June 29, 1999   N.Texas Panhandle Tornadic Supercell

Today was looking like the last severe weather day for a while in the S.Plains. A
surface low was expected to deepen during the day over NE New Mexico, and a
double point was forecasted to focus today's severe storms by late afternoon over
extreme SE Colorado, extreme SW Kansas, the N.Texas Panhandle, and portions
of the Oklahoma Panhandle and NW Oklahoma. A moderate risk was issued for
this area by the Storm Prediction Center. The main area of focus for the enhanced
risk for supercells and possible tornadoes was located along and just north of the
warm front, and possibly along the dry line if the cap could be broken. Significant
warm advection coupled with unseasonably strong northwest flow was expected to create a very favorable environment for tornadic supercells. As with most severe
weather days during the early summer months, the cap generally delineates the
areas where nothing will happen and where all "hell" will break loose!! The key
to today's forecast of the target zone was to decide where there would be enough
mid level cooling to break the cap, and how close to the warm front to chase later
today. The RUC model was actually indicating the most vigorous convection was
going to break out near Alva OK by early evening, and because of the cap, didn't
indicate any serious convection in the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles. My faith in
the RUC (especially the day of the event) is usually quite high. I based my chase
target zone with the RUC model and location of the double point the main focus
of my forecast. My target zone was going to be Woods Co. Oklahoma.

I left Tulsa at 2pm after finishing up some business. My plans were to head out on
the Cimarron Turnpike towards Enid and then northwest from there. I planned to
hold near Alva and wait for initial development. I was running a little late, but was
fairly confident that any development would hold off until 5pm or later because of
the strength of the cap. Shortly after 3pm, Brian Stertz called me and said that a
supercell had exploded over Baca Co. Colorado, and looked to track very near
the Elkhart area. He indicated that everything else in the S.Plains looked majorly
capped. He had to work today, but said he would watch out for any development
and give me a call. Apparently, this was when I should have made my move to get out west fast!! I was under the impression that other supercells would also
rapidly develop along the warm front closer to me. This, however, did not happen
until well after dark. Brian called me back and said the supercell was showing very strong rotation just to the west of Elkhart KS. I decided to pull up radar and check this out for myself. A tornado had to be on the ground along the Colorado- Kansas border. I had lots of ground to cover to even get in front of this large/well developed tornadic supercell. My decision to blast west was made for me when I heard of tornadoes reported on the ground now in Morton Co. KS.

The best chance I had to catch this now large and dangerous supercell was to head west through the Oklahoma Panhandle and get in front of the storm. My
original plan was to intercept the storm near Perryton Texas, but as the storm
gained more strength and the circulation intensified, the supercell turned sharply
to the right and dropped nearly due south. The supercell was now producing
multiple tornadoes and was now becoming a full fledged beast, complete with
TWO very strong circulations. I had to adjust my road options for the deviated
storm track and figured I would probably finally intercept the storm either in Texas
Co. Oklahoma or Hansford Co. Texas. I watched radar very closely now as I made
my way west into the Oklahoma Panhandle. The supercell was still 50 miles to
my west but I could already see the dramatic structure of the supercell. The anvil
was razor sharp and was venting out nicely to the southeast. The storm tower was
not visible but I could see what looked to be low and mid level "feeder" bands
poking into the storm from the southeast and east. To the south of the storm, very
little clouds were seen as the cap held tightly over the Texas Panhandle. Today
was the day of the "lone" supercell, and I would be late in joining the storm chaser
convergence on this supercell(now west of Guymon OK).

