4/9/08 REPORTS: TX/OK/AR

[Shane Adams]

Chad, Mick, and myself observed a few brief tornadoes with the Abilene area storm early into its life. The one reported on I-20 was about 1/3 mile south of us. A few minutes later while moving east on I-20 we observed a minute-long dust whirl tornado in a field, about 3/4 mile north of the interstate. (The tornado report 2 NE Tye was mine).

We were right on the Breckenridge storm but didn't like our position as we were driving north right into the circulation, with rapidly rotating rain curtains all around us and zero visibility ahead. So, we turned back south...as it turned out, it was the right move to make. We came in minutes behind the Breckenridge tornado, observing damage south of town as well as in town. Every road out of there east north and south was blocked by debris, so we went back west and sorta "made up" a way around town and back to 180. We finally caught back up to the storm in Sanger, where we had crazy inflow winds which would switch from SE/due east/ENE. We never saw a tornado, so apparently we missed the one reported by the local FD.

The damage in Breckenridge pretty much killed what had been a good chase to that point. Hopefully the injuries were not life-threatening to those in that community. Currently northbound on I-35 headed home.....we have no desire to fight with this stuff in the dark.

The area from Abeline through Weatherford has got to be some of the most horrific chase terrain we've ever encountered. And Sanger's tornado sirens are the loudest damn sirens in the world....we had to roll the windows up each time we passed by, because they were blowing our eardrums out.

[Verne Carlson]

Chased today with Tony Laubach, Chris Collura, Randy Denzer and Tim Samaras (caravanning in different directions). Was streaming with SevereStudios throughout... Started on the cell west of Abilene, TX and chased it as it left the highway into the town of Breckenridge where we encountered a semi blown over, at least one house missing it's roof, and trees and powerlines down everywhere. Saw no one injured and law enforcement already on the scene so shot out and finally got ahead of the storm at Mineral Wells, TX where we waited for the now HP beast of a storm to arrive. At one point I either saw a wedge tornado but it was more likely the wall cloud on the ground in the hills and trees. This feature passed very near to me as I streamed it live. WInds peaked very quickly and changed direction rapidly but I could not confirm a tornado.

Full report and youtube here: http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2008/04/2008-04-09-report.html

[Kyle Frisbie]

Just wanted to throw a quick account of my day out there before going to bed after a long day...

Started west from DFW on I20 and arrived in Abilene just in time to check the radar and see the developing storm just to the west, it only took a short jog out I20 on the west side of town to encounter a nice updraft. It was only about 10 min after arriving that a funnel produced a dust whirl on the ground and this was the first tornado of the day.

We then caught back up to the storm in Breckenridge just in time to see a funnel and debris on the ground in the city from our vantage point near an overturned semi.

We were never really able to catch back up with the storm and didn't really see anything worthy of noting here, this was a bit frustrating because I felt the storm wasn't through and would produce a significant tornado at some point...

It was overall a successful day and though the structure wasn't as good as Monday's near Electra and Wichita Falls, this time I did get to see the debris and can chalk it up as a 2 tornado day...

I look forward to everyone else's accounts and I'll be praying for those affected by todays storms...

[Jeff Snyder]

I'll get a full report-like post done in a little time... Dan Dawson and I (with Robin Tanamachi and another following) were ~1 mi south of the meso SW of Breckenridge. I didn't see any full condensation, but the wrapping rain curtains were very impressive. We ran into downed tree and other minor tree damage ~6-7 mi SW of Breckenridge on FM 526 when we were just south of the meso. We then headed N on 183 and ran into a blown-over semi truck a few mi S of Breckenridge. RFD winds experienced were very strong. Power poles were blown down a couple miles S of 180, and the center of the rotation was reasonably apparent -- power poles snapped and laying to the W on the north side; power poles snapped and laying to the east on the south side. We tried to get E of Breckenridge on 180, but were stopped by downed lines and structural damage on the east side of Breckenridge. We also tried going south to get around said damage, but ran into further road-blocking debris. Yes, the same when we tried to get north. So, we backtracked back through Breckenridge, and tried to use a farm road to get east. More damage that blocked the road. Finally just decided to drop much farther south in attempt to not let the storm get too far ahead of us. Houses damaged on 180 S of Breckenridge, one of which had the roof completely removed. Most of the other house damage, though, was just partial roof removal. Looked EF1 (perhaps EF2) to me, but that's based on only a few structures that we drove by. The circulation was very large as it approached Breckenridge, though. Finally were able to catch up with the storm near Decatur, but we didn't see a whole lot other than scud and stuff along the RFD.

I'll have a more detailed report tomorrow.

[Bill Tabor]

It's late, and I just got in - 3am, but I suppose I'll put in a brief report for now with more later.

I made another good forecast which was triangulated from San Angelo, to Abilene, to Brownwood. I was delayed a bit and took the scenic route so missed getting on the cell west of ABI, but caught up north of Baird as the rotation was approaching from the sw. Met a few chasers including Bobby Eddins and I think it was Mike Scantlin plus another car I forget. Anyway overall saw tons of wallclouds and funnels, a number of quick needle spinups - the type that shoot to the ground when you have a kind of multivortex torn not quite all the way down. I believe I saw the Breckenridge tornado as I somehow managed to follow it from behind the hook. That was a bit spooky, and at one point had to turn around because there was a solid block on the ground on the back side of the storm. Not sure if that was a tornado but it sure looked like it. As I zig zagged and approached Breckenridge from the wsw I was on a straight headed due east when I came over the top of a hill and saw a lowered funnel and what appeared to be dirt debris blowing all around underneath it. I videotaped as best I could - which wasn't that great. (It's harder than hell to chase alone as I do and multitask 10 different things. With that and cost of gas I'm gonna have to start car pooling. Oh, and I forget before I got to that point and while there were still other chasers around (initially about 5 or 6 vehicles) there was a big nice looking lowered wallcloud with a funnel building for a moment as I recall. However the ne of that feature and kind of shrouded in the precip appeared to be an elephant trunk shape (darker grey and solid) suspended vertically. It appeared to be a possible tornado but because of precip I couldn't see the bottom. It was minutes after that (about the time for radar to update) that they issued a tornado warning for Breckenridge. After all that - like the rest of you I came across the semi that was stretched out left to right completely across the road and lying on it's side. I went into Breck and turned east on 180 after seeing minor damage already mentioned. When I was about to get out of Breck there was a roadblock with broken power poles, power / telephone lines down and the sheriff was turning everyone around. I asked to get through and he gave me some long assed directions on how to get around the mess. I started to follow those but quickly saw that immediately on Delorme there was a road immediately branching off 180 to the south and quickly hitting a road headed east again. So brilliant me...I whipped it around and turned into that road (with the Sheriff nearby) only to immediately slam on my brakes because of the telephone lines I was running into that were suspended in front of me. I hadn't noticed them before. I backed up and went around and continued and then started seeing all the real damage. I agree it was likely F1 to F2 with damage debris scattered in yards, homes damaged, partial roofs gone, bigger broken trees uprooted or broken on their sides and gas leaks. I didn't want any part of the messed but snapped a couple of pics as I was passing by. I hit 180 east and was happy as a clam chatting on the cell with David Douglas. I thought I was past all the debris when travelling 50mph I suddenly see another telephone line across the highway. I slam on my brakes and dodge and it just glances. Whew! Ok, enough of that. I thought I had lost the storm because it took me so long winding around west of Breck, and then getting through town, but once east I found I was quickly catching the rotation and seeing the wallcloud. I took more pics and saw more funnels. Eventually I took hwy 16 from Brad ne approaching Graford. I was under the rainfree base if not just west of part of the wallcloud. A number of miles up the road I finally found a hill with a view apparently to the ne in the direction of Graford. The wallcloud near me had a couple of funnel like larger lowerings. These continued to build as they moved east away from me and got larger. This eventually became a very large wallcloud. I moved to a better vantage and rolled the dashcam. It appeared that I was staring at a very large wedge tornado in the distance near Graford. It was hazy, and hard to tell but it definitely had that large wide V shape with solid walls. I videotaped that until there was too little contrast. I continued fighting my way behind the rotation trying to keep up. At one point east of Graford there was a large metal buildings roof laying across the entire road. Once again it was handy have 4wd because I had to go in the muddy ditch to get around it. I saw more spinups and funnel / wallcloud types on the backside of the main area of rotation. Hard to tell how many were true tornadoes. I finally gave it up in Bridgeport. It was dark and the storm was now to far away in my opinion.

Note: I am disappointed I was unable to stream video. I did briefly on I20, but as soon as I turned north of Baird the signal was lost. Plus, It took me until Mineral Wells to figure out how to get Spotternetwork to go. Yes, I was putting in my handle and not my spotter id. Almost the whole time until further east I had no internet data. Just Threatnet, and David Douglas riding along with me at times on the cell phone. Thanks for the updates David.

All in all, a great chase, but I really wished I could have gotten some more photogenic tripoded stuff. It was one of those days and storms with haze and misty precip often making it difficult to discern features. Eventually the storm became HP like making it tough to see much.

[Brian Emfinger]

Chase Report = HERE (http://www.realclearwx.com/040908.htm)
YouTube Video = HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Ut0mNOt9Y)

I was on the Abilene/Breckenridge storm early on all the way into southern OK. I didn't see the tornadoes W of Abilene as I was probably too close to the storm at that point and couldnt see around to the southern edge at that point. A nice very low wall cloud emerged from there and it pretty much went right over me but as it went over the rotation wasn't very strong until it was just past overhead and a small intense area of rotation developed but it didn't last too long. I then went NE from Abilene and eventually got on the NW side of the storm and so punched through at Breckenridge and came out in the damage path. I couldn't have missed it by much though. On the way through the hook the winds were screaming out of the north and there were low scud clouds moving south as fast as the scud on the western edge of Katrina's eyewall had been. I didn't get into any hail though. I would have turned around if it had started hailing anything larger than dime but it didn't so I went through. Here is the wall cloud near Abilene.

http://www.realclearwx.com/0410081.jpg

http://www.realclearwx.com/0410083.jpg

[Tim Marshall]

SHORT: Carson and I were on the ABI-DEC supercell all day. Saw violently rotating wall clouds, a few brief low-contrast T's near ABI, and witnessed close bolts, one that started a grass fire. Missed the Breckenridge tornado by minutes due to poor road network, poor visibilities, and a fast moving storm, etc.

LONG: We departed Dallas at 10 AM and headed toward San Angelo, TX, my initial target town. While in Coleman, I saw SJT temperatures rise 11 degrees in one hour indicating that the warm front began moving north. Therefore, I adjusted my forecast farther north and headed to Winters, TX. We broke out of the low clouds into a beautiful blue sky with remnant strato-cu racing northward and sheared towers pointing northeastward -what directional and speed shear! We saw the first storm go up southwest of ABI but stayed farther south due to a second storm that developed near Winters. However, upon seeing the ABI storm intensify, we headed north and intercepted the storm NW of ABI. Saw a violently rotating wall cloud and a few brief, needle tornadoes there before dropping southeast and intercepting the Winters cell that already moved north of I-20. This storm merged with the ABI storm and produced a violently rotating wall cloud, but no tornadoes. The storm cut us off over the remote area of Shackelford Co. so we raced east to Cisco on I-20 then north to Breckenridge. Took some nice images of the storm tower and anvil from the Interstate. But, the storm beat us to Breckenridge by 15 minutes, so all we saw was a rain wrapped meso to our northeast. We then headed east then north to Palo Pinto, TX catching glimpses of the storm through the hilly, mesquite-filled terrain. Encountered low visibilities on Rt. 180 but felt our way through the fog to Mineral Wells. We intercepted the meso north of Mineral Wells but did not see anything significant. Jogged southeast then northeast to near Decatur, before giving up due to darkness and low visibilities. All in all, it was a frustrating, messy, race-chase day -as expected. Bring on the slow moving storms of late May -please. TM

[Chris Sokol]

I will give a much more detailed report a bit later, as I really need sleep...

