April 5th, 2003

First chase of the year for me. After  analyzing a bit of data this morning - all things being equal I chose Cisco, Tx (just east of ABI on I20) as my initial target - along the front & near the  dryline. Left Austin at 10:30 with no trouble making making Cisco by 1:30. Stopped at the Subway & leisurely grabbed a bite and then tried to get some data. I don't know what was up with my phone, AT&T service etc, but I couldn't for the life of me get an internet connection Great - no data!  I wasted about 30 minutes there.

Finally called home and learned that a cell was going up WNW of ABI, and they  had issued a tornado watch.  That was close to the target area - so what the hay. I switched to full  "Hoadley" mode. Cruised I20 into ABI then north through Anson - westerly turn then up 1661 toward Tuxedo. The cell was torn warned for an area near Aspermont. I boogied on and headed up through Tuxedo getting to  near 2 to 3 miles from Sagerton and started filming.

Well, the background here is that my parents live in Sagerton, and my brother  was up from Austin for the weekend to Turkey hunt with my Dad.  I was going to also until the weather got more serious.  LOL - told my brother Saturday might not be the best day for hunting.  Anyway the storm is inbound and my brother wants me to pick him up to chase.  I was going to but then another warning was issued directly for Sagerton which said  the tornado would be there in 5 minutes! So, basically my family all fled for the storm cellar about 100 yards down their road. I might add as I approached Sagerton from the south there was a large dark area from precip to the north and behind it stretching to the SW was rain free base.  The base was coming  over moving east across a local feature they refer to as Flat Top Mountain. As it was clearing Flat Top it developed a very large wall cloud that appeared to be 1 to 2 miles in size!  I jumped out and filmed, but it was approaching fairly fast. I was going to make a dash into  Sagerton to see if any of them wanted to ride with me, but it's probably good I decided against that.  In the  direction of Sagerton and between Flat Top the wind was really stirring with small vortices, dust, etc.  Then it seems the wall cloud feature became outflow dominant and began gusting out.  I don't know if it was RFD related - somehow wrapping around to the SE side of a developing tornado or what, but the direction toward Sagerton was now obscured in deep darkness of hail, wind and whatever else.  It was
too late for the east road from Sagerton to Stamford, so I bailed south as the outflow features were now upon me. The winds were very strong across the road from the west.  I'd estimate 60 or so with maybe gusts to 70mph.  I wanted to get south enough because it seemed the winds and possible tornado further north might try and tip the car  from the side.  I really didn't want to stop, turn into it, and bear the  brunt of it then.  If I did I would be way out of position to get in front again.

Anyway I  went south and found another easterly road to Stamford, but the  tornadic portion was a bit north and I was a bit behind.  The roads in Stamford were a bit confusing even with the GPS  moving map as these little towns like to make you wander all over them before leaving.  EH! I hate that, especially when tornadic storms are bearing down on you. To make a long story short, I continued this maneuver through Breckenridge, Possum Kingdom, and Mineral Wells.  The road network was against me, and I never got back in front of the storm.  Called it quits at dark near Graford.

The storm had been very large, beautiful, and destructive looking back toward  Sagerton.  Back at my parents I heard that all the windows and glass were broken by at least Golfball size hail on the north side of the house. Supposedly it littered the ground like snow. Everyone was ok and made the cellar.  They even put their cars in the garage. Not sure if there was an actual tornado near Sagerton.  Based on other chase accounts  it appears I JUST missed the wedge tornado just west of Sagerton near Aspermont.   Perhaps it was the stop for Subway, or the data problems, or both.   I managed to get some 35mm stills of the structure of the supercell from a distance as  well with the large vaulted tower and overshoot - very nice.  I feel good about the forecast, and was able to  drive right to the tornadic storm, and for awhile I was the only one there - though apparently some were on some other roads over toward Aspermont. It will be interesting to see how many actual tornadoes get logged for this long lived supercell.  I think this was a very successful chase although it would have been nice to see that large wall become a mile wide wedge. Eh, maybe next time.

Update: April 5th, 2003

On the road north of Tuxedo between  Tuxedo and Sagerton I stopped and the dashcam was rolling.  At one point I was probably within 3 to 5 miles of the south of Sagerton.  Reviewing on dashcam I see that with the large wall cloud I mentioned there is briefly a very dark cone shaped funnel - right in the center  extending down a little lower than the slowly rotating wallcloud.  You have to picture this as a very large wall  cloud  that is inverted bowl shaped.  Along the edges it is fairly uneven and there are breaks in the continuity so that you can at times glimpse futher back.  At the same time the NWS radio is mentioning a developing tornado 10 miles SW of Sagerton.  That would be just about exactly what I was videotaping.  Also I forgot to mention that for awhile driving away from Sagerton to the south I was in very strong inflow making it difficult to hold the vehicle on the road.   Then I stopped and filmed as this large wall cloud area now obscured in precipitation was approaching me.  It was  obviously full of very intense rain and wind and got very close to me before I decided to punch south and escape.  What I  didn't realize that my dashcam was filming as I stood at times in front of the camera blocking it's view was that area of intense wind and precip approaching me had a dark vertical wall back a bit in it that was boiling upward and showing violent upward motion while clouds just right of the feature were rotating around and behind it.  The bottom of the feature  at ground was obscured in precip, and so was the left side - as it extended up to the top of the cloud deck.  As this  area approached and I bailed it was then that I took very intense winds from the west blowing across the road which I feared would potentially topple the car, or make me lose control. The wind was so strong that the pressure caused the drivers  side window to cave a bit and high wind noises were whistling through it.  This is significant because that Tahoe  is solid and doesn't normally get wind noise as it is a very wind tight seal.

A couple of notes here: The boiling vertical wall with all the upward vertical motion (very intense) looked very similar to the South Bend, Tx tornado a couple of years ago.  That was the same day as Olney.  Gene Moore, Chris Novy, and Gene Rhoden will remember how that  appeared and I captured it on video also.  The intense winds from the south  reminded me somewhat of the RFD / tornado wrap around winds I experienced a few  years ago at Valentine, Nebraska with the night torn. Sam Barriclow will recall those winds as everyone turned their vehicles into the wind coming from the  direction of the RFD and tornado which was just a bit NW of our position  currently in a ropeout stage.

So, it all makes sense to me now.  The position and layout of the  structure, and exactly what the winds were.  So, I do believe I encountered a very probable tornado there south of Sagerton and filmed  it.  Problem was most of it was obscured by precipitation.

Other notes:
-I did capture a very nice gustnado on the dashcam as I went east toward Stamford.  Apparently it was being created from all the shear interface along the SE edge of the storm.
-I took 283 north of Albany and almost decided to turn 209 toward Woodson, but from the looks figured I would get pounded.  Obviously this was the correct assesment based on the number of  other chasers that got creamed!
-As I approached Possum Kingdom Lake from the west down a road (I think that went through Ivan) before I turned south toward the park entrance I could see the backend of the tornadic portion of the storm.  Most of it was very  obscured, but I comment on the video that I believe I see a possible tornado in the precip - however it was too dark and obscured to verify.
 

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase