04/07/08 Report & Pics
I'm short on time this evening with preparing for a possible chase tomorrow. But, in short....
Jay McCoy and I intercepted the Red River tornadic supercells yesterday. We were under the meso navigating through the hook on the a supercell as the first tornado warning was issued on it. We were in excellent position to observe a strongly rotating wall cloud with repeated attempts to tornado with several little funnels. We were mesemerized by the storm's power and energy as well as confused as to why a tornado didn't form. All of the scud tags and rotation was very very close to the ground.
We repositioned towards Electra watching the original wall cloud and unaware that a bigger wallcloud was behind us. In fact, we unknowingly drove under it and encountered a strong 180 degree windshift and strong inflow. This storm had two distinct mesos with pronounced rotation at the same time within a short distance of each other!!
We got on the southern fringe of Electra and watched the big, violently rotating wall cloud just W and WNW of Electra. This was part of a "barrel" updraft which was rotating as far up as we could see. It reminded me abit of the Kent County 6/12/05 structure as it occluded and wrapped in on itself. We saw at least 3 distinct truncated funnel clouds that were impressive and looked like they would tornado...and then rapidly dissipate. Finally, a long, slender tornado suddenly appeared and snaked around on the ground for about 15 seconds before dissipating. The entire wall cloud and rotation soon became rain wrapped and we lost all visibility. But, I understand a nice tornado developed deep into the rain after we lost view of it.
After getting suckered across Big Red by a nice updraft which died, we dropped south and watched some ominous activity of the supercell encroaching on Wichita Falls. Luckily for residents, a bigger and stronger storm in Archer County to the south killed it with outflow. We made haste on 281 to get in front of the more southern beast. After skirting a vicious hail core just to our west, we emerged to view one of the most spectacular storm structures you could hope to see. This thing was spinning like a top up into the anvil. Pics below.
The streaming video was very successful!! According to the guys at StreamingStudios.com, there were 460 streams of my video. Yowsa. According to alot of feedback I've received, the quality was excellent and the stream rarely went down. All of the rotation, funnels and brief tornado came across nicely. I look forward to making this a regular part of my chasing in the future. The guys at SevereStudios are trying to post an archive of my streamed video from yesterday. I'll post the link here when/if they do.
The coolest part of yesterday's chase was being able to phone in live reports to Rick Smith of the NWS in Norman. He was able to bring up the streaming video in time to see the big wall cloud and brief tornado near Electra as I was on the phone with him. I was relaying reports to him for about 20 minutes. I certainly hope this helped with the warning process yesterday. Perhaps this will become a powerful new tool used by the NWS to augment the warning process. I certainly hope so. I also heard from the NWS in Fort Worth who also watched part of the live stream.
It was great to have the ability to let people take a virtual ride with us on a stormchase. Thanks to everybody for watching as well as the great feedback. I will be working on improving that as well as my live chase page.
Now for some pics!!!
The rotating wall cloud just after the first tornado warning is issued. We are looking SE.
Strongly rotating wall cloud just WNW of Electra. No, I didn't snap a pic of the tornado as I was videoing, working the streaming stuff, and talking with the NWS.
The last gasp of the cell after it had produced the tornado. It's still rotating, but much higher based.
The same cell as it weakens. The strong wind shear is quite evident by the nearly-horizontal updraft.
A left-splitting cell coming across the Red River as we are headed back south into the action.
The "big momma" in Archer County.
The waning Archer County cell to our east as we head home to Amarillo.
Jay McCoy and I intercepted the Red River tornadic supercells yesterday. We were under the meso navigating through the hook on the a supercell as the first tornado warning was issued on it. We were in excellent position to observe a strongly rotating wall cloud with repeated attempts to tornado with several little funnels. We were mesemerized by the storm's power and energy as well as confused as to why a tornado didn't form. All of the scud tags and rotation was very very close to the ground.
We repositioned towards Electra watching the original wall cloud and unaware that a bigger wallcloud was behind us. In fact, we unknowingly drove under it and encountered a strong 180 degree windshift and strong inflow. This storm had two distinct mesos with pronounced rotation at the same time within a short distance of each other!!
We got on the southern fringe of Electra and watched the big, violently rotating wall cloud just W and WNW of Electra. This was part of a "barrel" updraft which was rotating as far up as we could see. It reminded me abit of the Kent County 6/12/05 structure as it occluded and wrapped in on itself. We saw at least 3 distinct truncated funnel clouds that were impressive and looked like they would tornado...and then rapidly dissipate. Finally, a long, slender tornado suddenly appeared and snaked around on the ground for about 15 seconds before dissipating. The entire wall cloud and rotation soon became rain wrapped and we lost all visibility. But, I understand a nice tornado developed deep into the rain after we lost view of it.
After getting suckered across Big Red by a nice updraft which died, we dropped south and watched some ominous activity of the supercell encroaching on Wichita Falls. Luckily for residents, a bigger and stronger storm in Archer County to the south killed it with outflow. We made haste on 281 to get in front of the more southern beast. After skirting a vicious hail core just to our west, we emerged to view one of the most spectacular storm structures you could hope to see. This thing was spinning like a top up into the anvil. Pics below.
The streaming video was very successful!! According to the guys at StreamingStudios.com, there were 460 streams of my video. Yowsa. According to alot of feedback I've received, the quality was excellent and the stream rarely went down. All of the rotation, funnels and brief tornado came across nicely. I look forward to making this a regular part of my chasing in the future. The guys at SevereStudios are trying to post an archive of my streamed video from yesterday. I'll post the link here when/if they do.
The coolest part of yesterday's chase was being able to phone in live reports to Rick Smith of the NWS in Norman. He was able to bring up the streaming video in time to see the big wall cloud and brief tornado near Electra as I was on the phone with him. I was relaying reports to him for about 20 minutes. I certainly hope this helped with the warning process yesterday. Perhaps this will become a powerful new tool used by the NWS to augment the warning process. I certainly hope so. I also heard from the NWS in Fort Worth who also watched part of the live stream.
It was great to have the ability to let people take a virtual ride with us on a stormchase. Thanks to everybody for watching as well as the great feedback. I will be working on improving that as well as my live chase page.
Now for some pics!!!
The rotating wall cloud just after the first tornado warning is issued. We are looking SE.
Strongly rotating wall cloud just WNW of Electra. No, I didn't snap a pic of the tornado as I was videoing, working the streaming stuff, and talking with the NWS.
The last gasp of the cell after it had produced the tornado. It's still rotating, but much higher based.
The same cell as it weakens. The strong wind shear is quite evident by the nearly-horizontal updraft.
A left-splitting cell coming across the Red River as we are headed back south into the action.
The "big momma" in Archer County.
The waning Archer County cell to our east as we head home to Amarillo.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 4/08/2008 08:48:00 PM
6 Comments:
Be safe, Steve. Love the Big Momma shot.
I'd pay at least 50 bucks to see the sacred forbidden dance of chaser merriment streaming live! Heck, I may just stream some old footage to them. I wonder if they will recognize it's footage from 2005? :o)
P.S. Of course you catching a tornado and getting calls from OUN signals the end of the world as we know it. Perhaps this explains the date of your post? 4/0/08
Day Zero
Man, I didn't know there was such a demand for a taped performance of the Forbidden Sacred Dance of Chaser Merriment! I could make some money off of this. I can make it like a peep show whereby using a PayPal acccount, you can deposit $10 for a 5 minute view. LOL!!!
Oh, and got the post date fixed. Silly me. I think this year I will avoid the 2x4 therapy. :-)
*drools*
*still drooling*
Great photos, amazing structure, please send some of those to KS stat.
Post a Comment
<< Home