STORM TRACK: July 31, 1982 (Volume 5 Issue 5)

May 9 - Magic month in the Land of Oz dawned on Sunday at (yes) Dawn, Texas as Tim Marshall extensively photographed a rope shaped tornado at 8:06 PM for two minutes at 0.3 miles. The second occurred well after dusk and hit Bushland (just, west of Amarillo); observed by lightning.

May 10 - Four to five tornadoes reported near Bushland again, most occurring as large cones, multiple vortices and many long lived needles.

May 11 - Mention this date to almost any chaser from Texas or Oklahoma and eyes glaze over, followed by mostly incoherent babbling as slide cartons and film spools tumble out. This was one of two days (the other was May 19) when the doors to the Emerald City were opened. Over a dozen large and slow moving tornadoes developed in western Oklahoma, in excellent light, as chasers captured storm after storm on film.

Jim Leonard ("on a roll") caught a large "Union City" size vortex near Silverton, Texas at 4:30 "at very close range" on sound super-8 and then followed that storm to Plaska and Memphis, where several more tornadoes were photographed over a 3-4 hour period. Along with his girlfriend Barbara, Jim was almost caught by one mile-wide vortex after recording the inflow winds to another as a "screeching" sound on his audio-camera. For that storm, the tripod had to be held down by shaking hands, as 70-80 MPH gusts repeatedly tried to tip it. However, the singular, really note- worthy part, of this chase was the portable tape player inadvertently left recording in their back seat -catching every spontaneous exclamation, exultation and profanity, including one frightening moment (previously mentioned) when the intrepid duo wheeled around and literally fled for their lives as a 1/2 mile wide twister blew up in a field very close and took aim right at them. That, afternoon came alive for friends of Jim at a late night slide/movie show some weeks later as the tape (synchronized with the films) played: "Hey, there's one now ... (clatter of camera gear and equipment falling over) ... Oh, wow! ... Jeez, look at that ... hey, there's another one ... I can't believe it! ... This is Tornado City! Oh, my God ... Hey, that's too close ... Jesus Christ, let's get out of here!" Jim's sharing of this marvelous tape with the rest of us brought both gales of laughter and total empathy from those who have had the same feelings at one time or another. It was a profoundly moving as well as funny evening, touching some respondent chord in all of us that was more than just amusement. Thanks Jim for an unforgettable evening, that seemed to sum up the whole experience of chasing!

Tornado #1 NNW of Plaska; 7:20 CDT

Tornado #2 NNE of Plaska; 7:35 CDT (Leonard pics)

Returning to our accounting, Tim Marshall also caught the Memphis storm, which he described as "two tornadoes ... embedded in rain ... seen briefly. The first was 1/2 mile wide and occurred under the parent, updraft occlusion. The second was small, short lived and occurred northeast of the occlusion" at the boundary of the inflow updraft and the occlusion. National news was made by the storm that occurred near Altus, Oklahoma and was photographed by Lou Wicker and Neal Rasmussen. 400-500 ft of movie film was shot along with several hundred slides by chasers and reporters from Texas Tech, OU, NSSL and local TV and newspapers. Literally dozens of photographers lined up for a storm that was fairly obvious in its early development and easy for all to spot and follow. Neal Rasmussen from OU got "a spectacular 16-mm movie of a double tornado on the ground simultaneously, west of Altus.

From Rasmussen movie, large tornado 2 miles distant with a funnel 1 mile away. Field in the foreground showed wheat stalks laying flat as the inflow wind literally shook them with its force.(Illustrations based 0n Zipser sketch from film)

Tornado toward end of Rasmussen film, as the wall cloud actually drops to the ground.

For those of us (such as ST's Editor) who were rooted to our jobs during this9 week and unable to chase, the supreme insult (to injury) came with the report that Chuck Robertson left work at his normal 5:00 PM, stopped for a shower, and -then- drove out to Clinton, 0K where he and Mike Foster photographed eight more tornadoes' Chuck said, "Unbelievable!" The Editor of ST says that Chuck is "Unbelievable'" I've heard of taking a shower before dinner, but Really! To see a tornado?

May 15 - Gene Moore did his thing, photographing several tornadoes in Kiowa County, Oklahoma.

May 16 - Chuck Robertson and Randy Zipser crossed paths with Gene Moore and Bill Moyer near Turkey, Texas, where both were in pursuit of a "large tornado enshrouded in a dust column to cloud base just NW of Matador." Randy got 20 ft of 16 mm movies and Chuck got several slides. A long track tornado was reported from Canadian, Texas to Logan County, Oklahoma (north of Oklahoma City), which was believed to have been covered by OU chasers that day.

This is a good place to break of our accounting of 'Chase '82' and continue it in the next issue (otherwise I may bust the two ounce limit for postage on this missive). The next ST will start off with May 19 and the many short stories of this memorable day, along with more insights and personal experiences of chasers.

The preceding account was prepared with the assistance of Randy Zipser, Tim Marshall, and Jim Leonard.