The six photos above were taken with my dashcam a few miles east of Haskell, Tx while a tornado warning was in process.  These probably weak ‘dust whirl’ stage tornadoes occurred under a large wallcloud approximately SSE of town.

These are not gustnadoes because they are not associated with an outflow shear interface. Additionally, they are under an inflow wallcloud feature, are definitely rotating, and it can clearly be seen in the photos and particularly in the video that there is associated cloud motion and lowered ‘nipple’ shaped areas above the rotating whirl indicated that they are tied to deep convection.

The above twelve images of a dirt whirl were taken a bit further east of Haskell between Haskell and Throckmorton (Hwy 380). This area of rotation and swirling dirt appears quite a bit stronger than the initial dirt whirl further west. It is probably a true tornado also.  It was my impression that it was also under the large wallcloud. In the image above you can see the circular shaped wall with darker clouds behind the whirl and lighter clouds in front of and above the whirl.

The difference between the second whirl and the first one is that I cannot as clearly see a connection to cloud base with the second one. Hmm, I am now noticing a tubular shaped diagonal light cloud above the whirl. Perhaps it is more clearly associated. Notice the whirl leans the same direction as the tubular cloud. I will have to review more video.

As I recall this shot was not zoomed.  I let this possible developing tornado get within about 200 yards of me. (shot with Vx2000).

Once in the town of Throckmorton it was a tough decision.  Should I go south and play the more discrete developing cells along the dryline, or should I stick with the consistently TVS tripping initial cell? I followed the initial cell north east to Elbert. Just east of Elbert suddenly the inflow seemed to come back stronger and three areas of lowered wall clouds appeared.

At approximately 5:00pm cdt about 5 miles due north of Elbert I see the following apparent tornado with condensation funnel.

The biggest problem with this tornado is that it is so distant. From my vantage I am unable to verify rotation.  To make matters worse my Vx2000 was zoomed all the way to ‘Digital’ zoom mode. It seemed to blur the object more than it actually was.

Still, I believe it is probably an authentic tornado.

The shot left shows the tornado in the distance with what appears to be a tube extending up and into the darker part of the storm / wallcloud.

Here is another of the (three) lowered wallclouds that appears to be trying to do something as well.

At the time, the chaser I was with from Norman remarked that it looked like we were about to have 3 tornadoes down on the ground at the same time. For awhile it looked like that might happen.

These previous five shots taken just west of the town of Olney off hwy 79 shows another attempt at forming a tornado. The storm was really getting wound up at this time with lots of motion in the clouds.  They were captivating to watch. In the early frames you can see an extending light grey tubular cloud with a darker funnel shaped cloud within.  This funnel arcs over into the area of light precip. It gets very near the ground in the last frame.

(above) - Two or three funnels try to reach the ground in the rain.

The five shots previous were taken closer to the town of Olney still. As the previous funnel was forming almost on top of me, I decided to back off and try and get some angle on it from the direction of town.  As you can see the intense wall cloud forms another funnel and tries to make another tornado. I don’t think it does it though.

Or, does, it?  I am now in an Olney intersection turning around to face the new developmet. The wall cloud is all over above my head, and the siren (picture’s far right) is only about 100 yards away wailing at me! click on the link to here the siren!!!

Here is the view as I complete the turnaround. It wasn’t quite this dark.  My dashcam had the exposure set too low, but it was very dark and eerie!  If you’re a storm chaser you’ve got to love it.

The above two shots show what the funnel was doing as I turned around.  For a moment it appears to be close to making a tornado and then it starts wrapping with rain.

I’m standing in the door of my vehicle looking south, and then my notebook with GPS and radar goes blank on me after a lightning bolt. I know I am on ‘manual’ now.  Under a possible developing tornado is no time to lose your equipment. I know it is time to execute a backup escape plan. Fortunately I parked at the intersection of a road that I thought could take me out of town. I punch it south and as I do a big wrapping curtain of rain comes in from the northwest wrapping around the funnel and covering the town.  I hit some of the wind and precip but manage to break clear.

As I exit town the storm says Adieu by providing a little lighting for my exit! Perfect!!

© All images on this site Copyright  Bill Tabor unless otherwise noted