STORM TRACK: September 30, 1986 (Volume 9 Issue 6)
On May 14th, my teammate Tim Dorr and myself caught several tornadoes in southwest Oklahoma. The morning dawned with a stiff south wind flooding northern Texas and Oklahoma with moist unstable air. Thunderstorms developed rapidly in clusters along a dryline from Childress, Texas through Clinton, Oklahoma.
Some storms became severe as early as 11 a.m. near Weatherford, Oklahoma. Upon hearing this, Tim and I turned to "code red", threw our camera gear in the car, and drove for Washita County. We turned north on Route 183 at Snyder, Oklahoma and caught up with a storm at Cordell -- watching it "wrap-up" about 2 p.m.. Driving under the rain free base, it got as dark as dusk with heavy rain falling just to our west. Just when things began to look very good, with promising funnels, an anvil from a storm to the south streamed overhead. It was downhill from there as the storm we were watching began an early collapse and eventual outflow. While awaiting a possible second "wrap-up", the storm to the south looked better.
Leaving our position, Tim and I proceeded back southward on Rt. 183 toward Snyder. About this time, we heard over the radio the first report of good news: "Tornado sighted on the ground about 3 miles southwest of Altus". It was 3:30 p.m.. We headed for the severe storm all the while pondering the possibility of everything being said and done by the time we arrived on the scene.
Despite being held up five minutes at Roosevelt, OK for a drivers license spot check (Murphy's Law), we resumed our advancement toward the storm, now heading on Route 62 toward Altus. Severe storm reports were now blaring over the radio. Softball-size hail was pummeling Altus. Numerous funnel clouds were being spotted south of town while torrential rains flooded streets and fields. Five miles past Headrick, OK we encountered rain and sporadic golfball-size hail. Most of the precipitation was still to our west and we proceeded down a narrow farm road about four miles east of Altus.
Coming out of the rain area, we could see a wrapping cloud base with a large, broad based wall cloud -gust front extended east over our location. Realizing we were on the inflow side of the storm, we parked and watched the storm. The terrain was flat and we had excellent visibility. Then we saw it! A narrow tornado stemmed from the wall cloud and traveled a few miles on the ground before dissipating.
Strong northeast winds started to blow as the storm appeared to move due east. We retreated back to Rt. 62 and turned east to better our position. Constantly looking behind me, I saw another tornado imbedded in intense rain and hail -now about 1 to 2 miles south of Headrick. By the time we pulled off the road to film it, the funnel was lifting back into the parent thunderstorm. With my quick action, I managed one photograph of it.
We continued east moving ahead of the rain area leading the parade to Snyder. We parked on an overpass at Route 183 and awaited the oncoming storm. The storm approached quietly as if it were stalking us.
At 4:10 p.m., we saw a third tornado develop -- first as a dust tube just south of our position. The tornado grew fast and filled quickly with dirt and debris looking more like an inverted cone being widest at the top and pointed at the ground. The tornado was not on the ground long but appeared to have the second longest track of the day.
We saw other storm chasers on the overpass with local news people on the scene as the funnel began its slow ascent back into the cloud base. Upon inspecting the damage path across Rt. 183, we found rocks and dirt over the roadway, a broken telephone pole, and a farmhouse minus some roofing. The distance between us and the damage path appeared to be 1 to 2 miles.
After the main show seemed over, we moved further eastward and met veteran storm chasers Dave Hoadley and Randy Zipser. While talking about who saw what, the radio blared out a tornado warning for the event we just saw.
We continued the chase and saw a fourth tornado (the fifth in a series) about five miles west of Cache, OK (not pictured). The tornado was cylindrical in shape and touched ground directly behind us. Tim could not maneuver the video camera to catch it in time. The funnel seemed to cross Rt. 62 and we watched it spin away to the northeast. The storm now was showing signs of becoming predominantly outflow and returned to its northeast track.
Chasers departed, each going their separate ways. We retreated to Altus to take lightning shots and photograph a shelf cloud filled with blowing dust dumping a barrage of hail. You always read the stories in STORM TRACK about chasers converging on the scene from different directions, but this was the first time in my 11 years of storm chasing where I truly witnessed the slogan: "meet you under the wall cloud".
