6/10/09 / Flower Mound, TX Tornado

I drive all over Kansas and Oklahoma yesterday, no tornadoes. This evening I drive 5 miles from home and a tornado forms right on top of me!! Go figure??

I was in Flower Mound and debris started rotating rapidly around my vehicle and power lines were flashing about 75 yards in front of me. A couple of times visibility was zero. Lots of large trees down and major structure damage to an apartment complex in Lewisville.

I was not 100% sure that what I witnessed was indeed a tornado but after seeing video from WFAA Channel 8 helicopter a few moments ago it was definitely tornadic circulation from cloud to ground that lasted for a couple of minutes. Here is the report sent in to NWS:

2350

FLOWER MOUND

DENTON

TX

3303

9709

RETIRED NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTED BRIEF TOUCHDOWN 3 MILES WEST OF 2499 ON 1171 IN FLOWER MOUND (FWD)

Kansas Bound

Just when I thought my chase season might be over, looks like I am Kansas bound on Tuesday morning! Will head to Wichita and see where warm front decides to set up. Some nice looking hodographs tomorrow in and near Wichita!

May 8th, North Texas

Started the day at Ardmore. Hung around at Love's until the dueling chase tour groups showed up. I headed South to Marietta OK and hung out there for awhile. It then appeared that the cap would break first in Texas where I figured somewhere around Nocona and the Red River. I headed South back across the river and was near Muenster when I noticed big cells were forming in Jack and Palo Pinto Counties. I figured, head towards Decatur, storms will move NE right into my lap. Got to Decatur and WTF, these cells are headed SW???? My choice was pretty clear, go for the storms to my SW that are heading away from me or head back up North where a few blips are showing up on radar NE of Wichita Falls?? Luckily the blips on radar turned into pretty stout storms so guess where I ended up??? My initial target of Nocona!! Oh well, just took me awhile to get there!

The Nocona storm as we will call it, looked great coming in from St. Joe and it had some wonderful structure. Only problem, it was just about dark and the photo opportunities were waning fast. The storm had a beautiful fanned out anvil that was back lit by the setting sun and had an upside down wedding cake appearance with some corkscrewing. Why couldn't this storm happened about and hour earlier???? Just North of Montague, the storm was tornado warned and exhibited a nice wall cloud but daylight was done and the storm quickly faded into the darkness and weakened.

Lesson learned, STICK TO YOUR TARGET!

Today

I think today has some marginal potential. Cap is not too strong and forecasted capes are explosive. Although convergence along the front may provide initiation, I hope that a outflow boundary from this morning derecho in Missouri will slide far enough South along the Red River.

My current thinking is Nocona TX to Ardmore OK. Will head out in a couple of hours.

20z UPDATE: Currently I am just West of Marietta, OK. I was at Ardmore when the Chase Tour Paparazzi showed up, so I headed South. Cape right now between 4500-5000. Nice Cu field to my NW. I expect cap to break within next couple of hours.

5/1/09 - Northwest Texas

Began the day with a target of Vernon to Seymour TX. Around 10:30 am headed up HWY 287 towards Wichita Falls. At Bellevue met up with Scott Eubanks whom I had not chased with in 3 or 4 years. We stopped at Jolly and perused data while meeting up with Amos Magliocco, also an old chase buddy. At this point it looked like the best thing to do was to head SW towards Seymour.

We stopped at Mankins and met up with some Italian Chasers. It was fun chatting with these guys and gal!! Dave Fick also met up with us and we all headed to Lake Kemp for a quick scenic diversion. Storms were starting to fire up around Benjamin so we headed SW and intercepted cell that was WNW of Haskell. The cell was tornado warned for the entire chase but I can't say with ultimate confidence that we saw a tornado. We did witness I believe what Shane Adams said was a tornado, a large dust whirl under a rotating wall cloud, but was it a tornado?? I dunno?? I respect Shane as a experienced chaser, so it probably was. I look forward to seeing his video.

This storm had nice structure and numerous wall clouds but it continued to tease us all afternoon. There were reports of softball size hail. North of Stamford I found golf ball and larger hail on the ground but I believe it had been there for a while so it could have been bigger at one time!

Chased after another cell South of Seymour but by the time we arrived it was quickly falling apart. We met Kurt Hulst, Nick Grillo, and Daniel Shaw from Australia and had a nice dinner in Seymour at the New Maverick Cafe where we also entertained some of the locals with storm stories!

4/29/09 - Northwest Texas

Began the day with a target of Guthrie to Lubbock. Headed up 287 towards Wichita Falls . As I reached Bowie I noticed that a pretty nice storm had formed West of Archer City. Cut South and observed rapid upward motion under the base and thought it might be getting ready to tornado about 1/2 mile in front of me. Safely repositioned and the rotation and movement ceased fairly quick.

Headed West towards Guthrie and it appeared the show out near Plainview was over by now so I headed back to DFW having to be at work at 5am on Thursday, arghhhh!

With this chase, I guess I am officially out of retirement! I have chased for over 20 years but the last few years I have been fairly inactive.