This is sorta a weather blog isn't it? It's about time I share a weather photo. For this week's photo of the week, my first tornado! This tornado was spotted near Groom, TX along Interstate 40 on a storm chase on April 22, 2010. This particular tornado was only on the ground for a few seconds, and was rated EF0 since it basically did not cause any damage.
Meteorology: A large cutoff low was noted on 500 mb analysis, with a surface dryline in place over the Texas Panhandle. The morning SPC convective outlook had a large Slight Risk area over much of the High Plains, including a 10% significant tornado probability over the Texas Panhandle. It should be noted that under today's SPC outlook conventions, this would have been an "Enhanced Risk". The outlook text noted that supercells capable of very large hail were likely to develop along the dryline, with the tornado risk increasing during the early evening hours as a low-level jet developed. At 2:35 p.m. CDT, SPC issued a Tornado Watch for the Texas Panhandle. At 3:00 p.m. CDT, SPC upgraded their outlook to a Moderate Risk with a 15% significant tornado probability. The first tornadoes (in Texas) were reported just after 5:00 p.m. CDT (including the one in the photo above). By the end of the day, there would be 12 preliminary tornado reports, with additional tornadoes reported in Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
500 mb analysis valid 1200 UTC (7:00 a.m. CDT) April 22, 2010
Preliminary storm reports for April 22, 2010
The Chase: At the time of this chase, I was in my sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma. The chase team included Stefan Rahimi (now a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA) and Curtis Riganti (now a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center). We departed Norman around 1 p.m. (which was cutting it close!), and headed west on I-40. The initial target was Shamrock, TX. As we headed west, we monitored NOAA Weather Radio and what little we could get over cellular data networks. In 2010, cellular data networks was kinda just starting to be a thing, but it generally consisted of fairly slow 3G and AT&T "Edge" (ahh, those were the days!). We approached the first supercell right on I-40. A prominent wall cloud was noted, and multiple funnel clouds were spotted.
Wall cloud associated with the first supercell
Funnel cloud beneath the wall cloud
A few minutes later, the first tornado (photo at the top) occurred. By the end of the day, our team would see three tornadoes.
Tornado #2, partially wrapped in rain near McClellan Creek National Grassland
Tornado #3 north of I-40 near McLean, TX
It was quite awesome to see these first three tornadoes. Up until this point, I had only seen tornadoes in photos and videos. In fact, I had not even really seen a classic supercell in person. Growing up in South Louisiana, a true classic supercell was fairly rare. It was so cool to finally see what this looked like in person. Finally, below is a video taken by my friend Curtis, primarily of the first supercell and tornado.
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