STORM TRACK: March 31, 1979 (Volume 2 Issue 3)

The following illustrate storms that either fizzled or sent me in the wrong direction or indicated good things to come. Hope that they and other advice from prior newsletters help make this year your best chase yet. Good luck!

6-9-76, 1:30 CDT; east, central N. Dakota. CBs developed rapidly, initially in a broken line, then joined, with raining bases and merging (hard, sharply defined) anvils. Extensive, closely packed, but small CN on underside of anvils. Tornado occurred 175 miles ENE at 4:44 CDT from other cells further east. Nearest northerly winds were well over 150 miles WNW, and low center was 75 miles SW. Nearest significant dry line was in NE Wyoming.

5-24-78, 5:15 CDT; SW S. Dakota. Isolated pocket of initial CB development with high bases, minor anvil shearing and minor CM activity. At least one narrow, linear rain-free base building into an anvil but preceding a raining bass 5-10 miles further west. No rain-free base ever did appear either west or southwest of the precip area. This pattern persisted until the near base began raining, also. Nearest tornadoes were 200 miles S and SE at 5:40 and 11:45 CDT. This area was within Sd corner of a 4-10 CDT tornado box, and was apparently a dry line storm system.

5-31-78, 5:08; NE Kansas (Several chasers missed this one, which produced large tornadoes near Emmett and Holton). The illustration above exaggerates the cloud scale in relation to the road, for general perspective. Slowly developing supercell ENE of Manhattan started producing radar hooks at 4:44 CDT 5 miles north of Lewisville. Several tornadoes were reported between Manhattan and Wamego at 5;00 CDT. At about the same time, a classic text-book-model flanking line was developing rapidly south to southwest of the main cell complex and merging with it. Its towers were very hard and quite impressive, with rainfree bases and fractus beneath some. Also, its location was almost dead center in the tornado box, and its development coincided with the mid-time of the watch. The area from Manhattan to Wamego appeared very dark -a mix of heavy rain and dark overcast- and cloud bases were indistinct, as seen from I 70. I was undecided to go toward the most recent reported activity but was disuaded by the proximity of a new western cell, whose rapidly developing anvil was almost touching the Emmett-Holton storm's anvil. I assumed that the proximity of the new cell -near Salina- would stabilize the activity north of me, so I committed myself to the flanking line to the east. It never produced! I should have gone north, where tornadic activity continued from 4".40 to about 5:40 CDT. I did note a slight gap between where the flanking line joined the main cell and the seemingly disorganized complex of towers and dark bases west of this juncture (north of me). This gap was evidenced by lack of significant towers and was largely a precip area. As such, and in retrospect, it separated two segments of the main storm. The area to the west of this slight break was the tornadic one on this day.

5-27-78, 12:13 CDT; Texas panhandle with cell just west of Dimmitt. Building CB in clear western air, merged into broken N-S CB development, extending to near Cotton Center. Latter development began in closely scattered, dense cumulus buildups and was not distinctly identifiable until several hours later when the adjacent cumulus dis sipated. Cell illustrated here initially developed with a hi her base than local dew points of over 65F would have indicated. Although rain-free, no cumulus fractus or lowering of the base followed. There was no dry line in the area. I lingered too long, watching this one, and missed the tornadoes from the cell 40 miles SE of this one.

5-26-73, 4-5 CDT; NE Oklahoma. On several occasions, when fortunate to have photographed two separate tornadoes on the same day, I have noted a possible pattern for multiple occurrences. The first tornado dissipated (withdrew into the cloud base) without losing its barrel or funnel shape, whereas the second (occurring within 20 miles and one hour of the first) "roped out". If further experience verifies this, it is something to watch for.