June 8, 1997
This was a day that promised a lot, but gave very little!
At least in terms of severe storms. When the watch was issued yesterday, we were already in the "red box." We spent the night in Carlsbad, NM, in anticipation of another afternoon of storms. According to the Day 1 page at the SPC site, we were in the "moderate risk" area.
Since we knew that we were in our target area, and that it was still early, we visited the Living Desert Museum, just north of town. Many plants were still blooming, and it was nice to get a real close look at some of the ones we had seen from the car window. I am sure we saw hundreds of species, and were now able to put names to some we had seen frequently. The museum also had animals, both mammals and reptiles, and we saw bison, peccaries, elk, pronghorn, and several kinds of rattlesnakes. There was a walk-in aviary, with several kinds of birds inside, some of which were sitting on eggs, just a few feet away from us. And we could have spent hours just watching the prairie dogs. They had young ones with them, and their antics kept us all laughing and pointing.
There was a nature walk between each section of the museum, and the last segment was through a wonderful greenhouse where they grow the replacements for the trail. It was an even 100 degrees fahrenheit, very dry, and filled dozens of kinds of with cacti and succulents that I had only seen in books. It was a great stop! And when we piled back into the van, we found that a tornado watch had indeed been issued, while we were in the museum.
After a very late lunch at KFC, we resumed the chase. Given the data Marty had seen on the SPC site this morning, and what he saw in the sky, we headed north towards Artesia. This was desert, both desolate and photogenic. We reached an intersection with good visibility, and hung out, waiting for things to pop. They didn't. The ingredients were almost all there, but not entirely. There were big, bubbling cumulus, trying hard to grow, but getting nowhere. We could see the same thing happening in all directions. The only one that seemed to have promise had moved east, so we did too. It finally sent up a tower and then completely fell apart. Marty surmised that a "short-wave" (small upper air low pressure trough) came through at mid-day, producing storms to the east of us. But these were large, disorganized multicelled thunderstorms, called "mush" by some chasers--they had no supercell structure, just rain and wind. Those storms prompted the tornado watch.
The short wave was mis-timed, and was followed by subsidence(sinking air that evaporates clouds). So it was a "bust," but it was only a 40 mile bust, following both sightseeing and a sit-down lunch! We had been in the right place, at the right time, once again, though.
Leaving the Artesia, NM area, we headed east for Brownfield, TX. If I had thought I had seen a lot of oil wells before, I saw even more now. There were areas that had three or four dozen within sight at the same time. A few small towns consisted of not much more than a gas station/convenience store, a well drilling parts and supplies company, and a church, with a scattering of houses around them. These gave way to ranch country, with cattle sparsely dotting the plains. Occasionally, there was a large entrance sign, proclaiming the ranch name, with a dirt road leading to a home and farm buildings surrounded by a shelterbelt of trees.
Reaching Brownfield at about 9:45, we spent the night at the Caprock Inn.
June 9, 1997
The day dawned sunny and beautiful, and looking at the data, we anticipated a down day. But, as Marty says, things can change quickly in the Panhandle. There can be "Panhandle Magic" or "Panhandle Surprises". And that is just what happened! At about noon we headed north through Leveland, on our way to the Muleshoe Wildlife Refuge, and as always, watched the sky continuously for bubbling cumulus clouds. Most were just fluffy bits of cloud, but a few kept growing and growing. We pulled off the highway to watch them for a while. All but one had gotten soft and fuzzy on their tops, but one still had a good crisp profile, and was still growing. It had developed a large anvil, although much of it was obscured by lower clouds. It had dark, ragged clouds underneath it that seemed to be moving very fast, feeding into the base. There were rain shafts and hail shafts. It was moving slowly, and we moved east too, keeping ahead of it.
Turning the NOAA weather radio on, we heard "severe thunderstorm warnings" for the county, and knew that was our storm. When we passed through the next small town, we saw the Meatwagon going in the other direction. We heard later that Roger Edwards, an SPC meteorologist and avid chaser, was in search of large hail. Whether it was so or not, we don't know, but an hour or so later, we heard that hail up to tennis-ball size had been reported.
