June
8, 1995 - E. Texas Panhandle
Tornado Outbreak
The Chase:
Things got started in Oklahoma City where I met Mike Morgan at the tv station. We headed out the northwest passage and were targeting the NE Texas Panhandle for the day's chase. By the time we A footnote to
this chase account: although
we missed much of the Pampa, McLean/Kellerville, and Allison wedge tornado
action, we had been fortunate to nail a large tornado that not too many other
chasers saw west of Miami. This day was chaser mania (for 1995 standards) and
chasers were up and down and all around. Several said they saw it from a very
far distance, but Mike and I had the front row seat of a pretty wicked multiple
vortex turned massive cone tornado (much of the general opinion was that this
was likely a solid F3 tornado had it hit structures). We were fortunate to see
it from very start to very finish as it moved across mostly open country in
Roberts Co. Texas. This particular story appeared in Storm Track (Nov.-Dec.
1995) which was dedicated to the June 8th Texas Panhandle Outbreak. This chase account has been edited for publishing to my Top 10 chases of all-time page.
had reached a tornado warned supercell near Darrouzett TX, widespread storms in the C/E Oklahoma Panhandle had reinforced a strong outflow boundary quickly undercutting the updraft of the large supercell. We could tell the storm had already peaked and was just now more or less a big hail threat...a large arcus cloud soon appeared stretching from the forward flank core back towards the updraft flank. We decided we had better get south deeper into the Texas Panhandle and far away from this deep cold outflow boundary.
The decision was very wise because things were about to get wild and wooly in the Texas Panhandle this day !!
Supercells quickly fired along the length of the dryline from Perryton southward to near Clarendon TX. Most of the isolated supercells were already showing enhanced rotation, and a few were already rapidly becoming severe. By the time we had reached the town of Lipscomb, the day's first tornado had already hit the ground 5 miles south of Pampa on TX Highway 70. Also at this time, a severe t-storm warning was bumped up to a tornado warning for southern Ochiltree Co. which was 20 miles away and reachable. Now came the first huge decision of the day. We opted for the Pampa supercell choice as it was well removed from the outflow gundge...plus it was already producing a confirmed tornado. Later this choice would pay off. Mike and I plotted an intercept point and we figured we would probably nail it as it moved into or near the town of Miami in Roberts Co. or a good 30-45 mins. to our southwest. We knew urgency was at a red alert level at this point and the race south and then southwest was commenced.
As we passed through Canadian (Hemphill Co.), K101 out of Woodward was reporting a large and damaging tornado was moving northeast from Pampa just north of US-60. It was projected to be at Hoover within the next 30 mins. As we headed south, we could now see 2 sets of razor sharp anvils. The closest anvil was obviously with the nasty Pampa tornadic
supercell, and the second anvil was associated with a rapidly intensifying tornadic supercell near Clarendon (Donley Co.) and way south of us. By the time we had reached the US Highway 60/83 split, more live tornado reports and an updated tornado warning were broadcast on K-101. The new tornado warning was issued for N. Gray and Roberts Counties for the large tornado approaching the small town of Hoover. The town of Miami was urged to take shelter immediately and this was exactly where we had planned the tornado intercept. Things were on target as planned and Miami was just 15 mins. away. We were already in the anvil rain ahead of the powerful supercell, and it was becoming more electrical as we moved closer to Miami. In the distance, we could see the tough vertical updraft tower and multiple feeder bands. This put a big grin on both our faces even though we could still not see the base from this far away. We moved into Miami and oddly...no tornado sirens. But then we realized they had no power at all. This was certainly the result of what was continuing to move closer to us, a large tornado. Police and firefighters were sending out the warning old school...canvassing the streets with their sirens and a loudspeaker. The tornado was coming!! The latest report had the large tornado approaching Hoover (Gray Co.) and on the way to Miami. We got through the calamity in town and continued southwest on US-60.
About 2 miles southwest of Miami, we could see the hazy outline of the large tornado. It was very hazy as the result of deep moisture (dew pts. 70-75) in place ahead of this intense updraft. Unfortunately, we were riding along the Red Deer Creek valley so the view to the southwest was blocked by the higher terrain. Finally, around 5:10pm, we got high enough up that we had a clear vantage point of what looked to be a large stove-pipe tornado. It was about 8 miles to our southwest and not mving too fast. It had some rain curtains around the tornado so the contrast was not the best. We pulled over and watched the tornado move towards us at an estimated 25mph. At 5:15pm, the tornado started to visually weaken, but later was learned that it was strong enough still to remove a section of pavement from FM 2371 highway southeast of Hoover. The width of the tornado steadily decreased as it was now approximately 100 yards wide with several dust swirls and then a classic rope out. At 5:17pm, the tornado dissipated 3 miles northeast of Hoover. As in classic cyclic supercell evolution, a new wall cloud quickly lowered a few miles to our northwest. A tornado appeared imminent !! We scrambled and blasted back to Miami. The show was about to begin west of Miami...big time.
No problem getting back to Miami, and oddly no chasers were seen before we cut west on FM 282. The road was a chasers dream as it put us up on the Caprock...no trees...no other chasers...and flat. The road took us exactly where we needed to be to see the most dramatic multiple vortex tornadoes I have ever seen. To our southwest, rain curtains swirled in violent writhing dances. A deep wall cloud took shape and already a strong warm/humid rfd was cutting in from the south. At 5:24pm a tornado started to organize to our southwest. The condensation cone (about 200 yards wide) touched down very quickly and moved northeast towards us at 30 mph. I would estimate the tornado was about 3 miles from us and closing. It was moving actually north as we soon learned. We got slammed by 40-50 mph blast of RFD and it was pushing us towards the right. As quick as it set down, the tornado changed appearance from a solid cone, to a more chaotic multiple vortex swirl type tornado with deep rain curtains. At 5:32pm, the tornado had dissipated. We moved up the road cautiously as this whole sky above was involved in deep persistent rotation cycles. Just down the road from us about a mile, the next tornado pulled together. We were forced to stop and watch as vorticity fingers appeared above the road. The RFD was blasting in and we had 60-70 mph winds just hit us out of nowhere. Tornadogenesis was underway on the road. Much to our surprise, a pickup truck was stopped with the headlights on right in the middle of the violent rotation area where the tornado was organizing. The vortices were within feet of this guy/gal's truck. Amazingly, the truck did not get flipped by the tornado. How it did not, I can't offer a reason. It is possible this person may have been in the tornado and not even known it, as it was at this point a bunch of swirling vorticity fingers. It had some incredible sinking and rising motion though as the complex nature of this intensifying tornado became more apparent.
The organization of the tornado structure became more in focus to us as the condensation cone crossed FM 282 to our west. Numerous subvortices were becoming established under the widening truncated cone just north of the road. The tornado was now moving northwest and away from us as it gained strength steadily. The tornado widened as it passed just south of a gas plant. Unbelievable multiple vortex structure evolved as vortices would appear and disappear and then get replaced by other subvortices. This video was seen on one of the Tornado Classics videos Tom Grazulis produced, as well as some other shows on the Discovery Channel. It was an impressive show to watch live and then reflect on some 11 years later !! Anyway, back to the story. We were getting blasted by 50-70 mph south-southeast RFD winds as this tornado grew and grew. Between 5:35pm and 5:37pm, the tornado became a monstrous cone tornado as it slowly barreled northwestward. Mike and I watched in awe as this massive tornado moved towards FM 2699. By 5:39pm, the tornado had maxed out in size but was still a very strong tornado...an estimated quarter mile wide F3. Rain began to slightly shroud the tornado as it moved northwest. We moved up closer and got to a point where we were even with the tornado that was about 1-2 miles north of the road. The tornado became more audible at this point as a steady wind rushing sound was heard...kind of like wind blowing through a forest of pine trees. Rain quickly cut off our view of the tornado but we could still tell by the outline in the rain that it was very solidly on the ground still. We backtracked and went up the service road next to the gas plant that narrowly avoided full impact of the tornado. We got a good open look at the tornado and it was undergoing the classic rope stage well to our west-northwest. We watched it minimalize to just a filament vortex and then fade away. It dissipated at 5:50pm in open rangeland about 10 miles northwest of Miami in Roberts Co. after about a 12 mile long path.
