This Chase log encompasses 8 days of chasing on the plains and includes many pictures and discussions. I decided to write it onto one page to make the whole vacation blend together. This vacation I did concentrate on video techniques using a Sony Digital 8 Camcorder. The picture quality is excellent for capturing photographs.

April 29th:

April 30th:

The day started off bad to begin with. At 4 am, I awoke to a painful ear ache. Struggling through the pain (don't wish that on anyone) to decide what my target was going to be, I came up with 2 target areas. The first was Childress, Texas around 3 pm and just south of Wichita Falls, Texas around 5pm. There was a nice system forming and moving into the plains. Capes were running around 3000 with LIs to -7  and these were the 2 places that I figured I would target. I packed up the car and was hoping the ear ache would just vanish as I got moving. But, the pain got worse to the point where I had to find the nearest hospital for some attention. After a 3 hour delay in Sullivan, Missouri,  I was on highway 44 hightailing it to make at least one of my targets. This was possible as the toll road had 75 mph legal speeds and the kilometers just clicked off. At 2 pm, I knew I was not going to make Childress. No way and thus changed my target to Wichita Falls. As I approached Oklahoma City,  severe thunderstorm warnings went up and I encountered some very heavy rain and a nice gust front but the best action would be further south. The heavy rain caused some serious road flooding which held me up even further. Today was not my day. I finally got through Oklahoma City and headed towards Lawton on my way to Wichita Falls. 

Looks like a Tornado but not

I made a phone call at 3:15 to Jeff Longland who told me that a tornado was on the ground about 15 miles south of Childress near Paducah. Well that really made my day. A successful target area only to be held up by a medical emergency. I was not happy. He told me that some new development was showing up in Texas and to aim for my second target zone. 

I knew that I was cutting it very close on time (daylight) to make my second target just south of Wichita Falls. At 7pm, severe thunderstorm warnings went up in Wichita County. When I just past over the state line into Texas, I saw some very nice development to my west and decided to head towards Burkburnett on 240. 

Looking west at the frontal line of the storm 

I got west of this town when I spotted a few chasers out but I was not happy with their location so I keep heading toward the line forming. I connected to the net from my laptop to see some impressive radar returns and figured I would hang out there and watch the storms form. I hung up and immediately got a phone call from Jeff telling me about what I was seeing and then he told me more bad news. Another tornado was on the ground near Graham, Texas which was about 30 miles from my second target zone. 2 good target zones and both with tornadoes. I was not happen. But looking at the storms forming in front of me, I was not unhappy. Anything can happen. And it did. 

   Under the Anvil

I hung around this region till dusk and recorded some beautiful cloud formations and a classic rain core associated with a severe thunderstorm. At one point a lowering form and a slight wall cloud with some slight rotation but nothing formed (6th Photo). This was good for the chicken farmer in picture 6 as his barn was underneath it.

The Rain Core and Weakly Rotating Wall Cloud

About this time, the weather service issued a statement that a few tornadoes were possible along the line due to the winds. Probably the radar was indicating rotation where I was. Regardless, these storms began to pick up speed and head to the northeast. I decided to head to Wichita Falls and call it a night, I got to a Super 8 Motel around 8:30pm and was talking with the owners and they said the tornado was still on the ground to the east of Graham (actually found out this was the third one that formed with this storm) so I decided to try and make this region before dark.

I headed towards Bowie on 287 and cut south at Bellevue. I past a weather spotter and chatted with him. He said they were still see the tornado about 20 miles to the southwest and it would track about 10 miles to the south. I thanked him and got on the phone to Jeff and he pulled up the current radar information and stated that I could head about 10 miles south as the tornado had lifted and shifted further south. The line was coming in with rapid lightning and moderate rain.  I decided to slowly head south and see if I could get any backlit shots of the tornado.