A few moments later, we saw another familiar vehicle. It was Matt and Betsy again, with Casey Crosby, Tammy, and Jim Leonard. We watched as the storm formed an absolutely incredible wall cloud, and a distinct rain foot. The wall cloud got bigger and bigger and bigger. It started to rain, and we moved ahead of it, stopping again where the other chasers had parked. The rotation of the wall cloud was very obvious, and Jim Leonard and Marty suddenly spotted a swirl of dust beneath it. A tornado! A very small, very brief, very weak tornado. A few seconds later, it was gone.
We moved again, to keep ahead of the rain and keep the wall cloud in sight. The view was even better here, and we could see a larger swirl of red dirt starting up underneath the wall cloud; a second tornado, and again, very brief. It was interesting to hear the other chasers discussing what was happening. The wall cloud seemed to begin petering out then. A cold wind, with a gust up to 27 mph, hit us and had us running for sweatshirts. This was the outflow, Marty said, and when you feel the outflow, Marty says, then it is time to give up on the storm.
We could see another supercell to the west, a bigger one, newer and very hard edged. Marty checked the maps while we gaped at the back of the updraft tower of the first storm. We took off southwest, and as we entered the next town, Levelland(I think) we could see a black, menacing cloud that extended all the way to the ground. That is, although it was behind trees and buildings, we assumed it reached all the way to the ground. We could see that it had no rotation, but there was air movement towards the cloud base. As we drove west we saw vehicles that Marty recognized as other chasers, and many that he didn't recognize, but were equipped with communication antennas--spotters or chasers. Many other cars were stopped along the road, with people watching the storm. A lot of people were keeping track of this ugly black cloud. This time, though, we weren't starting and stopping to get a better view of the storm--we were trying to keep ahead of the hail! We waited a bit too long on the first stop, and were blasted with dime and smaller sized hail. We were able to drive out of it, but it took a few minutes.
By the third stop we could see a well formed beaver tail, very smooth and laminar, and several large tail clouds(one seen here.) The beaver tail was so long I couldn't even get it into one picture--I had to pan right quite a while to include it all. We could see that trucks and a bus that had been going in the opposite direction had pulled over and stopped, rather than going into the storm. The cloud action beneath the cloud base was very chaotic, and turbulent. The wall cloud would disappear, then reform and rotate, dissipate, reform, and rotate. It was an extraordinary and frightening thing to see.
Looking backwards down the road, we could see a white haze of hail coming towards us, bouncing on the road, and knew it was time to move again. We were able to keep ahead of the thickest fall of hail, but some of the ones that hit the van were about the size of a quarter. The NOAA weather radio said that tennis ball size hail had been reported. Knowing how much the small stuff stung when it hit me, I was anxious to avoid it. This storm looked far more intense and downright scarier than the first, but all of a sudden it seemed to become more and more disorganized and began to dissipate.
We drove on to and through Brownfield, making a full circle since the morning. We saw one more cloud that seemed to have potential, but within a few minutes could tell that it wasn't doing anything. A minute after that we saw a line of familiar chase vehicles, and pulled over to talk with Matt Biddle, Dave Hoadley, Charles Edwards, Matt and Betsy, and a few others. The remains of the "beast" we had seen a half hour before was just an orphan anvil in the sky before us, with a beautiful, neon-bright rainbow rising out of a pasture dotted with Hereford cattle. It was a very exciting day!
June 10, 1997
A gray and cool morning in Brownfield gave way to another sunny day. After lunch at the Cattelacs Restaurant in Levelland, we decided to try for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge again. We had only 45 minutes there, but would have liked more. Marty accessed the SPC's 19Z(2PM) convective outlook on the internet. Apparently, there were three possibilities--SE New Mexico, where we could see a storm, Colfax County in NNE New Mexico, where we could also see a storm, or almost due west to the Santa Rosa storm. Since Marty figured we would be heading to Kansas the next day, we didn't want to go south, so we headed towards Santa Rosa.
Ahead of us we could see the huge anvil blowing off the storm, and to the NW, the Colfax County storm. When the tornado watch was called, we were already in the box--and of all three times there have been tornado watches, we have been in the box all three times(and in the severe storm box when the severe storm watch was called). The Santa Rosa storm was about 50 miles away, and moving ESE at 30 miles per hour, and we were moving towards it at 60 miles per hour, so the gap between us was being closed by 90 miles per hour. We lost the NOAA weather radio, but had the storm well in view. An inflow band could be seen on the south side of the storm, and it had a imposing anvil. We turned south on highway 20 to get on the south side of it. About 5 miles south of our turnoff, we could finally see the base, and within 15 minutes watched it dissipate before our eyes! I would have felt very bad, except it was such a photogenic storm.