After getting back to Miami and US-60, we headed northeast and intercepted another impressive wall cloud northwest of Canadian (Hemphill Co.). From this wall cloud, a tornado formed over open country near the Hemphill-Ochiltree countyline and several miles northwest of the town of Canadian. A powerful and large RFD cut into the wall cloud causing a very pronounced occlusion. At the same time, a second strong circulation was developing quickly to our southeast. The occlusion was textbook and it produced a solid cone tornado about 2 miles to our northwest. It stayed more or less stationary as the occlusion evolved. It was nice to watch it, but our main concern was that a stronger tornado was imminent from the second circulation. It was closer and much more of a threat at this point. It became a threat quickly as multiple suction spots started appearing around us and just east of us. We high-tailed it out of there as we did not want to get caught in the new developing tornado. We avoided the sqeeze play amidst the many suction spots and reached US-83. We must have actually run through the strong winds of a couple of the weaker suction spots as there was now a dusty white residue inside the car. That was kind of funky.
We headed back northeast with the developing tornado, but the storm crossed the outflow boundary and began to rapidly decline. Using our good meteorological sense, we left Lipscomb Co. and dropped back south to Canadian. We had hoped to get gas there, and fortunately did find one station open on the outside of town. Most of Canadian TX was without power...a testament of the fury the previous tornadoes unleashed on the power grid. We heard a report of a large and dangerous tornado near Kellerville moving northeast...this was the scene of some awesome video by Tim Marshall and Gene Rhoden. We plotted an intercept point at or near the town of Briscoe and resumed our course southward out of Canadian. Just north of Briscoe, we came across the core and we got hit with quarter to occasionally golfball hail. Meanwhile, we heard reports of a nasty wedge tornado approaching the town of Allison off to our east-southeast. All reports had this being a devastating violent tornado that was steadily moving into Hemphill Co. and closing in on the small town of Allison. Unfortunately we were several mins. behind the massive tornado and we had to pass into the very large RFD corridor that was aligned along FM 1046. We quickly came across many stopped chaser's vehicles west of Allison and the brutal damage path left behind. We were still getting buffeted by powerful RFD winds of over 50 mph...with some gusts of over 70 mph. We were a few miles southwest of the monster wedge as it had a near miss on Allison to the west. We were awestruck by the tremendous width of the tornado...well over a mile wide. As we kind of broke free from chaser congestus, we finally got some fleeting glimpses of the large tornado as it began to wind down north of Allison. It still had a mean look to it, but pretty significant rain curtains eventually wrapped around the shrinking tornado. It still had a wide collar of dust however that marked it's outer edges.
We wanted to get ahead of the tornado in case it reintensified and headed into Oklahoma on FM 2124. We encountered very strong east-southeast inflow winds as we crossed the stateline into Oklahoma. About 4 miles south of the town of Durham OK, we found the leading edge of this now enormous HP supercell. In a matter of minutes, the winds began to roar and we could see some violent cloud motions closing in to our southwest. Fearing some possible vehicle flipping winds of the approaching circulation, we opted to move up the road. Minutes later, numerous power flashes were seen as a new tornado was doing damage in NW Roger Mills Co. very near the intersection of OK-30/OK-30 highways. We later learned that many power poles were downed on Highway 30, and very near the location we bailed from just moments earlier. It was getting almost dark now, but occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the outline of a large tornado moving away west of Crawford OK. We eventually lost sight of the tornado, and with darkness upon us, decided to call it a chase. Later we learned of the scope of this pretty serious regional tornado outbreak...the worst tornado outbreak in the Texas Panhandle since April 17, 1970. It was quite a day !!