One word about chasing a nocturnal event such as this...insane. Three times I found myself in bad situations, twice to developing storms and once to rapidly rising water (while I was checking data on the laptop and not watching what was going on around me. If I had not been in the van, I would have been flooded out big time.) Followed the first storm from just west of the Sallisaw area all the way through Ft Smith/Van Buren. I then attempted to intercept further storms, without much luck due to roads closed by debris or flooding, not to mention blinding rain. At the point that I was surrounded by rain curtains at exit 5 in Van Buren, and the new tornado warning was stating that the storm would cross I-40 between mile markers 4 and 21. I decided at that point that it was pointless (and dangerous) to attempt any further activities. Luckily I did manage to somehow avoid the hail...

I want to say something about 93.7 (I believe) in Ft Smith. They took a lot of damage from the storm, both to the stations property and the employees own vehicles, yet they continued to provide the only live coverage of the weather in the area. Excellent job!

Special thanks to my wonderful wife Summer for nowcasting for me...especially for keeping me out of the really bad stuff.

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Tornadic storm struck the Breakenridge, TX area. The tornado appeared to be rain-wrapped / hidden by hook from my vantage point on 281 / 180.

Some pictures posted below (still working on full report)...

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9fun1.jpg

Above: Funnel on leading edge of RFD clear-slot.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9ferad.jpg

Above: "Flying Eagle" radar image (supercell).

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9flip.jpg

Above: Overturned semi (SW of Breakenridge, TX).

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9dam1.jpg

Above: Damage in Breakenridge, TX.

[Randy Denzer]

Chase number 5,
Left Austin at 10 in the new chase van and shot up to Brownwood with Zina and company. Sam or Shane couldn't get out of work, darn them! After chatting with Verne Carlson, I decided to head further west to Ballenger and waite it out there but started seeing the Q-field start to go up SW of Abilene. We came up from the south and watched the first tower go up near I-20 and then another go up right over us which turned out to be the cell of the day. We waited and watched the cell get up to a decent size then it appeared to dissipate a bit so we went on to meet up with Verne Carlson, Tony Laubachm, and Tim Samarus and co. in Sweetwater. Then the chase was on from there. We were able to see a couple small spinups before reaching Abilene but missed the touchdown southwest of town. We made our way to the northeast of Abilene and then pulled off the chase again after getting a little bored with all the precip. We did get into some small hail but nothing like last week, (THANK GOD!). We then headed to Brekenridge to re intercept the cell one more time and arrived just after the tornado went through town. We witnessed some moderate damage to the south of town and then a bunch more damage on the eastside of downtown. We were able to get through the blocked roads with the help of the local authorities. It wasn't untill I got out of the Van to get us around the main downed powerlines until I realized I was wearing a Greensberg Fire Department T-shirt the Chief of Greensberg gave me later last year. Sorta earie. The damage was mostly lost roofs and downed power lines for the most part. The Fire Department reported they had things under control and I reported this back to TXTF 1. We once again took off to catch the cell as it headed towards Salesville. I thought I caught a glace of a wedge far off to our north a couple times through the rolling hills but never enough to stop and shoot. The precip was pretty messy. We took our time punching north on 281 due to running right to the east of the cell and having NO visbility of the rotation.

The one thing that absolutley amased me on this chase was Verne Carlson's ability to appear out of nowhere! We would think we left him in the dust only to have him waiting on the side of the road 10 miles ahead of us!

Got home at midnight after another 700 mile chase day!!

[Ilya Neyman]

Ryan Nulsen, Ian Puffenberger, Chase Thomason and I chased that beast of an HP and observed a tornado off of Hwy 82 just NE of Whitesboro, TX sometime between 9:15-9:30ish to conclude the first part of an intense chase!

We left Norman around 3pm as I had work earlier in the day. Our original target was roughly SW-S of Wichita Falls and then NE to the Red River for the warm front, but those plans changed quickly as the monster storm rampaged north of I-20. We finally got into position at Springtown about 6:45 as the storm was heading ENE-NE. We then shifted north on 51 then east on 2048 to N 730 through Boyd where the sirens were blaring. We barely beat the core to Decatur where we saw some amazing lightning, and occasional lowerings in the broad circulation. Taking 380 E we'd get enough ahead of the storm to stop for a few minutes at a time and observe the storm to our W and NW. The wall cloud was still going but we didn't see much in the way of funnel-attempts. This may have been complicated somewhat by dusk and the HP factor. After dark we headed NE through Krum on 156 and then onto I-35 where the storm was a strobe light! Got off onto 455 in Sanger (more loud sirens) and then had to go around the lake to stay ahead of the storm. It was at this time that Eddie Natenberg called me about the possible tornado on the ground in Sanger relayed by the Sanger Fire Department. We later learned that their report was of a funnel NW of Sanger. We finally caught 377 N east of the lake and went north to play catch up. We beat the rotation to Whitesboro and caught 82 E for just a few seconds, before deciding we wanted to get off onto a N-S for a better view. We did this just outside of Whitesboro and sat just north of 82 watching for any signs of anything. Then, above a field just to our north we spotted a vertical band of what looked like scud initially backlit by lightning. Each time a new flash occurred this feature was still there. We didn't see any wall cloud and initially thought it was a rogue scud fragment until another flash illuminated that this "scud" fragment had thickened and was TO THE GROUND. A few more lightning flashes later had confirmed that we were looking at a tornado maybe a couple miles or so to our north. Even between flashes you could pick out the contrast. It looked to be a cone/tube, and we saw it for about 45 seconds to a minute before the SW part of the hook swung around and gave us a wall of rain instead.