So, we knew we needed to go to Kansas tomorrow, and decided to return to Dalhart, Texas for the night--a haul. We chose a route in New Mexico, and were very glad we did. The scenery was wonderful, especially in Ragland. The remains of the Colfax storm was lit up by the setting sun, and as we went through the pass, it was a remarkable sight. It was the reddest sunset I have ever seen. But before we reached Ragland, I was taping the sunset, and saw the "green flash," although the camcorder may not have been sensitive enough to capture the subtlety of it. On the way back, we saw numerous birds: quail, marsh hawk, both Eastern and Western meadowlarks, scissor-tailed flycatchers, Western kingbirds, nighthawks, and a golden eagle.
We reached Dalhart at midnight.
June 11, 1997
Chasers will all be on the dryline today, from north-central Kansas(around Hill City) to Wichita Falls, TX. Marty anticipates that the visibility will not be quite as good, and it is more likely to be a HP supercell--but the chances are better that a tornado will form than in the Panhandle. We will try to get the southernmost storm in the line, the tail-end Charlie. If a line of thunderstorms builds up, a tornado is most likely to form at the south end, because there is an uninterrupted flow of air coming in from the south and southeast. If an isolated supercell forms, then THAT is the best one to choose. Because of the conditions of the day, any isolated storm that forms is likely to be a supercell. Today, the wind shear profile is good , veering with height, dew points are in the mid-60's, temperature in the 80s(for ground heating), and juicy(warm moist air coming in from the southeast and south. But of course, no one knows how far south the cap will break. We are lucky in that we do not have to consider how far into the night we will have to drive so that we will be at work on time tomorrow, which is a consideration that chasers often have to factor in their decision as to where to go.
As we drove north, Marty pointed out the accas(altocumulus castellanus) clouds to our west, which indicate moisture and instability at mid-levels. A good sign. Further north, we began to see cumulus, which indicated that were were getting into better moisture. The dryline is the western boundary of moist air, which generally runs north-south--chasers look for bulges that bow out to the east, which is a favorable location for supercells. Marty is playing the triple point, the intersection of the dry line and the surface front. Somewhere in western Kansas there will be a surface low, and going south from there will be the dryline. Going east from there will be the warm front. Where those two intersect will be the triple point. We have learned that boundaries are zones of convergence--different wind directions moving toward the same line. Supercells sometimes seem to create their own favorable environment. If you get inside the warm moist sector southeast of a surface low, then you are east of one boundary(the dryline), and south of another boundary(the warm front), so you have southeast wind funneling into the southeast quarter of the circulation around the surface low, and getting maximum convergence is concentrating at the triple point. That would be the most likely place for storms to form.
So north it was, to Scott City, eyeing the sky the whole way. And in the tornado warning box again, when it was called. One particular storm stood out among the rest, and we made for it. We saw Dave Hoadley along the way. He is a long-time storm chaser, and co-founder of the Storm Track Newsletter. The storm looked better and better, and we stopped to photograph the obvious wall cloud. It was very photogenic. There was a small needle funnel at one point. We moved further west and into Tribune, where the NOAA weather radio said that a tornado had been on the ground about 5 minutes. Since we had seen the whole development of the supercell while we were stopped a few miles east of town, and been videotaping it as well, we knew that there was no tornado. It is likely that someone saw a gustnado, and mistook it for a tornado. Al Pietryka and his chase partner/girlfriend Elke drove by, on their way to Norman, and stopped to chat. The supercell at this point was deteriorating, so we moved south, and at one point, stopped when we saw a dust whirl on the ground.
Marty thought the one we were under might develop, and so we stuck with it, and it did indeed develop, beautifully. Backsheared anvil, "knuckles," and nice hard tower. But as we moved east to stay on the safe and visible side of the storm, it began to deteriorate, and soon fizzled. We could see storms to the northeast and southeast getting bigger and bigger, with overshooting tops.
