Haven't got this chase account out because I've been constantly chasing and on the road - no time to log on and do email. Anyway I went out alone Saturday May 4th to my target area eastern Tom Green county (San Angelo). Should have come straight in on 87 as I originally planned, but upon hearing about convection between SJT and ABI I diverted a bit north to Santa Anna. I also reasoned that would allow me to intercept any NE moving storms coming up from San Angelo. Nearing Santa Anna I could see a storm toward San Angelo - so I refueled at Santa Anna. My philosophy is to always fill up right when entering the operational target chase zone - so I have manuevering fuel. I highly recommend this approach and it probably saved me countless troubles that night. I moved to intercept going through Ballinger then swung down 87. NOAA then issued Svr storm warn on the SJT cell with very large hail and movement - east. As I entered the town of Paint Rock they issued a tornado warning for a tornado near Eola moving to Paint Rock. I blasted south down hwy 83 and stopped just north of 765 from Eola. To my west in the distance there was a very large block wall cloud which was very low to the ground. As a matter of fact it was so large and so dark over there I couldn't hardly see under it. The sun was still up, so I could just a bit. This was a very oppressive and sinister looking storm. I suppose I would classify it as HP - most likely. As I recall, it had already been producing large hail toward San Angelo and was moving fairly slowly. At any time I expected to see a big tornado passing in the field before me headed for Paint Rock. That never happened, and I am unable to confirm any tornadoes with this storm. I do believe it was capable of producing tornadoes though. At this point as it got later and darker I got impatient and took 765 toward this monstrosity. It was one of those storms that tended to make you not want to get "too" close - but I went as far as I could - which was just short of the wall cloud. I continually experienced multitudes of brilliant lightning flashes. Some of these were close and the flash/bang would make me jump. Others would flash and leave an imprint on my cornea that I could see for a few minutes. I videotaped a bit of this. When it appeared I was about to get overrun I headed back south to 87, and started working my way east for the next days chase. Well, until I got a radar update and decided to "play" with this storm a bit more. Turns out it"played" with me instead.

I headed up to what I considered the area of rotation where a tornado warning had been issued, stopped and couldn't see a whole lot. Seems that a lot of the lightning earlier was now mostly within the cloud and wasn't illuminating the rest of the storm much, or showing many features. I received a NWS update about verified baseball hail. I then stopped north of Pear Valley. In the darkness to the east I could see a dark, fast moving curtain, and it began misting rain and winds started blowing harder. I bailed back south cause it appeared to have high winds in it and I already knew about the hail. I figured it wouldn't be much fun to lose the windshield in the dark. I saw some other chasers and spotters out there and usually they were entering the area just as I was leaving at high speed. I can only assume that many of these probably either lost windshields or got blown over.

Continued following it east to Lohn, and then a back dirt road to Rochelle. Several times the thing kept catching up to me quick. I stopped briefly near Rochelle to try and see what I could see, suddenly winds began picking up. I drove like mad east and then got into what I believed was the inflow jet for a developing tornado if not the edge of a tornado itself. I felt the only action was to try and break free. Leaves and all sort of crap were hitting the vehicle and I thought I was going to get blown off the road several times. Additionally I saw purple and green flashes in the field very near to my north (left side of vehicle). I definitely had the feeling "something" was out there. As soon as I got through Rochelle the NWS radio went off with a tornado warning for 3 north of Rochelle. Well, I don't know how accurate their 3 miles is (could be practically be on top of me - so I just continued on east. Once I got just past Richland Springs another torn warning went off saying that it was at Richland Springs headed for Algerita, Harkleyville, and San Saba. More ominous flashes, wind, and for all I knew I was driving into the hook. It was very dark. I finally dove south at San Saba and got out of the path of whatever it was. I had some nowcast and recommendations from Gene Moore (thanks!). Gene was saying it was the best couple of twin hooks he's seen on radar in Tx in quite a while. I got back and saw the radar shots - and was amazed cause it looked like I had been practically driving under the hook the whole time. Judging from the picture of Aaron Ruppert’s  it appears there was at least 1 big stovepipe tornado out there near my location as I ran - LOL! Maybe more along the way. I must admit it didn't seem that funny at the time. Those headlights ahead of Aarron as he shot this night tornado was possibly my vehicle as I was "getting the heck out".

I suppose this was a prelude to the Happy night meso incident of the next day. Perhaps if I had put my post out earlier it would have helped remind others that even though our chase may end, - it obviously doesn't cause the storm to stop producing tornadoes. This storm scared the heck out of me. With the lack of lighting it was hard to tell exactly where the features were. Probaby (obviously) it wasn't real smart of me to play with this tornadic storm this way, but it's kind of the moth to the flame thing. It was amazing how this storm continually managed to be right on top of me even though I was driving very fast. On the radar loop I could even see it swoop down on me to the south when I was just west of San Saba, and then it appears it began falling apart after I was no longer a target for it.

I recommend if you night chase - obviously be very careful. These things are serious. Probably I could have easily been swallowed up by this thing, but probably my experience with all my other night encounters saved me. Also, make sure you have plenty of gas, and you probably want to have a good radar picture guarateed so you know where the thing really is. If anyone else has any encounter reports or night pictures of this thing I'd be glad to hear them.

Bill

May 4th 2002

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase