Here is a taste of the trip from Chickasha to Dallas overnight into Sunday. It was pretty much torrential rain and lightning all the way, with serious flooding in many places.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Postscript – Storm in Chickasha, OK
Here’s the first of two final clip videos, the first of the storm in Chickasha, OK on Saturday evening. There was a lot more of this to come through the night as I tried slowly to make my way down to Dallas for the flight to San Diego.
Chase Day 9 – Signing off with sirens in Chickashaw
I feel like the storms have been chasing me today – with little internet and mostly on my own it was hard work staying out of the path of the many tornado warned storms. There have been several today, and I did witness some decent wall clouds and rotation. Once it started to get dark I decided to slowly move East and let the line of storms pass over me in Chickashaw – which it duly has. Some brilliant lightning and something I’ve never heard in person before – tornado warning sirens sounding.
So there we are – just eight hours and I have to be in Dallas for a plane to San Diego and this part of the trip is over. Time for reflection later. The time now is for a coffee and food and then a slow crawl down to Dallas once the storms to the South have passed. Despite the title I’ll not sign off just yet – that can wait until I’m in my hotel Sunday afternoon, when I’ll put a bit of video on of the lightning display.
Chase Day 9 – Scooting around Oklahoma
Just a quick update whilst I fuel up. In Fairview, OK and have been chasing the cells that formed on the southern end of the earlier crud. Some lightning but nothing severe yet. Conditions for tornados increase in the next few hours and I’ve got my eye on the storm just crossing the TX/OK border.
I hope to rendezvous with the Netweather team in the next hour who are steaming west on the I40. If I catch them up you might see me here – they are streaming live this afternoon.
Chase Day 9 – Moderate risk OK/TX
8.40am Pratt, KS. Based on 11Z HRRR and 4k NAM, the current crud clears away NE (it is brightening up here now), and with the DL at it’s sharpest in far SW OK and a few hours heating here I’m shuffling down to Woodward, OK for a data check there. I will move/adjust if necessary, but have to be at DFW airport by 3am so can’t stray too far! Ingredients are in place for some long-track tornados.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2015/pwo_201505161329.html
It’s going to be a long day.
Chase Day 8 – Kansas Crash and Burn
I’ve moved south again to Pratt KS, partly to be in position for tomorrow but mainly because the place is how I feel just now. The back-up target of NE KS failed to produce and after a 300 mile trip all I got was a few fluffy clouds. Meanwhile the primary target in far W NE and NE CO has spawned numerous tornados today. It was as I’ve explained a trip too far so yet again I end the day empty handed and I’m feeling a tad deflated to say the least. I have lost faith a bit in both my forecasting skills and the models I use and I enter my last day with only mild optimism of seeing something in the area I am now in, although the risk area is huge – central Texas to Nebraska. Pin in a map anyone?
Anyway I’m very tired and grumpy so will get some sleep before an early look at Saturday’s synoptics. It’s finely balanced between a bust (again) or a severe outbreak so we’ll see.
Chase Day 8 – Not good news
Anyone hoping to see a decent storm or tornado today on this blog, it’s not good news.
It’s 3.28pm and I’m sat on I35 N of Salina, KS having hacked 300 miles to get here, and the only exciting thing happening is an old couple having a snooze in their car. HRRR and RAP have let me down and I could of saved the fuel and hassle but that’s the chase business I suppose. The area in NE CO/SW NE was always going to be too far, as I watch tornado warned cells develop there.
I’m now not sure about tomorrow and where to be placed and the divergence between models in how quickly the early crud can clear and hence how soon the airmass behind it and in front of the DL destabilises will dictate whether it’s a high end day or another bust. I’m going to wait half an hour (whatever good that will do) and probably decide to head back the way I came because as of now NC OK looks a decent area. I’ve also got a plane to California to catch early Sun am from DFW so being in Nebraska on Sat evening probably isn’t a good idea
Chase Day 8 – Decisions
Early start today and still non the wiser about target. This is the post I just made on NWx:
The primary target today is still W NE, but both 4km NAM and HRRR continue to wobble run to run with the positioning of the WF and hence greatest shear and vorticity. If anything the region has drifted North up to the SD border in the last few frames which for me is a hike too far (maybe not for the road warriors currently camped in Woodward, OK).
A combination of RAP, HRRR and a dose of luck may pin a secondary target in north and NE KS that should produce a few supercells from 21Z. There is a pool of enhanced helicity here that could represent the residual OFB and the DL (although still diffuse) does seem to punch into KS along or below the I70. By 21Z HRRR (08Z, 09Z not as good but will check the 10Z before jumping) breaks out one or two cells around Salina, KS in a high SRH environment. It’s not warmfront play up in NE but it might produce and will make the trip into OK Saturday more bearable.
So there you are – if there’s any severe weather pundits out there willing to contribute please feel free. Your guess will probably be as good as mine!
Chae Day 7 – Travel through Texas
A relocation day up to Amarillo. Just visited the Big Texan Steak Ranch for my one and only steak fix. I’ll post first thing briefly about plans for tomorrow as it’s the first of two big days to end the session before moving over to California for the business end of the trip.
This was my dinner at Dickies Smokehouse Barbeque in Junction, TX. The ribs were very good.
Chase Day 7 – The road to Amarillo
Hello from Stanton, TX (not Big Spring – in short, the accommodation wasn’t ‘suitable’). It’s a positioning day today, ditching the slight risk for later in SW Texas for greater things hopefully for NC OK and SC KS Friday. So it’s Amarillo time and the first steak of the trip. The Big Texan motel is full so it’s a Motel 6 about a mile away – the walk will do me good.
If any budding meteorologists would like to contribute to the set-up discussion for Friday please feel free – there is a huge debate going on about which area will see tornados and as per usual nothing will be settled until the first cell fires, and even then low-level rotation is not guaranteed.
I’ve added a short video to last nights post of yesterday’s storm.
Neilweather's Blog 