• 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.

2025-04-01 REPORTS: OK/KS

gdlewen

EF4
Joined
May 5, 2019
Messages
365
Location
Owasso, OK
TL;DR: No tornado, not even a wall cloud, on a day with some promise and more hype, we got an LP supercell in N central OK that delivered hail and not much else.

Original target was Weatherford, but based on uncertainty in where storms would fire, we opted for a more central location. Started the day with lunch in Stillwater, and then proceeded to Guthrie to wait. It looked like convective initiation would be 21Z or later, so we split the afternoon between the Guthrie Public Library and Starbucks.

As of 18Z, there were still a lot of questions about where to be and when things would happen. Mid-50’s dewpoints had reached the OK-KS border. Nothing would happen for a couple more hours, however, until about 20Z (3PM CDT).

MFC_METAR_20250401_1800_20250405_1647.jpg
18Z METAR and Specific Humidity (g/kg) for April 1, 2025​

About 1951Z, movement of the dryline into western OK was marked by a radar fineline in the KFDR radar (not shown) and the development of cumulus along an axis from TX into west-central OK towards Weatherford (image courtesy of CoD). At 3:17PM CDT (2017Z), the SPC issued MD336 for the area.

Vernon-Hobart Cu.jpg

The 21Z RAP convective temperatures (CT) showed a region of CT almost equal to the observed air temperatures in west-central Oklahoma…just ahead of the dryline. The lower convective temperatures were probably due to a softening of the cap between I-35 and the dryline, and signaled conditions for convective initiation were improving.

NAM_ConvT_20250401_2100_F00_20250405_1601.png
21Z RAP Convective Temperatures (CT) for April 1, 2025. The higher CTs in eastern OK mark the area of strongest capping under the EML. Note the region of lower CTs in near the dryline, which are nearly at reported air temperatures.
Fast forward to 5PM CDT, and two blips of convection developed in the vicinity of Weatherford (image courtesy of CoD). The only reason to include this image is to point out how much middle-high cloud cover was riding over this area (and to remind myself how costly a simple decision to wait a few minutes can be.)

GOES-16_20250401_2206.jpg

NOTE: At 22Z, the average of the low level cloud bases in the Enid area was reported to be 3500 ft AGL (about 1.1km). These cells formed on the western edge of the moisture streaming north, and in an area of relatively high LCL’s. Using the 22Z surface dewpoint-depression, we can see that LCL’s for this event were always going to be high:

LCL_22Z.jpg
22Z Estimated LCL heights in meters, based on METAR dew-point depressions.The red circle gives the approximate are of interest. (Credit to MetPy for analysis routines.)​

Once the peak reflectivity of the "stronger" northernmost cell reached about 30 dBZ, I decided these were for real and headed north to intercept them near Waukonis. The target cell intensified rapidly, and it was clear we had gotten a late start on the chase.

As we approached from the south, the radial velocity scans looked very odd, even when using elevated sweeps to account for a potentially elevated base. It turns out there was a weak hail signature (WTBSS) present which was not too evident unless you checked the spectrum width, which I did not think to do until preparing this report.

We stopped at 6:00Pm CDT, just north of US-412 on the road to Garber. Probably could have shot E a bit to get closer, but we finally got a view through murk and decided to take stock of what was going on. This cell was rotating (video not shown), but visibility was extremely poor.

dsc_2304a-jpg.27021
Looking W on E. Chestnut Avenue, just west of OK-74, towards Enid. Nikon Z6 24mm f/6.3 lens; ISO 100; 1/250 sec.​

In the KVNX 3.95˚ reflectivity and velocity scans for 2305Z (shown below), the bold circle indicates the approximate position of the mesocyclone at 10,000 feet. A hail spike was removed before de-aliasing the radial velocity scan, but no attempt was made to compute storm-relative velocity primarily because the storm motion was more or less normal to the radial from KVNX.

