Original Target: OKC
I had chased the previous day in northeast KS hoping to see some nice high-based supercells, but the 3km EHIs of 4 went to waste as forcing was too weak and shear was too strong. So by sunset I decided to head down to Wichita for the night and pore over the data for another chase opportunity on Saturday.
After getting the 12Z data Sat morning
and failing to locate any one distinct outflow boundary, I targetted the
area just north of OKC for initiation based on all this
data. One fact that the models all overlooked was the rapid sfc
heating of the rain-soaked soil in this area. Stratocu quickly covered
the skies south to OKC and I had a sick feeling...the dryline would be
mixing through one way or the other and with temps of only 62 and upper
50 Tds at noon in OKC, my target would need serious revision. I saw
some nice breaks in the CIGs south of the city and decided to go there
for better visibility and also for a library data stop. Well, only
every library in the state was closed that day and my laptop/cell connection
wasn't configured properly, so I had to go strictly visual and rely off
of the NWSFO's convective updates. In a way it was fun, but overall
very limiting. By 1pm, I saw distant TCu about 80 miles to the northwest
and I didn't hesitate to go after them since they were much more defined
than any of the others going up on the dryline. One even displayed
a pileus, but as I got just north of OKC they had dissipated. I heard
about the supercell way up in Alfalfa county along the cold front, but
I don't like chasing distant warnings when convective potential is still
decent nearby. Seeing a gas station outside the city made me pull
over and fill up. To my surprise, DOW and about a dozen other chasers
(including N. Rasmussen and his hail-battered Saturn!) were parked nearby
and monitoring the TCu fields. We chatted for awhile and eventually
the chaser convergence values became strong enough that within 30 min the
capped TCu exploded and glaciated overhead! :) The rest is
below!
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The suppressed TCu just north of OKC. |  |
Ahhh...CINH begins to lose the battle. |
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Looking west at the base of a Cb near HWY 51 just east of I-35. |  |
Same location now looking south. I passed on this cell and headed north for a better east road. |
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Heading east on the Cimarron Tpke after paying my toll. This storm was now rotating and just had a TOR issued for it after this image. I was amazed to see this right in front of me near the flanking line/meso intersection! |  |
Why I didn't pull over and get stills is beyond me, but this funnel persisted for about one minute. No debris was seen upon further review of the video. |
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The convection above was definitely supportive of the brief funnel. |  |
The southern tip of the flanking line. |
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The RFD continued to work its way in near the end. |  |
Heading north towards Ralston, OK where the first tornado occurred from this supercell. Yes, the road options stunk and many'a chaser found themselves far removed from the updraft in very little time thanks to its fast NE speed. |
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New turret upstream of the supercell. It's actually much closer than it looks. |  |
The flanking line - looking east. |
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NE of Fairfax, OK looking NE at a strong rotating wall cloud shortly before wrapping in rain. This was the best view that I was given of the low-level circulation during the entire chase. |  |
View of the full occlusion later on. |
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Looking southwest at the cold pool boundary. Thanks to a crappy road network, this was my 3rd time driving under the flanking line! |  |
Approaching Bartlesville, OK and looking N at another rotating wall cloud that later wrapped in rain (again!) and produced a tornado that crossed HWY 75 ten minutes before I was there. |
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In Bartlesville, OK looking north at the supercell...one of the few times I was actually ahead of it. |  |
East of Coffeyville, KS looking north. Hmmm...this was my sixth or seventh rain-wrapping meso today. Even the low sun angle didn't improve the view much. |
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Looks like a dense rainshaft, but it's actually a persistent, non-rotating wall cloud. There is some convection above, but not much. This may have been one of the many look-a-likes falsely reported today. |  |
My 5th and final time under the flanking line...unnghh. |
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Yielding is now optional to low-topped convection. |  |
I couldn't resist this shot looking west at sunset. The time lapse is beautiful. It was now time to drive 6 hours back home for work the next day! |
