STORM TRACK: September 30, 1984 (Volume 7 Issue 6)

The Editor would be remiss if he didn't acknowledge the self proclaimed originator for the term "storm chaser," Although this expression may appear earlier in different contexts -- and having done absolutely no research on the subject, the Editor boldly asserts that Mr. John Shockley at the National Weather Service Office in Wichita, Kansas originated the term in its present incarnation. John was employed at the station during the early 60's and characterised the Editor in this way, during his frequent stops there. If any of you are aware of an earlier lineage, by all means -- let me know. Anyway, John and I go back a long way, and I owe him this footnote to whatever history we are making.

Stephen Levine offers a particularly graphic account of his experience with the April 3-4, 1974 outbreak that produced 148 tornadoes in 15 hours and killed 309 people. "Athens, Ohio lies in the foothills of the Appalachians and is located about 75 miles SE of Columbus. During the day of the tornado outbreak, our weather was fairly benign. But later that night, there came a windstorm that still has this reporter awed and baffled.

4/3/74 tornado tracks

April 3rd began windy and warm, rather warm for early April, with sunshine and mare's tails. The sky gave many clues that we might have some violent weather. In the early afternoon, a thunderstorm swung across our west and north with exceptionally dark clouds, as stillness enveloped and an ominous feeling filled the air. The storm hit, at least 15 miles away, but as it passed near, a vague pinkish color tinged the sky overhead and southward. A blue-green cast mingled in with the darkness to the northwest. As the storm pressed on, a beige tinted sky spread in from the southwest, followed by a strange sulphurous brightness beneath which, sat thick bluish-black bottomed clouds, whose tops exploded in cauliflowery grays. A brief, light shower of big raindrops fell from these clouds (during my early days in Ohio and growing up in western Pennsylvania, I learned that a high, sulphurous overcast with dark, purplish clouds below is indicative of tornadic weather). But, with the main activity to the north, the sky overhead was not accompanied by any haze or visible smog. In fact, visibility was generally crystal clear.

On this particular day, the sulphurous overcast slowly thinned and a dimmed sun came out, slowly brightening. By 3:30 PM we were between systems, exhilerating blue sky, warm temps and brisk winds enveloped as the high overcast of the previous storm hugged the northeast horizon. However to the distant southwest I could see thunderheads and an arm shooting out of one at anvil-height (possibly the clouds that later caused tornadoes in Cincinnati or Xenia?).

By early evening, thundershowers returned, and eventually the entire sky became overcast and puffy. Some of the puffiness developed into mammatus clouds, as tinny thunder rumbled high in the overcast and a very light rain began to fall. A vivid lightning bolt hit nearby. Blue-blackness spread across the distant west and northwest sky, and a heavy stillness again enveloped. As this strange darkness closed in to the north, the nearby south and southeast sky broke into mammatus overcast. At one point, a dazzling pink bolt of lightning jumped from one of the mammatus clouds to hit a nearby hill. This was about 6:30 PM. A tornado warning has just been called for Athens County. The thunderstorm center pushes across our north and northeast as brilliant pink to purple lightning bordered a developing squall cloud. As it moves on, the overcast thins.

Throughout the evening, thunderstorms come with increasing frequency, mostly hitting west and north of here, but hitting the Athens area harder and harder. Finally, starting about midnight a good-stiff thunderstorm hits our area with vivid lightning, strong gusty winds and heavy rain. As the storm moves out, the rain diminishes, eventually to a sprinkle. However the winds, gusting to about 30 MPH, do not decrease but instead increase gradually, arising in long gusts. Lightning of a new storm echoes to the southwest with brilliant platinum explosions in the distance that are closer in violently strobbing pulsations which sear the clouds, silhouetting them.

Winds pick up in a roar through the trees, that rises and falls in long waves, but grows stronger still. The southwestern lightning nears, with violently strobbing pulsations, much like a strobe light, reaching nearly overhead. The wind's roar grows louder and louder until it fills the night, as the exploding lightning reaches overhead. Soon, the occasional, sharp "cracks" of snapping branches echoes out, and the roar peaks to a whining scream -still growing louder. Tiny droplets of rain mingle with the wind, as it smashes against me. The lightning continues, starting in the southwest sky and searing in swift strobbing/pulsating explosions into the clouds above me and eastward with a nearly blinding brightness. However, only soft, tinny thunder responds, barely heard above the roar of the wind. The lightning is not constant but instead comes in frequent outbursts.

At one point, the Great Roar softens a bit, and shotgun-like cracks ring out in the distance -- trees snapping. Then the wind returns with a deafening intensity; this time whining and screaming like a booing and cheering crowd at a football game. About this time, a whistle goes off at a factory a couple miles away, about 1 AM; its constant sound often lost in the wind -- adding eeriness to the night. A great blast of wind hits me, making me walk backwards and blowing rainspray into my face from the ground. A brilliant flash of lightning in the western sky silhouettes what appears to be mammatus clouds, one of which is particularly thick, wind-smoothed and low. Lightning now covers the whole sky, starting in the southwest and racing overhead, once a fiery white ribbon above me, and then eastward in violent pulsations. At another point, nearby flashes appear to silhouette swirling funnel clouds over the northern hills, about a mile away. However, I can't verify this, because by that point I was in a near-twilight state from shock and awe. The deafening roar grows softer, as I sense the storm's energy passing on. Little by little, the wind's roar surges less and less, finally falling into long gusts of 25-30 MPH, so that the storm ends as it started. Soon, the sky off to the south and southeast flickers with these lightning pulsations, and as the storm presses eastwards the winds briefly pick up again.

Damage: scattered trees uprooted; roofs blown off some houses and from barns in Albany and the Plains (a couple of miles from here); a large area of roofing blown off the Athens High School, down to the sheet metal base; and a garage window shattered down our street. Several aluminum porches were also twisted off an apartment complex in town.

Where did this storm come from? Does anyone know the synoptic conditions prevalent for southeastern Ohio from 0000 to 0200 on April 4? What is a theory for the makeup of this storm? All the storms cams from the southwest, but I recorded no windshift away from the southwest during or after the storms. After this particular storm, more lightning flashed in the distant northwest, indicating that the cold front had not yet come through."

(Editor's Note: I had a similar experience with a strobe-like lightning discharge in the middle of a night-time thunderstorm 50 miles southeast of Bismarck, North Dakota, July 5, 1962. The flashing originated deep within, and at the mid-level of the storm, pulsing at a constant, bright level of illumination, lighting up the whole western horizon. The flashing looked just like a strobe light, originating as from one point in the cell, and continued at a constant rate (about four per second) for several minutes. The next day found a Level 5 instability in southeastern North Dakota, and my first tornado! I have not seen the like before or since. Although not a subscriber to Dr. Vonnegut's theories on the tornado-generator lightning association, how else does one explain such phenomena? In some cases, does a vortex or meso-low draw in oppositely charged cloud streams, with such steady state organisation, that a continuous discharge can occur for several minutes? If yes, why is this such a comparatively rare event? Do any of ST's meteorologist readers have theories on this subject?)

From small talk at a Washington cocktail party with an FAA contracting officer, news of plans for the next generation of air traffic control radar. An IBM system is being considered, which will provide three monitors per controller, with a central, expanded-range screen showing flights for large and small aircraft, a second side screen which projects flight paths and possible intersect times locations, and a third monitor showing a list of possible solutions to specific problems from the flight-path-projecting monitor. The controller simply picks a solution and acts on it. Also, of interest to ST readers, the new radar will pick up microbursts, and the air traffic controller, not the pilot, will have the authority to delay a take off/landing due to the weather. No more guesswork by a pilot with little real-time weather information and the pressure of a schedule to keep. Sounds like progress!