May 12, 2005
This delayed account will likely
be missing a number of details. I am sorry but due to various
problems I haven't really been able to update the weather pages in more
than two years. At least I'll try to get some accounts up.
This was a day with a lot of storms, tornadoes, huge hail, and large
numbers of spotters, chasers and researchers. I seem to remember
that the day began with tornadoes being reported in the Plainview
vicinity around 2 PM. Our storm spotting team was activated and
most units headed north. As the main storms requiring attention
were in Hale county at the time most converged in that area then moved
up into Floyd county along with them. I wound up north of the
community of South Plains along FM 207. There were a number of
people along the road north of the intersection of FM 689 (County road
60). I met Tim Marshall who was photographing the storm to our
west. The updraft created a good wall cloud, fairly persistent
with some rotation. To the north of the updraft very large hail
was being reported. While we watched the wall cloud a RFD
cut
around it (Image #1) and we anticipated action but no funnel
occurred
and the mesocyclone rapidly occluded.
#1 RFD begins occluding the wall cloud.
Not wishing to encounter the large hail to the north and since this
storm seemed to have problems regenerating the wall cloud after this
cycle I shifted southwest to look at new development to the east of
Plainview.
I moved to FM 2286 somewhere north or northwest of Lockney. A
decent sized gustnado
(Image #2) formed to the southeast of the intake area. We watched
this for a while then noticed that a new updraft area seemed to be
forming to the northwest. Possibly as a result of the RFD cutting
of the intake area to the southwest.
#2 Gustnado
#3 New wall cloud forming to my northwest.
As this wall cloud seemed to be the area of concern I moved east then
back north to keep in in view. I wound up back in South Plains,
sitting at the Post Office on the north side of town. I watched
an area of heavy precipitation moving around the rear of the rain free
base. I kept a close eye on the base just to the front of the
precipitation. I really could not see a wall cloud at the postion
I was in, I was a little reluctant to move north without a
better reason as I suspected large hail was coming along with the
wrapping rain. After a bit I noticed a
funnel reaching down (Image #4), the view was bad with very low
contrast against the dark precipitation area to the northwest. (This and the next image had to be
adjusted for brightness and contrast to show any detail.)
#4
Funnel (above the center utility pole. BAD contrast!)
I moved a short distance north as the precip tried to obscure the
funnel. I am unsure of exactly how far it was, and I wasn't
moving real fast as I didn't want to run into a developed
tornado. Once I got in a little better position I soon realized
that the horizontal streaks I was seeing in the area to my immediate
northwest were bushes and small trees moving around a tornado. As
it was also begining to hail, and I felt I was way too close to a
tornado whose motion I was not sure of, I moved quite quickly back to
the center of South Plains and watched the tornado
approach FM 207 (Image #5).
#5 Tornado just north of South Plains. The tornado is just
left of the road and in line with the light brown building with the
white sections on the roof.
I was never in a good location to easily photograph the funnel or
tornado, though I could see it reasonably well most of the time.
Chasers to the north along FM 207 were able to see it much better
agains the lighter precipitation to their southwest. However,
they ran into trouble as the tornado progressed. Very large hail,
softball sized or even larger, pounded the area to the north and
northeast of the tornado. Trying to get south behind the tornado
was not possible as several utility poles were down across the
highway. North along 207 led to the largest hail, and the tornado
cycled into a second multi-vortex tornado that moved close to then
probably across FM 689 making escape from the hail almost
impossible. I believe a few managed to find cover here and there,
but many had major hail damage as can be seen if you visit some of the
storm chaser's pages who were present at the event.
I decided to move south then east to try and keep the storm in
sight. The only road available was FM 97, a little too far to the
south. I managed to get somewhat back even with the storm, which
appeared to have made a new wall cloud to east of South Plains. I
somewhat managed to keep the area in view though at times it was
difficult as I approaced and dropped down the Caprock.
I went a ways north on FM 1065 toward Quitaque and got a decent shot of
the current wall
cloud (Image #6). However venturing further north would mean
a core punch right in from of that feature, so I retreated back to FM
97, where I saw one of the large DOWs observing the storm.
#6 New wall cloud from FM 1065 southwest of Quitaque.
I went east to Flomot then north along FM 599. I could still see
a wall cloud but the road choice was still bad. As there was
really no way I could ever get back into position, not to mention the
fact that I was out of radio coverage and cell phone coverage was iffy
at best, I decided that I couldn't risk staying with this one. It
seemed to be heading past Quiteque into largely rural areas. I
decided to head back to South Plains and check on the damage.
The road through South Plains was closed due to the aforementioned
damage and there were problems trying to get a couple of semi trucks
turned around and headed on some other route towards Silverton. I
spoke briefly with a Deputy who said that there were no injuries and
limited damage. Several utility poles were down, there was some
damage to the Post Office, and some other damage along the past.
The Post Office was damaged after I left it by what were likely RFD
winds. As there were enough people in the way at that point and
there was little contribution I could make to the effort to recover I
headed southwest towards new development, once again in the Plainview
area.
Along the way I had to stop and shot pictures of the north side of a
huge supercell south of me. I am not sure if this is the one that
will later produce the Ralls tornado, but it certainly was impressive
and some
of the best mammatus formations (Image #7) I've seen. The
storms near Plainview did not develop tornadoes, but did drop hail and
led to urban flooding. This was one of the most active days I've
ever seen.
#7 Mammatus formations on the north side of a storm.
All in all a very busy day. For a review see the Lubbock
NWSFO page on the May
12-13, 2005 storms.
