Hurricane Isabel I spent the entire hurricane in Hyde County. I traveled between Engelhard and Swan Quarter. In the strongest part of the storm, I was trapped on 265 north of White Plains due to fallen trees and flooding. I was safe, but unable to get our until road crews and citizens cleared the road and the flooding subsided. Still pictures do not capture the moment very well. It was a great chase for me..

Today’s target was somewhere west of Amarillo, TX. We stopped in Vega to get data nnd wait for the action to begin. There was a good feeling about today since we were experiencing strong southeast winds. We saw towers develop to our northwest. We got some updated from Matt Crowther over the phone. We adjusted our target north and it soon became obvious that the storm forming to our NW was the one to target. We got just south of the storm and headed NE on 54. At Stratford, we went NW to get closer to the storm. A large tornado formed to our west. We had a great view of it. It was back lit and had good contrast. Soon another tornado formed sout of that one. They were both on the ground at the same time and heading our way. Jim and Mike got ready to deploy the Dillo-Cam and Theiss Device in the path of the tornado. They went north, bu the tornado got wrapped in rain and large hail started falling. Jim got his windshield cracked, so we aborted and dropped south. The storm became more HP and it was apparent that if it did produce more tornadoes, we wouldn't be able to see them. Matt tald us about new development to the south. We dropped south and intercepted the storm just NE of Sunray. A brief tornado dropped down and was wrapped in rain. It only lasted a short while. It was getting dark so we decided to call it a night and headed south for the night. Just noth of Stinnet, another tornado crossed the road just ahead of us. Jim saw power flashes that revealed the tornado to us. We then stopped and watched as it moved eastward and roped out.

We started the day in Kansas City. Our target for the day was in the vicinity between Emporium, KS and Salina. We stopped to watch the towers build to our west. We also downloaded data. It became apparent that the storm to our SW would be in a better environment and in an area of better roads. We drove down to intercept it. Just as we caught up with the base and watched the meso start to get organized, we turned around to follow it. We drove into a strange fog and soon realized that it was a chemical spill from a derailed train. We turned around and got out of there. By that time our storm got away from us. We then targeted the next storm to the south. We turned east on 54 and watched as the storm got very well organized. We watched a very strong meso just north of the road and crossed an area of badly damaged trees where a large tornado had crossed about 7 miles west of Yates Center. We knew that there was a tornado that was wrapped in rain just ahead of us. We were able to get ahead of it and then turn north on a road to Neosho Falls. The tornado became visible and soon we had a nice high contrast view of it. Jim rushed up the road to within 1/3 of a mile south of it as it crossed the road ahead him. His video is incredible!

Today was the first full chase day with tour#1. We had high hopes and they verified! Today's target was around the Springfield, MO area. We headed up I44 and made a gas stop in Sapulpa. We checked data and decided the best area would be north towards Bartlesville. We went north and a cell formed to our west. We continued north then east to Coffeyville. We stopped there to watch the towers build to our west. We checked data and decided to go further north to get in position for when the storms really got their act together. We watched the wall cloud form SW of Parsons and kept up with it. NE of McCune, we spotted a large tornado. It became very clear and violent as it passed to our north. We continued to keep up with it as it became rain wrapped then reemerged looking as good as ever each time. West of Liberal, MO we saw another tornado form just to our north as the first tornado moved off on the horizon to our east. As we headed north towards the tornado, the RFD blew debris right across the road in front of us. A round trampoline flew up and into the powerlines then crashed to the ground next to the vehicle on the right. The second tornado roped out and dissipated in a few minutes. The storm out ran us. We gassed up in Lamar and tried to catch the storm south of Springfield, but could catch up to it. I got some of my best video ever on this chase.

Today was a great day. My hopes were not too high, but it turned out to be a good chase. I rode with Rocky Rascovich.

