STORM TRACK: July 31, 1987 (Volume 10 Issue 5)

Driving toward the storm, I crossed a damage path just west of Agra; it was about 250 yards wide. The track disappeared to the northeast toward an ominous black storm complex. Just east of Agra, I passed beneath the storm's flanking line, encountering extremely strong wind shear. The wind shifted from northeast about 35 mph to southeast at 40 mph. I could see the main updraft to my north and the "beaver tail" cloud (Tim Marshall's pet name) which appeared to be situated in an east-west line along the pseudo-warm front. Turning north on Highway 8, I saw several funnel clouds beneath the flanking line to my west. I was not surprised at this after having experienced the wild convergence that was present along the flank. Vertical motion into the wall cloud/funnel was quite rapid. A mile or so further north, I caught a glimpse of another wall cloud, which was considerably larger. Within another mile, I spotted a tubular, rope- like tornado about 6 to 8 miles to my northwest. I believe this was the end of the Agra tornado as pictured in STORM DATA as a multi- vortex tornado earlier.

Ahead and to the right, I noticed a new wall cloud and mesocyclone. It was located on the inflow side of the older, occluded rotating updraft. Suddenly, a second tornado began as a single vortex cone-type. Moving northbound, I noticed startling changes were occurring! Within a minute, the tornado became a huge half miler then quickly changed character again into large swirling multi-vortex tornado. I was forced to take 1 to 2 second time exposures due to the low light. One dust whirl made an incredibly quick transition into a large condensation funnel. At this time, the south side of the multiple vortex tornado was within 3/8 of a mile from me. I could hear a high pitched jet engine type sound as a trailing duet whirl crossed over the road. The dust whirl moved through some of the trees on the right hand side of the road, and just over the crest of the next hill doing considerable damage.

After shooting a photo, I drove north and became engulfed in a swirling rain/small hail curtain that was wrapping around the backside of the tornado (radar hook). I watched the tornado change it's appearance quite rapidly as it disappeared into darkness and Nebraska. I took several more photos with the wall cloud/tornado. This was the longest chase after an existing tornadic storm I ever made. I didn't think I had any chance to catch the Hays/Agra storm. I was lucky!