2016-10-04 REPORTS: OK, KS

[Quincy Vagell]

I don't think it's worth it to start a reports thread based on what I saw (no compelling photos), but I can give my brief account here.

I started the day in the Omaha area on "vacation," but I wasn't fully sold on the OK target, or at least I couldn't justify such a long drive for something so conditional right around sunset.

I dropped south into Kansas and stopped for a break around Salina. I was mildly surprised that a cell popped up just southeast of the city by 3 p.m., but given its isolated nature and concerns with a more quick-to-linear storm mode farther west, I began to pursue.

As the storm crossed over I-70 close to the 5/25/16 Chapman tornado track, there was a ragged wall cloud showing signs of better organization. Once I got close, just southeast of Wakefield, there was a fairly broad, low-hanging cloud base, but it didn't look like a well-organized wall cloud. A funnel started to form, but lifted well before reaching the ground.

There were a couple of other brief funnels with this storm before it evolved into a cluster of junky looking cells. The motion of these storms took me back to Omaha, getting in at a much earlier than expected 8 p.m.

 

[James Wilson]

Yes not really worth a new thread so I will do the same as Quincy. Short and simple ... we left KC for Chickasha and waited for something to fire which finally did NW of Chickasha so we nailed target. But lapse rates and mid level rotation was not great ... I do not know exactly why maybe a bit of a cap but storms just did not really get going like we hoped.

The one cell did rotate almost immediately and did have a few pretty white funnels some of which did extend down about a quarter of the way down but we never saw or could confirm reports of ground contact. By Tuttle there was a report of contact but we were literally under the funnel and nothing swirled around us. It tried a few more times as it tracked towards Moore but even though it looked semi impressive we were left with nothing much to show for the day except structure photos.

The only thing I was able to muster of decent good was the beginning of the cell which did have nice structure for a while.

 

[Jason Young]

Started the day in Kingfisher , after the tornado watch was posted I thought maybe the hhr was on to something . dropped down to west of Chickasha . watched cell from birth and chased it through Newcastle. Good little fall chase.

Sent from my 5042T using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[James Gustina]

Definitely nothing to write home about, but glad something actually managed to even go. Sat in the Chickasha DQ for hours before packing it in right around 6:30 as the Cu field to the west thinned out. Made it to just north of Blanchard before we were made aware of the tower going up near Apache. Flipped around through Blanchard and watched the LP get going from just south of Amber through sunset. Kept up with it as it attempted to get a few lowerings after the dark but never noted anything special being right up on it other than one possible funnel. Called it quits east of Tuttle as we got close to the Canadian.

 

[Taylor Wright]

Late, but this storm had some pretty awesome structure at sunset and even looked LP for awhile. This was pretty concerning though considering the kind of environment it went up in. Really surprised this thing could never do it, and it wasn't even really close.