Rocky had targeted the area from Sayre to Arnett. I was leaning more towards the Woodward area. We knew storms would be moving rapidly (40+MPH) to the NE, so we expected to have to get in position as storms formed to our SW and then screamed by. We made it to Arnett and encounted several other chasers. Storms were ongoing at this point, but the shear was too strong, all the storms were being sheared apart. Dave Lewison told me about a cell near I40 that was the best of all of them, but is was not well organized. We pulled over to talk to Bobbie Prentis and RJ Evans. They had the current radar image up. It confirmed that the storms were not doing so good. Roger Edwards, Elke and Rich Tompson pulled up as well. We were all ready to call it a day when the next radar image came up. The cell to our SW had rapidly strengthened and was very well defined. We went south on 283 to intercept it. Dave called me as well telling me about the explosive development. We expected to only have one shot at the storm since it was moving at 40MPH and there were no roads that would parallel its motion. South of Roll, we stopped to look at the storm to our SW.

It had some rapid rising motion just to the south of the heavy rain core. We turned north expecting to go east on 47, but the storm seamed to turn right a little. We turned back south and reports were coming in of a large tornado with this storm. At the moment hills blocked our view. As soon as there was a clear view, I saw the tornado.

It was wrapped in the rain core that was rotating rapidly around the tornado. It was a lard cone all the way to the ground. Contrast was poor, but it was clearly a tornado. We got a few quarter size hail stones as we watched the tornado either dissipate or get completely wrapped up in rain. We took 33 east bound to try to get ahead of the storm. Inflow winds were incredible. We estimated the winds to be sustained at 40-45 and gusts to 60+MPH.

We took a small road north. There was a well defined updraft base and rising scud under it. A lowering formed and I had my camera fixed on it to our NW.

Then Rocky looked to the left (west) and spotted a tornado. We stopped and filmed it as it went through open country. It was approaching a clump of houses about ¾ mile away.

It dissipated just before hitting the houses. The tornado was about half way between Strong City and Leedey and lasted about two minutes. It formed on the flank of the storm and not under the lowering of the storm. It reminded us to not focus too much on one area, but to keep your eyes open and looking all around.

WOW! What a day. Storms went up way earlier than expected. I picked the right target area tho. Thanks to Dave and Jim for nowcasting for me.

Just south of Throckmorton, I was able to finally see some structure to the storm. It was very turbulent and had violent motion in the cloud base, but it was somewhat disorginized.

I was able to find an old gas station with a huge overhang to take shelter under in Woodson. I filmed 4" hail crashing down all around. Video is much better than stills. Paint was pealed from the building.

This building took a beating.

After it died down a little I went out and collected some samples. This is about 10 minutes after the big stuff fell, so it is melted down some.

I met up with Val Castor who was not lucky enough to find shelter.

Hank Baker found two people who had their car destroyed.

He took them into the city. There was a third person in the car. He abandoned the car to take shelter under some trees. He didn't return. I suppose he must have been calling Aviva, AXA or trying to find life insurance of some sort. We went with the shariff to help look for him. He turned back up with a few injuries.

I don't know what he was thinking to get out of a car in that hail.

He was ok, but two of them were taken away in the ambulance for cuts and welts from the hail and flying glass in the car.

March 17, 2003. I went out with Matt Biddle and a Jeff Sutton (a friend who went chasing for the first time) We originally tageted the Lawton area. We hit the road just after 2pm. Jim informed us that there was a nice cell ongoing and we should head west on I40 to intercept it. By the time We got to El Rino, we heard that it was moving more east than north from the radio. We dropped south on 81. We got frequent updates on the phone from Jim and decided to head south to Lawton to intercept storms that were developing there.

The storm near Lawton looking south.

We went just south of Pumpin Center (east of Lawton) and watched a storm to our SouthWest. It was not moving NNE like all the other cells. It moved very sowly towards us. It had a nice wall cloud and went through several transitions in form. At one point it was a rotating stack of plates above us. I couldn't get a good picture from our angle. The RFD cut into it and tore it in two.




The storm put out a little hais and we waited for it to pass before continuing east after the storm.

It then developed a bowl shaped lowering that was rotating like crazy.

Several times it dropped a cone and the cone pesisted several minutes, but we could not see strong rotation, and it did not touch down. This shot is taken near Marlow just after sunset.