Big Mistake. I told myself  I would never chase at night and I broke my own rule. I continued slowly south on 1288 and pulled over after hitting some torrential rain and marble size hail. When this let up, a few cars pasted me and I pulled in behind. All of a sudden, the winds howled and pushed my car 5 feet to the left. Ok, that was a  serious outflow wind/gust front running close to 100 km/h. As I looked in the distance, the taillights of the 2 cars in front of me disappeared. I pulled over to the side of the road and was swamped with torrential rain and golf ball size hail. I turned around to get out of the core when, and I estimated, a 120 km/h gust picked up a rock and cracked the windshield. My luck was not holding and I decided enough was enough. I am getting a room . I headed north and pulled over to talk to the spotter and tell him my observations to forward to the weather service when he told me that a wall cloud formed about 1 mile from here and that I was probably on the outskirts of it. No tornado formed but I decided to head to Bowie for the night and some much needed rest. The video was just plan bad during the evening. So much rain and fog prevent anything decent from showing up. I do have about 5 mins of good audio as the hail pounds my car but that gives me chills.

May 1st:

After a pretty good sleep (medication doing the trick), I woke up around 7am and got some coffee going and sat at the computer to decide where I was going today. Early indications and the models this morning indicated that this was going to be an iffy day with no tornadic development so I decided to chase for storm development shots. My target was near Austin so I packed up the truck and off I drove. As I was within a comfortable range and would get there ahead of time, I enjoyed the scenery as I headed south. Just outside of Austin, I finally broke through the low clouds to see a few towering cumulus and one mature cumulusnimbus cloud that produced some nice mammatus.

Mammatus, Storm Base and Outflow Formation

As these were heading east and  I did not feel like heading to Houston, I planned to intercept the dry line to my west. I headed west on 290 and got about 10 miles east of Fredericksburg when I spotted some weak development that lasted about 10 mins before dying out. As it was approaching 5pm, I decided to call it a day and stay the night in Austin and get a nice meal in me. Arriving back in my hotel room that evening, I pulled up radar to notice many severe thunderstorms with rain being the biggest factor tracking right over Austin. Oh well, I did not want to chase rain anyway so I retired for the night.

May 2nd:

After reviewing the models in the morning, this was going to be a day to kill. There was no prominent weather patterns or events shaping up so I decided to drive north and prepare for more promising weather the next day. I ended up in Tulsa Oklahoma this evening and was seriously deciding to call it a vacation after reviewing the models in the evening. But I decided to look at the models in the morning and make my decision then. 

May 3rd:

I woke up in the morning with a refreshed frame of mind and the weather did not let me down. Looking at the models and radar images, a few severe thunderstorms had erupted just west of Dallas in the early morning and were tracking eastward. As a new system was forecast to enter this region in the afternoon, the outflow boundaries set up by the morning's thunderstorms may aid better development for large thunderstorms with a chance of a possible tornado. I headed south out of Tulsa along the Indian Nation Turnpike. As I entered into Texas, some thunderstorms were dropping some moderate rain but the severe weather had weakened. I decided to head westward to around Dallas for the afternoon heating of the day. As I came into Dallas, the Weather radio had an excellent discussion about where the outflow boundaries had set up.

I decided that convection should initiate to the west of Dallas and wanted to get through the city and prepare for the chase. I took I 20 east and decided that I would target just north of Granbury on  51. Needless to say I never made it. I had just turned south on 51 and had driven about 5 kms south when I decided to pull over. Some towering cumulous clouds were rapidly building around 3 pm and I decided this was the region I wanted to be. At this time, a tornado watch was issued for my region. I flipped the scanner to the local Skywarn ( Canadian equivalent to Canwarn, a group of weather spotters that report conditions by Ham radio) and listened in on the discussions. I saw 2 distinct cells pop up to my east.

