Storm Chase 2001

May 19 - May 28


by William T. Hark

This was a marginal year, and I was plagued by poor timing. There was only one real tornadic day while I was chasing (more tornadoes occurred the day I Ieft) but I did have the opportunity to chase many severe storms. I did see one wall cloud and brief funnel, but I also saw a wild gustfront in Kansas, beautiful severe storms, lightning and mammatus. I was able to chase with some old friends and was able to improve my skills. There was also time to do some nature and landscape photography. Finally, I observed and filmed an outbreak of black beetles which covered roads, lights and buildings.

Click on the picture or text to access the corresponding chase log. Pictures are linked in the text of each log or by thumbnails at the end of the documents.

Last modified: April 11, 2002


May 19 (Childress, Tx: Linear storm, awesome lightning)


May 20 (Central Ok: Tornadic storms, funnel cloud, wall cloud, anvil crawler, archived weather data)


May 21-22 (Louisiana: severe storm; Norman, Ok: chaser dinner, cattle auction)


May 23-25 (Wichita Mountains, Ok: wildlife and landscape photos; North-Central Tx: black beetles; Rocksprings TX: supercell; Segovia Texas: Bust)


May 26 (Matador, Tx: LP storm, CG's, mammatus, sunset)


May 27 (Sublette, Ks: Munched by the gustfront)

During this trip, I chased with the the following chasers: Scott Blair, David Hoadley, Chris Kridler, Dave Lewison, Jason Persoff, M.D., and Steve Sponsler. Thanks to Jim Leonard and Charles Edwards of Cloud 9 Tours for help with data and some forecasting. I also received updates from Tim Vasquez's Chase Hotline.

All photos and pictures are copyright 2001 William T. Hark, M.D except for the chaser dinner which is copyright 2001 by Dave Lewison (used with his permission.) My pictures are either video captures using a Sony TRV-900 mini DV or scanned slides using a Nikon FG and Fuji Velvia film.

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Please E-mail me with questions, comments and complaints. Wthark@aol.com
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