I left Denver this morning at about 5:30a and made great time and gas mileage into Amarillo where I filled up my 3/4 tank after over 400 miles of travel. I then continued south through Lubbock where I was aiming to make Midland. However, storms firing in New Mexico had me thinking heading that far south wasn’t needed. I elected to turn west into Andrews where I met with Jason Boggs and shot the breeze with him til we elected to head north to Seminole to intercept the storm coming out of Hobbs.
What happened next is by far the most incredible chasing experience of my life to date. The storm was heading east/northeast at this point just north of the highway. When I got into town, I met with Amos M, Eric N, and Scott E and we headed west out of town. We elected then to get northwest of Seminole to get a closer view of the storm.
The storm suddenly made a violent and quick turn almost due southeast. Hail began to fall; marbles at first, then growing to quarters, then golfballs. Eric and Amos (in Amos’s truck) headed back southeast into town while Scott E and I hung back. Things looked like they were lightening up a bit. All of a sudden, a few baseballs started coming down. We were going to head back in to town when we heard Eric and Amos over the radio advising us NOT to head south cause the hail was bigger.
We then elected to stay put; the stones weren’t falling too furiously, so it looked as if the storm had wrapped itself around us and we were going to be spared. *Insert a long incorrect buzzer here* More stones began to fall, then hell rained upon us in the form of 3 and 4 inch diameter stones. My vehicle didn’t stand a chance; the back windshield exploded as I was filming (camera away). I ironically enough had just began to say how thankful I was to get the damage waiver on the rental when the back windshield exploded.
We then tried to find cover as the back windshield continued to crash in. The sunroof never stood a chance and was beaten to a pulp as well. The windshield held its own, but soon became a shattered, spidery mess. Scott and I found shelter along side an aluminum building northwest of town and rode out the rest of the storm from there. His car suffered numerous big dents and a cracked windshield. I lost the back windshield, sunroof, and severely damaged front windshield.
We left my car at the police station and I jumped in with Scott for the remainder of the chase. We eventually intercepted the tornado southeast of Patricia, but were looking in toward the meso from the north and had poor contrast. None-the-less, it was the first tornado of the season for me.
Many thanks to Scott Eubanks for allowing me the seat in his car after leaving my car in Seminole and allowing me the chance to continue chasing. Also thanks to Amos and Eric for their concern and offer to ride with them. Its always nice to be in good company, and while I was in a hole, they all offered help even as it may have cost them parts of the chase.
CHASERS NOTE (20 Some-Odd Years Later): Obviously in the youth of my career, I learned the hard way about how to properly deal with these situations in the public eye. Obviously the destruction of a vehicle was no laughing matter, and I (still pretty green) definitely could’ve done much better in how I portrayed this event. It was never my intention to purposefully destroy this vehicle as I legitimately rented it to make the drive to Midland for my Dad’s wedding, just so happens I got involved with a chase as you would expect for early May in Texas. The decisions made on this chase were done given the info we had at hand, including staying south when the storm made its hard right turn toward Seminole, leaving us in the core’s path. Believe it or not, this is the ONLY vehicle (that was NOT my own) that I have ever damaged in ANY way, so I’d say my record since has been pretty damn good. None-the-less, I left this log written as it was so many years ago to keep it as authentic as it was the day I posted it, but wanted to add this addendum to it a couple decades later as I feel it should be said.
On a funny note…. to this day, retire Denver Chief Meteorologist, Mike Nelson, says this is one of his favorite stories of chasing. He still refers to it to this day with a grin and a laugh..
