Wow, what a week! After the chase on Wednesday and getting in late I didn’t even get a chance on Thursday morning to do a forecast post because we already had supercells ongoing at 10 AM!
Didn’t end up with any big tornadoes on Wednesday. In fact I didn’t even see any, but had a great swirl overhead I thought might turn in to one. Randy Denzer evidently got one a little early before I could get on the storm, since he was a little closer to get to it than I was. Ended up with some great lightning and stuck in Austin rush hour traffic! UGGGHH!!
Here is some video from Wednesday:
Then as I said on Thursday it was up and out the door to intercept the storms now south of San Antonio. Ended catching a supercell hybrid as it crossed I37. Produced a brief tornado about I37 and Hwy 79. Not photogenic by any means and actually quite poor from a photogenic standpoint. However, rotation in the rain free base, dust swirl on the ground under it and resulting damage: roofs torn off as talked about by law enforcement radio; interstate sign supported by twin I-Beams bent over, and semi-truck overturned; as well as radar signature supports it being a tornado rather than a gustnado as I originally thought it might be. This is a first for me as my first gulf coast area tornado. Also the first for 2009!
The hail core was much more interesting as it swallowed me up and pounded me with rain driven 1.25″ hail in a torrential downpour. Ended up breaking out my driver side mirror, both the ventshades on my front windows, cracked the windshield, and busted some holes in my grill, as well as a few thousand more dents!
Here is the video from Thursday:
What a way to end up 5 days straight on the road chasing and nearly 3000 miles!
Looks like the next chasing opportunity won’t be until around April 5th or so…
