound where we passed the
tornado debris path. We exited 2698 and went East past Tulia
after the Tornado had hit town. On 2698, our route was once
again blocked by power lines and poles crossing the road. At
this time it was getting dark, and we would be unable to
keep up with the Tulia tornado. We turned around and went
back South on 27 out of Tulia. A new area of rotation formed
to the Southwest of Tulia, just to our West. We pulled over
and watched it for a few minutes. The storm went tornado
warned as it went to our Northwest and dropped a cone
tornado. This storm had a very well defined hook on radar.
We observed tornado number 2 just NW of Plainview for about
10 minutes before it disappeared as well. At this time we
called it the end of the day and got dinner in Plainview
before heading back towards Dallas. CHASE PHOTOS
April 24th, 2007 Today’s outlook looked great. Based on the 07Z WRF model, the winds look awesome and shifted great between the 850's and 500mb with a narrow streak of 90 knots shooting right through Wichita Falls at 0Z. The WRF simulated reflectivity showed a nice supercell going up right over this target and moving to the Northeast. It also showed another supercell going up just Southwest of Dallas / Fort Worth and shooting up through the Metroplex. Dewpoints were in the 70's with temperatures in the 80s. Just a 10 degree dewpoint spread. Surface CAPE was near 3000 j/kg. With the dryline bulge supposed to push through between 23-01Z, the Red River and just Southwest of Dallas looked to be good target areas. I left Dallas at 9AM and headed to Thackerville, OK to meet up with my chase partner Jeremy Wilson. We left Thackerville around 10:30AM and headed West on 82 towards Wichita Falls. Around 11:30AM precipitation had already begun to break out just West of Wichita Falls. Very quickly, the dryline stalled west of Wichita Falls and the storms started to advance further and further South, so we moved towards Bowie, TX. At this time, the SPC issued a PDS Tornado Watch for North Texas. When we arrived in Bowie, storms began to get their act together near Brownwood. TX. We continued South, and met with the first storm that fired near Brownwood. We intercepted this storm South of Weatherford. We watched the storm move in from our Southwest and noticed a lowering to our Southwest with a funnel getting close to the ground. We checked radar, which also showed an area of rotation. Very briefly we observed a very small debris cloud from this funnel, then the storm rapidly decayed and went outflow dominant. The storm at this time was close to Granbury, which had confirmed tornado damage by the National Weather Service. This cell became disorganized and a new one formed just West of Fort Worth. We followed it East on I-20, and it began to show signs of rotation. This storm became Tornado Warned and we followed it into Tarrant County. We observed a funnel with rain bands getting sucked into what I’m assuming was the inflow jet, but did not visually see a tornado on the ground. The National Weather Service can’t confirm tornado damage either, so at this time I will say there was not a tornado. For a high risk day, it was fairly disappointing. Everything went to a linear grunge fest very early on, and didn’t really recover. I managed to get some video and good still photographs as well as the 1 tornado, but it was overall a very disappointing day. DATA AND PHOTOGRAPHS
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Left: Storm updraft, Right: Storm Base
Left: Storm Base, Right: Core with lightning
Left and Right: Wall clouds in Decatur and Denton
Left: Lightning storm in Denton
