Meteorological Breakdown: The Hawley Tornado and Other Mesoscale Days in Texas - May 2-4, 2024

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Apologies for the editing error at 9:16. Looks like one of the radar files got corrupted and failed to upload with the video.

[@peachxtaehyung]

As long as the info shown in this and wasn't anything that causes an issue for your safety that is totally fine! Not a big deal

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@peachxtaehyung Nope, nothing of concern!

[@zachsteiner]

Ooh my buddy is going to be excited for this one. He chased the Hawley tornado and he has been baffled as to how a powerful tornado was spawned with such a crosswise wind profile. He’s shown me that hodograph a couple times with a puzzled look. 😆

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Sometimes the hodograph rules just go out the window!

[@scr0sYT]

Wicked stuff. Those northern cells fizzling out almost got me. I was targeting those, then as they dissipated I began to move south towards the southern cells, only for the northern mode to fire up again. I made the tough decision to target north. Heard about Anson on the way there and thought I had missed it. But as soon as I pulled up to Hawley, within a minute a lowering formed, served on a platter right to me. Mesoscale magic is crazy stuff

[@peachxtaehyung]

I remember that robert lee tornado watching it's track was CRAZY. It just kept doing circles lol

[@TexasWeatherCenter]

Thank you!

[@runt9]

I don't see anyone mentioning it yet, but you have a small editing mistake at 9:16 that might have some personal information on it. You may want to fix and reupload! (Still working through the video, very good so far, just wanted to note this for you!)

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks for catching that! Those radar segments where I have to draw on each image are really tedious to upload; I knew I’d screw one up at some point.

[@danielbaetens1587]

I remember watching Freddy McKinney stream and I saw him helping a family I'm so thankful they all survived Freddy is a hero. That was the most beautiful tornado I have ever seen but also what it did to the family was terrifying

[@Purinmeido]

Outflow boundaries are my favorite wild card when it comes to tornado formation. Am always looking for them on radar during severe weather events

[@MightyMuffins]

Damn I never commented on this. Blame the work schedule I been on. PRAISE THE 5% TORNADO RISKS! This was a pretty impressive tornado stretch but the Hawley tornado was one of the neat looking tornadoes of the 2024 season. The set up for that how you got the storm interactions and the fact how it all came together for the Anson one and then split cell with the Hawley tornado was cool as hell. Just such a taaaalll tornado and the fact that the set up was pretty subtle in a way but you guys were in a perfect position for these tornadoes and I remember you said after the day on X and that the strength and power of that Hawley tornado was a bit of surprise but was amazingly photogenic despite the serious damage it caused. That tour group got an amazing tornado stretch there for viewing and you guys were on the ball with this one. The Robert Lee and Fort Stockton tornadoes were really impressive tornadoes but if I remember too, some chasers were complaining on those tornadoes that they were hard to chase as there was a bitch of a chasers convergence on both on poor roads but the chasers that stayed on the main roads and stayed back and away from the tornado got really got the best videos on both. The Robert Lee occlusion one was wicked.

[@dragnflei]

I was watching Freddy McKinney’s stream on May 2 and the Hawley tornado was nuts. I was so glad that he was on the spot to help that family whose house got destroyed.

[@kevinjoyce285]

This little stretch of days was so unusual. Most days had little flow, except in the higher flow but there was clear shortwaves present and of course, a HECK lot of boundary shenanigans. I'm really itching for more of these boundary influenced type events or any mesoscale accidents. I find them so intriguing how one little storm detail can change a storm from non threatening to a tornadic beast

[@anthonybernstein1626]

This was a very interesting case study, thank you!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you!

[@exaltedb]

That Robert Lee tornado was such an oddball on radar. I feared they were going to take a direct hit when it wrapped back around the way it did

[@andrewserafine3978]

Could you do a case study on the Texas supercell tagged for DVD sized hail?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Which day are you referring to? There have been a few different occurrences of DVD sized hail

[@andrewserafine3978]

@@ConvectiveChronicles I believe it would be the may 28th Levelland storm.

[@andrewserafine3978]

@@ConvectiveChronicles I know you typically cover torandic/Deracheo events but it would be really cool to cover a significant hailer such as this one and why/what caused it to be so prolific.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

@@andrewserafine3978 Ah, yes! That storm was crazy. I do have a few hail case studies on my list!

