COVER: Tornado entering the west side of Pampa, Texas on June 8, 1995. Photograph byAlan Moller.

Storm Track is a non-profit publication intended for the scientist and amateur alike whoshare an avid interest in the acquisition and advancement of knowledge concerning severeor unusual weather phenomena. It is published bi-monthly in Lewisville, Texas. DavidHoadley founded the publication in 1977 and STORMTRACK has continued to grow and improveever since. Gene Rhoden designed the current cover. David Hoadley still contributesdrawns and sketches. Current, we have about 650 subscribers!

Anyone can submit an article or letter to STORMTRACK. Articles should be single-spacedand contain proper english. Right justified margins are preferred or the editor canretype the text. High contrast photographs reproduce best. Diagrams should be clear andlegible, subject to photo-reduction. All articles will be edited.

Subscription rates are: U.S. First Class mail $14/year, Canada $14/year, and England/Japan$20/year. Each November issue will have a color cover and one issue will containadditional pages of text. Individual issues are $2.35/copy. Back issues are available byyear, or the complete 18 year set (1978-1995) can be purchased for $125. To subscribe orrenew, send a check or money order PAYABLE ONLY to Tim Marshall, 1336 Brazos Blvd,Lewisville, Texas 75067.

STORM TRACK CLASSIFIEDS

Sell or swap your wares. Only 25c per word (20 word minimum = $5, 160 word maximum = $40).Quarter page ads are $70, half page ads are $130, and whole page ads are $250. Send your requestfor the next issue by June 1, 1996.

StormWatch, Winner: National Weather Association Media Award. StormWatch, the new, officialNational Weather Service Advanced Storm Spatting Training Video is now available from the TexasSevere Storms Association (TESSA). StormWatch introduces the storm spotter and reveals the uniquecharacteristics of the severe thunderstorm they must know. StormWatch highlights storms whichproduce deadly lightning, ravaging flash floods, damaging hail and destructive tornadoes. Send$24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: TESSA, P.O. Box 122020, Arlington, TX 76012. Allow 3-5 weeks fordelivery. Checks payable to TESSA. No purchase orders please. (1/97)

NEW RELEASE! THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY. This is it! The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning 1991 Public Television documentary CHASING THE WIND. THE CHASERS OF TORNADO ALLEY tellsthe true story about storm chasers and how they pursue Nature's most violent atmosphericphenomenon, the tornado. A unique tale about the storm chaser's love for storms and the GreatPlains. Hosted and narrated by TWISTER's Dean Lindsay. Produced and Directed by Martin Lisius.Send check or money order for $24.95 plus $2.95 S/H to: Prairie Pictures, P.O. Box 122020,Arlington, Texas, 76012. Please allow 3-5 weeks for delivery. No purchase orders please. (3/97)

"CUT TO THE CHASE"...Join Minnesota stormchaser Scott Woelm for his 1994 and 1995 severe weatherseasons. This quality hi-fi stereo video production includes the spectacular May 12, 1994 FortStockton, Texas "Wall Wall Cloud", and the eye opening June 30, 1994 Winthrop, Minnesota HPsupercell. There are six brief tornadoes on this well produced and entertaining chase video, andI am confident that you will enjoy it. I offer a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE with every purchase. VHShi-fi $25, SVHS or Hi-8 $35. Please send check or money order payable to: Scott Woelm, 8721 VanBuren St., NE, Blaine, MN 55434-2365. (3/96)

STORMTALK BOOK AND STORMWATCHER VIDEO SET: Book sales are going fast and should be sold out bythe end of the year. The set is still available until supplies run out at a special price of $50U.S., $60 CANADA, and $75 OVERSEAS, post. paid. Send orders to: Tim Marshall, 1336 Brazos Blvd.Lewisville, Texas 75067.

A SLOW START TO THE SEASONI. COMMENTARY

This year's chase season is off to a slow start. The drought in the high plains has extended intospring leaving many farmers wondering if we are returning to the days of the dust bowl. Therehave been few tornadoes except for the outbreak in Illinois in mid-April. Illinois tornadooutbreaks are not unusual. I witnessed three such outbreaks when I was growing up there: April11, 1965, April 21, 1967, and April 3, 1974. But it was the Oak Lawn, Illinois tornado on April21, 1967 that jelled my interest in tornadoes when one ripped through my town.

There are many similarities between this season and last. A large trough has been centered overthe eastern U.S. thanks to the persistent "Hudsons Bay" low. This has allowed a ridge to amplifyover the west. As a result, we experienced a mild winter and actually hit 95 degrees in February!A few troughs have made it through the area causing some severe weather. On March 26, 1996 ahailstorm passed through northern portions of the Dallas-Fort Worth areas which should keep mebusy the rest of the year. A barber pole updraft passed right over my house. The strong shiftingwinds knocked the power out for an evening.

II. CHASER NEWS

The annual chasers picnic will be held on Saturday, May 25th with an alternate date of June 1st.Enclosed is a slip of paper detailing where the annual chasers party will be. Last minuteupdates, changes, or cancellations can be obtained by calling the editors voice recorder at 214-317-7910. Bring your own food, beverage, and best storm videotape. The party will be postponed ifthere is a slight risk or higher for the plains states. See you there!

The TWISTER movie starts nationwide on May 10th. Please send your movie reviews to STORMTRACK forpublication by June 15th for the next issue. Indicate a rating with your comments:

F0 -- Weak movie. Hardly disturbed my hair. The popcorn machine had more rotation.F1 -- Mild movie. Raised a hand to my mouth a few times. Leaned over precariously.F2 -- Strong movie. Good parts mixed with bad parts. Could have been better.F3 -- Severe movie. Anchored in my seat throughout. Thoroughly entertaining.F4 -- Intense movie. Lifted me off my seat a few times and twisted me around.F5 -- Incredible movie. Lifted me off my seat and carriers me away. A great movie!

STORMTRACK along with the editor will be moving into a new house. Please note our new addresseffective June 15th: 4041 Bordeaux Circle, Flower Mound, Tx 75028.

III. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

John Schroeder, a graduate student at Texas Tech University writes: "For the first time inseveral years, TTU is organizing a funded chase team. The team is comprised of AtmosphericSciences and Civil Engineering graduate students and will be funded by the Civil EngineeringDepartment. The effort will operate from March 1 to June 30 and will cover areas close toLubbock."

Russ Burke writes about a tornado which struck Great Barrington, MA on May 29, 1995. The tornadotraveled about 7 miles between 7:06pm and 7:16pm and was up to 300 yards wide. Three people werekilled when the car they were in was thrown from the road.

"This tornado was officially listed as F-3/F-4. Is this common practice to give a tornado aborderline rating? It was difficult conducting a damage survey as the terrain was rugged andvery hilly. Also, it was densely wooded and there were few roads. However, of the homes thatwere damaged, I had yet to find or hear of anything that would deserve an F-4 rating. Thetornado touched down just east of the Hudson River and continued up into the BerkshireMountains. I was amazed that a tornado could travel over terrain this rugged and with suchease. I tracked the damage path over an abrupt hill, down into a small valley, and back up avery steep ridge -all the time remaining in contact with the ground. This tornado wasreminiscent of the "State Line" tornado that occurred in August 28, 1973."

