STORM TRACK: May 31, 1986 (Volume 9 Issue 4)

March 11, 1986 began a little to early for me with the internal alarm clock sounding in my head at 3:45 a.m. -a full two hours before A.M. Weather! Adrenalin had been pumping through my veins ever since the previous evenings 10 p.m. weathercast mentioned today would be "an ominous situation". Refreshed, regardless of the lack of sleep, I poked around for some old ST issues to review the major outbreaks that had occurred during the last 6 years, a group which today's events I thought would surely join.

A.M. Weather confirmed my expectations that the stage was set for a major severe weather outbreak. A major upper-air disturbance was approaching with a 195 mph jet max digging into Southern California. On satellite, turbulent wind-torn cirrus and strato-cu heralded the approach of today's guest. A huge MODERATE RISK area for Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana peaked my excitement.

Phoning Tim at 7:00 a.m. -"Hello, Tim, I'm ready to chase!..Oh, I woke you up?..Well, sorry, I, er, uh..hmph!" I hardly gave him time to speak, ranting about the great wind shear, and about that jet max. As Tim summarized the morning weather situation, he gave my blood pressure another boost: "SELS upgraded the Dallas area to HIGH RISK." Almost flipping out right then, the first-time chaser charged "Let's go!" to which the veteran replied "I think it's gonna line out."

Anyway, off and running about noon, Dan Zacharias took the helm as navigator while Tim piloted the Chevy F-5 mobile. Driving northwest toward Wichita Falls (T-town), the weather radio suddenly launched into the chasers version of Beethoven's Fifth: Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep. "The National Severe Storms Forecast Center has issued a Tornado Watch for much of central and north-central Texas, parts of south-central and south-western Oklahoma from 1:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. this Tuesday afternoon and evening. This is a particularly dangerous situation, with the possibility of very dangerous tornadoes."

Many thoughts engulfed me upon hearing this watch with its especially strong language. How wonderful it felt to be in the middle of the watch box. Ah, maybe another Red River Valley outbreak was in the making. I pondered for a few minutes with a little less levity: a) Was I really ready to observe a major tragedy befall a local town, watching damage and knowing casualties may occur?, and b) Was it really safe to chase on such a day when violent tornadoes might occur moving at 50 mph with dust and fast-changing situations requiring quick action? But the main question in my mind was: "Am I going to get the "big one" my first time chasing?"

Awakening from this dream, the novice discussed the tornado watch with the other storm chasers. Tim stuck to his original prognostication (having seen so many March squall line days), but backed off ever so slightly, rubbing his chin and saying: "Hmm, SELS must see something. I didn't even bring my video gear."

We continued west toward Jacksboro finally encountering clear skies and hoped that surface heating would take place long enough to bring out mother natures best. Since we were trying to stay close to the "triple point", I refused to give up to the "line-out" scheme. (Actually, by this time a squall line in West Texas extended from Sweetwater to Vernon.)

West of Olney, we stopped for some mammatus shots under the approaching anvils. As the shelf cloud rolled in, we took more photographs--catching some nice green and white hail shafts and several protrusions along the shelf cloud. Having our fill of pictures and trying to keep ahead of the rain we began retreating to Fort Worth.

Just then the radio sounded "Tornado Warning" for the county just to our south! Tim pressed the pedal forcefully and we raced toward Mineral Wells. Soon we caught up with the storm, paralleling the leading edge of the shelf cloud. Another Tornado Warning was issued for the county just to our east. We couldn't see the southern edge of the line, and I wondered what the next step would be.

At that point, Dan showed us the best combination of roads going southeast. However, the shelf cloud soon overtook us. The cloud base was so low, the rain so heavy, and the wind so strong blowing across the road that we seemed to be cut off from the rest of the world and left at the mercy of mother nature. We saw cars and trucks stopped along side the road in a ravine. Rain curtains were whipping by. Dan noted that some "debris" such as tree limbs and leaves were blowing overhead. The word "debris" struck me with a more a threatening feeling: "Now, I was hoping we didn't see a tornado." I thought we'd surely be in its path if there was. Softly I said: Oh, please, let this be a regular squall line downdraft. To my relief, Tim chanted the reassuring words, "It's all outflow, an outflow dominant storm".

Just as we neared the suspected area of rotation, we instead find a shelf cloud jutting out several miles in front of the precipitation. We looked around in wonder for an organized rain free base or a tornado. Only low hanging scud below the vaulted underside of the shelf cloud remained. The chase was over. Now granted, an hour before, I would have envisioned today was the "Sherman Outbreak" (look for it in STORM DATA). Anyway, we continued to take some nice shots of the shelf cloud. During the drive home, the radio mentioned that softball-size hail occurred in the vicinity of that ravine. (I wondered what happened to those cars stopped on the side of the road, to wait out the storm). Most of all, I wondered when the next chase would be.