[@andrewserafine3978]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Indeed it was! Looking forward to seeing some of these studies!

[@MaryYoungblood-xy8vg]

Thankfully the two days I passed through Fort Stockton last week the weather was perfect.

[@brandonjvl1987]

Hey Trey! This video as always is very well put together, informative, and interesting! Any possibility you could put together a video on the wisconsin tornado event that happened in June 2024 (Janesville WI). I think the event was very interesting how it unfolded especially the janesville supercell that traversed the entire width of Southern portion of the state, began to weaken as it was closing in on the city, then began to take in mergers, strengthen, and produced the EF2 Janesville tornado. As always, thankyou for your knowledge and incredibly well put together videos!

[@envis10n12]

Howdy trey! Thanks as always

[@KermitTheGamer21]

I unfortunately didn't pay much attention to the severe weather season this year. I'm watching this at 2AM and about 1 minute in when you showed the radar loop of the Robert Lee tornado and it suddenly shifted northwest I think I woke somebody up with my audible "WTF???" reaction hahaha

[@joseph-frankbrocchus6575]

Thanks for this great video / good luck with the hurricane chase / I was curious if you were interested in astronomy as I am, it seems like it goes hand-in-hand with climate and weather

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you! I am very interested in astronomy…there have been some hypotheses that astronomical phenomena may impact severe weather. One of the more popular theories is a linkage between the sunspot cycle and severe weather ebbs and flows in the US.

[@64BBernard]

Hi Trey! Hope you are doing well.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Hi Brian! Doing well here; about to head down to Florida to chase Hurricane Helene. Hope you are doing well, also!

[@tornado_genesis]

I always think I have a good grip on forecasting, until days like these come along lol. Incredible sequence of events to produce the TORs

[@zacharybenson6195]

So, the first tornado of the Hawley sequence was a "hybrid" tornado! I think Skip Talbot made a reference to that awhile ago but I think he's since deleted that video. I'd really love to see a video entirely dedicated to "weird" tornadoes like this. Thanks again for your video!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Hybrid tornadoes are super interesting! Definitely seems like the Anson tornado was hybrid in nature.

[@AlfredoRistol]

SW TX has another breed of tornadoes, i mean, this having an eerie appearance like Jarrell, not to mention other wild outbreaks. Mesquite trees have something to tell down there lol Do you have in mind talk about Loyal Valley or Bakersfield? Love your work man!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you so much! I can add those to the list!

[@1.4142]

I was surprised no one went down to fort stockton that day

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Which day?

[@CrestviewStudios]

Why does no one talk about the F4 of April 9th, 1999 in Blue Ash? (Cincinnati, OH) I feel like this is forgotten because of the May 3rd, 1999 F5 in Moore

[@peachxtaehyung]

It was lucky (though not for those who did live there) that that anson and hawley tornadoes didn't happen in a high population area with how stationary it was!

[@AllanEvansOfficial]

I chased May 4 and was late to the party and instead chased a rogue supercell near Coleman that day. Wish I would’ve gotten an earlier start!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

That's another thing about these Fort Stockton setups...just like the High Plains, storms tend to fire much earlier in the day.

[@paradoxicalpoet1525]

Thanks for this. Its funny how central/ west Texas constantly produces strong slow moving tornados on low wind shear days. "5%" of a tornado they said. If it happens it will be week they said. Lol

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Yeah, these days were classic Texas mesoscale days. So many of these down there over the past few decades.

[@tomchidwick]

This was like a Transformers version of storm and tornado genesis. Or was it Iron Man maybe? All of the separate parts just kinda flew-in together, latching on to each other, and whammo, you got yourself a kick-ass nader. Amazing.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Absolutely! Such a unique tornadogenesis process…without just one of those features we discussed, the outcome might’ve been totally different

[@Scarecrowwx]

Maybe the real mesoscale days were the friends we met along the way

[@ihatechiyo]

I defenitley think an analysis on the tornadoes in Indiana near Muncie the other day is warranted. Weirdest radar signatures i've ever seen in my 14 years of observing radar imagery, and i cannot for the life of me figure out the mesoscale processes there. Looked kinda like something you'd see on radar sites in a country like Poland or Czechia.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

I responded to a tweet about it the other day, and I included some images over there that I can’t include here, but it looks like there was a boundary in play with quite a bit of 3CAPE. I have a suspicion the tornadoes might’ve been somewhat hybrid in nature.