STORM TRACK: July 31, 1985 (Volume 8 Issue 5)

(Editor: ST takes an unusual departure in this story by presenting copy exactly as submitted. Mr. Barricklow obviously has devoted much time and effort in its development. Moreover, the copy is clear, and the characters traditional -- with "descenders"- and readable. ST encourages more such contributions by other writers, keeping in mind the need to use wide margins, as in the newsletter, and close spacing to make optimum use of available space, usually at a premium in each issue.)

Regarding the letter from Tim Marshall (Vol. 8, No. 4 ST), I am the lone ST chaser who saw "it" and never took a single picture! In the words of Paul Harvey, THIS IS--

April 21, 1985 was perhaps the biggest chase day of the year in North Texas. An upper level system was approaching from the west by way of Northern Arizona. The main surge of upper level energy from the system was expected to be in Texas the 22nd. However, when I awoke the morning of the 21st, I checked the Stephenville radar, through the local cable system. A thunderstorm complex wes in the Abilene area with several cells having VIP 6 cores. Hmmm...

I called Alan Moller at the NWS Fort Worth to check the forecast for the afternoon. An upper level impulse was due to rotate around the main system and pass over the Panhandle. Alan suggested that I head toward the Childress core. I coaxed my wife, Petti, into going with me... The chase was on! We left around 10 a.m.

The morning thunderstorms observed earlier on radar were dissipating, and were moving NNE through the Wichita Falls area. As we approached Wichita Falls, I kept thinking about convergence along the outflow boundary left by the morning activity. Unknown to me et the time, the progs that would arrive at noon at the NWS would show an area of very strong upper level difluence over the old outflow boundary. Warm moist low level advection was rushing toward the Panhandle on a collision course with the outflow boundary. The Stephenville lifted index was near -11!

As we neared Wichita Falls, towering cumulus was developing in the area between Abilene and Mineral Wells. On my VHF, 'two meter', amateur radio, I contacted W5GLG in Bowie, TX and asked him to call WB5FPI in Fort Worth, who in turn called Alan Moller at the NWS. With the new info yet to arrive, the stronger activity was still expected to be along the dryline in the Panhandle. We continued westward, but with ever increasing interest in the developing activity to the south.

Passing Wichita Falls, in the distant west we could see thin cirrus blowoff from the storms in the Panhandle, still several hours of driving away. But to the south, the towering cumulus near Abilene was anvilling out and looking strong. We contacted W5GLG through the Wichita Falls 'two meter' repeater again, to get another update from Alan.

The aforementioned noon data had arrived. Storms forming along the old outflow boundary were developing rapidly, with promising radar signatures. By then we were nearing Vernon, TX. We turned south on Hwy 283 toward Seymour. Nearby cumulus was beginning to be suppressed, taking on a stratiform appearance. Dense anvils with sharp, well-defined edges were erupting from the storms to the south. Large, staccato lightning bolts flashed under the developing anvils.

As we neared Seymour, new activity was firing up to our southwest in Jones County, while the older, more mature acticivity in Shackelford County still intensified. Not desiring to do a core punch with my wife along, I turned at Seymour and went southwest on 277 toward Munday, TX, trying to flank the storm and approach from the west.

Just south of Seymour. we lost contact with Wichita Falls. There were no other two meter repeaters in range, so we switched to the HF rig. On 3.900 Mhz, we contacted a station near Tulsa, OK. He raised K2UFA, an amateur radio operator who is very active in the Skywarn progrem in Wichita Falls. The Tulsa station relayed info to us -- storm warnings, radar reports, etc -- and relayed reports to K2UFA, who in turn sent them to the NWS at Wichita Falls.

Nearing Munday, we saw a rain-free base to the southwest of the newly developing Jones County storm. The storm was moving due north from Jones County into Haskell County. Under the rain-free bass, from behind the rain, a large, low-hanging, well developed wall cloud emerged. We rushed toward it. We turned at Munday toward Knox City, hoping to intercept the wall cloud from the west. The precip area was approaching rapidly. Just east of Knox City, the precip area overtook us and we were caught in heavy rain and 3/4" hail. This part of Texas is very open, and there aren't too many places to hide. Luckily, a barn with an attached awning was just off the road. We made use of it until the hail passed.

As we drove back to the road, the first tornado warning was issued on the Shackleford County storm, which had moved into Throckmorton County. We elected to leave the storm overhead and chase that storm since its position further to the southeast suggested it would receive a richer, uninterrupted supply of warm moist inflow from the Gulf of Mexico.

A course south on 277 through Haskell was plotted, again, attempting to approach the storm from the updraft side. Driving south on 277, new development was occuring along the outflow boundary and parallel to the road to the immediate west. A skinny, 'turkey neck' wall cloud developed about a mile west of the highway. Even though the wall cloud was skinny, it exhibited very rapid vertical motion and weak rotation. Dust was being raised in the fields to the south, moving toward the wall cloud, even though wind at our location east of the wall cloud was still coming from the precip area to our northwest. Surface based inflow apparently had cut through the outflow field and was streaming toward the wall cloud. As we watched and photographed the wa11 cloud, a second tornado warning was issued for the Throckmorton storm. We left as the wall cloud to the west began to dissipate. Just north of Haskell we came out from under the clouds along the outflow boundary and, to the east for the first time, we could see the hard towers of the Throckmorton storm.