We stopped for some dinner and internet in Gainesville and then took off for Wichita Falls for the 2nd time for round 2. An earlier discrete cell that began riding the warm front and hooking was quickly swallowed up by the line blasting in from the west. We took 79 NE across the River and get a call about the big "mess" of storms that are coming across, and how nothing is really organized at all. A minute later we get another call and its a "tornado warning" for Jefferson County! Thanks Darren! So at 2 in the morning we had another tornado warning. Heavy rain and lightning was all we saw with this though. Finally made it back up to Norman at 5am!

A big thanks to Eddie Natenberg and Darren Wilson for nowcasting!

[Tony Cook]

A fun white-knuckler chase day. Intercepted the same cell as everyone else along 283 E of Abilene. I was videotaping with a borrowed monstrosity of a VHS camera, which actually performed pretty well. Snapped a couple of stills of a rotating wall cloud/fat funnel while North of Baird. Tornado looked imminent for a while, but did not touch down. Here's a pic:

http://home.austin.rr.com/chasing/9Apr2008/ShacklefordFunnel.jpg

Chased the storm up to Breckenridge. Never saw the tornado there, but I did shoot the wall cloud, probably shortly after tornado had lifted. Bypassed Breckenridge to the S, and was unaware of damage til I started hearing reports on the wx radio. Now, the storm and circulations had gotten ahead of me. A wall of heavy rain and wind on the SW flank of the storm prevented me from seeing the circulation center. I painstakingly made my way through this wall until finally getting ahead of it. This probably happened three times between Breckenridge and Krum. Each time I emerged from the precip flank, I was treated to an active, rotating updraft with wall clouds and occasional funnels. Then, road choices and a fast-moving storm would allow the SW flank to run over me again.


I was ahead of the core along highway 4 just SW of Graford. There, I witnessed a wall cloud to my east moving rapidly north, with a narrow tube containing multiple funnels rotating about each other. While I could not see the ground level, I could see relatively close to the ground, and this tube appeared to be down. The tube moved North, while at the same time, the SW flank of the storm overtook me again. This all happened within about 30 seconds. I had pulled over and was desperately trying to get the 12-pound VHS cam hoisted into position, but was engulfed by the rain and lost the feature before I could shoot it. I believe this was the Oran tornado in it's organizing stage. Here's the intial survey from FWD:
BASED ON A SURVEY OF THE DAMAGE NEAR THE ORAN COMMUNITY IN NORTHEAST
PALO PINTO COUNTY...IT WAS DETERMINED THAT A TORNADO AFFECTED THIS
AREA. THE DAMAGE SWATH BEGAN JUST WEST OF ORAN. SEVERAL TREES WERE
UPROOTED OR HAD LARGE LIMBS SNAPPED. A FEW HOMES IN ORAN HAD PORTIONS
OF ROOFS REMOVED. EAST OF ORAN ON F.M. 52...POWER POLES WERE SNAPPED.
THIS TORNADO WILL BE RATED AN EF-1 WITH WINDS OF 85-90 MPH. PATH
LENGTH WAS 1.6 MILES AND AVERAGE PATH WIDTH WAS 100 YARDS.
Kept after the storm up to Sanger, where I shot a lightning illumintated wall cloud along Hwy 455. I have to agree with Shane on those Sanger sirens. My ears are still ringing from passing near one with the windows down. Tailed the storm up to Gainesville, TX, where there was massive street flooding. Finally let it go near Sadler. Did not see the tornado Ilya reported in that vicinity, but I think by the time I got up to that area, I was too late.


Hope to have some vidcaps up soon. I have to transfer the footage from VHS tape.

715 miles, 12.5 hours

TonyC

[Bret Hendrickson]

Pretty crazy chase! I arrived on the Breckenridge storm just on the west side of Abilene. Missed the spinups but observed the rapidly rotating wall cloud. Moved east on I-20 and took highway 83 to the north. Got stuck in the wrap around precip and moved back south to 20 and got back into position as I moved north on 283.
I observed the wall cloud/funnels as I traveled east on 576 just west of Moran. As I neared the community of Eolian on 576, I encountered very strong inflow (branches flying in front of the vehicle) and was just south of the meso. Saw the damage that Jeff noted earlier. Also, I thought I saw the outline of the tornado through the rotating rain curtains, but will have to check over some of the stills I took to confirm.
Moved north on 183 into Breckenridge and experienced some strong rfd, overturned semi, and the damage just south of town. Was stuck in Breckenridge and moved back south to I-20 and threw in the towel for the day. Got some nice structure shots as I made my way back home to Fort Worth.

Good chase overall.

[Jason Boggs]

Left Amarillo around 11:45 and targeted the area around Snyder. I went SE from Lubbock on US 84 and arrived in Snyder around 3:15 or so. I saw the tornado warned storms forming near the Colorado City/Sweetwater area and I began going east out of Snyder. I was on the north side of the storm as I tried to blast east and then go south to get into better position. As I got about 6-8 miles SE of Lueders, I began getting into very heavy rain. At times I had to stop in the road because I could not see at all. As I began slowly making my way eastward, I got into some flooded roads on US 180. I wasn't sure how deep it was, and I didn't want to find out. I had to backtrack and go south of Anson into Abilene. I then shot east and tried to catch the tornadic supercell. I made it to Cisco and shot north but didn't make it in time to see the tornado. I made it into the southern portions of Breckenridge and started seeing the damage. Glad I had plenty of gas in the tank because all the electricity in town was out. I went west out of town and saw probably 10-15 power poles snapped in half along. On the south side of town, I saw the 18 wheeler flipped over in the road and a house with the roof gone. The E/NE side of town had some pretty good damage as well with lots of power poles down and a barn with the roof removed. After reviewing the damage I saw the cells W of Abilene and I tried to intercept them. One of the cells was tornado warned with a slight hook echo along with it. As I got into Abilene, I was blanketed with heavy fog. I kept telling myself this was not good. A tornado warned cell with 1/4 mile visibility isn't a good combination. I aborted the chase and made my way home. Here are a few photos of the damage in Breckenridge.


