| CHASE 2005 [ 2003 ] [ 2004 ] [ 2005 ] [ 2008 ] |
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MAY 12 2005 |
| We had scrambled south from Kansas into the Texas Panhandle, for what would ultimately prove to be the most intense chase day of our lives… |
| In Texas we managed to catch up with the tornado warned storms that went up there in the Plainview vicinity, and were in position to intercept any severe weather that occurred in the region. |
| We met up with some fellow chasers and waited until things began to fire up. We saw a well formed wall cloud to our north and witnessed some large hail which many chasers did not risk driving into. |
We pulled off just north of SOUTH PLAINS, just in time to notice a tornado forming close to our position. It was a slender white cone which slowly extended to the ground.
The tornado began to intensify and soon became dustier in appearance. |  |
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 | Rain and large hail began to fall so we continued to chase the twister as it grew in size to our north.
We had a perfect vantage point so we braved the elements, got out of the vehicles and watched it move across the road ahead of us before roping out. It was magnificent!. |
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| The storm had a really strong motion now and as we drove on another strong tornado began to form next to us. We soon realized that this was a dangerous ‘Multi Vortex’ tornado and we were right on the edge of the circulation, |  |
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 | Large hail began to fall so we decided to try to get ahead of the tornado and out of the destructive hail. We sped along side the twister, but were unable to make it. The situation now was quite serious as we were now stuck between the tornado and the hail core. Our visibility was now very poor, as the rain and wind slammed the van. We were like a sitting duck to the baseball sized hail as it was flung sideways by the storm. |
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| Our situation became even worse as the windscreen was smashed but fortunately did not cave in completely. Within seconds there was a huge smash as hail came straight through the rear side window! See the clip HERE. |  |
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| We had to get out of there now and quickly turned the van around and retreated, as the tornado crossed the road about 50 FEET from us. |
When we had reached safety, we rejoined John and the rest of the tour and some fellow chasers before surveying the damage to our vehicles which was extensive!. We had a smashed windscreen, a completely destroyed side window and windscreen wipers. Our chase was over. That night we limped back to Amarillo, in one piece but only just. |
