ML19241B991

Characteristics of Red River Valley Tornadoes as of 790415.

ML19241B991
Person / Time
Site:	Comanche Peak
Issue date:	04/15/1979
From:	Fujita T AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:
Shared Package
ML19241B989	List: ML19241B991 ML19241C004
References
TR-790415, NUDOCS 7907260091
Download: ML19241B991 (5)

Text

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ce cf April 15, 1979

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by Ted Fujita On April 12 :Sjita and 'Wakinoto used two Cecsna 172s concurrently, flying alou' 12 Ecur; escr. 'nauncic 's Cecsna returned to CF.C at 720 E. Sinilar flights ucc > re, uted en April 13, folloving paths of a total of cix ternadces.

Pre'.inir. ry r:: ult of these six tornadoes are as follows-1 g"- . w' : - :7p = 4,4,7 Vic.:'- ;2 th started at 9 D E Crowell as a narrow line which crangea ic.: c3 c: cidal, cuction-vort ex swaths in the open field.

F ea .- irt:r;;'- cf F4 (low) was re ched to the south, through the ea: t c f '. ' rnor. .

Tr.is tenado crecced the Fed River with Fi intensity, uprooting a k ut c ne " --* " + rees along the river bed. The path continued to-waF_ tne east-rcrthoast past Davidson. Thi. total pac.h length was 30 niles , 2^  : 7.iles in Texas and 11 miles in Oklahcna.

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F=P = 2,,o,1 _ _

Tne :;t s t1&d at 1 S Hollister and continued toward the c' at- no r" n : t . Tne peak intensity of F2 cccurred at the 5 nile path

- il ea r e . Tne total path length was 8 miles.

3 T- XC' T W rF? = 1,2,1 -

7ath tei inning at 1 F.l Faxon enended northeastward with the real intensi*.y cf F' at the locaticn ;ust to the north of Faxon.

Tne rath ler;th w2s 6 r.iles.

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,.,. . t .c . = 1, , 9 , 4.9 Tnis tonado starte1 .ile north of the ter--inal building of the W.icn '.;nicip-11 Airpcrt. T.e 7.ath extended towara - n- ..c + h eas t te Lee 31 n . and Pnd Street where the path nade a gentle right turn.

Ter2de noved eastward ?. cross the In tentate, leaving beautiful suc ti: -vert ex nan.: in a wheat field befcre it cranc el the Cache C ro- . , n rt " o f CEL-7. then the tcrnado repe,t-i nther ccr.;11cated

'. eft cnd ri.'ht turns b.>fere the path from the air cas lect in an area e c . rrC wi t " 10.; bucnes which did .et respond to FC wind.

'~ne naxinu- in ancin '

lawton was F3 (middle), however the ;cak intencity. -

cc Lirated fron the air, occurred en both sides of the Irt".mtat , ,here a car was blown off the CK'-7 access nad. Tne "rti

_:,':^d;<> inter. city is F3 (up;er) . Tne total pa' length was k g y .,'f s r.,- s En ' 1 i 1 9 0 qcsf>

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Tr- first do:o of tnic torne.dn wa; cce- i n n rrol d . .u 3_t!.,

at last onehalf mile wide, continued nor tntact to'..ard the w. Riv;1. -

Tornaio crossed the river with F0 intencit> and began int'nzif.einc -

aftern 2 . There were several cucticr-vertex rarkt between +-

tno river L, ,o. -

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. s* n oar .= s was reachel.

Tnen, the tor . ado wea'<ened to F1 as it crc:ael CEL-5 The Fath crocced L'3 231-277 about 11 miles south cf the lawien Airport and con-tinued northeast. Just to the cast of the C1cne Creei;, a 1.5-r.11e cection of telcphone/pouer lines runninc N - S, war puched over.

The ce:cnd peak intensity of F2 was reached at about 12 milec coutheact of Inxten. Then, the "ath continued northea;; past Chi-7.

Cr totn sides of the hfshway the tornado der.olished the ca_ne houses which were damaged by the April 5, 1973 tor

• ado. I will confl.m thir by exr.inin; the ~ area; photos I took last year. If so, it wouM appec r that lic. 't .in; ctruck the sa .e 1ccation arain.

isaricw was aficcted ty FO to Fi winds. hoger 'Jakimoto cuspected that tha " m of the uinds was ne that of a tomadc but a dounburc t.

In our infor a ion exchr .gc at lawton during a refueling,1 decided to re-- ex nin e the Earlow area.

Tha "-# ct ctom was a 3-r.ile wide dcwnburst, alnest identical in pcttern to Ficurcs 7.2 and 7.3 cf Fujita'c ranual of Dounburst Identificatio.." (S:1?? Res . Taper 156) . The downb rst started where the Grandfield tornado nade the final left turn and extended pact

" _ricu t oua-d an r res b: tween Alex and Lindcay. Tne area of the I:arlow dcunbunt(s), probably a congler.erate of downbursts and microbursts ,

was an elongat ed ellipse, sone 40 niles lonc.

The G andfield tornado *:an a wide-end ( 'JE ) tornado with a lene-th of c!e nilcs, rounbust da age of FO - F1 extended further touard the northeast, as far as 30 niles frer the end point of the tornado drag :.