18 wheeler about 3 miles south of Breckenridge, TX
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6105/img1130jt2.jpg

house in town with extensive roof damage
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/1617/img1132ea1.jpg

power poles down on the west side of US 183 just south of town.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7626/img1133pa6.jpg

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

My day was really pretty short from a chasing stand point, though I didnt get back to Norman till 5am because I took a 3 hour nap in Lawton to wait out the storms (had a nice lightning strike right next to my Jeep). I had to leave a bit late because of a morning class, but I caught up to the Abilene storm on the NW side of town. I attacked it from the north and only experienced pea size hail if that in the core. It had an amazing looking meso on it, though it had some odd shaping and finding the main circulation was tricky at times. I ran into Brandon Lawson one mile north of Tye. The "main" area of circulation we believed was to the NE of us so we turned our cars to head east to see a debris cloud half a mile in front of us (meaning the circulation from that passed right over us and we didnt know it). I immeadiately drove over the hill to get a better view to find the debris cloud going through a small neighberhood. Right when I lost visual of the debris cloud, I got blasted by wrap around rain with my window down. Going through the neighborhood I noticed trash cans were tossed around and a car port had been mangled and toss on to one of the streets. I stayed with the circulation for a few more miles seeing it wrap up a few more times (no funnel, but rapidly rotating rain curtains). I went too far NE of Abilene and got into the core and decided to punch out the back out of fear of there being a rain wrapped tornado.

I went west hoping for more storms that never happened till way later, not to mention they were behind the warm front. I ended up driving in fog for hours, even when storms were near the fog persisted. I only had 100 yards visibilty or less at times. Followed the Tor warned storm from Roscoe to Throckmorton. Got close to it at Anson, but horrible visiblity ruined my chance to see anything at all. Will post some video in a few days. I only took like 5 pictures during the whole trip, never a good sign. I did get to test out my new antenna that plugs into my phone though and had nearly continous even when I was in the middle of nowhere.

I saw an Ambulance heading north out of Abilene thinking it had something to do with the storm, but later realized it was because of a wreck I came across north of Abilene. A guy in a pickup, which had to have been speeding, hydroplaned off the road into the ditch on the right and then back up over the road slamming directly into the side of another car. It looked aweful when I went by. I found this article confirming what I feared about those who were in the car that got hit. From reporternews.com @ [External Link] (http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/apr/09/storms-pummel-area/)

Couple of stills from my video:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/not_a_leader_of_men/IMG_0149_1.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/not_a_leader_of_men/IMG_0141_1.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/not_a_leader_of_men/IMG_0144_1.jpg

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-4-9-3059.jpg
Pretty funny chase. Drive down from Nebraska the night before, stay in Woodward. Drive south, was on the Abilene storm from its birth. Saw the dust action near town, but not sure what I'd call what I saw. Went east with it, and then dropped south to the cell blowing up just southeast of it. That cell would soon dominate, after it hooked up with the northern, old one. Problem all along was how cold they looked. Anyway, I stayed with it till north of Moran, southwest of Breckenridge not that far. I was ahead of it and about to shoot east(north of Moran option), but was sick of racing with this endless cold beast unable to do a whole lot, other than have one long a$$ cold gust front. So I stopped, taped it closing in, and got a still or two out the window as the rfd hit. The action in the rain bands moving over me was a little unnerving. With the shear in place and the rest of the gust front above me, it just felt spooky, the way the bands were moving. I actually hedged north a hair into the hard cut as it felt better, lol. Then I spun around and dropped south to hope for later stuff, letting that "garbage" go. Then I got data back and saw what it was now doing on GR3. I was like, what the hell! Go figure! It was like, "Mike's gone! T-time!" Thing had to have eyes....unlike myself apparently. Nothing like sitting on I20 a billion miles from home after letting a beast, the only show in town, go after being all over it from the start. I don't try and regroup after I screw up like that either. I just get really pissed off and say screw it. And had I had data up in there where it was going, I likely would have just kept on it...as I'd been sure I wasn't missing something better off the dryline or out ahead. Visually...it was just getting old, and I've seen that long cold look enough times now that I know it seldom comes back from that. Ooops. Congrats to those that bagged.

So after that wonderful time I wind up in Wichita Falls for the night. Not being able to stand going home with nothing, I tried lightning out my motel room....since there were radio towers in sight and I've always wanted a good reverse bolt off one. This meant staying awake longer, after a lot of driving and only 3 hours of sleep the night before. That and it likely meant missing any targets the next day. Not that I had a whole lot of desire to chase again, being pissed off about the day I'd just had. So I said screw it, I'm trying lightning. The lightning with those storms sucked....to say the least. I had the shutter open for a good 2 hours, a minute or two at a time stopped down. My problem is I get afraid of missing something. I have a hard time stopping. Well that 2 hours or more 3 bolts happened, and it's sort of nuts how interesting 2 of them were.

The last one towards the end was this one going up off a tower. I didn't see it, but once I did on the LCD I went nuts. Probably said "yes" 30 times, this at like 2:30 a.m. Believe me I tried to find a spot with no drops, but with no overhang and wind driven rain, the top right corner was the best I could do. Tripod extended, perched on a small ledge above the ac unit. Camera leaning on the window. Me standing on a chair to see through the camera.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-4-9-3122.jpg

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-4-9-3122b.jpg

The next image was the second bolt I got, much earlier on in this. Was probably 12:30 then.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-4-9-3098.jpg

I didn't see this one either, lol. I was walking back to my laptop when the room lit up. I was like, "that was close"...boom. You can see the window caused channel ghosting....and yeah the damn rain drops. The rest of the window was much much more covered in rain. Lighting likes to strike the tallest object? Not this time. I'm rather sure that bolt is really close to the tower and not just well ahead or behind it. Bigger image below....

http://www.extremeinstability.com/stormpics/2008/08-4-9-3098b.jpg

The tower and the bolt just aren't far from one another. Looks like the lightning just preferred someone's tree. And also, check out the upward leader...apparently off a power pole.