Mark Haas, KC5HTN sent in a list of spotter resources on the World Wide Web.1) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/spotterguide.html2) http://doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws/glossary.html3) http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/stormspotters/html/slidel.html4) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/5) http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/tx/tx.html6) http://cirrus/sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/states/texas.html7) http://rampages.onramp.net/ mhaas/dallasraces/

Film critic Rich Herzog sent in his movie review on the little publicized movie- THE CORIOLISEFFECT: "The subtitle of this film was a movie about love, and severe weather. In the movie,the girlfriend of one storm chaser reveals that she was involved with his best friend andfellow storm chase partner. All of the potential conflicts exist: man vs. man, man vs.nature. The language and content of the movie made for a definite R rating. The tornadospecial effects were nowhere near "Wizard of Oz" standards, though there were many Ozreferences in the movie. The meteorological discussions were often inaccurate, such as "astrong storm system approaching the Texas panhandle from the east." All of this added up to adisappointing movie which could have been much better. However, it supposedly won awards atthe 1994 Sundance Film Festival. I give it an F2 out of five."

Roger Edwards writes: "Fuji Velvia is best for sunsets, brightly-colored mammatus, or anysituation with lots of warm colors. This film is superior for reds, yellows, and oranges. Itis better for storm structure pictures out away from the storm, especially if the storm isstrongly back-lit. The film bleeds colors on lightning; a magnifying glass inspectionrevealed undesirable thin color bands on the edges of the closer/brighter CG's.

I've tried Fuji Sensia. It's an excellent overall film and handles the warm colors well hutis strongest in differentiating shades of cool colors such as blues and grays. Thus, this isbest for under-the-storm shots, including most tornado situations. Excellent lightning filmas well. It is also the most versatile of all films.

Ektachrome film is similar to Sensia but not quite as bold in the warm bands. I can't see whypeople bash this film beyond its only real weakness: bold bright colors in medium to brightlight. Great with cold colors and gray on gray shades, including shadowed storm structure,and "mean" looking dark blue-gray clouds. I find it to be the best lightning film. It has 15-20 year lifespan of original colors under good care.

The Kodachrome film is somewhat better with bright/warm colors than Sensia and Ektachrome,hut not as hold as Velvia. It is the second most all-purpose film. The main disadvantage isthe remote processing (not E-6), with risk of loss. However, it is the hest long-term archivefilm. When slides are properly stored out of persistent light, I've seen 25+ year old imagesthat looked like they were shot yesterday.

Robert Prentice writes: "I have learned a lot from trying to film the giant "meat grinders" lastyear. First, I hate every type of film but FUJI. FUJI film's saturated colors make every one ofmy shots look like a picture postcard. I still use "cold-looking" film like Ektachrome 100 forafter dusk lightning. Al Moller was right. The Fuji Velvia 50 speed is the way to go for stormstructure shots. Second, in low light, use a fast film such as 200 or 400 ASA. According to themagazines I've read, fast film is much better than it used to be with graininess. Now I have twomodes of operation for my two cameras. For my regular mode, I keep 50 speed Velvia in my super-wide-angle camera and 200 speed Fujichrome in my zoom camera. For my dark clouds or tornado mode,I keep 200 speed film in my super-wide-angle camera and 400 speed Fuji Provia in my zoom."

IV. ROSTER

The ST Roster lists names, addresses, and brief biographies of those persons who areinterested in or willing to correspond with others about storms and storm chasing.Jeff Gammons, 701 High Street, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Home: 407-655-2068, Beeper:407-731-8241. email: jeff.gammons@hughestech.com "I'm 22 and have been into weathersince I was 10. I'm a DJ at many clubs. I want to go on a real tornado chase in thecentral U.S."

V. FUNNEL FUNNIES: Chase Forecasting 101: Mobile Home Parks

IMPRESSIONS OF A NOVICE AT HANSTON, KS by John Brosio [ unabridged for CD-ROM ]

1995 was my second year chasing storms in the midwest. I had previously located twofull-fledged tornadoes and four near touchdowns in California and considered it timeto finally move up to the big leagues. Having seen nothing for over a week, we awokejust north of Lubbock on May 16. May 15 had been a teaser of a day. Our chase group,headed by Marty Feely, had seen all there was to see of a supposed tornado in theTexas panhandle. There were funnel clouds and colors, close lightning, wall clouds,back-to-back bear cages, and golf ball hail, all in the midst of an HP mess. In theend, however, our most impressive twister was a mistakenly placed red triangle by theWeather Channel.

Back to May 16. We headed south toward Lubbock from some throwaway town that startswith an F. The five of us had low expectations for the day and wore a variety ofgroggy, low energy expressions. With no real information, Marty decided to stop by theWeather Service and form a game plan. En route, we were phoned by Bobby Prentice whotouted West Central Kansas as the day's best bet. Upon arriving, we met up with JimLeonard and Roger Edwards who shared this assessment. I don't know Roger well at all,but I recognized him from the previous year when I saw three pounds of coloredpencils. Jim was his usual self as far as I could tell, throwing out terms like "highlevel trash" and "damn cold front" or "damn warm front."

It was clear from further analysis that the only chance for any real show was indeedWestern Kansas. This news was met with some groaning over the distances involved butthose of us in Marty's group (John "bees are cool" Lambert, Rick "the stick" Cline,Kai "I miss your mucous" Esbensen, and myself) succeeded in placing him behind thewheel and getting him to drive. We left Jim Leonard watching a video at the WeatherService. As you may imagine, a trip from Lubbock to Kansas is at first as rivetting asThe Weather Channel's Florida Report. We stopped in Lubbock for a quick breakfast, ho-hum, and then made our way to Amarillo. We also made what turned out to be a crucialdecision in choosing to avoid the Amarillo Weather Service. This later became valuabletime.

At 4:00, not far from Dumas, we were able to see the distant, rising dome of hardcloud tops which would eventually spawn the Hanston, KS tornado. At first sight, thedome of clouds was probably about 30,000 feet tall and coupled with other waxing andwaning cloud tops, all outside the edge of an overhead cirrus band. The drive was anon-stop beeline from this point. I watched as the storm pulsated to life. It madeseveral tries before bounding through the cap, sapping the other, smaller updrafts. Itbegan to spread a large and very uniform anvil and we began to eavesdrop on VORTEXover Marty's scanner. The VORTEX Orion P-3 at one point reported that the storm hadreached 66,000 feet. Clearly a supercell by now, we watched as an overshooting topboth formed and collapsed, followed by reports of an early tornado. The storm wasstill over 100 miles away.

