Texas tornadoes reveal the highs and lows of storm chasing
While one storm danced around wind turbines and left behind minimal damage, another twister changed directions, imperiling a storm chasing tour group.
By
Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published May 5, 2022 1:29 PM EDT
|
Updated May 5, 2022 2:42 PM EDT
Multiple tornadoes were reported Wednesday across Texas and Oklahoma, treating storm chasers to some of the most picturesque tornado shots you can get. However, as night fell, one storm gave quite a few chasers a scare.
Outside Crowell, Texas, which is about a two-hour drive north of Abilene, Texas, a stunning white cone tornado was spotted by storm chasers and civilians alike as it danced across a field of wind turbines.
Multiple chasers, including AccuWeather's own Tony Laubach and his chasing partner Ed Grubb, followed the storm as its size waned and waxed, kicking up Texas red dirt and passing close to people's homes and farmsteads.
"It was ghostly how it materialized and came out of the tree line. It was this bowl of dust, and suddenly the funnel appeared. And the sound, as close as we were, it was almost silent," Grubb said.
As the storm was tracking slightly south of Cromwell, the twister appeared to track right over one of the wind turbines, yet the turbine appeared to escape any sort of significant damage.
"Watching it roll directly over those wind turbines, which are pretty big themselves, but how the tornado dwarfed them so much. And they survived! Fortunately a weak tornado," Laubach said. "But all the colors of the landscape, the sky, the clouds, made for a beautifully eerie palette from Ma Nature."
Storm Chaser Brandon Clement was also tracking the twister near the windmills, and he shared remarkable footage of the tornado "eating" one of the windmills, as he described on Twitter.
Other storms that touched down Wednesday night did cause damage, however. Outside Lockett, Texas, a tornado suddenly twisted into town and caused damage to several structures. Among those affected by the storm were six people in a storm chasing tour group whose van was directly hit by the tornado.
"We pulled up here and we turned to try and face into the wind, but everything just, it hit us. It spun us completely around, it turned us 90 degrees," Charles Edwards, the operator of Cloud 9 Tours, told Clement. All of the passengers and guides in the van were reportedly safe, although Edwards showed Clement that one of his arms had been badly lacerated.
The National Weather Service had to issue multiple warnings for the storm as it changed direction several times and eventually veered northward on its unusual path, placing storm chasers like Edwards close to the storm and parts of Lockett in harm's way.
Light to moderate property damage could also be seen across the northeastern part of Lockett, with parts of roofs torn off, trees felled and dents on cars hit by debris. No storm-related deaths were reported from either tornado.
For the latest weather news, check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
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News / Severe Weather
Texas tornadoes reveal the highs and lows of storm chasing
While one storm danced around wind turbines and left behind minimal damage, another twister changed directions, imperiling a storm chasing tour group.
By Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published May 5, 2022 1:29 PM EDT | Updated May 5, 2022 2:42 PM EDT
Multiple tornadoes were reported Wednesday across Texas and Oklahoma, treating storm chasers to some of the most picturesque tornado shots you can get. However, as night fell, one storm gave quite a few chasers a scare.
Outside Crowell, Texas, which is about a two-hour drive north of Abilene, Texas, a stunning white cone tornado was spotted by storm chasers and civilians alike as it danced across a field of wind turbines.
Multiple chasers, including AccuWeather's own Tony Laubach and his chasing partner Ed Grubb, followed the storm as its size waned and waxed, kicking up Texas red dirt and passing close to people's homes and farmsteads.
"It was ghostly how it materialized and came out of the tree line. It was this bowl of dust, and suddenly the funnel appeared. And the sound, as close as we were, it was almost silent," Grubb said.
As the storm was tracking slightly south of Cromwell, the twister appeared to track right over one of the wind turbines, yet the turbine appeared to escape any sort of significant damage.
"Watching it roll directly over those wind turbines, which are pretty big themselves, but how the tornado dwarfed them so much. And they survived! Fortunately a weak tornado," Laubach said. "But all the colors of the landscape, the sky, the clouds, made for a beautifully eerie palette from Ma Nature."
Storm Chaser Brandon Clement was also tracking the twister near the windmills, and he shared remarkable footage of the tornado "eating" one of the windmills, as he described on Twitter.
Other storms that touched down Wednesday night did cause damage, however. Outside Lockett, Texas, a tornado suddenly twisted into town and caused damage to several structures. Among those affected by the storm were six people in a storm chasing tour group whose van was directly hit by the tornado.
"We pulled up here and we turned to try and face into the wind, but everything just, it hit us. It spun us completely around, it turned us 90 degrees," Charles Edwards, the operator of Cloud 9 Tours, told Clement. All of the passengers and guides in the van were reportedly safe, although Edwards showed Clement that one of his arms had been badly lacerated.
The National Weather Service had to issue multiple warnings for the storm as it changed direction several times and eventually veered northward on its unusual path, placing storm chasers like Edwards close to the storm and parts of Lockett in harm's way.
Light to moderate property damage could also be seen across the northeastern part of Lockett, with parts of roofs torn off, trees felled and dents on cars hit by debris. No storm-related deaths were reported from either tornado.
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For the latest weather news, check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
Report a Typo