May 3, 2007
Note: This story has been edited for length.
Tornados touch down in Jeff Davis County on Sunday
By MEGAN WILDE
FAR WEST TEXAS –– A weekend rain storm brought at least two tornados through Jeff Davis County on Sunday.
The first tornado hit ground at 11:30 a.m. about three miles west of Valentine, according to rancher and Jeff Davis County Commissioner Albert Miller. Miller and some other men were working inside a shop on the west side of town when they heard a roaring sound outside. “It sounded much like a train, way in the distance, that you could just barely hear on a good still day,” Miller said.
They went outside and saw a funnel cloud south of Highway 90. “We went out the back door, and saw it almost due west of Valentine. It was very distinct,” he said. The twister caused minimal damage during the 10 to 15 minutes it was on the ground.
“It picked up a bush and weeds and hung them on our telephone line,” Miller said. “But it didn’t tear anything up as far as I know.” When the funnel disintegrated, Miller said the cloud above moved on to the northeast.
Minutes later, at 11:39 a.m., another tornado was spotted just southwest of Fort Davis, near the intersection of highways 17 and 166. Jeff Davis County Fire Chief Kelly Bryan first saw the twister when it was already fully formed over Dolores Mountain. “I thought it was moving straight into town,” he said. He went into Pop’s Grill to alert the lunch crowd. “They were all sitting there nonchalantly,” he said, and everyone was surprised when he told them a tornado was outside.
Presidio County Emergency Management Coordinator Nancy Francis watched the tornado from outside the Village Farms greenhouse south of Fort Davis. “It was awesome. We’ve never seen anything like that,” she said. “Then as it was getting closer to us we were like, ‘Oh no, there’s glass all over here.’”
From the restaurant parking lot, the fire chief saw the funnel move northwest across Highway 17 and along the western side of Jeff Davis County Park, behind Fort Davis Veterinary Services. The funnel then appeared to break up at the edge of Davis Mountains State Park. “Once it got into the foothills, it never could get reorganized,” he said. “If it had stayed in the flats, I think we could have been in trou-ble.”
At 11:50 a.m., Bryan called Davis Mountains State Park Complex Manager David Bischofhausen to tell him there was a tornado approaching the park. Bischofhausen was at his park residence near Highway 118 at the time. “I never heard the train sound, but I heard a very large wind sound.” said the park manager, who now estimates the twister came within 80 yards of his house. Lightning had knocked out their radio tower earlier in the day, so park communication was limited. “We notified the lodge and notified our customers and park hosts,” he said. “We only had just a couple of minutes.”
Rebecca Gould with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Midland said the tornado appeared to be several hundred yards wide in one image. “It was a pretty good sized tornado,” she said.
Jeff Davis County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ward said the tornado was not as powerful as it looked. “I’ve seen dust devils that had more power than these tornadoes,” he said. “With all the moisture in the air, it made them look really menacing, but they weren’t.”
The tornado was still strong enough to uproot large juniper trees at the state park, Bischofhausen said