Chase Report: 29 Apr, 2009, Part 2: Things that go Bump in the Night

Guthrie, TX
After an exciting day of missing tornadoes, we had basically given up and were heading home from Matador. I notice as the sun is going down that the ugly mess to our south has organized into an interesting looking Hybrid. We get south of the mess near Guthrie, and watch as it produces monster, bowl-shaped wall cloud with some funnels just to our NW. I call wall cloud in to NWS at 9:17 as it goes over city of Guthrie. Bill Tabor is up there, too (didn't know it at the time) and calls in wall cloud- TOR warn issued based on spotter funnel reports and radar rotation.

Two areas of rotation translate east through Guthrie just north of 82 and we move after them. I think the attached pics are from the second rotation (and possibly a third for the last couple). At just before 9:30, we spot a possible tornado coincident with rotational velocity signature on radar. Here is our GPS position:



First decent view of possible tube, 9:30 CDT:



A few minutes later, initial feature center frame, second large lowering close to ground at right of frame:




Zoom in, but low level scud blocking ground view...



Low-light mode finally really brings it out:




Fat funnel continues...




I am about 99% sure it is a tornado on the ground for at least some of this sequence of images. The sequence of pics covers 10 minutes, so it was persistent, and co-located with rotation on radar for the duration. Actually, it continued on, but visually, became difficult to discern. At the time of the last couple of pics, I thought it had disappeared, and I pulled us off of it to go get the next (third?) circulation coming from Guthrie.

This one had been catching our attention from time to time, and when we turned around (position shown in first Delormes image, 9:44 CDT), this is what we saw:




9:49 CDT, funnel under wall cloud near the ground:




It Never got its act together like the first, but may have tornadoed briefly. Funnel got a little bigger and seemed to be scraping the ground a couple of times. As with a lot of night-time footage, without a damage survey, it is really impossible to be certain of things in this case.

TonyC

Chase Report: 29 Apr 2009, Part 1: Daylight: Matador, TX Wall Clouds

Total Stats
Depart Austin: 11:45 a.m., 29 Apr
Arrive Austin: 4:00 a.m., 30 Apr
~ 830 miles
Chase Partner: John S

Daylight: Matador, Cedar Hill cells
Left AUS about11:45 a.m. With initial fuzzy target of Guthrie, TX. By the time we got to Abilene, initial crap cluster with small hail was moving east towards DFW just north of 20, and not a lot else going on. Decided to move on towards original target area of Guthrie and dryline. At some point, cells fired in the vicinity of LBB and first TOR box went up in our area.

Arrived Paducah 5:40 with cells now east of Lubbock and north of Paducah looking good on radar, nothing south of these cells at the time. Costly 7 minute fuel stop, although at the time, cells only had severe. Today was a day where storms tornadoed early and that was largely it. Some days, you can get away with giving a storm a little bit of time, but this was not one of those days.

Arrive Matador 6:10. 70/94 Juntcion at 6:14, Two cells, one west at Cedar Hill, one just N of Matador. GPS track for this whole sequence and features observed:

First view of Cedar hill base revealed big low wall cloud with fingers, but no naders, around 6:30 (~15 minutes after last tornado report from this cell). David Drummond and Ben Holcomb captured absolutely stunning tornado video earlier in the storm's lifetime, availlable at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAW4V9UjnmU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94utHXUFRBI
http://www.benholcomb.com/20090429.html
Here is all we got from it, though...

Cell just north of Matador and in our vicinity with large, bowl-shaped lowering:

After a wee bit of floundering which allowed Matador cell to get slightly east of us, we elect to follow it ~6:35. East on CR 214 from 70, which was dirt/mud, but pretty stable. Cell continued to exhibit big bowl with occasional lowerings:

6:55, we are on paved FM 94 straddling backside core with no good way to continue pursuit. Turn back west and skirt core, with some small hail, heavy winds, some signs of rotation. Approaching core looking WSW:

Brief, broad ground circulation 7:05ish (wrapping rain curtains):

Couple of other high-based funnel-like features with apparent rotation back side of core- things were visually a mess though, with nothing obviously tornadic apparent. John S did a bang up job of drviing in less than optimal conditions from the time we hit the first dirt road during this leg of the chase. Core passes.

Back to 70 just North of Matador again. Next cell approaches with rotation and TOR warning. Brief funnel clouds, including one very close to ground:

Storm weakens and base lifts, but still exhibits some dramatic, high-based rotation as it moves by. Talk to Lubbock-based spotters who saw Cedar Hill tornadoes. Complex of cells has congealed into weird-shaped hybrid and no longer looks good. Turn south and head towards home 7:50... (To be continued)