4/10/79 Wichita Falls

[Rob Satkus]

NWS OUN has put up a nice page for the 30th anniversary of this monster:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/wxevents/19790410/
This was a little before my chasing started but it would be interesting to hear any stories any of you may have whether chasing it or living through it..or any of the other tornadoes that day.

Rob

[John Cameron]

April 10th, 1979 was also the first ops day for the SESAME Project, in which some light was shed on the influence of shortwaves in southern plains convective scenarios.

[Chris Lott]

I can't remember the name of the guy, but a survivor of that tornado gave a talk at TESSA this year. I remember him saying that you could tell something wasn't right that day, you could feel it that something was going to happen. He also talked about how quiet it was just before it hit. He, his brother and mother all survived.

[Chris Lott]

Someone had posted this before, but here is a link to the audio file from Skywarn spotters that were on that storm that day. Some of it is hard to make out, but if you listen close you can understand most of it.

Windows Media audio file (.wma) (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/images/wxevents/19790410/media/skywarnradionet.wma).

[Tim Vasquez]

Nice picture of the storms going up:

April 10, 1979 / 2145 UTC
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/satv-790410-2145.jpg

April 10, 1979 / 2345 UTC
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/satv-790410-2345.jpg

Tim

[Darrin Rasberry]

Thanks, Tim - I also noticed there's a nice surface chart the morning of this day in one of your handbooks. There's a Facebook memorial page going on for the anniversary for this, for those of you who use the service.

[Chris Hayes]

The tornadoes that occured during the Red River Valley Outbreak all have that 'evil' look to them. The Wichita Falls tornado, with how black it was deffinately fits into that category. It would be kinda nice if digital cameras had an option to make your pictures have that "70s and 80s film look" to them. In some respects you just cant beat how the old style pictures look.

[John Cameron]

Nice picture of the storms going up:

April 10, 1979 / 2145 UTC
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/satv-790410-2145.jpg

April 10, 1979 / 2345 UTC
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/satv-790410-2345.jpg

Tim

We were still in Standard Time on this date, right?

[Tim Vasquez]

According to this we were on CST on April 10 1979.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_time_in_the_United_States

Tim

[Steve Burre]

Hard to believe it has been 30 years...I was on the NSSL team that day and Seymour was my first tornado (we never did really catch up with the storm as it headed into Wichita Falls)

[David Drummond]

This was one of those events I like to think of when I see modern storm chasers downplaying the tornado potential because of low end moisture or "just in time" moisture. At 6 am that morning, the dewpoint in Wichita Falls was only 50F and you had to go in to Central Texas to get low 60s. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/images/wxevents/19790410/figures/sfc04107911z.jpg

While I was barely a teenager when this happened, I was keenly aware of what went on, as I had extended family that lived just blocks from the tornado path, and my cousin was a weather spotter there at the time (still is in fact). You can hear him on the spotter recording, WB5WJX Dale Cheek.

That event was a pivotal inspiration for why I chase storms!

[Tim Marshall]

April 10, 1979 - Around noon, storms developed along the Caprock with a tornado near Crosbyton. Unfortunately, I had classes at Texas Tech and Dr. Peterson and I didn't leave Lubbock until about 2 pm. Our target was Vernon. We had a difficult time driving due to very strong winds and low visibilities in blinding dust. There was no air conditioning in my vehicle so we had to leave a gap in windows -and choaked and choaked. Occasionally, I could see the tops of the Cb's to the east and they were quickly moving out of range. We decided to abort the chase and return to Lubbock -coated in dust. Dr. Peterson was part of the damage survey team but unfortunately I couldn't go with him as I had classes. TM