STORM TRACK: September 30, 1982 (Volume 5 Issue 6)

Storm Track begins this issue with a nod to Dave Gallaher of Coral Springs, Florida who is a subscriber and chaser as well as a musician and business manager for a small band, "Group Cameron." Professor Dave Jones and I stopped by, on our way west this spring, to visit with Dave and the band at the Viking Motor Lodge in Sunset Hills, Missouri (St. Louis suburb). The band tours and plays across the southeast and midwest. We had a brief but, nice visit and got to see the band during a practice session. Dave presented the editor with an official band T-shirt (see illustration). If memory serves, the band was planning to do an original composition on storms. Dave's job as business manager keeps him occupied most of the day, and, with evening performances, his main chasing experience has been at night. In one of his letters, several interesting storm encounters were relayed.

Between Joplin and Springfield, Missouri on June 19, 1980,"I ... came close enough to help a spotter pull his car out of a ditch! It seems that the vortex was inside a rain shaft and caught the spotter headed west, spun him back to the east and off the road. I had been watching the cloud base, traveling behind the rain shaft, and had considered driving into it a couple of times. Glad I didn't!"

"Ironically, after several years of chasing in the midwest, and south with no results (some very near misses), after arriving back home in Ft. Lauderdale, my 10-year old daughter, Kim, came in yelling 'Daddy, there's a tornado cloud outside!'" Scoffing, I went out to find a well-formed funnel about halfway from cloud base to the ground in length, about 1/2 mile west of my home. The whole system was drifting to the S-SE, and I watched for a full 6 or 7 minutes before I had the presence of mind to ask my wife, Jo Anne, to shoot a picture (I did, however, call the emergency number right away)! By the time we shot it, it had shrunk to the final rope-stage and withdrew shortly after that. I do find it rewarding that after two fruitless years, a goad visual (and harmless!) storm was delivered to my door!!"

Good luck to Dave with the big vortex and the "good vibes."