Rifling through the maps, Marty was able to determine his approach in conjunction withVORTEX observations on the storm trajectory. We had the choice of going NE throughDodge City or North and then East to avoid any city traffic. Marty chose the latterand we proceeded, all the while clenching our fists and shifting in our seats asreports of additional tornadoes began to filter in over the scanner.Watching the storm, I noticed some 80 miles distant that the anvil began to disappear.The tower remained hard, but it began to thicken and spread outward. It eventually

became apparent that we were watching a supercell split. A smaller anvil returned atone point and then disappeared as the hardest, though smaller, part of the stormsectioned itself off to the south. We were now 50 miles away and chasing the southernportion from the west. Six tornadoes had been reported to this point.Finally busting through the 55 mph speed limit, Marty and his gallant crew drove underthe orbit-reaching wall of clouds near Jetmore, Kansas. It was somewhere close to 8:20as I began to notice other chase vehicles parked along the road, VORTEX vehicles, andpeople who didn't give a damn and just wished we'd all go home. This was the momentwhen that crucial decision in Amarillo paid off.A flat, rain free base revealed itself both East and South of the van. The cloudbottoms were gray-green over low, grassy hills, and silhouetted in front of otheractivity miles to the southeast. I began to notice some dust being driven up to thecloud base off to our right, but it seemed to be some distance from any promisingcloud feature. Praying that the storm had not exhausted itself, I stared ahead intowhat was clearly the focus of any convergence. Slowly, there descended a rotating,bowl shaped portion of clouds due east of us. Its parent motion took it some way tothe cloud feature which had previously hovered over the aforementioned RFD dust.Despite what we were seeing, however, Eric Rasmussen called an end to VORTEX activityfor the day.

Marty stopped the van near a small congregation of chasers after a non-stop four and ahalf hour drive. I jumped out and looked at the bowl in the sky as a needle began todescend and broaden. It sank, all of us looking for any ground disturbance and itfollowed directly, dust kicking up.

"Tornado, folks," announced Marty. "That ends a two year drought for me."

He was referring to the twister.

My first midwestern tornado, I felt compelled to run forward a bit, isolating myselfin the RFD. It continued to pick up size and speed, little bits and shapes of cloudspinning around in a way that no video ever really reveals. We had been under theclouds for no more than 5-10 minutes and success had found us. The twister seemed tobriefly dissipate and then the ground surged up, massing dust into the rotation ofwhat was becoming a half mile wide, multi-vortex tornado and the sirens of Hanston,Kansas let out a wail. I had John Lambert photograph me in front of the twister as itmoved into an obscure, rainy area. Once it began to truly hide, I again focused on myimmediate surroundings.

Among the small army of chasers was Jim Leonard who we had left in Lubbock. Alsopresent was Matt Crowther, wild eyed and celebratory, along with Betsy Abrams. Ireally, really enjoyed the sense of community, despite what some say about wantingone's own storm. The stories and experiences were immediate and shared. As a matter offact, no one seemed to want to leave. People immediately jumped into tales of how theyhad tracked this particular storm through the day and it was clear that as a soleexperience, I would have gone mad without anyone to share it with.High on the outcome, we eventually climbed back into the van. Darkness gave way tolightning and the death throes of our storm illuminated the way to Great Bend, Kansas.It was there we spent the night under a continued tornado watch.Only recently was I told that our twister, by far the most picturesque of the day,stayed on the ground for over 50 minutes.

MISSION SUMMARY: MAY 16, 1995 by Erik Rasmussen and Jerry Straka

On Tuesday, May 16th, VORTEX intercepted a supercell in southwest Kansas that produced atleast four tornadic circulations. We targeted southwest Kansas because we expected thatregion to be at the left side of a nose of a strong jet, with the associated deepening of asurface low and hacking low-level winds. Further, it appeared that CAPE would be best therebecause of the clearing of a thick cirrus shield. We gathered a good INIT data set on astationary confluence line (and radar indicated fine line) near Sitka, Kansas while we werewaiting for the surface features to evolve. A storm formed near a cold front/drylineintersection near Garden City late in the afternoon. It quickly became a supercell andproduced its first, large tornado near Garden City before the surface armada arrived.

The surface armada arrived in time to observe a second, smaller tornado just east- northeastof Garden City, extending from a very occluded, weakening flank of the storm. The entirestorm seemed to weaken temporarily, and then reintensified in the vicinity of Kalvesta whereit produced at least one tornado. Several mobile mesonet teams operated near that tornado.The Kalvesta circulation, or a new one near it, moved to just northwest of Jetmore, Kansas.The surface armada deployed in a north- south section of road north of Jetmore as themesocyclone moved across the highway about six miles north of Jetmore. This was a gooddeployment, and included all mobile mesonet teams, turtles deployment, and attemptedsoundings to assess the forward-flank baroclinity. However, this mesocyclone did not producea tornado in the same manner as the previous ones had. Instead, as the gust front south ofthe mesocyclone surged over Jetmore, a circulation developed on the gust front. Several teamspassed under this gust front in the vicinity of the developing circulation as we maneuveredto get ahead of the storm. This was near sunset, the circulation was weak and elongated, andthere were no suitable road options for data gathering. Thus, operations were officiallyended.

Within minutes, the circulation intensified into a strong low-level mesocyclone, and atornado formed just southwest of Hanston, Kansas. This tornado intensified and grew in size,remaining on the ground for at least thirty minutes (perhaps more) as it moved over opencountry south of Burdett and Rozel. We obtained very exciting mobile scanning Doppler data ofthis tornado, video from numerous angles, and mobile mesonet data from one team that managedto stay ahead of the tornado. The NOAA P-3 managed to continue collecting data during thetornadic phase as they were providing communications support to the armada.

MAY 16, 1995 CHASE FRENZY by William Reid

The spring of 1995 was an active one for this chaser. I was fortunate to have had theopportunity to stay with my friend Charlie Sill in Amarillo, Texas from early May throughmid-June. My five weeks of chasing in and around the Texas Panhandle were filled withspectacular storms, several tornadoes, and only a couple of total-bust days. I drove from LosAngeles on Friday, May 5th, and reached Amarillo the next day. The occasion was marked bylightning and marble-size hail.

On May 16th, the upper low that was stuck off the California coast the past couple of days,finally began to make its way eastward. Upper winds over the Panhandles were out of thesouthwest and midday surface analyses indicated that the "lee-low" was developing in extremesoutheast Colorado. Bary Nusz, Charlie, Kinney Adams, Chris Larson, Roy Britt and I finallyheaded north from Amarillo, Texas about 3pm. We had high overcast despite the strongsouthwest winds, and the dewpoint was 62 degrees F. Towards Guymon, the dewpoint dropped to50 degrees F as the dryline was bulging eastward through the Oklahoma Panhandle. But the highclouds were history and cumulus congestus was organizing about 75 miles to our north. By thetime we reached Hugoton, Kansas, this activity had evolved into an impressive, isolatedsupercell, with a very pronounced back- and side-sheared anvil.

The storm was moving east about 30 mph, so we took U.S. 56 northeast to intercept it. Playingcatch-up seemed agonizingly slow as we monitored the tornado and hail reports in and aroundGarden City. Frustration and depression mounted as we arrived in Ingalls as our supercell wasfizzling fast. But VORTEX reported new, strong updrafts to our north near Kalvesta, so wepressed on. We finally reached this storm near 8pm along Highway 156, west of Jetmore. Rock-hard cumulus towered above us, and a vertical, needle-shaped tornado came into view to oureast-northeast, about five miles away. The tornado was brief, but the long sinuous ropefunnel lingered for a minute or two. After a nerve-wracking four-gallon gas purchase inJetmore, we were quickly back on the cell's rear-end just east of town.

