May 5, 2002

MAY 5th - Happy, TX
CHASERS: Bobby Eddins, Edward Cohen NOWCASTING: Michael Cohen
Our thoughts are with the people of Happy, TX as this tornado struck the southern part of town, killing 2 people and injuring 4. Our only consolation is knowing that the people of Happy had ample warning due in large part to the observations of the chasers that were there. We listened to moment by moment accounts being relayed to the Amarillo NWS via Ham Radio and heard the sirens sound just as the first dust broke ground. The system worked here and surely saved many from harm. SUMMARY: This was day 1 of Me and Ed Cohen's first chase vacation for 2002. Mike Cohen had obligations that prevented him from chasing so he agreed to nowcast for us. This day was full of questions as we left Fort Worth around 12:30 pm for an initial target of Childress, TX. where we would asses things. It appeared that there would be a good dryline but that it would be near the TX/NM border and only push out 1 or 2 counties by 00Z. There also was an ill defined warm front to the south that the models had indicated would lift as far north as the Red River Valley by 00Z. I also observed the southern edge of a cloud bank that already stretched between Wichita Fall, TX and Childress, TX as we left. Our stop in Childress revealed the dryline still along the border with a triple-point east of Clovis, NM and a warm-front stretching east from there to the south of Childress. A check with Mike revealed that supercells were already in progress in the NW TX panhandle and soon there were 3 new cells from Clovis north. The southern of these would be our target. As we approached Childress we were able to make contact with Sam Barricklow via Ham Radio and found that he was a few miles ahead of us with Al Moller nearby. We all continued up hwy 287. A bit up the road I checked with Mike again and he described 2 cells SW of Amarillo. Both looked like "Flying-Eagles" on radar with the southern storm the best, showing a hook. It was heading for the area south of Canyon, TX. I relayed this to Sam and others ahead of us and we all plotted an intercept. At Claude, TX we took FM 1151 to bypass Amarillo. We turned south on FM 1541 which took us to Canyon and HWY 27. We exited HWY 27 at FM 285 and jogged west to HWY 87 and followed it south into Happy.
	Before exiting HWY 27 we could already see this storms wall-cloud to our SW. As we proceeded south on HWY 87 we encountered some small hail mixed with light rain and a brief funnel in the middle of the wall-cloud.
	As we positioned ourselves in Happy the wall-cloud to our west fought outflow, but soon began to win the battle. Upward motion increased and a tail-cloud began to form.
	We moved a bit west for a better view, stopping at the western edge of town. Soon an RFD slot began to work around the eastern edge of the wall-cloud.
	As the RFD wrapped around the wall-cloud it kicked up the first dust.
	This dust plume proceeded north as the RFD wrapped into the mesocyclone.
	Close inspection reveals a cloud feature directly above this dust plume as it moves north.
	A large dust bowl forms as the plume makes it's first trip around this large rather weak tornado.
	The tornado quickly evolved into a large dusty barrel and strengthened.
	Several vehicles passed us, exiting the area wisely. The tornado now appears to be at it's strongest.
	The tornado appeared taller as it moved slightly to our left, heading for the southern part of Happy.
	The base narrowed a bit but the tornado still seemed strong as it approached.
	Now the tornado appeared to weaken a bit and started to dump it's dirt load west of Happy as we prepare to exit.
	As the first tornado appeared to weaken, a new wall-cloud just to our NW started to rotate. Time to go!
	We drove back east into Happy and took HWY 87 south. As we turned south the tornado continued to dump it's load.
	Our new wall-cloud never appeared to produce, but a new tornado seemed to form out of the old meso as it approached the SW side of Happy. Fresh dust is still being kicked up here.
	A condensation funnel now appears. I'm still un-certain if this was a new tornado or the old one re-gaining strength, but from our point-of-view it appeared to be inside the dirt and rain curtains left from our earlier tornado. There were 2 distinct tornado tracks according to the official survey.
	We stopped on HWY 27 just south of FM 1881 and watched the second tornado as it moved through the south side of Happy. It first became a white "elephant truck" and then took on a "stove-pipe" appearance.
	Wrapping in rain and dust as it exited town.
We drove south on HWY 27 and took FM 2698 east to FM 146. We stopped for a while to watch a new storm that had developed to the SW of the Happy storm but this storm mushed out. We continued east on FM 146 to HWY 207 and then south. We soon ran into the chaser hoards and stopped and HWY 207 and HWY 86 west of Silverton, TX. We continued on in an attempt to intercept the storm again as it moved toward Memphis, TX but the chase was over when we encountered power lines across the road west of Lakeview. With our gas tank nearing E we back tracked and headed north to Clarendon, TX for gas.
East of silverton we were treated to a beautiful sunset. The storm appeared to glow in the middle.
	The setting sun lights rows of knuckles. NICE!!