We found ourselves looking around at other storms, and wondering if there were chasers on them, getting great views and video of photogenic tornadoes, and wishing it was us! Better get out the Storm B-Gon! A previous "tourist" with Whirlwind Tours gave Marty a can of a fictional product called "Storm B-Gon." The instructions for it areas follows:
But those storms were an hour or two away, much too far away for us to reach, and it was getting dark, so we drove south to Liberal, KS, where we spent the night. From my motel room I watched the lightning in the Hugoton storm. We had to wait until morning to find out that everyone had busted! Most chasers were in Kansas like we were, lured there by the promise of exploding supercells! Only one or two of the well known chasers were on the storm in the vicinity of Shamrock, TX, as it dropped a "wedge" tornado there(a wedge tornado is one whose width is greater than its height).
But it was nice going into Kansas and seeing how if differed from Texas. There was more corn, and less wheat. It was a bit more rolling. And it had even more "cattle feeders," businesses whose purpose is to take "feeder" cattle, and fatten them for the consumer market. We saw many, many cattle trucks on the road, some loaded, some empty. We could identify a feedlot several miles away, because of the large and distinctive, metal cattle food bins that were centered in each facility. Some times we could smell them a few miles off, if the wind was blowing in our direction. We sometimes saw windrows of cattle manure, and sometimes we just smelled them.
June 12, 1997
After a discussion of the wedge tornado that struck Shamrock, TX the previous night, we made a quick stop at Dorothy's House(Dorothy Gale of Wizard of Oz fame) before we started south towards Childress, TX. Marty noted that it was unusual to be chasing so far south in mid-June, but the SPC page had placed all of Oklahoma(except extreme western OK), down to Dallas, and up to Wichita, KS in the "moderate risk" area. He told us we would be on the "Highway to Heaven," as I-287 is known to chasers--a route from Dallas to the Texas Panhandle. Again the landscape changed as we moved along, from corn fields in Kansas, to scrubby ranch land in the northern Panhandle, to a more rolling, wooded landscape in the Canadian area.
Eventually, we ended up south of Altus, OK, and when we saw Jim Leonard and Casey Crosby parked by the side of the road, we stopped.After watching the sky for a while, they decided that the Shamrock, TX area had the best conditions--the same area that had a tornado the day before, injuring several people. The residents of Shamrock were probably getting very nervous as they saw another supercell developing. Using an atlas, we took the shortest route there. If we had not understood the value of a good state atlas before, we did now.
A big cell was developing, and a tornado warning had been issued. As we approached Shamrock, we got off the road to watch the storm for a few minutes. The underside of the cloud looked like a tiered wedding cake, turned upside down and hanging from the cloud base. It was, as Marty called it, a "frisbie stack." The south side of the anvil had half-covered the sun, and the rays of the sun shining between the clouds looked very beautiful. If there was ever a Kodak moment, this was it!
As we came even nearer, the "frisbies" deepened and sagged, looking rather like skirts, and very dramatic. When we finally reached Hwy 83 in Shamrock, we looked for a spot to observe any potential tornado, and found other chasers, spotters, and onlookers scattered along the sides of the highway. The shape of the base and wall cloud kept changing. At one point we saw many little red dust swirls develop in a circle right under the updraft, and thought that a tornado was forming, but if so, it was only seconds long.
That Texas red dirt kept blowing up in the rear flank downdraft ahead of us. When the wind from the downdraft hit us all of a sudden, we couldn't believe how strong it was. Jeff had brought along several weather devices, and one of them(the anemometer) clocked the wind at 47 mph. It was both funny and exciting to try to videotape in that wind--I am sure it would have blown my lightweight tripod right over. And it was such a warm wind! At least it was for a while, but then the outflow started to mix in, and we donned sweatshirts again.
Gusts would almost blow us over! While standing by the highway, we saw the whole SUBVORTEX armada pass(including my husband!), and at other points, saw Dave Hoadley, Casey Crosby, Bobby Prentice, and Bruce Haynie. Although the underside of the storm was very turbulent, and changing constantly, Marty told us that there were to be no tornadoes from this cell. Another wall cloud could be seen to the west, beautifully silhouetted by the sunset, but it was getting cooler as well as darker, so it got nowhere. And I am sure that the people in Shamrock were very happy for that. We watched the lightning flash in the retreating cell for a while, then picked up some food, and drove to the Econolodge in Shamrock to spent the night. It had been a very good day, and again, Marty had brought us to the right place at the right time.