Very impressive cumulus continued to build above us at sunset, but the updraft did notexhibit any obvious signs of low or mid-level rotation (at least from our perspective) andlightning was noticeably infrequent. Nonetheless, a classic-shaped twister slithered to theground to our northeast. The tornado lasted perhaps a minute or two, but it was part of amuch larger low-level circulation. We joined a group of chasers just were of Hanston, Kansasand watched the tornado churn the ground east of Hanston. Even though the large condensationfunnel failed to extend to the ground, enough dirt got caught up in the circulation to giveit an impressive wedge appearance. Six exhausted but happy chasers watched the tornado fadeinto the Kansas night.

Large tornado south of Garden City, KS on May 16, 1995 (Jim Reed)

Truck was turned 180 deg by tornado (Jim Reed)

VORTEX-NCAR AIRCRAFT MISSION: MAY 22, 1995 by Roger Wakimoto

Severe weather was forecast for the Texas panhandle. The Electra flew over Hobart andFrederick, Oklahoma before heading northwest to intercept developing convection nearAmarillo. Several thunderstorms were identified on the nose radar. The Electradescended to 1000 feet above ground level (AGL) at 2023 Universal Time Code (UTC) andflew an east-west leg between two thunderstorms. The legs were terminated when the twocells began to merge. The numerous thunderstorms in the area made flight patternsdifficult to set up. As a result, approximate north-south legs were flown on the westside of the storms. At 2118 UTC, a tornado was spotted visually by the crew. Itappeared to develop from one of the earlier storms that the Electra collected data onwhen it first arrived on the scene. A decision was made to break off the flightpattern and fly north to the tornado to collect dual-Doppler radar data on the vortex.The tornado appeared to dissipate after the first pass.

At 2245 UTC, the Electra flew to the southern-most cell in a line of storms for datacollection. Coordination with the P-3 aircraft began at 2252 UTC. The patternscontinued until 0059 UTC when operations were terminated. The coordinated flightpatterns were successfully implemented with very little difficulty. Unfortunately, thesupercell storm did not produce a tornado during the entire collection period,.

THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CHASE SEASON by Robert Prentice

My first real storm was Monday May 22, 1995, east of Hugoton, Kansas. Roy Britt and Imet up with Roger Edwards in Dodge City. We thought the best location for tornadoeswould be east and northeast of the main surface low across far southwest Kansas. Rogerwas having problems with his camcorder so he asked to borrow mine so we could sharethe video. Roy and Roger concentrated on video while I shot stills.

By mid-afternoon, it seemed every storm in the region was tornadic except where wewere. Fortunately, we followed the chasers rule of sticking with our forecast andstorms developed west of Liberal by late afternoon. On the Dodge City WSR-88D, thestorms looked weak and multicell at first. The storms had tremendous storm-relativeinflow of 30 to 40 knots. We parked our vehicles several miles east of Hugoton forabout 30 to 40 minutes while the storms evolved into a classic, nearly stationary,supercell. We observed strong rotation in the wall clouds and saw two brieftouchdowns: one was a rope, the other an elephant's trunk. The storm gusted-out northof Liberal and we ended up eating dinner at the Meade, Kansas Pizza Hut!

MAY 22, 1995 CHASE by Kevin Larkin [ unabridged for CD-ROM ]Our chase team consisted of Mike Helwig an Kevin Larkin, both employees of the FAA at theWilliamsport Automated Flight Service Station, and Donald DeLeo, an undergraduate studentin meteorology at Millersville University. We arrived in Norman,OK early in the afternoonof Sunday, May 21st, and since the weather was terrible for chasing, with sunny skies anda dry northwesterly flow, we decided to look up Hugh Johnson, an NWS employee andMillersville University alumnus, who was attending WSR88D school. Finding Hugh was easierthan we expected, for as we drove between the airport at Norman and the Holiday Inn, wherewe learned Hugh was staying, who should Mike spot, pedalling along on a bicycle? There wasHugh, headed for the airport.

It was a surprised Hugh Johnson who approached our group in the parking lot of the

apartment complex we had pulled into after shouting to him as we drove by. He was headedto the NWS office at the airport to visit with another Millersville University alumnus,Cindy (Eggert) Chrisman, who worked in the technical support office for the WSR-88D radarnetwork. Cindy works a rating shift on the 'hotline', answering questions on the operationand maintenance of the WSR-88D radar. Her workload that afternoon allowed her time to giveus a thorough tour of the facility, and we were all quite impressed. Cindy was impressedat the impromptu gathering of Millersville-connected folks, as Mike and Hugh are MU grads,Don is currently an undergraduate, and Kevin's daughter ia also an undergraduate. Biddinggoodbye to Hugh and Cindy, we returned to the Ramada Inn in Norman to prepare for ourfirst chase day,

Analyzing the data available to us early Monday morning, May the 22nd, we decided thatKansas looked like the place to be. We further concluded that Dodge City would be a goodcerebral point to shoot for, as it appeared to be a good place to wait and see what mightdevelop in the afternoon. We headed for Dodge City, KS via I40 and US281 but, southeast ofWoodward, OK, we heard reports of a severe thunderstorm moving across Woodward and intoMajor county, so we headed north on US281 near Waynoka, OK.,

This proved to be a real 'rookie mistake' as Mike described it later. The storm wasneither particularly photogenic or severe, and so we wasted almost 4 hours on what turnedout to be a 'wild goose chase', as we paralleled it eastward into Alfalfa and Grantcounties. Eventually we headed north into Kansas.

By mid afternoon we were sitting at a highway rest area on US160 west of Medicine Lodge,KS, questioning our ability to ever intercept a supercell. The local radio station advisedus that a cell near Pratt, KS that we had decided NOT to chase had spawned a weak tornadoas it moved across Pratt county, Around 6 PM we decided to head further west on US160. Aewe approached Ashland, KS we realized we were under a large anvil cloud, and as weproceeded further west we witnessed classic mammatus clouds under the anvil. We learnedthat this was part of a supercell that had formed west of Woods, KS earlier in the day,had also spawned a weak tornado, and was now west of Meade, KS and moving slowly eastward.We were able to shoot pictures and video of this storm as we continued west toward Meade,KS.

We continued under the anvil for nearly 80 miles, straight toward the storm. There was noprecipitation visible and we witnessed occasional lighting, both cloud to ground and in-cloud. The storm was decaying as we neared Meade, KS, We proceeded to Liberal, KS for ourfirst overnight atop on the chase, Later we learned that the Project Vortex teamencountered considerable supercell activity in southwest Oklahoma that afternoon, withreports of softball size hail. We felt somewhat absolved, since we had seen a classicmidwest supercell, and would have been in the right spot at the right time had we gone onto Dodge City as planned if we hadn't allowed ourselves to be 'suckered' into chasing theearly morning storm across northern Oklahoma

Tuesday morning, May 23rd, we agreed that it was back to Oklahoma, particularly southwest-south central Oklahoma that looked the most promising, The IV weather forecasters seemedto agree with us, too. (hah hah). It was very cool as we left Liberal, in the mid 40's,but by the time we neared Altus, OK at about 2 PM, the temperature was near 80 anddewpoints were close to 70 degrees. As we headed south on state route 6, north of Altus,we observed a developing storm to the southeast. We turned east on US62, and unsure as towhether this may have been a 'gustnado', an area of strong down draft action, or a brief,small tornado.

