News DetailDAMAGING TULIA, TX TORNADO!
Posted At: April 21, 2007 @ 7:53 PM
Posted By: Reed Timmer
Related Categories: Tornadoes
Sadly, Tulia, TX sustained severe damage from a large, violent tornado. We intercepted the storm when it was just west of Tulia, and watched the tornado touch down less than 1/4 mile away. Here is a brief video clip from 1/4 mile east of downtown Tulia as the tornado was moving through town. WARNING! SOME ADULT LANGUAGE!
After the Tulia tornado, we drove at 5 mph down mud roads in 4x4 for about an hour, getting sprayed with mud every time we opened the window to videotape the tornado. We were blocked by the damage path, and were forced to take a detour to the east to get back to Amarillo. On our way back, we ran into a large stovepipe tornado after dark between Happy, TX and Wayside, TX. I have several frame captures of this large tornado that I'll post later. Shown below are a few more frame captures of the Tulia tornado.
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WOW!!!! Those are awesome photos Reed!!! Be careful!
SWEET!! Be careful!
WOW!!!! Those are awesome photos Reed!!! Be careful!
REED FOR PRESIDENT!
I missed that one by 10 minutes! I was in Hart where I got a nice rope tornado on vid. I then headed to Tulia and it was already gone. Oh well, still got one. Good chase today.
Impresive tornado, It looked AMAZING on radar too! Nice pics!
prolly one of your biggest fans...you do what I dream of...I too don't like to see peoples lives get tore up but nature does that...you just watch it....love you guys....amazing vids....let me know if there is a opening for a JOB:)
Dammit, the good stuff always happens when I'm not at the computer! Lol glad you guys stayed safe! My prayers are for those whose lives were torn up!
Nice shots. I was at a slightly safer distance of over 5 miles to the south after getting hung up on the previous tornado. This was definitely the smaller one of the tornadoes the storm produced that we saw, but it was the worst because it landed right in the middle of Tulia. It was aweful to watch.
Hey Wes...congrats on the tornadoes! It was HORRIBLE to see it go through downtown Tulia. We thought it was going to be just south of there, but tornadogenesis occurred insanely fast.
We were torn between intercepting this storm early and the Hereford storm just to our west that looked incredible until I-40. We were watching the Tulia storm from when it was in NM, from just north of Dimmit. We should have gone with the first instinct.
We saw a large, strong stovepipe after dark just northwest of Wayside...I heard you saw this one too?
Awsome photo's,
saw multiple supercells on radar yesterday, they appeared to be pretty strong and big.
I'm curious about the video's.
incredible footage!!!!!!! Did you intercept any other tornadoes?? Mod on Day 3. Never seen that before. I'll be chasing this week.
Nice catrch! See you tomorrow. Tuesday looks huge!
Looks like a storm is intensifying over Omaha Valley. Weather Channel is predicting Tornado producing storms in the Upper Missippi Valley. Hope to catch some tornadoes on radar today! :)
Nice twister. I have some kin out in that part of the country. one of whom lost a few head of cattle yesterday. They are ok though.
I was hunting yesterday out east of Chattanooga. Last day of the season. Got me two nice ones, the second with the bow and then had to finish him off with the knife. Hate to do that to the beautiful bastard but he almost got away! Well, it will be venison for a week! Gonna be giving some away, if you're in my neck of the woods come by and have yourself some. We'd love to have you!
Since the season is over looks like I'll be out in boomer sooner country on Tuesday. Could be May 3rd all over again. Moderate risk already!
What are the rules about putting your video on the news?
Amazing tornadogenesis I hope you got to see it all. We have the video of it forming and I have some great stills. We should all get together and compare video. I hope no one was criticaly injured.
Great footage. It seemed the tornado weakend as it went through the town. Is that true? Was there alot of damage?
Fantastic Footage! Huge debris...
Just an idea, but since I'm not glued to my computer, but I am glued to my Sidekick 3, anyway you could do an email alert when you post a new blog relating to a new storm development? Like make a sign up thing where chasers like us can sign up with our emails to get alerts when you're gonna chase or just information about a new storm? Just wondering. Thanx! :)
Severe t-storm watch here in Iowa til 9pm. Also tornado watch to the west including Des Moines til 9pm and another for Omaha area. Awsome footage from Tulia! Hoping to see some severe stuff here...Reed...think the atmosphereic conditions are right for anything good up here?
I stop looking at radar for 20 minutes. I come back from no warnings to a tornado warning with 3 tornadoes confirmed in Pirece County, NE
Just now starting to hear thunder here in western Black Hawk county in northeastern Iowa. Wow David!! What area in NE is Pierce Co?
Nevermind David...just saw on TWC radar where it's at..lol.....Looking to be sorta active here rest of today. TWC is saying conditions aren't unstable enough to be really grumpy :( Who knows..
It appers DFW is again going to get more severe weather this week, maybe we can have 3 stright weeks of tornadoes in the metroplex?
Hi Shawna: I believe we already have that set up on the blog. Below where you right your comment, there should be a "Subscribe" box you can click. It will then send you an email whenever there is a comment. Is this what you're talking about?
It looks INSANE in the KS/OK/TX region tomorrow and Tuesday. This is the first real Oklahoma outbreak since 2003! Stay tuned.