I had traveled a little to far west. About 4pm, a report came in a a severe thunderstorm with some 1 inch hail towards Phome heading Southeast. I quickly pulled up the radar and got a track and then headed east along 120 to a better position. As this cell built, the southern cell seemed to weaken a little. I was on the right cell for today so I took the 820 east to 26 and headed a little northeast and waited to the cell to pass to my north. 

Thunderstorm Development

This was a beautiful thunderstorm with a classic structure. It was a joy to actual see all the parts of the storm unlike the storms in Ontario where visibility is reduced most of the time. As I observed the cells, the sky turned green and I heard that 2 inch hail was being reported. This was a beautiful sight as the sun was behind me and the whole storm looked to glow with reds and greens. As I was in the best place to observe it safely, 2 other chasers pulled up and we discussed the storm. They had said that some very slight rotation was indicated for a minute before it stopped. 

About 5 mins later (around 5:30pm), we saw a nice rotation form about 500 meters from us that was very weak coming from the base. We shrugged it off as a neat cloud formation as no wall cloud was present (that we could identify). This event lasted about 2 mins before it dissipated. The evening was upon us and this cell was starting to look like it was weakening so we said our goodbyes and I headed east out of Dallas to find a room for the night in Greenville. 

Sunset After The Chase

This chase was a prime example of the beauty of nature and I will remember this storm.

An aside: About a month later I finally got to watch the video properly and was pleasantly surprised. I had left on the camcorder by mistake and actually recorded the weak rotation in its entirety. At regular speed, it looks like a weak formation that was rotating. At 3 times speed, it really looks like a funnel was trying to form and almost touched the ground before dissipating. Unfortunately, the video is great but it too large to show on the site.

May 4th:

Waking up refreshed I looked at the models and did not see many reasons for me to prolong my vacation (and spend more money) to sit in hotels. The weather had stopped cooperating with me. The models indicated that thunderstorms were possible all the way to Arkansas with the slow moving low that was tracking east out of Oklahoma. There were a few severe thunderstorms that had formed to my south and figured I would take one last try and getting some lightning shots before heading home. The wallet was getting very light as this was an expensive trip with the way our dollar was. I headed southeast to Emory on 69 and wound my way down to Grand Saline. A few thunderstorms were ongoing but the lightning factor was weak and there was very few strikes around. The visibility was poor and I decided that this was not worth the gas so I decided to head northeast through the back roads and hit Mount Pleasant. I decided that I would aim for Little Rock, Arkansas hoping that a few evening thunderstorms would form. About 4 pm I was about 60 kms outside of Little Rock on I30 when the first tornado warnings trickled over the weather radio.  I had stopped about 20 kms back and took some pictures of the developing thunderstorms but they were very low topped. The weather radio indicated that cold core funnels clouds had formed just west of Little Rock about 20 kms to my northeast. I Could make this cell until I pulled over the next rise and got caught in a monster traffic jam. 2 transport trucks had collided and blocked everything up. An hour later and the storms in the distance, I stayed just west of Little Rock and called it a night. As I got into the room, I fired up the net and saw another tornado warning for 60 kms to my north but the road network to get there was poor and the cell movement was a little too fast. With night approaching, I decided to call it a night.

May 5th & 6th:

Heading home today. I looked briefly at the models and found nothing was going to happen for the next 3-4 days and money was tight so I decided to head home and call it a vacation. I ended up just north of Columbus Ohio around 9 pm. As I was tired from all the driving, I watched TV and retired early to be fresh for the trip home. I got up around 8 am and headed out. I arrived home in Fergus around 5 pm to the delight of my dog and ended up walking him for an hour before sitting down and discussion the trip with the family.

A very good trip covering about 6500 kms in 8 days with a funnel cloud, broken windshield, some good forecasting and beautiful storms and bad luck all thrown together. I can't wait for next year.

All Photos and information unless otherwise noted are copyrighted 1999 by Dave Patrick.  Any use other than authorized by them is against the law.  If you wish to contact me regarding use of these photos, please e-mail me. Images unaltered digitally (except where stated)