We saw many chasers racing, (some literally) up and down I44 and US281, as we continued toprowl Cotton and Comanche counties for more storms, encountering periods of heavy rain andup to nickel size hail at times. We concluded the day sitting at the intersection of state

route 36 and US70 near Devol, OK watching a good lightning display from a storm across theRed River, northwest of Wichita Falls, TX, As the afternoon gave way to evening, weelected to head for Lawton, where the brilliant lightning continued well into the night.

Dynamics were very marginal for severe storm/supercell development on Wednesday, May 24th.We decided to head south into Texas, with the Gainesville area as our 'bulls-eye'. Wearrived there about noon time, enjoyed lunch in the park and walked through the Frank'bring em back alive' Buck Zoo in Gainesville. We then found a good vantage point outsideof Era, TX, southwest of Gainesville on state route 51, Sitting there, watching the skyfor any promising vertical development, and monitoring NOAA weather radio, 2 meter hamradio, and the AM/FM broadcast bands, we learned of thunderstorms beginning to developwest and southwest of Dallas, Jumping on I44 south, we headed into the Ranger, TX area,just north of the Dallas Metroplex region, and spent the afternoon moving around Dentoncounty, as thunderstorms popped up throughout the area. No strong or severe storms wereobserved, We spent the night in Denton, TX.

Thursday, May 25th, and the weather was lousy across all of north Texas. We decided tohead back toward the panhandle region, which meant another long drive. Childress was ouroriginal destination, but as we drove west on US287 through intermittent heavy rain towardWichita Falls, we decided that Altus, OK, being a larger city, might be a betterdestination. We stopped briefly in Wichita Falls, swung by the airport, but decided thatthere was little reason to visit the NWS office, since between the 2 meter ham radiosevere weather nets and NOAA weather radio broadcasts, we felt well informed of thesituation, which was embedded thunderstorms and moderate rainshowers throughout the RedRiver Valley, After getting settled in Altus, OK, we spent Thursday afternoon tending to'house-keeping' functions like laundry, etc. as there was no severe weather occurring, orforecasted for the rest of the day.

Friday, May 26th, and the decision is made to head into the high plains. Lubbock, here wecome. Getting there we crossed some of the most desolate parts of Texas we had seen sincethe long trip across the Oklahoma panhandle on Tuesday, when we made the long drive fromLiberal, KS to Altus, OK and then east to Lawton, OK. Between Turkey, TX and Matador, TX,state route 70 is a long desolate stretch of highway, at least to Easterners used to smalltowns every 15 to 20 miles,

We approached Lubbock from the northeast, on US 62/82 and after locating suitable lodgingdecided to head southeast from Lubbock, and went as far as Post, TX on US84. Stopping forlunch at a roadside picnic area, we saw showers off to the west, but nothing that lookedlike any promising convective activity, We headed back to Lubbock, and just in time.Strong storms had developed west of Lubbock, in Yoakum and Hockley counties and weremoving east, We were able to video-tape the impressive cloud formation as the stormapproached Lubbock, We found a good observation site east of Lubbock and watched the stormmove across that plains city. Wind gusts approaching 50 mph were recorded at the airport,making this storm marginally severe. It also made for a beautiful sky as we headed backinto the city later that afternoon,

Saturday, May 21th we set our own personal endurance record. Determining that what weakdynamics existed pointed toward north central Texas, we headed back to the Gainesvillearea, arriving shortly after 1 PM. After the long drive east across almost half of Texas,we watched the little vertical development that there was get pushed over by the strongupper winds. It became increasingly apparent that there was not going to be any severeweather in that part of Texas that day. After discussing our options, we decided that theonly hope left was to head northeastward, toward home, and perhaps intercept any severeweather that might develop from the vigorous low pressure system that was moving into theMissouri/Mississippi river valleys. Stopping to spend the night in Texarkana, TX, we got aroom in a motel that didn't have the Weather Channel. Big mistake! After supper we decided

to get some weather maps from the fax service to see what might be developing in the OhioRiver Valley region and further east as we headed back towards Pennsylvania. Did we getsurprised! The low had triggered thunderstorms in the very region we thought we would findthem, only we were still 6 to 8 hours drive away. The composite radar summary chart showedat least five active weather watches in effect. What a blow! It seemed clear to us fromthis point that we would simply head home and if we encountered any severe weather, thatwould be our good luck, but there would be no more active storm chasing. Storm Chase 1995was at an end, and the trip home was generally uneventful, except for the mechanicaldifficulties that forced us to say good-bye to the old Suburban that had served us wellgetting us out to the plains, all around Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, and back as farLaGrange, KY.

While we didn't see any tornadoes, Donald and Kevin at least got to see a funnel cloud. Wealso felt that our prediction methodology seemed to work, at least getting us into ageneral area of severe storm activity on those days that there was a real possibility forsevere thunderstorms or supercell development. We encountered a few supercells, but no'world class' hail. We saw a good deal of the country, including the remains of the AlfredP.Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on Sunday, May 21st, just two days before itwas leveled, We saw parts of United States that are still the wild west. I sometimeswished we didn't need to be so focused on the pursuit of severe weather that we couldn'tstop and learn more about some of the interesting sights we passed. From Medicine Lodge,KS to Canadian, TX to Sanger, TX and Altus, OK and on to Lubbock and Gainesville, TX, itwas a worthwhile, rewarding trip, and one we hope to make again, next spring, when thecold Canadian air heads south to the Red River Valley and meets up with the warm, moistflow from the Gulf of Mexico and the atmosphere becomes explosive with the potential forsupercells and tornadoes. Besides, we all want another great Mexican meal at the CasaTorres on University Blvd, in Lubbock. TX.

THE MAY 22, 1995 TX PANHANDLE “ICE MACHINE” by Rich Thompson [ unabridged for CD-ROM ]

This day started with optimism during the morning VORTEX forecast discussion. Extremeinstability was expected by afternoon from SW KS to the eastern TX Panhandle, where forecast;.. CAPEs approached 4000-5000 J/kg (LI near -10). Moderate southwesterly flow in the mid andupper levels also gave rise to optimism, as did a well defined dryline in the centralPanhandle and an outflow boundary across the NE Panhandle. Storm relative winds and helicityvalues were favorable for supercells with tornadoes, so lead forecaster Steve Corfidi (SPC,formerly SELS) and myself hurried to finish our probability forecasts so we could get outthere!

Around 2:30 pm, Steve and I left Norman heading W on l-40. Our best guess for maximum tornadopotential (based on our VORTEX forecast) was the NE Panhandle near the outflow boundary, butroad options gave us a better chance to go W instead of NW. We blasted W to Elk City, OK, andthen state highways to Wheeler, Tx. West of Wheeler, we talked with Al Moller and viewed 5bell-shaped Cbs to our west on the dryline. After a couple of distant high based funnelsformed on the north side of several different updrafts, we decided to go SW for the anchorcell near McLean, TX. Following the Roads of Texas, we zig-zagged S and W to I-40. At thispoint, a fatal mistake was made: Steve had the maps, but I was making most of the navigationdecisions. My plan was to go W a mile or two and turn south before we got in the hail.However, Steve couldn't exactly read my mind, and we were actually SIX miles from our next Soption. I ended up driving W on the interstate into the big hail core, with nowhere to hide!

