STORM TRACK: May 31, 1980 (Volume 3 Issue 4)

This issue of ST goes to press by candle light, since a locally severe storm just blew through Fairfax County, with a spate of tornado warnings, knocking out the electricity. As it were, the editor of this tome was trimming branches all afternoon and blissfully ignorant of the gathering storm having been lulled into a false sense of security by a woefully inadequate, earlier telephone recorded weather report. Lesson: One must be eternally vigilant -even when unwinding from an arduous but successful 14,000 mile tornado chase. This year, my western trek netted three tornadoes and 15 funnel clouds (a record for me). I hasten to add that two of the tornadoes were not notable -either barely visible at 15 miles in late evening twilight or lacking dramatic characteristics. The third, however, was quite clear and ranks with some of my best. This one formed about 8:05 PM CDT, 15 miles southeast of Russell, Kansas on May 29. It dropped to the ground about 10 miles east of me and lingered for about five minutes through some 20 slides -including two wide angles of the entire CB with tornado still on the ground (six tornadoes were reported from this storm). The early stages of the vortex were in sunlight, as was all of the backside of the CB. It, is among my best documented tornadic storms to date. The 15 funnels ranged from southwest Minnesota to the Texas panhandle and included both small, high level rotation from the turbulent sides of CBs and larger funnels from rotating wall clouds -as well as two predecessor funnels from the circulation core that produced the Tulia, Texas tornado on May 28. I missed the Grand Island storm but was within three hours and 40 miles of it, while driving through eastern Nebraska to be in South Dakota for expected severe weather the next day. Since Kansas City hadn't forecast anything specifically severe for Nebraska in the earlier "AC" outlooks, T didn't do a surface analysis for this day and was not looking for anything in that area. It is noteworthy that I managed -with half of my brain in gear- to drive away from the overnight stop in Huron, where three tornadoes were reported three miles southwest of the city 1 hour later.

(2nd from left illustration is from memory, since 2 1/4" slides of this phase not yet developed. Funnel preceding Tulia tornado at 8:42, looking southeast, from 5 miles south of Summerfield, Texas is shown at right.)

An additional note: A Chicago Tribune reporter traveled with me this year for the first 2 1/2 days and prepared an article that was published in the June 4 edition. To date, there has, fortunately, been little additional public inquiry, and I look forward to returning to relative obscurity. I had previously written other chasers to clear this with them and received encouragement to go ahead with the interview. There is one error at the beginning of the article, for those who happen to read it. The statement that I have done "750,000 miles of chasing" is incorrect; its closer to 250,000 - 275,000 miles, Otherwise, the article is good -- a generally true account of the difficulties of chasing.