The first 9-nile path was in Texas and the rest, SS-nile, was in Okla-her.a .

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=o o o The NSSL chase te= confined a to= ado moving east, to the north of Mabe11e. Both Fujita and 'iakirota flew around Divemion Lake and lake Kenp. No tree da age has been found.

Another a*.ter.pt will be made to survey the area, both cr the ground and frcn the air uitnin the next 10 days.

7. 4T 'TITA TA1:5 G:P FF = h,4,4

"'M first indica.icn cf hicn wird was cpotted atcut 3 mile caa t- nor' hcac t o f Ho'. liday . The ternado crossed the Archer '..ichita count- line along the Fcrt 'icrth and "enver Failroad track.

Two oil-storace tar!.c in an cil field were uprcotel and blown off, leavinc eericdic blac:' spots of crude- cil spills . Six high- tcr.cic o steel towers to the southwest of the Merarial Stadium were daraced;

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a three , cro laying flat cn the crcund. The Strdiu- is located near too 4 -i . c -i.eage fren the first danage point.

Tm. icrr.aic inter.sified ;; idly tu F4 (uppernoct) as it passed tc the ;c.th cf the Stadiun and ncintained thic peak intensity for tne next 11 .iles. The .tidth of the tornado in thic 11-nile section, inclu in; an E~r.ile section in the residential dictricts cf Wichita Falls, ut; cztrenely wide. Tne FO da age ias abcut 14 nile wide; F1, 3/b -ile; au F), nile.

.:hcr -r thc pe2k intensity was F4 (uppernost) or F5 (lauer) is d a hn ' a - . > a t the prencnt ctage of the F- cale acaecanent. We took at:ut SC ~ 1arial prc'ecra;hc fron 1500 to 3000 ft AGL over Wichita Falls. T ; Texac ~'ech curvey tean headed by Jin McDonalc ar.d Jce

ir'r has bee perfor--ing an analycis of their ground rnd engineering c urvey . le will be rcaching a joint decision on the final F ccale.

Tnis is tcir coor 0 nated by Bob Abbey of NEO.

Au :ccr ac cur colcr pictures are processed by Kodak in Chicago, we will trs-cr tn F-scale value to every structure within the four se^tional 1p; exter. ding frcn Menorial Stadiun to McKinney Road.

This torra:c, as inspected fron the air, was not ac intence as t'.e Xer11 1:rnado of April 3,197h . However, its width through an 11 -ile section, including 8 nile length through the residential

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are1, c: nucr wider than that cf the Xenia path. Apparently , this torn;de traveled clewcr thna the Xenia tornado. During its Kaakening ctage, frer F3 to F2, the path made a turn toward the north-northeaet, folloued by a charp right turn tcuani the east.

'.;e encount ered scrious difficulties in naintaining our research

.' lights, due to the fact that the area was to the southeast extension cf the Che;p1rd AF3 runwa3 which had a number of training flights descendir.g through cur surve.y altitude.

Cr.e cf the .cci interesting aerial views was that of the Red River croscing of this tornado, to the east of Byers. The river -

.:at er wan red indeed, being fed by the run-off water from the red-soil regions cf Oklabora and 72xac. Over one hundred trees on both sides cf the running rivcr water were uprooted, showing the direction of tree falls in cyclonic sw! rl patterns.

After the river croscing, the path nade a gradual left turm tcward the north-northeast , ending its F1 d1.73de in an open field north-northeast of W2urika. Although the circult . ion pattern and F1 dana;e cr.ded taere, F0 danage continued for at least the next 30 miles teuT rd tha nortneas t.

Jakincto trackel this 30 nile section toyend Wildhorse Creek, cas t cf . .can . He confined that da age aac FC c'.tegory everywhere.

There were woak uanaces, o tly to trecc and irrigati n pipes, incide tN> tri4 ;1e conncating 42urika ara Eatliff City with the pcint 1CE Duncar .

An FC dcunburst , up to 10 mile wide, is suspected in this larse area. This danage pattern is very similar to that of the Marlow down-bars ' . Af ter evaluation rf the aerial photographs, . will ask Waki.noto ir.2 anc7' cr gra duate student to cover this area again, more thorcughly ,

in ar att: pt to help ~i final ucciaion. Waldncto had conciderable

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evr r rience with Cres Forbes in n atping wind effec ts on corn fields.

~i.- ti . , l.: <er, he experienced ccncideratie difficalt iy r.

r.a .: nin- .. ira effe:t: cn low bushes which did not recpend to FO uind by virtu: of their stiencth cnd low heichte.

J > total path ler.gth of the '.lichita Falls tornado depcnds up n t he cutcc e of the propccel second survey. I:y pre sent gue:S is 47 ilea (tornadu) + 28 niles (d ownturu t) with a ec-binei path Ic acth of 75 niles. Refer again to Ficure 7.2 cf ; , anw.1 cf Lownburct Identification". The first 36-nile section cf thi; t c .n.

d o .:12 in Texas and the cecond 11 nile secticn was in n ., , , v. - . 1 .

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