We scurried off 1-40 into McLean, but all the good overhangs were already taken. We pulled upto an abandoned gas station and decided to ride it out. Over the next 20-30 minutes, hail'ranging from 1" to 2.5" pounded my car, resulting in 3 windshield "spiders" and numerousdents. To top things off, the tornado sirens (mounted only 50 yds away) started blaring nearthe end of the hailstorm! All I could think was "what a way to go!". Thankfully, themesocyclone passed just S of our location, and did not produce any tornadoes.

Gathering our collective thoughts, we managed to get out of the core and drive a big looparound to the SW of the ESE moving supercell. As we neared the TX/OK stateline, we caught upwith much of the VORTEX armada. We stopped before entering Ok and observed roughly 45 kt SEinflow into the large, striated updraft a few miles to our NW. In the span of about 10seconds, the inflow completely subsided as the edge of the flared base drifted overhead! Wealso saw what appeared to be weak clear slot/occlusion attempt, but again no tornadoes.

The supercell resumed chasing us after we got back into OK, and we nearly bought the farm(again!) to the S of Reed, OK. The Backroads of Oklahoma showed a paved crossing of the SaltFork of the Red River, but the road ended at the water's edge. I hope nobody else has toexperience the dread of having to turn around and drive BACK INTO a long lived "ice machine"with softballs!

Luckily, the hail remained near 1" until after we got back through Reed. 4" hail was reportedin Reed about 5 minutes after we left there for good! After our second harrowing experienceof the evening and ensuing darkness, we "got outta town". I'd never been in a serioushailstorm by accident, and I don't recommend it for anyone who doesn't own a "meatwagon".

There were some interesting notes on this storm: though it produced up to softball size hailfor 3-4 hours and showed strong mid level rotation on radar, low level rotation was neverstrong and the rear flank downdraft was neither cold nor wet. This may be just anotherexample of how complicated, supercells and tornadoes can be, and that impressive shear andinstability may not be enough to guarantee a tornadic chase. Perhaps the VORTEX datasetsmay shed some light on why this storm did not produce any tornadoes and so much hail,while other storms to the north were tornadic (congrats to Chuck Doswell and others nearPampa, and Roger Edwards and Bobby Prentice in SW KS).

Tornado 6 W of woods, KS on May 22, 1995(Roger Edwards)

Tornado 3 SSW of Tipton, OK on April 16,1995 (Robert Satkus)

Striated barber-pole updraft near Madge,TX on May 22, 1995 (Steve Corfidi)

JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by Rich Thompson

Robert Prentice and I left Norman, Oklahoma and drove west-southwest towards thesuspected outflow boundary/weak dryline intersection. Some rotating storms formed inOklahoma, but they were outflow dominant. Thus, we went southwest to the area west ofVernon, Texas to intercept a newly developing southern storm. Soon after we arrived,the festival of dust whirl tornadoes began. We observed at least six differenttornadoes, most of which were small dust whirls beneath a rotating base. Two of thesmall tornadoes occurred simultaneously within one mile to our south. The funniestevent of the day was a tornado that formed within 150 yards to our north-northeast asa small dust whirl. The dust cloud intensified and expanded while drifting toward us,so we backed up, turned the corner and let the vortex cross the road about 150 yardsto our west! Unfortunately, I left the camcorder on STANDBY for much of this tornado,but managed to record the later multivortex dust stage. Fortunately, Robert did videothe entire sequence. Once again, another successful chase.

THE END OF SEVEN ROARS by Robert Prentice

Friday, June 9, 1995, Rich Thompson and I chased the Red River Valley and saw one ofthe most unusual storms we had ever observed. Our first storm near Roosevelt wasgusting out so we dropped south to a new storm near Chillicothe, Texas. We observedmultiple dust swirls that apparently formed on the forward flank gust front and gotstretched into weak (but real) tornadoes as they hit the mesoscale triple point. Wealso observed rain-wrapped funnel clouds that may have been associated with strongertornadoes. We played tag with Gene Rhoden and Tim Marshall for much of this event andthey observed the closest tornado I have ever been to. We were near the Wilbargercounty line facing north on a paved road just about 200 yards from an east-westintersection. Tim and Gene were just to our south. A 20 yard wide dust whirl formedabout 150 yards to our north-northeast and moved south. Rich and I laughed it offuntil it grew in size to about 100 yards wide and seemed to intensify coming straightfor us. Gene and Tim filmed us driving backwards trying to escape while trying to filmat the same time. We drove east a few hundred yards then stopped to film the orangishtornado to our immediate west. I snapped a wide angle picture of the tornado before itmoved southeast into a field and broke up into multiple vortices. Each subvortex wouldmake a hissing sound like a steam vent. The storm pretty much gusted out after that.On US Highway 287 in Vernon, we saw the ultimate chaser convergence with every TVstation in the region, every storm chaser on vacation, every trucker on the road, andevery local yocal gawking at the gusting out storm. Even after the chase we hadexcitement as tornado sirens sounded and patrons ran out to their cars. A closelightning bolt then struck a power pole and we watched sparks fly from it for a fewminutes. Needless to say there will be all meat on this years highlights tape!

JUNE 9, 1995 CHASE by William Reid [ unabridged for CD-ROM ]

The past week has been very eventful for me -- stormchase speaking. I finally have achance to write up a little summary.

Last Monday, June 5, 1995, was a long and rather frustrating chase way down into theBIG COUNTRY, as they call the area around Abilene. Charlie Sill and I left AMA around2 p.m. for Silverton, where a tornadic storm was indicated. A tornado was reportednear South Plains as we drove towards the impressive-looking, supercellular storm. Aswe approached the storm from the west, near Floydada, we saw Martin Lisius watching

the storm. He had videoed the cone-shaped tornado near South Plains less than an hourearlier, but it quickly wrapped in rain after forming. The cell was moving SSE or SEat about 30 mph and off of the caprock---into a poor road network (at least comparedto the caprock's road network). Tornado warnings continued with the storm, and westruggled to get in front it. Poor road judgement led us east towards the precip coreat one point, with the next road option about two miles into heavy hail. A truck cameout of the core with a couple huge softball-sized craters in the windshield. We turnedaround to take another road south. We sped through Spur, Clairemont, Roby, andSylvester and finally were in decent position around sunset, but we never saw atornado. There were a lot of nasty-looking cloud bases and dusty-inflow winds, and thebase took on a smooth-laminar appearance at sunset, but no cigar. We became part of afive-car caravan including Martin and his wife, a chase team from Idaho/Colorado,Bobby Prentice and a friend, and a salesman who hopped onto the storm when he saw itfrom Plainview. Charlie and I were very reluctant to continue with the storm once wegot to Spur (around 7 p.m.), but how can you abandon a tornadic storm once you've goneso far already? Charlie had to be back to work at AMA at 5 a.m. the next morning. Wegot back home to AMA around 2 a.m. Martin got some of the mammatus and gustnado videofrom this storm on TWC the following day. What I remember most was getting eaten bymosquitos near Sylvester at sunset. Winds weren't strong enough to blow 'em away, andI had to put my raincoat/windbreaker on to keep them off of me. They even would landon your clothes and try to bite through jeans and t-shirts. That was like addinginjury to frustration. Dozens of mosquitoes met there maker, however. At least I gotsome some pretty pictures and video.

