STORM TRACK: July 31, 1984 (Volume 7 Issue 5)

Kim Van Vleet from Nebraska sent a photo of an Iowa tornado that he caught on the way to work in the Severe Weather Section at Offutt Air Force Base, May l, 1983 (High Risk Day). "...the weather radio blared a tornado warning for southeastern Nebraska. Since I didn't have to be at work for a couple of hours, I crossed the border into Iowa for a quick look.

The vortex (one of a family outbreak along the warm front) was still on the ground, but I didn't have enough time to get to it, so I turned the car around and headed back. Then, a little radio station down the road reported a tornado sighting just where I had come from. I took off back in that direction and pulled off on the shoulder next to a co-worker of mine, just in time to see a funnel come down and pick up some mud (it had been raining all day). When the tornado lifted off the ground, it rotated at an angle and, being my first chase, I suddenly remembered to grab the cameras The tornado was about 3/4 miles toward the southwest ... Later, it reminded me of one of the dust-devils down in Las Vegas. The funnel drew back into the cloud, and it got dry and warm. (Note: The white cloud toward the end of the funnel in the picture is a low cumulus cloud in the sun and in the dry tongue.) As it happened, I got to work before the report of the tornado." --- This spring, unfortunately, Kim missed several chase opportunities, while holding down the desk on the four to midnight shift, but did manage to send several of his friends to the vortex. "The people that I relieve go home and watch from their window and backyards. Once this year, however, I did send a few eager souls down to Lincoln, Nebraska on an intercept. A couple of incoming phone calls and a tornado warning later, I realize that half of our shift is in the same -burg or -ville that this twister has decided to travel! 'Please, one more phone call to let me know if you're O.K. (or got any pictures)!" Maybe next time, these 'few eager souls" will (oops!) become just that.

Mike Watts writes from Florida with an interesting newspaper account about several twisters in the Soviet Union onJune 9 this year, which killed 79 and injured over 128. "Hardest hit was Ivanovo, a textile center about 120 miles northeast of Moscow ..." (Miami Herald, June 30, 1984). Seventy four were killed in Ivanovo, which is about 57 deg N, equivalent to northern Saskatchewan. Says Mike, "We don't get much info about severe weather in either place."

Jack Williams of USA Today wants to receive any eyewitness reports from chasers on major, local storms that cause severe damage or substantial casualties, which might be of interest to the national readership of that newspaper. If you see any such storms or, better yet, photograph them, please call either Jack Williams or Jim Norman, Sunday to Thursday afternoons or evenings on their toll free WATS line, 800-368-3024 x 3613, or call collect on 703-276-3613.

Keith Brewster wrote, "In the words of many OU students, this chase season can be fittingly titled 'The Year of the Gust Front'. This was particularly true in the latter part of the season, when many a storm went up and 'gusted out' before chasers could get under them. Norman had three severe events in a period from April 27 to June 27, all straight line wind storms. The April 27 storm, which was an interesting interaction between two storm outflow boundaries, did produce one-inch hail at NSSL (National Severe Storms Lab) and some rotation south of Norman. Ken Wilk, Director of the NEXRAD group at the Lab, received some damage to his house from a tornado with that storm."

Tim Marshall - "What can I say? Nother Nature packed up the vorticity and headed north on vacation. Needless to say, scientists can't blame this poor chase season on El Nino. In any event, this was an average chase season for me. I was fortunate to get two weeks to chase, and I could pick individual days off. I put on an average of 5,000 miles in 14 chases, averaging 8 hours/day of driving. But where were my average 5 tornadoes? I only managed to see one on the ground and two well-developed gustnadoes. The tornado occurred near Stillwater, Oklahoma on April 26. On May 14, Roy Britt and I observed a collapsing supercell, which moved due south from Wichita Falls to near Mineral Wells. We photographed a nice rope funnel near Lake Arrowhead which lasted four minutes. Later, one of the 'shelf cloud' funnels touched down two miles south of Mineral Wells, causing some minor damage to trees and a residence. On the 21st, we ventured up to Kansas in desperation, but to no avail. However, on May 27, the best-looking May storm occured. It had the classic look to it: large wall cloud, rotating rain curtains and rear flank downdraft, but never produced!"