Amateur Radio Skywarn Activity -- 23 March 2007
Tornado
Photo Jim Morrison, KM5BS
SW of Tatum, NM
5:10 P.M.
Alf Lindsey (W5ALL) received the first e-mail from Keith Hayes (KC5KH) of the Albuquerque NWS office on Wednesday, 21 March. This e-mail advised of a likely severe storm outbreak on Friday. The wording was so strong that the DEC (ALF) decided to forward it to all of the Chaves Amateur Radio Emergency Service hams that very day. After receiving a second e-mail from NWS Albuquerque, followed by a telephone call, the DEC expanded the request for help to include hams within range of the excellent radio repeater atop the KOB-R tower (1,610 ft. tall) near Caprock, New Mexico. This second request for help went to over fifty southeastern New Mexico hams in five counties, as well as a half-dozen West Texas hams. These were all hams that could reach the Caprock repeater from their home and/or vehicle.
Starting about 1:00 P.M. on Friday, the DEC called for exclusive use of the Caprock repeater for SKYWARN purposes. He then acted as the net control station (NCS) for this "severe weather net." From 1:00 P.M. on, there were over thirty hams monitoring the repeater and giving their observation of: storm cells, flood-producing rainfall, wind, hail, and tornadoes.
The DEC/NCS monitored several computer displays of weather radar and other storm related data. He relayed weather-radar-based storm status to those hams in the path of severe storms, advising the "storm chasers" of any impending danger to them. At the same time, he used the New Mexico MegaLink ham repeater system to keep in contact with the NWS Forecast Office at the Albuquerque airport.
As an example of activity that Friday afternoon, one of the more significant series of ham radio exchanges is summarized as follows:
At approximately 4:15 P.M. the NCS received over the Caprock repeater a report of funnels forming and dissipating from a storm cell west of Lovington. Although Lovington is in the Midland NWS area, the net control station relayed this information to Albuquerque NWS for their information.
At approximately 5:00 P.M. the NCS received a report of "tornado on the ground" west of Tatum, relayed by Rob Tice (W5TIC). Although the funnels were still in the Midland NWS area, he passed this report to NWS Albuquerque to ensure that it got into the NWS system. These were the same funnel-producing cells hams had observed earlier west of Lovington
Jim Morrison (KM5BS) continued to track these same tornado-producing storm cells to Crossroads, just south of the Roosevelt County line. At 5:39 P.M. Jim observed a "tornado on the ground" near Crossroads. Since Jim was at that time out of range of his regular radio repeater, he switched to the Caprock repeater and asked for a relay. The NCS relayed Jim's report to the NWS office (WX5ABQ) in Albuquerque for forwarding to the Midland, TX NWS office. Since the tornado was now very near the Roosevelt County line, and moving north, it would soon be in the Albuquerque NWS office area of responsibility. The NWS Albuquerque Office immediately issued a tornado warning for Roosevelt County, including Portales, NM. Curry County came under a tornado warning a little later.
This group of tornado producing cells (that SKYWARN hams first spotted west of Lovington about 4:15 P.M.) hit Clovis with significant damage, injuries, and two deaths close to four hours later, before moving across the border into Texas.
The Caprock repeater weather net functioned from 1:00 P.M. until 8:30 P.M. when the repeater was returned to normal use. The nightly Yucca Net, which is held 365 days a year on the Caprock repeater, was held at the usual 7:00 P.M, with the understanding that storm reports and/or emergency traffic were to be given immediate priority.