Tuesday, June 6, was a day of rest---though I was drooling over a very isolated cellwhich was going up in extreme W KS around 5 p.m. This cell fell apart, though, and Iwas happy that I had stayed put.

On Wednesday, June 7, 1995, I had a tough time deciding whether to make the drive upinto E CO, where severe looked likely, or to let that pass and to wait for Thursday'sactivity, which looked to be very promising near a triple-point (forecast to be) in WKS. I've had good luck in CO, and the discussions were talking up severe and tornadosthere, so at 1 p.m. I was on my way by myself towards someplace in E CO. When I got toabout Lamar near 5 p.m., a severe tstorm watch was in place for most of E CO north ofLamar. I was hoping that strong to severe storms near Denver would march eastward outonto the Plains, where I would easily intercept them.The problem was that these storms were slowly moving NE and NNE, into Weld County. By7 p.m. I was around Last Chance and I could see the now tornadic storms about 60 milesto my NW. They were the only game around, so I continued north and west. I finally gotto Fort Morgan and Wiggins around 8 p.m. MDT (about a half hour before sunset), andtornados continued to be reported with the storms just NW of me. I could see some verylow appendages along the cloud base, but contrast was terrible. I drove north towardsGoodrich, and inflow winds from the east became extremely strong---perhaps 40 mphsustained. I could see tremendous turbulence and rotation in the cloud bases a fewmiles to my west, but contrast continued to be poor. I taped from the car and latertried to get some tripoded footage, but it got pretty hairy as winds were screamingand very low and black scuddy funnels approached. I sped east to get safe, and saw TimSamaras and several other chasers/storm spotters. By now it was past sunset and verydark, and the storm drifted off to the northeast, drenching Morgan County. By the way,the South Platte River was running very high through the area, and flood warnings wereall over the place. I haven't had a chance to see my video yet, but I'm certain that Igot some tornado footage--though it is probably not particularly obvious due to thepoor contrast. It's another one of those cases that seems to be plaguing me this year-

----I'm on tornadic storms and I'm shooting video of something which may or may not betornadic----either the contrast is bad, I'm too far away, or the funnel isn't all theway to the ground, etc., etc.

Thursday, June 8, looked very promising. I made a huge mistake, though, by sleeping intoo late and getting out of Fort Morgan around 11 a.m. The triple point was supposedto be in W KS---maybe 3 to 4 hours away, but as I left town TWC showed it nearDALHART, TX----AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was quite perturbed around 2 p.m. when, near Lamar,I learned of the tornado box for the TX and OK Panhandles. Why couldn't the convectionwait until 6 p.m.??? A large tornado hit Pampa, TX, around 4:45 to 5 p.m., but I wasbarely into the OK Panhandle, near Hooker. Martin Lisius and others got awesome videoof the large Pampa tornado---with great backlighting, etc. (The Pampa tornadodestroyed a few dozen homes and businesses.) I was aiming for a tornadic stormapproaching Canadian, TX, and held my breath as I went through a core of heavy rainand very strong winds. Hail stayed less than marble-sized, thankfully. That was inOchiltree County, south of Perryton. I quickly broke out of the precip to see achurning (though rather high-based) sky, a little north of Canadian. Towards the easta funnel cloud reached halfway to the ground, but it didn't last long. At Canadian Iheard reports of a tornadic cell moving NNE through Wheeler County, to my south, so Ihad to decide whether to core punch a little or to come around the west side of thestorm. I chose the latter, and while near Briscoe I could see a rain-wrapped "area-of-concern" to my east. I didn't know it at the time, but this "area" contained the mile-wide wedge tornado which was bearing down on Allison, TX. I saw rain curtains, lowscud stuff and rotation, but I never thought that I was looking at a tornado. Thetornado wiped out at least one (once) sturdy farmstead, with the family survivingwhile huddling together and holding on to each other. Numerous cattle were killed, andlarge trees were stripped and uprooted. This is one storm where a decision to play itsafe may have saved my life.

I had driven about 1200 miles by myself in two days and wanted a rest day, but Martincalled at 9 a.m. and said he thought today (Friday, June 9) could be great, maybe upnear Medicine Lodge, KS. I said, "forget it---that's too far," but I agreed to meethim at the AMA NWS office to look at data. He showed me video of the Pampa tornado---it's just awesome, as I said! Marty Feely, Herbert Fiala, Martin, and I readdiscussions and looked at maps -- it looked like SW OK and NW TX---perhaps Childressto Altus, would be the spot today--not Medicine Lodge. Outflow boundaries, the dryline, and very juicy air were converging near Childress around noon. I decided to go.Martin and Herbert (who comes from Austria to chase---yes, the Austria in Europe) andRob Allison and I converged at the tail-end Charlie storm base southwest of Vernonaround 3:30 p.m. The Altus area was already full of tornados from the next storm upthe line, and our storm was strengthening and organizing. The storm slowly moved eastand started to develop good rotation SW of Vernon, and lightning activity picked upincredibly fast. We were in danger under this electrical base, with numerouscirculations, inflow jets, etc., so we headed east fast. On the way I have my videocamera pointed towards the base to the north and I mention how incredible thelightning is---one second later a lightning bolt fills the frame---maybe a half mileaway, with a loud boom---about two seconds later another bolt descends and hits theground only 50 or so yards to my north, with an almost instantaneous crash!! I got iton video, too!! The bolt is so close that, on a frame-by-frame sequence on the video,it is slightly blurred and burned into the tape. It appears on only one frame, withthe next frame showing faint beading. The bolt is blurred because I was going about 40to 50 mph---and the shutter speed was likely 1/60 of a second----too slow to allow asharp image of something so close while travelling at that speed. We found a safer

spot and watched a couple of debris-cloud/dust spin-ups, and a spotter nearby reportedthese to the proper authorities. We had to move east again, but about 10 seconds laterRob saw a tornado behind us! I quickly tripoded the camcorder and I got about 10seconds of decent, good contrast footage of a dusty tornado about three miles down theroad west of us. There was a faint condensation funnel associated with this tornado. Ithen got some overall storm structure video, but unfortunately the tornado weakenedpretty rapidly and the show was over within a minute. We went back to 287 to get alittle south of Vernon, which was in the path of this developing, now tornadic, storm.Very black, wide and threatening funnels hung over Vernon, but the town escapeddisaster. We decided to take U.S. 70 into OK instead of staying in TX. The stormlooked a lot more disorganized and HP-ish as we stayed in front of it along U.S. 70and into Grandfield, OK. We were a little disappointed as we got gas and food inGrandfield---and we had basically given up on the cell. A clerk in the little storethere said that she gets nervous when we (i.e., stormchasers) come through town. About10 seconds later the town's sirens went off! The storm had re-organized in about ten-minute's time, and was now showing a much more classic structure, with a good-lookingwall cloud. The base was just SW of town. We decided to stay away from the precip bygoing a little east of town. We sacrificed a lot on contrast while doing that,however. A couple of tornadoes appeared to be on the ground SW of town for severalminutes, though our poor contrast against the dark precip area makes it difficult tosee much. We were perhaps 4 to 5 miles away. I wish we had tried the "west of townoption," in hindsight. Grandfield was not struck by these tornados, to my knowledge.We closed out the chase day at sunset by watching another very threatening base (infront of an HP cell) bear down on Burkburnett, TX. This spun up some gustnadoes, andat dark we got the heck out of the way of the storm's fury by taking I-44 up towardsLawton. Rob and I got back to Amarillo around 2 a.m