Anyway, the lighting attempted to make the 1800 miles worth it. If ol mother nature pulls many more like she did the main part of the chase, she may scare me off. It's getting highly old. If it's remotely tornadic, I will screw it up...harshly.

[Terra Thompson]

Bill Ladwig, Nick Biermann, and I left Norman around 12:30pm and never stopped driving. We went through Wichita Falls, Seymour, and Throckmorton. We got a radar update from a friend (Thanks Darren!!) with the only bar of cell coverage (out of 3 different carriers) and planned on meeting up with the storm just south of Breckenridge. Based on what others have said I think we had a unique view of the rotation just before (maybe during) the first tornado. From 1 mile west of 183 on 1032 we could watch the meso move closer. It was hard to tell which part of the broader rotation would produce but we thought it was imminent from the very impressive, rapid inflow. As the funnel moved north it got into the trees and we could not tell if it was a tornado or not. Here is pictures from this location at about 22:10.

1022
1023

We went back to 183 and then east on 576 to 207. As we got closer to the 207/180 intersection we observed what looks like the Breckenridge tornado to our north/northwest. The following are screen shots from the video. The first is enhanced and the second is as shot.

1024
1025

When we popped out onto 180 Nick got this picture of what we *think* is the rope stage of the Breckenridge tornado (in the center of the picture, its low contrast). Any opinions?

1026

Just after we saw it, it was gone. We waited a few minutes for the rest of the rain to cross north of 180 before continuing east. We made one last attempt to see the circulation by driving north on hwy 4 from Palo Pinto. About 5 miles up the road we stopped before we got into the rain curtains. Briefly (~30sec) we saw what appeared to be a tornado, it was a narrow white tube that looked like it was on the ground with rain curtains rapidly rotating around it and then lost it in the rain. This was similar to what Tony Cook described. Sadly we don't have any pictures of it. We dropped back down to 180 and along the way got hit with a wall of rain from the RFD. After that we continued to follow behind the storm as it lead us to 35 to go home. It was a crazy day.

[Tony Cook]

Just a followup on my initial report. Finally got my VHS video transferred to digital. As I feared, I missed the precursor to the Oran tornado. Got the wall cloud, but in my rush and panic to dodge the approaching RFD, I lopped off the pendant funnels.

I did discover what appears to be a rope tornado that I shot from road 576 a few miles SW of Breckenridge. FWD has confirmed EF0 tornado damage near Eolian, which corresponds to what I filmed. This tornado preceded the EF-1 Breckenridge tornado by a few minutes. Here is their survey:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/April0910/april0910.htm

At the time, I thought it MIGHT be a tornado, but I never took a minute to take a thorough visual of it. Had forgotten completely about it until I was doing the transfer earlier tonight and saw it. I was filming North, out the driver's side window, but looking straight ahead to watch the road. My trusty, borrowed VHS camera had issues with constantly oversaturating the scene, so I had to play some contrast games to bring the rope out. Apologies for the awful quality, but it's all I got...

http://home.austin.rr.com/chasing/9Apr2008/eolianRope1_p.png


It appears there were two other weak vortices near this one, and possibly also on the ground at times, but the contrast/saturation is so poor, can't tell for sure.

Later, I am south of Breckenridge shooting NNE. I believe this is the wall cloud after producing the Breckenridge tornado, from several miles away:

http://home.austin.rr.com/chasing/9Apr2008/BreckWall1.png

TonyC

[Tim Johnson]

I pretty much have the same report as most. Arrived just west of Abilene to see the first dirty whirly south of the road. (that's what I'm calling it anyways...lol) I'm like Mike, not sure what that was.

My vantage point wasn't great but here's a crappy pic I snapped just before the whirly thang.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/sixfingers_2006/weather/CRW_0521_web.gif

I had stopped on the north side of I-20 to look things over, see some rotation and quickly head under I20 to go back east following it.

Once back to Abilene I took 351 heading NE to follow the storm, stopping a few times, trying to take some structure pics.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/sixfingers_2006/weather/CRW_0522_web.gif

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/sixfingers_2006/weather/CRW_0523_web.gif

RFD was closing in, and the storm was cutting off the NE route, and another storm appeared to be merging with this one from the SW. I wanted to keep driving NE to get in front of this thing, but the rotating rain clouds were not too inviting. I pull over and see Tim Samaras' parked there. I remember thinking to myself "if he drops a little red probe here and runs, I might be in deep doo-doo"...lol (Tim, you need one of those T-shirts like one about the bomb technician. :D )


Anyhow, to make the long story short, I wind up driving back SW through the wrap around and some small hail that was in there, and headed back east on I-20 then north on 183 towards Breckenridge. I avoided going into town when I heard reports of damage. Zig zagging on more farm to market roads than I care to recall, I managed to follow this storm all the way to between Decatur/Denton, never seeing much structure again. Fortunately ending the chase fairly close to home.

As most have said, it was a fast and frustrating chase, with few photo ops, but I'm glad I went. I would have felt worse not trying.

Bring on May-June!

[Bill Tabor]

Ok, I have now reviewed the dash cam footage for this day. Interesting. Tornadoes or not tornadoes follow:

1) Initially coming north from the town of Moran somewhere on fm576 there is some type of dark 'block' structure on the ground. It is fairly solid. I only caught part of it on the dashcam as I was backing out of the way at the time until I figured out what it was. I still don't really know. It was perhaps near the area the tornado warning indicated for the torn moving toward Breckenridge but it still seems it may be too far west. Not sure. I don't know what it is, but it did make me turn around briefly. That is how impressive it was.

2) Approaching the town of Breckenridge from the wsw on 576. I begin seeing a fairly large funnel lowering from the large rainfree cloud deck above and almost directly east of me on 576. Time wise I believe it would be a few minutes before the Breckenridge tornado - so it is close in time and proximity. Under the large funnel I see substantial amounts of what I believe to be dirt whirl dust at the funnel. I called it a tornado at that point while chasing. Later as I continue to drive I continue to see other 'dust' which I assume was part of the RFD at the time making gustnadoes, etc. However then it started to possibly look like smoke to me. So I don't know if this was an elaborate hoax to make me think the origina funnel was a tornado or not. Originally I thought it was. I'm not positive.

