Saturday, April 21, 2007 Storm Chasing Near Amarillo, Texas

Departed Pittsburg, Kansas:4:00 A.M. April 21, 2007

Arrived Pittsburg, Kansas: 6:00 A.M. April 22, 2007
Total Time On Road: 26 Hours
Total Miles: ~950

Tornadoes: 01
Wall Clouds: 01
Supercells: 02
Hail: Golfball
Flooding: None

Fellow storm chaser Joey Ketchum and I left Pittsburg, Kansas bright and early this morning at 4:00 A.M. From Pittsburg, we headed south to Welch, Oklahoma where we picked up fellow storm chaser Chris Wilburn. Our chase target for the day was Plainview, Texas, which is located between Amarillo and Lubbock in the Texas panhandle. Everything with the forecasts were looking really good for tornadoes to occur near our target area. We got on Interstate 44 near Miami, Oklahoma, and proceeded to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we picked up fellow storm chaser Mike Scantlin.

This was my first chase with a group of storm chasers in one vehicle, as I haven’t had a regular storm chase partner since the early 1990’s, when I was attending the University of Kansas. With a vehicle full of severe weather junkies, we headed to Oklahoma City where we got on Interstate 40. It was a long clear shot to Amarillo, Texas from there. I say clear shot, but we did drive through some light drizzle and fog, as we traversed Central and Western Oklahoma. The skies became partly cloudy, by the time we arrived in Amarillo, Texas around 1:00 P.M.

We all made the choice to hang around the east side of Amarillo, where we were able to use the WiFi for internet access at a visitor’s center. We all didn’t need the WiFi, since Chris had a Cingular card for his laptop computer, so he could receive internet access pretty much anywhere on the road. I was really impressed with this service, but I will stick with my XM WeatherWorx radar for the time being. We set around the visitor’s center parking lot, and we noticed some cumulus clouds trying to go up to the east of Amarillo. We drove a few miles east of town on Interstate 40 and watched the Cumulus try to develop into storms. The first storm of the day started developing near Hereford, Texas, or about 40 miles southwest of Amarillo. Let the chase begin!

We decided to head back through Amarillo where we turned south on Bushland Road. We continued south on South Blessen Road and met up with 168 Highway. We turned westbound on 1062 Highway and then northbound on 809 Highway. Our location was now approximately sixteen miles northeast of Hereford, Texas. This put us into a position to view the rain free base/updraft portion of the developing supercell thunderstorm.

We continued northbound on 809 Highway and we paralleled the storm that was to the west of our location. We stopped and took some photographs and video of the developing wall cloud a couple of times, but the storm never really did get its act together. The one thing I did notice while photographing the storm was the very strong inflow winds (~35-45 MPH). I was attacked by large tumble weeds and sand each time I got out of the vehicle. The most we saw from this storm was a nice wall cloud near 809 Highway and CR-22. We continued northbound on 809 Highway, got back onto Interstate 40 and then drove eastbound.

This was the point that Chris and I both quit getting live weather radar updates. We later found out that this was due to a National Weather Service weather feed problem, but at the time we wasn’t sure what had happened. As we neared Interstate 40 and Frying Pan Road, I heard Chris say something about looking to the south of the interstate. As I looked straight south of Interstate 40 at this location, I saw a small tornado on the ground less than fifty yards from the interstate. The debris in the weak tornado consisted mostly of tumble weeds, but the tumble weeds were definitely traveling in a circular motion at ground level. I told Joey to step on the gas and get us out of the path of the weak tornado, but we still got blasted by inflow winds out of the southeast, of approximately 50-60 MPH. The vehicle I was riding in got rocked by lots of tumble weeds and trash that was lying along the road. However, the vehicle did not receive any damage due to these strong inflow winds.

We stopped just to the west of Bushland, Texas, and I did get some photographs of the upside down bowl shaped lowering that produced this weak tornado. I could not tell if the tornado was still on the ground, since the Bushland grain elevator obscured my view. The tornado never did produce a condensation funnel, as far as we could tell. There’s nothing like having a close call with an invisible tornado, and we were lucky that it was a very weak tornado. I did read some other chaser’s reports where they were caught in this same tornado on the interstate. They reported that they received a flat tire from the debris, as they drove through the tornado.

We decided to stay to the northwest of Amarillo, as another low precipitation (LP) supercell storm was moving our way from the southwest. We saw the storm, as it moved off to the northeast, but it was very uneventful. This decision to wait around for this LP supercell would prove to be a time consuming mistake on our long trek back home.

A tornadic supercell was located to our southeast, as we drove east through Amarillo on Interstate 40. We ended up having to wait for this rotating storm to pass over Interstate 40, before we could head home. We waited for almost an hour, and decided that it was safe to head out, but we still ended up driving through some very heavy rainfall. We never did get into any large hail, but we drove through very heavy rain for about 30-45 minutes before we finally got through it. It was now dark, and we had a very, very long trip home ahead of us.

After we dropped everyone off, Joey and I got back into Pittsburg, Kansas around 6:00 A.M. I had two firsts on this particular chase. This was the first time that I chased with a group of people, and this was the longest storm chase trip that I have ever been on. It was also the closest I have ever come to being inside a tornado!

The main thing I learned on this chase was that I can’t depend on XM WeatherWorx radar to keep me safe during a chase. The radar itself updates every five minutes, but the actual storm location on the radar screen is not the exact location of the real life storm that I’m chasing. I still must depend on all the visual clues that I have learned over the years, and weather radio reports, in order to stay safe on my future chases.


Russel Parsons
Pittsburg, Kansas