June 13, 1997
We had a relaxed morning in Shamrock, Texas. Marty thought that it was a tossup whether we would be heading back to Amarillo or chasing again that afernoon. He decided we would stay in the area, and he would check the SPC page at 2 PM. So we stopped for lunch stop at the Shamrock Subway, which, interestingly enough, has phones(and therefore--and internet connection!) at each table, then drove west to look at the damage caused by the tornado two days before.
Even though this was only F2 damage, it was sobering to look at. I am sure that not everyone believes that chasers have no wish for tornadoes to cause damage. A man at the motel back in Brownfield really took offense that our group was out to see tornadoes--he seemed to think our interest was morbid in some way--which isn't even close to the truth. Having talked to hundreds of Tornado Project customers in the last 10 years, I know that there are dozens of reasons that people are fascinated with them. Many experienced a tornado in their youth, either personally, or in their town. Some people see a tornado as a manifestation of the Creator's power, and other people are deeply interested in all kinds of weather. Chasers may fit into any or all of those categories, but also find the challenge of predicting where a tornado will touch down an intellectually satisfying experience. They sort through and consider dozens of variables when deciding where to go--some are weather-related, such as the dew point and the dryline, and some aren't, such as whether the road system allows for easy viewing of storms(and possible escape from them!) As the chaser gains experience, he/she gets better, but even the very best chasers can bust. Mother Nature has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and conditions can change quickly. In any case, Becky, Jeff, and I were awed by the power that it took to do the damage we saw.
Marty had said that when he checked the SPC page at 2 PM, he would make the decision, a tough one. I was glad he was making it, and not me. As much as us "tourists" wanted to see storms, Marty wants to see them more. We knew that he wouldn't take a day off if there was any chance!
Marty also decided to head towards Wichita Falls, to get NOAA radio there. Even though the area we headed for is not Marty's favorite area to chase because of the rolling, wooded landscape and twisting roads, we headed southeastward. We took the "dryline highway," US 83, south to Childress, then 287, the "highway to heaven." We finally got the Wichita Falls NOAA weather radio coming in, and saw towers going up southeast of where we were. Marty described them as "summer storms." Despite all, he decided that what we saw had no potential for tornadoes, and we headed back to Shamrock. His decision proved wise, because the next day we found out that there were no tornadoes, only high winds and heavy rain.
June 14, 1997
Our last day, and the 8th chase day of the 14 day tour. We left Shamrock a little before noon, and headed for Amarillo. It is expected to be a chase day, that is, unless there is too much moisture. If that happens, the energy is divided into many small storms, and no one storm is able to grown into a supercell. Instead of tornadoes, you get flash flooding. And from the looks of the sky at 2 PM, that may very well be what happens.
Just before we left, a lady at the motel showed us hail she had saved from the Shamrock tornado of the 12th. She had a whole bowlful of large hail which she had put in her freezer. It broke 5 windows in her house.
On the way, we took a little time out here and there for sightseeing. In Groom, TX, we stopped to see a water tower that is kind of a Texas equivalent of the leaning tower of Pisa.
We also stopped to see the largest cross in the northern hemisphere. It was 190 feet tall, its base consists of 1200 tons of concrete, and 10 tons of steel was used in its construction. It is visible for up to 20 miles, and is seen by 10 million people a year. Many times during the trip we drove along the old Route 66, which was the major travel route from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA. Jeff recognized many old motels and stores that were written up in a nostalgic book on the highway.
When we reached Amarillo, we dropped our luggage at the motel, and headed towards Dumas. The sky was a mess of clouds, with no one cell isolated and easy to pick out. As we moved north, we could see a very large wall cloud, an Allison-sized(Allison, tornado of 1995) wall cloud. But by the time we had reached Fritch, it had broken up, but the storm remained very photogenic and beautiful. We stopped several times to photograph it. At one point, a section of the storm was almost turquoise in color. Traveling back to Amarillo, we experienced rain harder than any I have ever seen. We had a final supper together at the Cracker Barrel, and agreed that it was a very, very good two weeks.
These were the experiences of Doris Grazulis on Whirlwind Tours in June, 1997
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