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Tom's
Page > Storm Chasing > September 12, 1998
| My second
Tornado was on September 12, 1988. I was on the north side of Indianapolis when
the super-cell developed on the east side. I had a bad angle to the storm and was forced
to attempt an interception from the north. I finally made it to the east side and as I was
south-bound on Mithoeffer Road from 38th The tornado was moving due east crossing the 2600
block Mithoeffer. The ideal method of intercepting a tornado is to do so from the south or southwest. Tornadoes tends to emanate from the south west corner of a cell. There is little rain and good back-light for photography. More importantly you can see the damn thing- and where it's going. The northern side of the cell has heavy bands of rain and often hail. These bands are known as the "bear cage". In chasers terms intercepting a tornado from the north is called 'punching the core' . In urban areas it is called 'doing something stupid'. I, of course, did something stupid. When I hit 30th street I could not see anything- absolutely zero visibility. At that time there was only a gas station and a convenience store. Traffic control was by two automatic signals. I could not see the gas station, the the convenience store or the signals even though they were less than 20 feet away. There were already reports on the radio that the tornado was crossing Mithoeffer. Although I was deep in the core I knew I was going to miss the interception by only 4 blocks. The smart things to do now was to continue south on Mithoeffer Road to somewhere south of the path and then turn east. Or an alternate plan was to drive east, past the tornado and turn south- the disadvantage is, of course, you have to cross the path of the tornado in order to approach from the south. I had a third option in mind. And does anyone here have any doubt that it was not something stupid? That's right- I turned left and went east on 30th street. I drove four blocks to the very first cross street that would get me to the tornado- Sheffield Drive. And there I was south bound on Sheffield- punching the core, again! Again I hit zero visibility. Fortunately there was so much rain here that it was reaching the bottom of my car- and I had to stop. The rain subsided just a bit and I saw there was now a large metal storage shed on the roadway in front of me. The tornado picked it up and placed it in the center of Sheffield five feet from where I had stopped- and I didn't even see it land!. The road in front was blocked and I couldn't back up because there was now traffic behind me. Fudge! The tornado dissipated soon afterwards. The NWS damage assessment team categorized it as only a F-1 tornado (Moderate Tornado, 73-112 mph). If that tornado had been even slightly stronger I probably would be asking people if they were a good witch or a bad witch.  Return to my Storm Chasing Page Go to Tom's Page The Wood Family Home Page |
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