The Throckmorton County storm of April 21, 1985, was the most impressive multiple-flank supercell storm I have seen. It had at least three, and at one time possibly four flanking lines, all converging on the precip area The WSW flank, the closest to us, exhibited tremendous convection. The flanking towers were stair-stepped and leaning toward the main updraft. Extremely hard in appearance, they were growing at an unbelievably explosive rate.

We turned east on Hwy 380, a narrow two-lane road with only a hint of a rocky shoulder toward the town of Throckmorton. Under the WSW flank we saw a dense rain area to the northeast with almost constant cloud to ground lightning. To our east, another flanking line extended to the SW, and to the east of it, a third flank extended to the SSE. We decided to head for the SSE flank, since the warm moist inflow would likely be stronger there. The usual obstacle course of pick-up trucks and farm vehicles had to be traversed.

As we approached the intersection of Hwys 222 and 380, we entered an area where heavy rain had recently fallen. There was water flowing over the road, coming from adjacent stands of Mesquite trees, in this flat semi-arid land.

As the sky darkened under the WSW flank, a wall cloud could be seen near the precip area to the north, but it appeared to have been undercut by

outflow. I carefully watched the flat base of the SSE flank, still some 8 to 10 miles to the east.

Suddenly, 8 to 10 miles ahead, directly from the flat rainfree base of the SSE flank, about 4 to 5 miles SSE from the rain area, a ragged multiple- vortex tornado formed. Instant tornado! In the distance, debris was being torn from the ground. This had to be a monstrous supercell to produce such a violent tornado, without the forewarning of even a trace of a wall cloud.

As e ham radio operator and a skywarn volunteer, my first priority, as always, was to report the tornado to Wichita Falls via the ham in Tulsa. The tornado was estimated to be 5 to 6 miles SSE of Throckmorton. (Amateur radio operators in Ft. Worth and Dallas had joined the group on 3.900 MHz. They relayed my report to NWS in Ft. Worth -- this allowed a timely warning to be issued by NWS). Meanwhile, we were trapped behind a slow moving pick-up truck and in front of several vehicles waiting to pass. With no shoulder to stop on, I passed the truck and raced toward the tornado.

Putting down the mic, I looked for a place to stop. Perhaps 2 to 5 minutes had passed since the tornado formed. Suddenly, rain and hail began to fall from the flanking line above. The visible vortices of the tornado ahead abruptly vanished, leaving behind a wall cloud. The rain grew heavier until we could no longer see more than a few feet in front of the car. We slowed to a snail's pace. Then I realized that somehow, between being stuck in traffic, reporting the tornado and being caught in heavy rain and hail, I'd had no opportunity to photograph the first and only multiple vortex tornado I have seen, after years of chasing. Damn!

We came out of the rain and hail, as we entered Throckmorton. The cloud motions overhead were very chaotic and turbulent. The storm organization was no longer easy to discern. We were now under the SSE flank and could see another flank or inflow band to the east, converging on an area hidden from view by intervening precipitation. We drove a short distance south of town to get our bearings. Heavy rain was to the northeast through northwest. Strong surface inflow, as evidenced by smoke about 2 miles east of our location,being pulled north toward the area obscured by precip to the northeast. We raced back north and then east again on 380. We penetrated the rain curtain about three miles east of Throckmorton. A large, low wall cloud maybe two miles north of our location came into view. I stopped briefly to check the wnd direction; we were in outflow. This wall cloud was undercut by outflow. There was another thin rain curtain to the east. The real action had to be further east still. We penetrated the next precip curtain, which consisted of light rain and scattered golf-ball and smaller sized hail. As we cleared the precip, I looked north, five or so miles away to see a column shaped tornado embedded within a ragged wall cloud. The wall cloud hung around the vortex like wide ribbons from a Maypole. The tornado and wall cloud were being illuminated by dim skylight coming from the distant clear area to the southeast. Located very near the precip area, it was barely visible in the darkness to the north. We were repeatedly jolted by thunder produced by constant cloud to ground lightning striking in all directions. Approximately a mile to the south, I could see a thin veil of precip rapidly wrapping to the east. Scattered chunks of hail, golf-ball size and larger, were crashing to the ground around us. We must have been inside the mesocyclone circulation of the parent thunderstorm. The tornado disappeared into the darkness toward the town of Elbert. I tried to report this tornado, but the static crashes from lightning made this impossible. Perhaps the multiple vortex tornado seen earlier had evolved into this single vortex; or more likely, this was another in the series of an estimated seven produced by this one storm.

Remembering the earlier 'instant' multiple vortex tornado, and since darkness was fast approaching, we decided to make a hasty retreat toward home, east on Hwy 380.

As we passed through Newcastle, we picked up the Skywarn group in Graham on the 'two meter' ham band. Reports of possible tornado fatalities near the town of Elbert were coming in, relayed from the Throckmorton County sheriff's office. Three members of one family had been killed when the tornado totally destroyed their house, throwing their bodies tens of yards through broken mesquite thickets. Next, a report that the town of Olney had been hit, with several homes destroyed and two more fatalities. As we came into VHF 'two meter' radio range of Fort Worth, I relayed the first factual reports of the fatalities and damage to the Fort Worth NWS and to the local Fort Worth newspaper, through a reporter who is also a ham operator.

I thought that you might like to hear the rest of the story!

(The Editor notes that Sam's forfeiture of a few pictures resulted in a "timely warning" by NWS on a killer tornado system! Many lives may have been saved by his selfless act, as otherwise complacent people were prompted to take another look outside and seek shelter. Storm Track salutes Patti and Sam Barricklow! It also hopes that their next maxi-encounter lingers a little longer, and just tosses about a few coyotes.)