These first images come from May 15, 2003 along the OK/TX panhandle border.

Here's my first picture of a tornado. This image was captured from a DVCamera, taken along the TX/OK panhandle border on May 15, 2003. It was a small multiple-vortex tornado that was very short-lived in an open pasture. No injuries or damages were reported from this twister. Hopefully better pictures will soon follow!

Here's a shot of DOW3 (Doppler on Wheels project), stuck in the mud. This picture was taken shortly after the previous one, and comes from Herb Stein. Although it took many hours to get the truck out of the mud, no one was injured.

The following images come from June 3, 2003 about 80 miles southwest of Amarillo, TX.

On our way south out of Amarillo, we ran into a dirty haboob, or duststorm. Visibility was very low, and we were trying to get down to Lubbock in a hurry to catch some other storms.
That was unsuccessful, so we travelled back north in order to try to catch some other potentially promising storms.

Upon reaching these storms, our hope for rotation became squashed again as this storm also became outflow dominant:

Looking west-northwest

This storm eventually began to produce large quantities of large hail, and several of the DOW vehicles were caught in this painful deluge, including DOW3 and Scout (which I was in). Here is a picture of a few hailstones we were able to grab while under a shelter:

This is Chris's hand and cell phone, along with some very large hail stones! Note the cracked and "spiderwebbed" windshield in the background!

Here are some more hail shots:

Hail many times larger than this standard American quarter!

This hail was nearly as thick as snow, and was still on the ground nearly two hours after it fell (remember that this is Texas in June!). Note Josh talking on his cell phone in the foreground while simultaneously being videotaped for a documentary... how typical!

The otherwise warm air runs along the ground above the freezing hail and is cooled, causing the air temperature to decrease and the water vapor to condense out--causing fog. What an amazing experience!

Here is some of the damage to Scout's hood. It's hard to see, but the front windshield has been shattered.

Here is a shot of Scout's broken mirror. The hail fell with such a strong side-ward velocity that it broke this mirror while the car was not in motion!

Here is a picture taken from the inside of DOW3, looking out through the broken front windshield.

After such a harrowing and interesting day, Chris, Kevin, and I were under time pressures to return to Norman. So before we could leave, we needed to gas up Scout. Here are some of the other weary road travellers at the gas station:

Llamas!

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