Chase: Thur May 13th 2004 Mason, Tx

Ended up having a very fun chase on a day that I thought had mixed opportunities.  I was considering the area up by Abilene, TX where I felt some of the stronger 300mb to 500mb flow was, but everywhere in OK and TX appeared to be a compromise. Instead of ABI I hooked up with Tim Vasquez who had other ideas. Instead of the northern area Tim favored the area further south that wasn’t already filled with storms near the outflow boundary and on the southern end there was strong instability. We left Austin near noon (I believe) and took hwy 71 to Llano, and then 29 on out west toward Mason.  Somewhere west of Llano we entered an analog cell area. Since my setup only works with digital lately we had no more data for the rest of the day from the internet. We were going full visual and “smell of the air” method.

We stopped along the way to check out all the wildflowers, which were growing profusely on the side of the road – splendid!  As we neared Mason it was apparent storms were in progress and very soon we learned that the cell west of Mason headed for Streeter was already severe warned. We continued through Mason and on toward London on hwy 377. We turned north up Ranch 1221 (road toward Hext) and pulled over to observe the developing inflow area mostly to our north. As I recall it was somewhat unorganized but did show some vertical movement, mild rotation in the base. At times it appeared that it wanted to make a wallcloud or funnel. We thought the storm was moving east so we followed it east awhile, and then decided we needed to go north instead so turned around and eventually took the road north toward Hext. I believe somewhere along the way a tornado warning was issued for the cell. It appeared the meso was moving up north toward Hext, which is about 14 miles from hwy 377.

 Along the way RFD (rear flank downdraft) influence started some heavy rain to breakout directly north and east of our path.  Tim figured that any hail would likely be fairly small so we continued on into the increasingly heavy precip area to try and breakout near the meso east or southeast of Hext.   After we had gone perhaps 7 miles north a car headed the other direction flashed their lights at us as we passed. I was wondering what that was about.

Small streams were starting to cross and pool parts of the road. When we got about 3 south of Hext I found out why she was flashing the lights. Directly ahead was a small creek, which had swollen to about 30 yards wide across the roadway, and the center was moving fairly fast. There was no depth gauge, the water was brown, and it was impossible to tell how really deep it was, or even if the road had been washed away in the center portion or not. Several times I drove into it and then backed up trying to ascertain the safety factor. I was unable to tell.  I eventually got a little passed 1/3 of the way across and almost into the deeper center stream. I didn’t think the water was extremely deep. It appeared to maybe be a foot in the center.  The water on the upstream was hitting up to ½ the way up my wheels (on a Tahoe 4wd) but it was pooling and raising higher than actual depth since it was acting like an obstruction.  I switched to 4wd also just in case I needed to quickly have traction to back out.  The whole time the NWS radio was playing and in the background I kept hearing “Do not cross flooded roadways”. Then it said something that kind of rhymed like “Save your life, don’t cross and die”.  It kept saying it repeatedly. Looking back, I don’t know – maybe “someone” was looking out for me.  I have heard that it only takes 6” of fast moving water to move your vehicle. I always laugh when I see people crossing these streams on TWC and what happens- thinking “duh”.  But the reality can be more confusing I suppose. I wanted to not lose the storm and so I was torn.  I don’t think we were in danger of drowning, as the water didn’t appear that deep or violent, but I didn’t want my car going off the road and getting stuck either. Eventually the droning voice on the NWS radio won. I turned around. Later headed back south on 1221 I instead decided to take a dirt (somewhat muddy) road east, which hopefully would shave time and get us back in front.

It ended up the road worked well, and I enjoyed the 4 wheeling in the pretty country with the precip falling all around.  It was relaxing and the turn actually ended up giving us the best vantagepoint of the storm.

Next we went back into Mason to fuel and I learned David Douglas was inbound to Mason from the Llano area.  We hung around Mason trying to figure what it was doing, then went north of town to see what the storm looked like.  The inflow area looked decent and the storm was producing more lightning, rain, and hail (most likely nearby).  The north road down 29 was too far north and would only take us into the core. Instead we went back into town and tool Ranch 1871 about 5 to 7 miles southwest. There were some brilliant flashes of lightning in this area, and it was fairly dark under the canopy.  We watched an area of rotation and witnessed the RFD further west and once again the storm was overrunning us.  Obviously the storm had turned southward in it’s movement which was a good sign for tornadic strengthening.  We also thought it was backbuilding some. Back in Mason this time we took hwy 87 east.  This road provided a good option for staying with the storm for some time. A few miles southeast of town (probably near Hedwigs Hill) we watched some stronger development and rotation in the base of the storm. It appeared to be intensifying and trying to do “something”. At this point David Douglas (from Austin) and his friend from college – Steve, pulled up.  It was great to see them. We said ‘Hi’ and began talking about and observing the storm together.

Several times the storms cycled up and then became disorganized again. At times exhibiting up to 2 areas of rotation. I believe that just south of town there was a new tornado warning issued.  And a phone call later from Bill Combes indicated that his WxWorx system was showing a 103-knot shear couplet in our area at the time!

We continued to back up and race south on hwy 87 to Loyal Valley and Cherry Spring.  Along 87 we eventually observed an occasion where the storm sported a decent “Beaver Tail” where you could visibly see cloud tags racing in to the striated supercell base above. This area also had decent areas of rotation and IMO briefly extended a tiny funnel that was mostly still within the base. There was also an area of inflow to our left that was wedge shaped where air was racing in that I believe could have been a tail cloud but I will have to think about it and get my orientation on the structure.  This structure was amazing to watch at this time. Surely it wanted to drop a tube.

Near Loyal Valley we took one dirt back road to the west and up on a hill for a vantage area.  We parked in a barely viewable area. LOL – driving up this road reminded me of the scene from Twister where they drive up the big hill to the dark skies and they are talking about the ‘cone of silence’. It was pretty darn dark up there and we watched a small wallcloud and funnel for awhile.

We later took another “gps” road west of Cherry Spring to view the storm again and had some nice scenic hill country driving. The storm at this point was not looking as tornadic and appeared mostly outflow dominant.

Since we all loved beer and German food we decided to head south to the German settled town of Fredricksburg and check out the microbrew pub, and possibly grab some German food too.

Well to end it all, the beer was indeed excellent and it was excellent company. The food was good and we had an excellent time.  Even though no tornadoes I would rate this chase ‘excellent’ for fun, food, diversity, and beauty. We even got to have a fairly intense lightning show on the way back with much night driving in the rain.

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase