JamesCaruso
Staff member
This is the last report I had to catch up on for this year's chase trip.
I had thought June 3 would be the last chase day. We were flying out of DFW on June 5, so June 4 was "lame duck day" - limited range due to the need to get to the airport. There had been no TX or OK tornado risk in the June 3 Day 2 SPC outlook for June 4. I was surprised to see the 2% pop up on Day 1, then at 16:30Z it was upgraded to 5% in an Enhanced Risk for central OK.
We targeted the Weatherford area and hung out there along I-40 for a few hours, beyond the usual magic hour. The cap was again an issue, like the day before, but the skies were looking pretty good, not clear blue like the previous day. Still, I was tempted to give up and head toward Dallas when storms still hadn’t formed by 7pm. But it was our last day, so we had to give it our all. There was a point at which a couple of storms formed along I-40 just west of OKC, so we went east after these, despite concerns about being that close to the city. However, they fizzled out under the strong cap.
We turned back to the west and went south to Hinton, hanging out near the municipal airport there, waiting for the 7pm observed sounding, which still showed a strong but potentially breakable cap. It was near 8pm when a storm south of Binger got our attention and we went after it, planning to drop south along its eastern flank and get into position.
However, the storm quickly grew upscale, forcing us to drive in heavy rain and some hail until we were able to escape south from this blossoming linear MCS on route 81.
After all the anticipation and waiting, it was a disappointment. If we knew the way it would turn out, we would have preferred getting to Dallas today, having a nice dinner to begin the transition back to “real life,” and be close to DFW airport for our afternoon flight home. Instead, we ended up staying in Anadarko, got in too late to eat anything other than McDonalds, and would have to drive a couple hours to the airport the next day (plus, I had some work I had to get done in the morning, so I would be against the clock getting that done and getting to my flight). But, at least we got some action on this last day, and we could feel good about giving it our all, with no regrets about bailing early!
I had thought June 3 would be the last chase day. We were flying out of DFW on June 5, so June 4 was "lame duck day" - limited range due to the need to get to the airport. There had been no TX or OK tornado risk in the June 3 Day 2 SPC outlook for June 4. I was surprised to see the 2% pop up on Day 1, then at 16:30Z it was upgraded to 5% in an Enhanced Risk for central OK.
We targeted the Weatherford area and hung out there along I-40 for a few hours, beyond the usual magic hour. The cap was again an issue, like the day before, but the skies were looking pretty good, not clear blue like the previous day. Still, I was tempted to give up and head toward Dallas when storms still hadn’t formed by 7pm. But it was our last day, so we had to give it our all. There was a point at which a couple of storms formed along I-40 just west of OKC, so we went east after these, despite concerns about being that close to the city. However, they fizzled out under the strong cap.
We turned back to the west and went south to Hinton, hanging out near the municipal airport there, waiting for the 7pm observed sounding, which still showed a strong but potentially breakable cap. It was near 8pm when a storm south of Binger got our attention and we went after it, planning to drop south along its eastern flank and get into position.
However, the storm quickly grew upscale, forcing us to drive in heavy rain and some hail until we were able to escape south from this blossoming linear MCS on route 81.
After all the anticipation and waiting, it was a disappointment. If we knew the way it would turn out, we would have preferred getting to Dallas today, having a nice dinner to begin the transition back to “real life,” and be close to DFW airport for our afternoon flight home. Instead, we ended up staying in Anadarko, got in too late to eat anything other than McDonalds, and would have to drive a couple hours to the airport the next day (plus, I had some work I had to get done in the morning, so I would be against the clock getting that done and getting to my flight). But, at least we got some action on this last day, and we could feel good about giving it our all, with no regrets about bailing early!