Hey Reed Whats up the NOAA's National Weather Service is saying that there is a slight chance on day 3, in St.Louis so would you think we have a good chance or do you think the severe storms are going to stay more southwest? Great video and pics.
Dent: It looks like the surface winds are veering ahead of the boundary, so the wind is becoming more unidirectional with height in low-levels. This is likely decreasing the shear and making conditions less favorable for tornadoes.
Did you guys head to Tulia to see what the damage was like?
Danny, as said by other storm chasers, The damage is significant.
Awesome video Reed. What a violent tornado. 2007 continues to prove itself well to you guys.
Sorry for asking such a bad question. Here is another that might not be as dumb. How does one become a professional storm chaser?
It's nearly impossible to achieve enough income to live on through just storm chasing. Since we drive so much, we're VERY lucky if we just break even...If you want to be comfortable financial...a storm chasing addiction is not good to have!!!
For example, on May 12, 2004 we were trying to catch a tornado on mud roads in southwest KS with 10 foot deep ditches on either side...we lost control of the vehicle and rolled the car in the ditch..my camera was destroyed when it hit the windshield, and we were up to our necks in sewage from the ditch! All our uninsured equipment was destroyed and we missed one of the best tornado events of recent years....We're still recovering from that year!!
Tomorrow and Tues look like the apocalypse.
Rope it in.
Is there a donation fund or anything you have setup? I know I would donate if I could or you had a place.
I wanna hear your thoughts on the outlook beyond Tuesday. Although, since you said tomorrow and Tuesday look like the apocalypse, maybe that's a silly question! :D Anyway, the SPC isn't giving out a 4-8 day summary yet, so if you have any thoughts in general about probability and/or specific areas, that would be cool. And remeber, if you're ever Ozark-bound, El Aca-puko is in Ash Flat, in case you get a burrito craving.
Reed, what would you recommend for someone with an extreme passion for this kind of stuff? I am 15 and have always wanted to be a storm chaser. Is there anything that I could start doing to help while still in high school? And what about after that?
Tomorrow looks better than Tuesday now, here is a forecasted sounding for Hobart at 00z http://weather.cod.edu/fsound/fsoundview.pl?model=eta&ftime=24&lat=&lon=&site=kguy , pretty ridiculous. i'll see ya tomorrow
School, School, and more School lol
It Looks like St.louis has a slight chance of severe T'Storm :) Tuesday into Wednesday but with our luck we wont get anything you guys need a break of storms. Its time for St.Louis to have some T'Storms lol.
Reed what do you think about our chances.
Connor:
Get your meteorology degree.
Heidi:
You can look at forecast models, or your local national weather service for a look into your own forecast.
Thanks, I was able to get that storm because I realized I couldnt catch that Hereford storm, turned out to be a good thing. We saw something out near Wayside that night . If that was a tornado, it was a very large tornado. My video didnt answer any questions we had about what we saw.
I am going to post it to Youtube this evening, it has slowed down clips of what the lightning illuminated. About 20 minutes after Wayside we spotted a cone on the ground about 5 to 10 miles south of Claude. We dont know if it was the same one or not, I was hoping someone else had got some better footage than we did of it.
Can't wait until tomarrow or better yet tuesday. Here is a statement from the NWS.....
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING STATEMENT...
EMERGENCY MANAGERS SHOULD PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE SEVERE WEATHER
MONDAY NIGHT AND A POTENTIALLY MAJOR SEVERE WEATHER OUTBREAK
TUESDAY AND TUESDAY EVENING.
Hey, Reed, I do always sign up for the alerts when a new comment is posted, but I meant for like when you guys post a new "Breaking News" blog. Lol
THIS IS MY HOMETOWN!
Tomorrow looks to be active good luck Today and Tomorrow Reed cant wait for some more videos. Besafe
Wes: I have some really good frame captures of the night time tornado northwest of Wayside. It was a strong stovepipe, similar to what we saw south of McLean after dark. I haven't seen any other pictures of it...there is a low wall cloud/scud tag on Stormtrack that they say was that tornado, but it definitely wasn't the Wayside tornado...it was actually a very well defined stovepipe. The DOWs were also scanning the storm at the time.
Shawna: Jason (the TV.net web developer) saw your post and is going to implement that feature soon. Thanks for the suggestion!
No problem! You guys rock. First thing I do when I come to work every morning is check out this site. lol
Tulia is my home town too. I am trying to figure out what road the chasers were on when the video was recorded. I think you might have been very near my parents home. I thought I might figure it out using the water tower and the trees as landmarks, but I can't quite make it out though. Do you recall?
I'm probably not going to be a professional stormchaser. I"d probably want to throw a donation in for you guys and perhaps go ride out with you all sometime. It sounds like quite an expensive job with all the equipment and travel time. Of course the love of it all must be worth it.
very nice job! THIS IS MY HOMETOWN! Danny that was the vigo road east on 6th street they were traveling west at the time the tower is close to the high school
Sorry Teresa i ment that for you
That was the Love Road east of town. Looked like it was between the water tower and the road that goes north to the golf course and show barns at Tule Lake. My home town too. Sad to see so much damage in the emails I've received.