My plan was to take OK-3 west towards Guymon and then drop south towards
Hansford Co. Texas. Radar indicated that dual circulations continued on the sw
and west side of the classic supercell. The supercell looked as though it was on
the north edge of the strong cap, and continued to drop s-se at 25-30 mph. The
stronger of the two circulations was entering the Texas Panhandle to the west of
TX-136 (Hansford Co.). I knew now that I had to take every right road in hopes of
intercepting the supercell. I dropped south from Elmwood OK on OK-23 for the
town of Booker. I could then take TX-15 west for Hansford Co. where the supercell
was tracking. I made great time reaching Hansford Co., although I did have the
towns of Perryton and Spearman to pass through to reach the storm. By the time
I reached the town of Spearman, the strongest circulation was passing just to the
west of Gruver. Tornado warnings remained in effect for Hansford Co. and there
were several tornado reports broadcasted by local radio in the Gruver area. Now
I would have to dodge the very large core in order to intercept the circulation. I
was forced to take several farm routes to avoid the baseball sized hailcore, and to
finally get close eough to the main updraft region. As I approached the circulation
from the east, I could see a dark cone shaped lowering to my west ( southwest
of Gruver). As I closed in on TX-136, a fairly strong tornado was on the ground !! This was the cone shaped lowering I was observing earlier from about 10 miles away. The tornado was dissipating, but very strong rotation was still seen under the barrel shaped wall cloud. This wall cloud was of classic Texas Panhandle structure and was isolated far enough away from the core for some incredible photography and video.

The supercell slowly tracked s-se and the main circulation was heading directly
for the town of Morse (S.Hansford Co.). I followed the circulation southward along
TX-136 and saw several brief tornado touchdowns about 2-3 miles west of the
highway between Gruver and Morse. I headed into Morse and actually got ahead
of the advancing circulation that was producing occasional spin ups to the north
of Morse. Over the next 20 minutes, I watched no fewer than 5 separate tornadoes
(most of them brief F0 tornadoes) touch down around the town of Morse. The wall
cloud really tightened up as it approached Morse and I was almost sure that a
strong tornado was likely. The circulation looked as though it was going to pass
west of Morse by a mile or two so that town was spared at least tornado damage.
One of my best tornado images I have ever shot was with the strongest tornado
that appeared to the west of Morse. The setting sun broke through the eroding
udraft tower and cast sunrays directly on the tornado. The sunrays "spot-lighted"
the tornado as it tracked due south. I captured several pictures and video images
of this tornado. Several brief dust swirl tornadoes were seen to the southeast of Morse as the supercell made a turn to the southeast into N.Hutchinson Co..

I continued to track the supercell into N.Hutchinson Co. but was cutoff abruptly by
the hailcore and hail up to basebal sized. The circulation remained very intense
as it headed into the remote unchaseable areas of N.Hutchinson Co.. What makes
this area so hard to chase is the rough terrain in the Canadian River valley and a
distinct absence of paved roads. I tried my best to get to back with the circulation
but my viewing (and other chasers/spotters) was limited to 15 miles+ west of the
large wall cloud. I had to head south through Stinnett and Borger eventually to
keep up with the main circulation tracking into W.Roberts Co.. Near the town of
Skellytown, I observed yet another brief tornado to my north in far SE Hutchinson Co.. This tornado formed on a new updraft that exploded on the south flank of the
very large supercell that encompassed much of E.Hutchinson/W. Roberts Co..
This tornado was of the F0 variety and comprised of a dust swirl underneath a
condensated funnel aloft. The location of this brief tornado was about 8 miles to
the northwest of Skellytown. This tornado remained on the ground for only 2-3 minutes before dissipating over open country a little after sunset. Unfortunately, this was the last tornado seen on this active tornado day in the Texas Panhandle.

I continued on into W.Oklahoma and found yet another major supercell after dark north of I-40. This supercell produced incredible amounts of cloud to ground and in-cloud lightning and was nearly stationary for over 2 hours. Extremely large hail and rainfall totals of 4 inches+ was reported in Custer and N.Washita Co. as this supercell drifted across these counties. I remained with the supercell for several hours trying to capture lightning images with the wall cloud in the background.
Tornado warnings were eventually issued for the supercell in Custer Co. ( where
a developing tornado was indicated near the city of Weatherford). I watched very closely for any signs of a tornado but the circulation was masked by rain curtains. This supercell did offer some great lightning shots as the circulation increased and the laminar wall cloud was just to my north. A brilliant ending for this chase !!