Chase day 7, 15 May Texas - 3 Tornadoes, pictures and video

[Arron]

Wow! What a day this was. It caught virtually every chaser out but delivered the goods in the end! Started out in Wichita Falls with an initial target of Haskell, TX. A couple of weak storms were struggling to keep going, possibly due to a dry air slot we'd noticed on the early morning soundings. After a very frustrating few hours we noticed a line of storms fire from east of Wichita Falls all the way down to roughly Brownwood. Hauled it east 70 odd miles and caught the middle cell as it was just going through Mineral Wells. Slid down the western side of it and then went east to be presented with a lovely cone tornado that put on a show for us for a few minutes near Millsap!

 

After the cone dissipated, further down the road we had another brief touchdown. Tracked the storm south east where it started to merge with the southern cell. We then witnessed our third tornado whilst trying to get south but got cut off by the awful road network. We had to scoot north and then back south and then this is when it went on it's rampage through Granbury with 6 fatalities, 16 missing and 100's injured It then went on to plough through Cleburne and then on to the DFW area.

 

All in all a great chase in the end but very sobering to hear of the loss of life Why can't these things just happen over open land?

 

A few picks from me including a tree that got struck by lightning and stripped it's bark! I have some video that I'll try and get uploaded too.

 

 

 

 

 

[lewisosd]

Great stuff! Congrats team!

[ItIsGee]

Good efforts. Thought to the families that have lost loved ones, always sad to hear.

Graham

[Chris Sargent]

Thoughts to the bereaved and their families. puts our adrenaline fueled junket into sobering perspective.

 

Great catch team.

 

Chris

[Stuart_W]

Here are some of my pictures. I'll leave the commentary to others.

 

 

[DanN]

Good job guys and nice pics. Sad news though :-(

[Chris Sargent]

Nice series there Stuart

[simon-ferndown]

very impressive Shots there Guys , 

[nsrobins]

Thanks for posting these last thing at night in time for my morning coffee at work! Great shots and just goes to show, as I said in the discussion thread for yesterday, what can and does sometimes happen even on minimal risk days.

Skills honed and underwear washed ready for the weekend, Sunday of which is looking very lively.

 

And to repeat, the loss of life is very sad although it still happens even in these days of live and detailled media coverage of these events. To be fair to the management agencies the Granbury storm was exhibiting some deviant behaviour with rapid cycling and right turns which are very difficult to track.

[smicksworld]

Wow! What a day this was. It caught virtually every chaser out but delivered the goods in the end! Started out in Wichita Falls with an initial target of Haskell, TX. A couple of weak storms were struggling to keep going, possibly due to a dry air slot we'd noticed on the early morning soundings. After a very frustrating few hours we noticed a line of storms fire from east of Wichita Falls all the way down to roughly Brownwood. Hauled it east 70 odd miles and caught the middle cell as it was just going through Mineral Wells. Slid down the western side of it and then went east to be presented with a lovely cone tornado that put on a show for us for a few minutes near Millsap!

 

After the cone dissipated, further down the road we had another brief touchdown. Tracked the storm south east where it started to merge with the southern cell. We then witnessed our third tornado whilst trying to get south but got cut off by the awful road network. We had to scoot north and then back south and then this is when it went on it's rampage through Granbury with 6 fatalities, 16 missing and 100's injured It then went on to plough through Cleburne and then on to the DFW area.

 

All in all a great chase in the end but very sobering to hear of the loss of life Why can't these things just happen over open land?

 

A few picks from me including a tree that got struck by lightning and stripped it's bark! I have some video that I'll try and get uploaded too.

 

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nice one guys glad all is safe and sound too,plus delighted for the crew to get to see a tornado or 3  

[smicksworld]

Here are some of my pictures. I'll leave the commentary to others.

great pics stuart,loving the bolts and skycrawlers too,nice few tornadoes too well done  

[jimbo36]

Awesome pics dudes, can't wait for the videos.

Sad to hear about the loss of life though :-(

[Paul]

Ian's video highlights from yesterday:

 

[Cookie]

Stunning photos, very sad about the deaths

[Arron]

Couple of radar screen grabs. The first one we're actually under the little green icon, this was when the first tornado was seen The second is when the two cells went on a rampage, check out the hook and couplet on the top cell!

 

 

 

[craig1uk]

Fantastic shots there guys, what a great chase , hope this is just the start of an active period for you all

 

Sad day also though, those poor people .

[Nick F]

Who would have thought that yesterday would have ended up the way it did with several tornadoes on the ground with one going on to be an EF4 causing the sad loss of life, the risk pretty much appeared out of nowhere looking at previous days' SPC discussions. Goes to show that even when the week looked fairly quiet before the much talked severe risks starting this weekend, good chases can pop-up unexpected with the right local conditions. Well done guys, T2 certainly deserve it. And to top it all it looks like you had a good lightning display after dark.

[Nick F]

NWS going for EF-4 damage at Granbury and EF3 damage at Cleburne in the Fort Worth suburbs:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=tornadoes051513

Classic signature on the Cleburne radar and the velocity clearly shows the couplet.

[Kris T]

Awesome photos there guys, nice bit of storm porn there! 

 

Pretty sobering though with the fatalities and the fine lines that exist being around these storms.

[nitro_deluxe]

Shake rattle'n'roll...

[Dorsetbred]

So far 16 tornado's have been identified in this outbreak, for more info check out:

 

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=FWD&issuedby=FWD&product=PNS&format=ci&version=1

[Coast]

Media pictures of the aftermath:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a tornado itself:

 

 

 

More here:

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325316/Texas-tornadoes-Ten-tornadoes-wreak-havoc-Forth-Worth-killing-six.html?ITO=google_news_rss_feed&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=google_news_rss_feed&google_editors_picks=true

[Supercell 89]

Great photos there guys and well done,  what a lovely cone shape nado that one was!  

 

Really sad to hear about the loss of life though, shows it only takes one tornado to go on a rampage in an outbreak and cause destruction to people's lives   When was the last time a slight risk produced an EF4? 

[Paul]

Kaddy's blog update and report for BBC radio Kent:

http://kaddyblog.com/kaddy-lee-preston/200mph-tornado-and-grapefruit-sized-hailstones-inc-live-audio/?utm_medium=email

[Paul Sherman]

Hi Ash

 

The last Slight Risk EF4 Was the South Dakota beast from a few years ago, also a wedge Tornado.