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)