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2 0 0 7     S E V E R E  W E A T H E R  E V E N T S      4/21/07

APRIL 21, 2007  EDMONSON COUNTY AND TULIA TORNADO

Jeff and I left Owasso, OK about 9:00 am on Saturday morning...target zone...somewhere between Amarillo and Lubbock.  I really love that area, home of the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, beautiful place.   The target area was where we were to meet with several other chasers, Terry Schenk, Sean and Katie McMullen, Brian Stertz, Rich Theiss, and Dustin Wilcox.   Sean and Katie had spent the night in Wichita, KS and were well on the road by 6 am, Brian and Rich were already near Plainview, TX and Terry was on a flight to DFW from Florida. 

When Jeff and I arrived in Amarillo around mid afternoon, some storms were developing east of Amarillo on the temperature boundary.   The storms we were waiting for however...the storms that were to initiate east of the dryline.  We held our position at Canyon, Texas and watched on radar as storms started developed from Dalhart, Tx to Lee County,  NM.  Terry Schenk joined us...then Sean, Katie and Dustin....Brian stayed on the storms near Dumas, initially, and then dropped South.

Photos above L.to R. Clouds above Amarillo about 3:00pm

Photos above L. to R.  Jeff Piotrowski and Terry Schenk look at the latest Model data, and like what they see.  Katie, Sean and Dustin arrive at our holding point in Canyon, TX.

Sean McMullen greeting the paparazzi.  Sean and Katie McMullen mugging for the paparazzi.

Jeff, Terry and I decided to head toward the storm moving from the town of Olton, TX .....Sean, Katie and Dustin peeled off of Hwy 27 heading east to intercept the Hereford, TX storm. Photos below of each storm...the first two are the Hereford Storm...look at the beautiful inflow cloud into that storm.  Katie and Sean reported that this storm near Hereford, TX was rotating like crazy. 

When Jeff, Terry and I blasted south on the storm to the south...the Hereford storm started developing shear as the wave came out and hit the dryline.  We were torn for a short time whether to go back north and chase or continue on south.  We made a decision to drive on South to the storm coming out of Olton, TX and we were glad we did.  As we drove south on Hwy 27 we could see a rain free base with a lowering...we turned West on 145 watched as a tornado developed north of Edmonson, TX.

At this juncture the tornado became wrapped up in rain and obscured from out vantage point.  I decided to chase with Terry Schenk and Jeff drove closer to the wall cloud.  Jeff continued chasing solo the rest of the evening and captured the Tulia, TX tornado on video.  Also reporting it via Ham radio to emergency officials the destruction that tornado was causing to thetown of Tulio, TX.  Terry and I continued west on 145 below you will see our view looking west as the supercell crossed 145.  We ran into slightly smaller than golf ball sized hail and I took a photo of it plunging into a flooded plain area just to our north.  We then turned north and the Edmonson, Tx tornado had come into view again and we captured these shots (below) before the tornado dissipated.

Photos Above L to R   Edmonson TX tornado before it dissipated.

  We made the decision to go back to 145 and head back to Hwy 27 and to our north we saw the developing wall cloud that eventually turned into a tornado and hit the town of Tulia.  Visibility was very poor from our vantage point, obscured by rain and hail.

Photos Above L to R  Wall Cloud forming heading to Tulia, TX ...You can see the wall cloud has some "fingers" coming down....The next several frames (below) are in exact order, showing the transition of the wall cloud before it made it to Tulia.

Sean and Katie McMullen captured this video of the Tornado hitting the community of Tulia, TX

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