32 Petrolia TX 30 April 2004

Date: 30 April 2004

Location: Near Wichita Falls, Tx

Summary: Forecasted models looked fairly decent for a good chase day in the Red River Valley. I left Denver the evening of the 29th and spent the evening in Boise City, OK. When I woke up in the morning I looked at the outlook and the surface maps and chose near Vernon, Tx for my target area. As I made my way to my target I put to use the WxWorx equipment I got over the winter to use. I could see that the sweet spot was going to be east of my initial target area and headed towards Wichita Falls. As I approached storms began to bloom rapidly and I very nice cell fired up near Sheppard Airforce Base. I went around the south side of town and came around to the notch area of the storm. I followed it up near Petrolia where it produced a short lived tornado.

After seeing the TOR warning come up, this was the first feature I saw. However this is not what is being warned.

This is...........Definitely a tornado to the left.

Radar picture from WxWorx just before the tornado.

Tornado heading to the NE south of Petrolia.

Later in the afternoon a brief funnel East of Henrietta, TX