3) Later headed east from Breckenridge and getting closer to Graford I turn up hwy 16. According to David Douglas I am right under the rain freebase / wallcloud. This is fairly accurate. The wallcloud appears to be just on the right side of the road. Along the way and right before turning onto 16 I see a needle like spin up or two that appears to touchdown briefly in the hills, but I have no photos or video of that.

4) Continuing on hwy 16 a number of miles up I stop and videotape to the east in the direction of Graford. I have a nice wallcloud / funnel forming nearby. It continues to get further east. I see quite a bit of upward motion and some rotation as well. Later it appears a possible small funnel near ground on the left side. I move positions by heading a bit further ne up the road and run the dashcam to the east. The contrast is fairly low, and the air is full of moisture but I can make out a dark silhouette that is tornado shape and fairly large in the distance. From what I can tell, parts of it appear to be on the ground. So this is a likely tornado and occurs about 20 minutes before the Graford tornado strikes.

5) There was another large snakelike appendage from a cloud later. It was after I had gone north of Mineral Wells in the direction of Breckenridge. This didn't have a good laminar look. It was a bit ragged, but it also seemed to emulate a tornado fairly well - over the hills. But I cannot verify what this was.

6) Later, I believe nearing Bridgeport and getting fairly dark, I see and videoptape another feature that appears to be a tornado. It is a tube that stretches from cloud above to ground, and appears a large amount of debris / dirt near the ground around the bottom of this thing. It didn't last long and started dissipating almost immediately.

[Mike Hollingshead]

Full account up here: http://www.extremeinstability.com/08-4-9.htm

I'd like to report that I saw SCUD along the gust front with this storm...as well as SCUD tags. In those regions I never noticed any funnels or wall clouds. I also think the dust whirls I saw were just that, dust whirls. Seems to me there's no place for these anymore in chasing. They've turned into tornadoes, wall clouds, and funnels.

[Bill Tabor]

Ok, finally getting around to some pics. I haven't gotten to any of the grabs from video of the possible tornadoes though yet. I need to update my website too. I am SO Slooow sometimes. My apologies for the wait.

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2088.jpg
Wallcloud / Funnel north of Baird

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2089.jpg
Same wallcloud a bit later

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2091.jpg
Same wallcloud moving on..nne

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2093.jpg
Wallcloud / funnels - the road east to Moran

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2095.jpg
Wallcloud nearing Breckenridge. Should be just to it's ssw probably 5 to 10
before the tornado.

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2098.jpg
Damage in Breckenridge, Tx

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2101.jpg
Wallcloud / funnel east of Breckenridge off of hwy 180

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2103.jpg
The same a little later

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2105.jpg
Headed nne up hwy 16 to an area west of Graford, Tx before the tornado.
Scattered wallclouds over hills with occasional needle spinups.

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2107.jpg
More of the same a bit later.

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2108.jpg
A more defined Wallcloud with strong upward motion and rotation on it's
way to Graford headed ene or ne

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2109.jpg
This is my view as it continues to the ene or ne. In the video I can make
out funnels with strong motion. Some appear to be near or on the ground

http://tornadoxtreme.com/4_09_08_Chase/IMG_2112.jpg
This odd funnel shape past Graford is part of a secondary flank area of
rotation. I saw very little motion from this feature, and it is ragged
for a tornado, but it could be a tornado. I was unable to tell for sure.

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Full chase log summary on this day is now available, and is shown below...

This was a "mini chase expedition" responding to a potent severe weather setup in central Texas and points eastward from April 8 through April 11, 2008. The "go" or "no go" decision was made on April 6 and 7 when forecast models all agreed on lee cyclogenesis and a powerful front / dryline setup on April 9, with activity shifting east on April 10 (with April 9 being the best day). I was able to get an airline ticket from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Dallas, TX at a reasonable price along with a car rental for the same period (April 8 to April 11). Meanwhile, SPC (Storm Prediction Center) showed a moderate risk of severe storms 2-3 days out with April 9 being the "best" chance for chasing. On the evening of April 8, I arrived in Dallas after a stop-over in Houston, picked up the rental vehicle, and spent the night in Dallas near I-35 East. According to forecasting, as well as SPC's moderate-risk outlook, a tentative target stretching from Childress to San Angelo, Texas was agreed upon, so there was no rush getting into the target area.

On April 9, another forecast was done, and a warm-front was draped across Texas from WSW to ENE near the I-20 corridor. Meanwhile, a strong trough / shortwave was present over New Mexico, with diffluent and strong jet-stream winds expected to rotate into western Texas by afternoon. A strong instability axis (CAPE over 2500) and shear axis (helicity over 500) intersected an area close to Abilene, Texas. After speaking to Tony Laubach and Verne Carlson, in Amarillo, TX at the time, we also agreed that near Abilene was a great target area. At the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), a 15% hatched tornado area, 45% hatched hail, and 35% hatched wind outlook constituted a high-end moderate risk for the same region near Abilene about a 100 mile radius or so (a "hatched" outlook means the chance of strong tornadoes, hail over 2", and extreme winds over 65 knots within 25 miles of a point in the outlook area)! I left Dallas and headed north to Denton, Texas on I-35 with a westward track along highway 380 through Decatur. Headed south along highway 281 from Jacksboro and into Mineral Wells by lunch time. The final leg into Abilene was by highway 180, then highway 16, then westward on I-20.