The mesocyclone center is displaced S of the main precipitation core, and into an area of much lower reflectivity; given this and the high cloud base, identification as an LP supercell seems reasonable.

In progressively lower scans, the mesocyclone is displaced even further south and west: shifting laterally by about 5 miles between the 6.37˚ scan and the 2.37˚ scan: an angle of elevation of about 20˚ from the horizontal. (This seems like a lot of shearing to me, so I really doubt my numbers; regardless, I have not much experience in this area and really did not get a good look at the updraft tower from a distance.)

202504012305R.jpg202504012305V.jpg
(a) 3.95˚ Reflectivity Scan for KVNX at 2310Z. Wind barb data from the OK MesoNet. The black circle is hand-drawn and marks the approximate position of the mesocyclone. (Analysis conducted using Py-Art.)(b) Similar to (a), but for radial velocity. Clearly we are pretty far west.

In the following panorama, the contrast was enhanced (within reasonable limits), but visually there was very little to see—just a low contrast band marking the cloud base to the north. Low clouds are already moving in to block our view of the updraft tower, so we headed north on OK-74.

DSC_2310 - DSC_2312.jpg
Panorama stitched using Hugin. Looking WSW to NNE. Images taken with a Nikon Z6 24mm f/6.3 lens; ISO 100; 1/250 sec.​

END OF PART ONE
 

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PART TWO

Yeah this is a problem--I write too much about nothing. Next time I promise it will be shorter.


From the first stop just N of US-412, we proceeded north on OK-74, in fits and starts, to the intersection with OK-15 by about 6:30PM CDT. Visibility never really got better, except for the occasional break in the low cloud coverage that provided a brief glimpse of the updraft tower. The intersection of OK-74 with OK-15 was the last real stop of this chase.

Looking below, this should have been great positioning. The black circle marks the approximate location of the mesocyclone, which just as at the first stop, is located well south of the heavy precipitation core.

202504012330R.jpg202504012330V.jpg
(a) KVNX 1.8˚ Reflectivity scan at 2333Z on 4/1/2025. The black circle marks the approximate location of the mesocyclone. Stop location in red font just on the east edge of the circle. Wind data from OK Mesonet; analysis using Py-Art(b) Similar to (a) but for radial velocity.
During this stop the mesocyclone passed directly overhead but I could not see any evidence of rotation, nor any lowering of the base at all:

DSC_2331 - DSC_2335.jpg
Panorama stitched with Hugin, looking from WSW to NNE. OK-74 is the road on the RH side of the image, and marks the N-S axis. The forward flank precipitation core is due north at this time. The small protrusion hanging down in the panorama (to my north) was not rotating.

At one point, some small scud formed near the ground and rose towards the base, and there was even rotation evident as the scud was pulled into a corkscrew. However, that is the closest I got to seeing anything rotate during this chase.

DSC_2326a.jpg

Many chasers were parked in this area, and I am told the Dominator even made an appearance (my attention was directed away from the road and I really don't care, so...) They all left before we did, because at this point I was ending the chase and was in no hurry to speed off.

It’s worth noting that by letting the storm get ahead of us, we were forced to trail it for a few miles until we caught it again: we were looking right through the clear air beneath the base and never saw any sign of lowering at all.

The route home was more or less parallel to the storm’s track, so we stayed with it until it headed over the Arkansas River near Newkirk and then headed home.


Summary: in north central OK, a few storms formed in an area of mid-50’s dewpoints and convective temperatures near surface air temperatures. LCL’s in the area were relatively high, being 1 km or more. The only significant storm was a heavily-sheared(?) LP supercell that moved into an area of lower dewpoints, stronger capping, and even higher LCL’s and was destined to "never produce". As far as I can tell, all this storm did was attract chasers and drop hail.

I learned a lot: for instance I should have packed up and got moving when I saw all the evidence that the cap east of the dryline was weakening between 20Z and 21Z, and not waited as long as I did. So it was a sucessful chase.
 
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