• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

2018-05-30 Reports: OK/TX/KS/CO

Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
3,447
Location
St. Louis
Final chase log and more images here:
http://stormhighway.com/blog2018/may30log.php

This day's setup was quite marginal for tornadoes, with storms initiating in 50s dewpoints all the way out in eastern New Mexico and Colorado. Rapid upscale growth was expected, with a severe squall line tracking east from the Panhandles through northern Oklahoma after dark. Models also indicated supercell potential with any tail-end storms. Therefore, my plan was to simply meet the incoming storms at sunset to shoot lightning photos as darkness fell, then stay ahead of them across Oklahoma.

I left Enid just before noon and slowly made my way west, stopping to check data from time to time. I crossed into Texas and finally got a visual on the incoming storms at Perryton, and set up the video camera for a timelapse. At first, the storms were less than impressive, with only sporadic lightning and very little in the way of structure. Finally, as darkness approached, structure and lightning improved, and the storms began kicking up large amounts of dust and dirt on the leading edge of the outflow.

may3018c.jpg

Time-lapse from the video camera:


The dust storm briefly caught me as I drove back east through Perryton, but I was able to get back ahead and capture a few more shots near Lipscomb.

As I neared the state line, a new storm was firing near Arnett, Oklahoma ahead of the squall line, right on my route east on US 60. As I approached the storm, the orange-hued moon began rising on the eastern horizon, shining through the space between the ground and the storm's base. I stopped to shoot a few lightning shots here, capturing one bolt curving around the moon:

may3018b.jpg

This new storm seemed to be rooting on a boundary, as it was not moving east as fast as the main squall line. It briefly went supercellular, with a couplet forming on radar just south of the highway. I stopped in between Arnett and Vici, and could faintly make out a wall cloud in the lightning flashes to my southwest - shooting at 3200ISO to get this feature to show up on camera:

may3018f.jpg

The wall cloud slowly faded as lightning activity and hail picked up. A close bolt hit in the field to my south, so I switched the camera to 100ISO and F13 anticipating another one. And it happened - just to my south, a bolt hit the powerlines on the intersecting road about 150 yards away. Arcs jumped across all of the insulators on at least 4 sets of poles:

may3018a.jpg

Video:


Knowing I had a long drive to chase in Missouri - possibly back in St. Louis - the next day, I had to break away and resume the trek east or else risk not having time to sleep. I managed to get ahead of the constantly-developing precip at Stillwater, and got to the hotel in Claremore at 3:30AM.
 
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