4/16/09: REPORTS TX OK CO

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Chased the cells as many did from the Tulia Kress areas South Southeast. Left the cell at Tulia after massive hail dump & got on the storm that would hit Ralls as the tornado sirens wailed and very low rapid rotation over the town. Cant say I saw any tornadoes but I did see the most hail ive ever seen a storm dump. 4-7 inches deep and the plows which had to be caled out to get the stuff off the road had it piled 2-4 feet high on the shoulder of I-27. Great motion and structure today but some of these storms were at times very rainy and the hail fog didnt help viewing. I think one tornado report may have actually been these whispy uprisings of hail fog getting sucked into the storm with the inflow. For a marginal moisture day it wasnt bad at all. Tornado reports were low but oh well. Maybe we can do it again tomorrow...or today...and tomorrow...or the next day. :-p
Photos by Jason A.C. Brock. Chased by Jason A.C. Brock. Nowcasted by Jeff Papak & Jeremy Wilson
Pics and video will be up by the end of weekend or early next week at http://www.holytornado.com
http://www.youtube.com/shadowchaser777
http://www.myspace.com/holytornado777

[Jason Boggs]

Pretty much the same song and dance as Jason Brock described. Left Amarillo around 3 or so and headed down I-27 to Tulia. Stayed in the area of Tulia and Kress for much of the day. Saw lots of flooding and lots of hail around Tulia and Kress. As Jason Brock described, viewing was difficult at times due to the hail fog. I have to say, I'v enever seen as much hail piled on the road as I saw today. It was unreal! Here is some video that I took of the flooding and hail today along and on I-27.

STORM VIDEO (http://myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=51332)

[Shane Adams]

Bridge, Chad, Mick, and myself observed several tornadoes between Larenzo/Idalou, TX yesterday evening, including three (possibly four) at once. An absolutely incredible day.

Full summary and images will be up by the end of the weekend, but until then here's a few shots: http://www.passiontwist.com/41609chase.htm

[Mike Weiss]

Myself and Shane Andra left OKC around 10, arrived near the Lorenzo/Idalou storm just as it produced four short tornadoes in quick succession. As that storm moved away, we got hammered by RFD and shot south in time to get on the storm east of LBB as it cycled through 3 different rapid rotating wallclouds and one very nice funnel. We were still to far away to see the ground beneath, so I cant say Tornado or not. We shot back north to Lorenzo and got pounded by Golf ball hail. We then followed that storm east and north as it cycled several times near Ralls. At one point north of Ralls, observed very large cone funnel, that i am pretty sure was on the ground. It quickly wrapped in rain. We stayed on this storm the remainer of the time and observed 3 more funnels with brief spinups twice. We finally called it a day after intercepting our last storm south of Spur. The storm had very impressive inflow and rotation. Witnessed 2 funnels from it, but just could not get it done.
All in all a very good day and an excellent chase. Will have pics up sometime soon at www.wxhunters.com.
PS> Shane Adams...We were the guys in the Yellow Pickup, and I can confirm that we did see four tornadoes.
...Mike

[Connor McCrorey]

I didn't get to leave Plano until 12:45, so I missed the tornadoes, but I did get to see some nice rotation afterwards, and got some golfballs down to the SE later on. Very frequent, intense CGs tonight. Overall a bust, but it was nice meeting several of you out there :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57bo9G6PMoE

[Steve Miller TX]

Like both Jasons mentioned, I too made it down around the Tulia and Kress area after leaving work too late to catch the tornado warnings. But, the aftermath of the storms down there was simple amazing! I've never seen that much hail over such a large area.

Pics and account here. (http://texastailchaser.com/blogger/2009/04/crazy-panhandle-weather.htm)

[Shane Adams]

I've got video of a huge bowl lowering that's hugging the ground southwest of Ralls around 6:38-6:43pm CDT (give or take a few). I know there was a brief tornado reported 2 SW of there at 6:45pm CDT....can anyone confirm or deny this tornado came from the large bowl lowering? Here is what I have:

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls2.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls3.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls4.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls5.htm

[Kevin Rider]

Jake Wallentine and I witnessed two very brief tornadoes just south and west of Ralls, Texas. The first tornado is hard to see but is at the begginning of the video and if you look hard enough you can see a bowl shape of dust in there. The second tornado is a little past half way in the video and is much more clear. You can see the rotation of the dust for about 5 seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjxnuou_Mco

The whole day was pretty crazy for Jake and I. We skipped from supercell to supercell, seeing more wall clouds than we have ever seen in just one chase. We witnessed flash flooding, hail fog, and some intense lightning. We will work on putting a full report up on our site later today.

[Mike Weiss]

I've got video of a huge bowl lowering that's hugging the ground southwest of Ralls around 6:38-6:43pm CDT (give or take a few). I know there was a brief tornado reported 2 SW of there at 6:45pm CDT....can anyone confirm or deny this tornado came from the large bowl lowering? Here is what I have:

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls2.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls3.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls4.htm

http://www.passiontwist.com/41609ralls5.htm

In my near asleep state while posting this morning, I mistakenly said that the large funnel was north of Ralls. It was infact south of Ralls. I believe this is the same structure that you are referencing. As I was moving at the time, I could not get a clear pic of it.

...Mike

[B Doss]

Chased from my road to about 25 miles E/NE of my road. Several wall clouds, funnels, and insane hail.

[brandongreen]

these were outside of hereford.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/storm007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/storm009.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v153/brandon14295/storm018.jpg

[Ric Burney]

I got a late start out of Dallas and ended up at a tor warned cell a few miles south of Justiceburg, TX around 6:30. I took a little video and a few stills on U.S. 84.
http://www.geocities.com/numist/wx04162009.html
Sorry about the video but was the first time out with this camera and mount so it was a real learning experience. Later driving east out of post I grazed the core of one storm that left a 1/4 mile swath of hail on the road. There's nothing like doing 60 mph and suddenly finding yourself on two inches of ice. It looked to have been about quarter-sized with a whole bunch falling along one narrow track. On the way back home I had the pleasure of meeting the TVN armada and Randy Denzer in Aspermont, TX. Got back home around 2:00 a.m.

[Tony Laubach]

Considering there were well over a dozen people scattered across several vehicles all over the state, I might as well admit the defeat experienced in Colorado as the day gave way to my sixth chase of the year and 2009's first official bust.

I'm sure any number of things prevented the convection that did form from doing anything remotely severe. Myself along with Kim Insana and Char Moon ventured out of Denver about 2pm for Limon where we dropped into Kit Carson and eventually south to Hwy 50 to intercept a few cells moving out of the TX/OK panhandles.

Along the way, we intercepted drizzle in Denver, near zero-visibility fog between Kit Caron and La Junta, and very low, cold looking cloud bases. The storms of interest moved into this area, took a bite of that atmosphere and pooped. As a friend said, it was like getting socks for Christmas.

We ventured some via CO-71 to avoid messing with the snow on the Palmer Divide, getting home well before midnight for the second time in as many days.

A fun venture with friends, but a bust in terms of weather. I had my jersey on, but it was never revealed because of how chilly it was.

[Dann Cianca]

Well, my story isn't much different than Tony's. Chased EC/SE Colorado with Adam Childers but didn't get out until after 3:00PM. Passed by some cold, tightly-wound showers with scud a-plenty, but that wasn't our target. Almost wish we would have just stopped and watch the scud funnels. :) Met up with Cameron Redwine and Scott L. and continued on.

Nothing much else to report other than fog and drizzle and otherwise awful weather. The easterly surface winds brought in the low clouds and never really allowed the target area to sufficiently heat.

Also met up with Kyle Kluge and the five of us had dinner at Jorge's Sombrero in Pueblo (recommended!) and then headed back to Denver through the snow!

"report" here ... http://blog.bigskyconvection.com/2009/04/2009-storm-chase-v-brief-april-16th.html

[A.Theunissen]

Our day started in Snyder, waiting for storms to initiate. Rejean and I have decided to move near Post around 4pm trying to catch our first storm of the day, and then everything went crazy. We lost our internet connection and there was no way to really know what was going on outside of Lubbock. One of our nowcaster, Marc Rémillard, called us saying there was a supercell coming towards Lubbock, just to its s-e....

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9551/16avril200901.jpg
Saw a beautiful rotating wall-cloud, 1.5'' hail, the inflow was intense!
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/590/16avril200902.jpg
Great rotation, but no touchdown.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7623/16avril200904.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4189/16avril200906.jpg

We left that storm to intercept one of the 2 supercells near Post-Snyder.

We core punched the storm from the west, with hail maybe 3 inches in diameter. Bigger than a golfball. Between Post and Clairemont.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5836/16avril200905.jpg

We finished the day on HW 20 - Big Spring witnessing one of the best lightning show I have ever seen!

[Randy Denzer]

Me and David Douglas left Austin around 8. We made it to the Lubbock area around 2. Caught the first cell south of Lubbock and left it as it entered the city. We turned south and caught the cell to the southwest of Post. Chased it for a while then turned to the south to catch the Justiceburg cell. Ran into Gene Moore and we chased the cell until dark. Caught a brief tornado west of Justiceburg.
Met Reed and gang in Aspermont for a killer chili cheese dog that is still with me!

Hd Video up on you-tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-wQNx8kx6c&feature=channel_page

[Shane Adams]

Full summary with images up now:
http://www.passiontwist.com/41609chase.htm

[Ben Holcomb]

I finally got around to posting my summary as well including pics and video http://www.benholcomb.com/20090416.html

[Steve Miller TX]

Here is my video of the massive hail core dump around the Tulia area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB7SuxtSpSU