STORM TRACK: September 30, 1986 (Volume 9 Issue 6)

On Wednesday, May 14th, while most of the other chasers on the plains were chasing a cluster of severe storms in southwest Oklahoma, I was stuck at a MANDATORY work meeting in Lewisville. With little time for rest breaks and late adjournment of the meeting, I couldn't perform a detailed analysis of the days meteorological conditions. The thought of knowing the day was ripe for severe weather (after watching A.M. Weather and talking to Bill Reed at the National Weather Service that morning) was frustrating. When I called Bill again at 4:15 pm, he asked "Where are you?". Unlike the situation on May 7th, where I was staring down the throat of the dryline, I replied, "I'm still in Lewisville", knowing full well that I was in the wrong location.

Bill answered, "Well, it might be too late for you. Oklahoma's been going up all day, and there's more storms about to go in Texas, but it's pretty far northwest of here". My adrenaline surged, albeit with slight disappointment at the lateness of the hour. Bill said that the dryline had passed Abilene by 4 pm. Abilene reported a 97 degree temperature and southwest winds. The arithmetic was easy. I had about 2-1/2 hours of driving and still over an hour of daylight left. Thus, reeling out of work like an emergency crew answering an alarm, I drove west on Rt. 380 out of Denton. My car was being buffeted by 25 to 30 knot winds from the southeast. I estimated that the stratocumulus overhead was streaming northward over 50 knots! I arrived in Jacksboro, Texas about 6:05 pm, and saw a wide-spreading anvil to my northwest with it clear to the south.

I proceeded on Rt 281 to confront the storm. Each mile drew me closer and closer, with each feature of the updraft becoming more defined through the haze. The anvil showed some remarkable protrusions, like "inverted TCU's", NOT the mammatus types! It was a quiet, eerie ride with almost no other cars on the road. Six miles south of the town of Windthorst, I stopped and observed the awesome storm to my northwest. This storm resembled the Borger Dryline storm that Alan Moller described (see ST Vol 6, No. 2). A solid, rotating updraft was strongly sheared and went all the way to the anvil level. The east side of the updraft was a dark, sharp edged vertical wall with cloud striations appearing like a barber shop pole. A smooth inflow band resembling a beavers tail extended from the rain area into the north side of the updraft. It was 6:40 pm. Strong rotation was visible in the cloud structure.

Meanwhile, at the same time Al Moller and Chuck Doswell were discovering a tornado under the "not at all" rain free base. I couldn't see it as it was hidden by a heavy shroud of precipitation. After a while, dust began blowing around the cloud base obscuring my view. I cautiously held my ground continuing to take some really nice slides of the updraft structure. I was in front of a picnic area at the intersection of Rt 26 and 281. A nearby road sign cautioned "Fasten Seat Belts".

Not wishing to confront gargantuan-size hail, or be caught on a DEAD end road with an obscured rain free base on top of me, I retreated south of Windthorst at 7:25 pm. I checked but declined a couple of small farm roads going east which would have put me in ideal position. Continuing back to Jacksboro, I discovered that a car had collided with some downed power lines. I stopped to help and was requested to photograph the damaged car for insurance purposes. I earned enough gas money that day to pay for my chase.

Tornado watches covered most of Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, North-Central Texas, and West Texas on May 14, 1986. That evening, watches were extended into Louisiana and Arkansas. A total of 42 severe thunderstorm warnings and 17 tornado warnings were issued for Texas and Oklahoma from 9 a.m. through midnight. Twenty-four counties in EACH state were affected. This was one of the few spring days where most chasers were on the road, including Dave Hoadley, Al Moller, Chuck Doswell, Marty Feely, Bruce Pettus, Randy Zipser, Howie Bluestein, Chuck Robertson, Jack Corso, Tim Dorr, Gene Moore, and Keith Brewster just to name a few.

Storm approaching Windthorst