Freak weather breeds tornadoes

Storm-chasing visitors arrive for surprise harsh weather in Santa Fe

| The New Mexican

8/18/2008 - 8/19/08

Most visitors to Santa Fe are hoping to experience the region's spectacular sunny blue skies. But Bill and France Mudd timed their visit to relatives in Santa Fe to coincide with last weekend's turbulent weather.

The Mudds are storm chasers, and Sunday they spotted a what they believed to be a tornado northwest of Tesuque. Bill Mudd described the structure as a rotating wall cloud with a glow in the middle that he said was a hail core.

At about this time — 4:17 p.m. — the National Weather Service was receiving reports of three-quarter-inch hail at the Santa Fe Opera.

The cell traveled southeast, Mudd said, toward Glorieta, where the weather service received reports of hail and another tornado at about 4:41 p.m. The Mudds chased the storm about 50 miles, France Mudd said. The roof of their new Prius was damaged by the hail.

According to the weather service's storm report, there were tornadoes Sunday in Guadalupe and DeBaca counties. Hail was reported in Union, Valencia, San Miguel, Socorro and Guadalupe counties.

Brent Wachter of the National Weather Service in Albuquerque said the weather pattern was more typical of spring or fall than August, when heavy monsoon rains are normal. "These cells were moving quickly — 25 to 35 mph — and had severe weather with them," he said.

Mudd said he is interested in weather and "the power that goes with it." But both he and his wife, who live in Southern California, also like photographing stormy weather. "Some of the storm structures are so magnificent," France Mudd said.

Editor's note: The National Weather Service in Albuquerque on Aug. 20 said the storm in question did not produce a tornado, but rather a "tail cloud" which differs from a tornado in that it does not swirl in the way a tornado does and doesn't connect between ground and sky.