I thought for sure that I would not chase on Saturday, June 10, but the southern TXPanhandles were in moderate risk area, and at 1 p.m. Bary Nusz was here to pick me upfor another chase---Swisher County was already under a tornado warning! We drove southunder dreary skies with upslope east winds to Swisher County----no storm. We headed toHale County which had a tornado warning---but couldn't find an updraft. There was alot of low cloud stuff and rain and lightning, so we decided to continue south to findwarm air. We went south past Lubbock and we were still in the cool air, with NE windsof 30 mph! Lubbock had been 89 at 1 p.m.---at 3 or 4 p.m. they had about 60 degrees.Towards Tahoka and La Mesa we were driving though billowing dust clouds with numerousgust-front "gustnados." This was the leading edge of the southward-plunging coldfront/outflow boundary. Several times we stopped in the warm air---94 degrees---justsouth of this wedge of dust---and watched it descend upon us. It was very interestingto watch---but not good for the insides of the car, the cameras, or the contactlenses. Cloud towers were going up along this haboob-front, but it was a dusty mess aswe threw in the towel at La Mesa. We decided to eat the Pizza Hut there, thinking outloud that the best way to get a storm would be to ignore the atmosphere for a littlewhile. It worked!! About 5 minutes after ordering, the sky darkened in the west andlightning began zapping away. While waiting impatiently for the food Barry and I keptchecking outside---the mid-levels had striations, rain was getting closer, the cloudbase better organized---hurry up pizza! We ate up and stepped into moderate rain. Thestorm was not severe, though, and we drove home, butting up against those darn, chase-killing NE winds.

FARMERS VALLEY, TX TORNADOES: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall

After our successful chase on June 8th, Gene Rhoden and myself were ready for another chaseday. We stayed the night in Clinton, Oklahoma and awoke to the rumbles of thunder from asevere morning storm. Convection continued overnight leaving an east- west outflow boundaryacross central Oklahoma. Today's target was where the outflow boundary intersected thedryline in southwestern Oklahoma. Since we were close to the target area, we decided to haveleisure breakfast, then head toward Altus. On the way south, Gene's car blew a fuse and wehad to divert to a Radio Shack. As soon as we were back on the road, around 1:30pm, a tornadowarning was issued for Greer and Jackson counties just to our west.

Within thirty minutes, we closed in on the rain free base near Mangum, OK. The storms inflowwas weak and the updraft soon occluded in heavy precipitation. As the storm moved east oftown, the outflow kicked up some dust and novice spotters reported it as a tornado. Arrivingnorth of Blair, OK at 3 pm, we stopped and met chaser David Hoadley. Then we heard of asevere thunderstorm warning for Hardeman County, Texas, about 60 miles to the southwest. Geneand I decided to give up on our disorganized storm (it was also heading into the OuchitaMountains) and we headed southwest to tail-end Charlie. (We found out later that the northernproduced a tornado east of the mountains).

We arrived at Chillicothe, Texas around 4pm and stopped to top off the tank as the localservice station. The rain free hase was approaching the town and large drops of rain began tofall. We then parked south of town and watched a stubby beaver tail form on the north side ofthe updraft. Just like the previous storm to the north, it hal weak surface-based inflow.However, we remained optimistic given the clear sky to the south and rock hard anviloverhead. We watched the storm for an hour. As soon as we came upon fellow-chaser RobertPrentice, the storm started getting its act together (Thanks Robert!). A wall cloud developedto our northwest and a persistent dust whirl occurred below cloud base. At the same time,another persistent dust whirl developed to our west underneath an elevated updraft that wasthinly veiled by precipitation. The storm began to drift slowly to the southeast and we Reptpace with it. As the wall cloud passed overhead, there was differential movement in the dustindicating ground-based circulation just to our north. Gene and I retreated to the car as wefound ourselves being bombarded by cloud-to-ground lightning. Two bolts struck the powerlines overhead leaving us temporarily deaf from the crack of thunder. We proceeded east andstopped at Farmers Valley, a two-house town in the middle of nowhere.

I started to video Gene and asked him how he liked the chase so far. He gazed straight aheadand let out a resounding "WHOAAA!" Panning the camera northward, could see dust quicklygathering at the ground and shooting skyward. We were within one hundred yards of adeveloping tornado. Robert Prentice and Rich Thompson (who were even closer) began backing upto get out of the way. Gene and I followed, then we stopped only a few hundred yards east ofthe tornado. I braced myself against the car in the howling inflow as the large rotating dustbowl lumbered across the road in front of us. The tornado moved southward into an open fieldthen broke up into fast- spinning subvortices that would periodically form and dissipate.

TIM: Well, well, well (laughing). I don't believe it. What are we doing? In with the bear --do you dare? We've seen five dust whirls so far!

GENE: At very close range. Fantastic.

Next stop east was Vernon, Texas. As we arrived, a new wall cloud began to occlude and afunnel extended about half way to the ground. Sirens sounded in town but the storm soonbecame outflow dominant. Later, a series of spectacular downbursts kicked up walls ofblinding dust. The season ended on a high note as the summer death ridge set in the next day.

WEATHER SITUATION: JUNE 9, 1995 by Tim Marshall

This was a classic June situation in whichthere were weak environmental winds aloft,however, those storms that could drift tothe right of the mean wind could enhancetheir storm relative inflow and helicityenough to produce weak tornadoes. There wastremendous wind and moisture convergencealong the stationary front in southwestOklahoma. At noon, Altus had a south windgusting to 25 knots with a 71 dewpoint. Incontrast, Hobart had east winds at 9 knotswith an air temperature 18 degrees cooler.

As the day progressed, the front slippedsouthward due to the enhancement of thecold air boundary generated by the newconvection. A mesolow developed in thevicinity of Vernon, Texas.

It is conjecture whether the mesolow produced the storm or the storm produced the mesolow.The surface dryline did not appear to be a major player except for perhaps the initialformation of the storm. There may have been an upper dryline at work here. The storm grew instrength as it moved east into the deeper, moist air. It is interesting to note that thetail-end Charlie storm was similar to the Mangum, Oklahoma storm with regards to thecharacter of the tornadoes, however, these storms appeared to have different structures.(ie.the northern storm appeared more outflow-dominant than the southern storm).

Satellite view of Farmers Valley supercell

WSR-88D reflectivity of Farmers Valley storm

Wall cloud NE of Mangum, OK on June 9,1995 (Robert Satkus)

Tornado 2 NNE of Lugert, OK on June 9,1995 (Robert Satkus)

Gene Rhoden's expression at seeingtornado (Tim Marshall)

Farmer's Valley tornado crossing road(Tim Marshall)