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Chase Partners:	Richard Nuttall (my dad), Kyle Mozley
Location:	N Texas
Miles Travelled:	671
Total Time:	13 Hours

 

At 11:00am, my dad and I picked up Kyle at the OU dorms, and we headed east on OK-9 and SW on I-44.  Our target was Haskell, TX.  My dad drove, Kyle was the cameraman and navigator, and I worked communications (cell phone and radios).  Things were looking good as we learned dew points and surface temperatures were climbing near our target area.  Winds were backing to the SE also.  A PDS Tornado Watch was issued for our area in western-north Texas.

 

We go to Haskell and gased up.  There was a monster cell about 10 miles to our WSW moving towards us.  I called some friends for some data and was told the storm was "spinning like a top" and that spotters were reporting a large tornado on the ground near Aspermont.  We hauled south out of Haskell towards Stamford and turned east on a local road with the storm coming right at us (1.2 MB).   I've never seen such a monster HP before.  We pulled off the road and faced the storm so we could watch.  Hail began to fall, so we decided it was time to leave.  So, we headed back to US-277 and dropped south just far enough to let the storm pass in front of us.  There was some really cool roation going on as the storm passed about one mile north of us (2.1 MB).   We spent the rest of the day punching in and out of the storm trying to get into position, but to no avail.

 

We hoped that we could get south of it, let it pass, then find an east road, then drop south again, and stay parallel with it on the south side.  Unfortunately, road options out there really suck.  We eventually found a farm road that took us thought the path of the hail core.  We drove through a lot of small hail that covered the road (3.4 MB).   I've only seen that amount of hail one other time in my life.  We got north of the storm, when suddenly, a funnel developed.  It was pretty well defined, but soon dissipated only to be followed another funnel that formed and dissipated within about a minute (7.0 MB).

 

After that disappointment, we continued east just a couple miles north of the storm.  At this point, I took a little nap.  About 20 minutes later, I woke up to the sound of hail pelting my car (3.0 MB).   Now, keep in mind, I had just gotten my car back TODAY after rear-ending someone and getting a new hood.  The hail was pretty big at first...about 2-2.5 inches and flat.  However, the hail became smaller, but fell at a tremendous rate (4.4 MB).   I've never seen a hail storm quite like this.  Later on that night (this long supercell lasted 8 hours) caused severe hail damage to planes at DFW Airport.  It was hailing so hard we had to yell to speak to one another even though we were sitting just a few inches apart.  We finally managed to get out of the hail.  In the storm's wake, there was a great deal of hail on the road.  The cold hail was interacting with warm air just above the surface creating fog (2.7 MB).   We continued to drive SE towards Graford, TX.  We stopped and pulled off the road to look at the hail.  It was big...there were many places that were 2+ inches in diameter (3.7 MB).

 

We then drove east to Mineral Wells and decided to try to intercept the storm near Ft. Worth.  Two other storms had also developed behind the main storm.  These storms caused some minor damage in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex.  We were able to get to a gas station and restaurant just off of I-35 at the Texas Motor Speedway in time for the final storm to hit.  It produced about 1-1.5 inch hail.  Except the hail was spiked, not flat like earlier in the day.  After the storm passed, we drove back to Norman and watched the lightning from an MCS that was moving through central Oklahoma.

 

 SUMMARY:

It was a pretty successful chase.  A great way to start off the season.  I just missed a tornado twice.  Once was near Aspermont, and the other was just outside of Graford.  We were busy punching the core at that point.  I consider myself lucky during that chase.  I know of four people that had their vehicles totaled by the hail.  Thankfully, I came away with only three dents on my car...none on my brand new hood.  If this is a preview of what is to come this storm season, 2003 should be a dandy.

 

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SPC Event Log

Photos from the Chase

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