I reached Abilene by about 2 PM CDT and obtained fuel plus a new power inverter at a truck-stop there. By this time, Tony and Verne met up with Tim Samaras at Sweetwater, about 25 minutes to the west on I-20. I left Abilene along highway 277 and stopped to make sure my equipment (radio, inverter, and laptop) was set up. The 55 degree drizzle and fog rapidly gave way to partly sunny skies and 80+ degrees just south of Abilene denoting passage / crossing of the warm-front boundary. At this time (3 PM or so) the SPC issued PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) tornado watch box # 178 valid until 8 PM CDT for the area in response to MD (Mesoscale Discussion # 607). A data check confirmed this area was ready to see convective initiation since the dryline boundary was still well to the west, a differential boundary between a stable and unstable (well-mixed) boundary layer to the west was present, both intersecting the warm front. Sure enough, a thunderstorm cell fired to the south of Sweetwater and west of Nolan near highway 277 and 126. This cell was encountered, and showed the start of some supercell characteristics, and allowed to pass to my east (while keeping an eye on it). This storm also contained small hail.

This developing shower / storm was to be the big storm, and the only best storm of the day! I met up with Verne Carlson, Tony Laubach, and Tim Samaras near I-20 and highway 70 and notified them about the developing storm. The well-defined frontal boundary was right along I-20, with the "fog bank" visible to the north, and partly cloudy skies to the south. My group and I watched the storms, including the cell that I saw initiate, along with a few other storms that seemed to weaken quickly. The original storm showed the best possibilities, and a tornado (TVS) was indicated by radar on it, so we grouped up and headed east on I-20 to catch it. We encountered the storm near Tye, TX along I-20, where a rotating wall cloud / funnels, intense RFD, and some small dusty "spinups" were noted. We headed north on highway 707 towards Hodges and Anson to encounter a large funnel and dust (quite possibly tornado #1). The storm appeared to rapidly wrap-up at this point, with very intense rotation, while evolving to an HP supercell and eventually weakening somewhat. Another weaker mesocyclone to the south appeared to "merge" with this cell. Large hail (golfball and larger) and frequent lightning was also encountered on highway 707.

We left this storm and planned on following it along I-20 as it started taking more of an ENE motion rather than NE as id did originally. We stopped for fuel near Baird and continued east on I-20 to Cisco, then to highway 6, then north on highway 183. The supercell now violently intensified, showing an incredible SCIT (Severe Cell ID and Tracking) of 198 knots gate-to-gate shear with a flying eagle and couplet on the Dyess AFB radar site. The storm motion also changed from ENE to ESE at this point. Its position was just southwest of Breckenridge, Texas and we were headed north on highway 183 towards it (by about 20 miles away at 5:30 pm CDT) after being slightly delayed by a freight train in Cisco. We encountered the SW side of Breckenridge, with an RFD shelf cloud in front and possible tornado to the NE of our position. This may have been Tornado #3, developing in the new mesocyclone of the storm to the east, while #2 was not visible but responsible for extensive damage in Breckenridge. A semi truck was blown over and lying across highway 183, and many power poles were snapped, along with trees down, and roofs torn off some buildings. The damage path appeared to be at least a half-mile wide, with opposing damage direction (such as snapped poles leaning opposite directions) on each side of the damage swath.

We passed into downtown Breckenridge and headed east on highway 180. More damage was encountered on the east side of town, with poles snapped, powerlines down, roofs torn off buildings, and structural damage. We stopped to document as well as help some locals move debris from the road, as well as making sure no one was hurt. Later analysis of the video taken of the damage near highway 67 and 180 clearly shows the rope tornado stage, to the NE, and most likely from tornado #2 that caused much of the damage in Breckenridge. After the supercell storm got east of Breckenridge, it underwent some drastic evolutions. The storm crossed the differential boundary and its inflow began ingesting the cooler stable air to the east. Inflow was very impressive east of the storm near highway 180 near Palo Pinto, with gusts over 60 MPH. The gate-to-gate shear relaxed significantly from 120 knots down to 50-60 knots and the storm went entirely HP, with a warm advection wing to its southeast. This storm was followed to Mineral Wells along highway 180 then north on 281. Impressive 60-80 MPH winds were noted south of the area of rotation with this storm. At this time, Tony Laubach and Verne Carlson broke off of the chase, as I continued north (with Tim Samaras) on 281 towards 380 to head back east.

http://www.sky-chaser.com/image/mwcl2008/m9btor2.jpg

Above: Rope state of the Breckenridge, TX tornado.

The supercell continued moving northeast, but never intensified again, instead, it just got weaker and weaker until it lost its identity northeast of Pilot Point / Denton, TX and well east of I-35. This was roughly at 9:30 PM. From initiation to weakening, the single supercell lasted more than 6 hours. Tim Samaras and his crew and myself spent the night in Denison, Texas with the next-days chase prospects in mind (possibly OK / AR). A potent squall line developed late at night (April 9-10) and moved through by 4 AM or so, with violent winds and frequent lightning. The rapid passage of this squall line was to determine the chase prospects for April 10, and a target of eastern Arkansas was sought by myself. Tim Samaras and his group decided not to chase, and needed to be back in Colorado by April 11.

More details can be seen at this link (below) ...

http://www.sky-chaser.com/mwcl2008.htm#APR8

Video for (and including) this chase can be seen at the link below as well ...

http://www.sky-chaser.com/m9vid2.htm

[Tony Cook]

I did discover what appears to be a rope tornado that I shot from road 576 a few miles SW of Breckenridge. FWD has confirmed EF0 tornado damage near Eolian, which corresponds to what I filmed. This tornado preceded the EF-1 Breckenridge tornado by a few minutes...



After some detailed reconstruction of my VHS footage of this feature, I have determined it is definitely NOT the Eolian tornado. I had to pick out curves in the road on the video and annotate them using my GPS track, since there was no time code, and I wasn't doing a good job of narrating. This feature was still SW of Eolian, somewhere North of Moran. It does appear to be a rope tornado, but video is inconclusive.

Alas, still 0 for 2008.

TonyC

[Sam Barricklow]

Due to the fast movement of the storms, I didn't take many photos, and only shot video of damage at Breckenridge. See:

http://www.k5kj.net/20080409.htm