March 28th, 2007

SPC Risk: MODERATE - VERIFICATION
Chasers: (Dean, Reed, Joel, Ken, Kristen)
Target: Texas Panhandle SE of Amarillo
Miles Logged: 720
Largest Hail: baseball/tennis ball
Tornadoes: 6 to 8


Synopsis/Chase:
Left around 10am and headed west to about 30 miles east of Amarillo, TX near Mclean. Oh, forgot to mention a brief stop in Elk City, OK to chow down on amazing taco's and burritos at a place called The Taco Factory. WOW!!! Amazing food!!! Okay, so while located 30 miles east of amarillo we monitored cumulus activity until storms began to initiate around 4PM. Initial cells formed north and east of Lubbock in the vicinity of Silverton, TX. CAPE to 4000 J/KG locally in place while low level wind shear exceeded 200 M2/S2. Any storm in that environment had a fair chance at becoming tornadic and going on to produce potentially strong/violent tornadoes. The first cell we chased became intense fast, but quickly split and dissipated well east of McLean. Meantime storms near Silverton intensified rapidly into monster supercells with all the classic features! Didn't take long to realize we needed to reposition and target the southern storms as rotation became apparent and severe tstorm warnings quickly turned into tornado warnings. Hail to 3 inches and better became commonplace as we approached from the north. We arrived at the southernmost storm around 6PM and found a perfect wall cloud and intense rotation!!! I mean intense!!!!! Located NNE of the wall cloud we had perfect contrast and watched as the first funnel teased us, then finally put down a large stovepipe. Easily a violent tornado I estimate to be EF4 at least... simply based on how the ground was being scoured. Our video clearly shows this! We followed this tornado north and east until it occluded (roped out) while the next circulation took shape. Soon another funnel appeared, but then dissipated. We punched north, clipped the core, encountered monster baseballs falling against a black backdrop while our new wallcloud rotated furiously to our southeast. How amazing is that!?! Finally broke thru to a relatively rain free area north of the wall cloud. As the wall cloud lifted north (just west of us), inflow winds increased to 100MPH along with tumbleweeds flying around everywhere!!! INTENSE!!! Remains questionable whether or not we had brief vorticies kick up within 100 yards of our position. Judging from inflow winds and a monster ground circulation defined by tumbleweeds, I think probable! Either way, ultra intense!

To save my fingers the extra work I'll end by simply saying we encountered several more tornadoes until just after dark. Some at very close range and various shapes and sizes. UNREAL day!!! One to remember!!!!

VIDEO CAPTURES OF NOCTURNAL TORNADO SSW OF MCLEAN, TX




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