3/2/08 Now: TX/OK/LA/AR

[Jay McCoy]

Things starting to fire in the Texas panhandle and western Oklaohoma. T-watch issued but we already have our 1st tornado warning for Harper Co. in NW Oklahoma.

 

[Rodney Price]

Whoops..Jay just beat me to the punch. Mods, feel free to delete the NOW thread I started.

That storm has nice rotation along with elevated core aloft and weak echo region. Earlier the storm seemed to be post-frontal but now it's right along it. Anyone have any reports?

 

[Mark Farnik]

Additional cells are beginning to fire along a line from north of Altus to southeast of Woodward. There's about 8 distinctly individual cells attm, with approximately 10-25 mile spacing between cells, so it remains to be seen which cells will become dominant over the next hour.

EDIT: Pretty decent couplet on the Harper Co. supercell, looks to be bearing down on Lookout, OK in the next few minutes

EDIT 2: Couplet now passing over intersection of Highway 34 and US 64 between Lookout and Plainview

 

[Mark Farnik]

While vigourous convective initiation is occurring across all of western OK and extreme north central Texas, one cell in particular stands out to me attm. It is located just north of Altus, OK attm and what stands out to me about this particular storm is that its slightly ahead of the convection now initiating along the dryline from Wichita Falls to Woodward and as such has unimpeded inflow. While not a true TEC, it is located towards the southern extent of the line.This cell might bear close watching for tornadic potential as it moves towards the Lawton area over the next hour or so.

EDIT - And as soon as I said that, that cell went to crap. To be honest, with the plethora convection that has initiated, there really aren't any cells that have isolated themselves very well at this time, at least from what I can see. They're all fighting to become isolated from the rest of the activity, but they're fighting what unfortunately looks to be a losing battle for all the cells.

 

[Billy Griffin]

Very suspicious looking cell coming together near Cordell, OK.
Weak rotation could be observed via radar just west of Cordell. Cell appears to be pulsing.
Another cell south of that one, centered near Altus~Hobart, OK now looking better also.

KOCO streaming live video of tornado on the ground near Canton, OK.

 

[Andrew Francis]

Multiple tornados on the gorund in WEst Central OK. KOCO and KFOR and KWTV are streaming them live via chopper and ground units.

Just saw one near Carleton OK destroy a barn.

 

[Andrew Francis]

Tornado threat decreasing in OK. Storms taken a linear formation. Reported shelf cloud with the line @ this time.

 

[Jay McCoy]

SPC still shows no reports of tornados even though Val had some great dash camera live feed of a nice cone tornado near Canton. That and the video from the helicopters.

I have been nowcasting for a few guys playing storms south near Altus but they are mostly giving up now as it is rapidly l;ining out and weakening. The front is finally catching up and undercutting the storms. Looks like next area will be North Texas and southern Ok along I-35 where there is still good instability.

Temp has dropped almost 30 degrees in amarillo since 2pm with winds of 35+ from the north. Blizzard conditions to our NW near Clayton, NM. LOw clouds moving in rapidly.. should start snowing here in a few hrs.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

Got a new tornado warning for the caddo county cell, looks like just south of Fort Cobb is currently being effected. I just got off the phone with Chris Wilburn and he has been looking over his shoulder at this cell on his way back and has said that he thinks he might see something under it... a possible wall cloud this is. I am now casting for him and will post if he sees anything as he plans to sorta intercept this cell in the next 15 min. The spc has added a 10% tornado risk to the day 1 outlook. for SC OK and NC TX.

EDIT: Well the cell is starting to go to crap now, it looked like a good classic hp but it seems to be loosing its rotation now, and it looks like the OKC metro is going to be overrun by a really nice looking bow.

 

[HAltschule]

SPC still shows no reports of tornados even though Val had some great dash camera live feed of a nice cone tornado near Canton. That and the video from the helicopters.

I have been nowcasting for a few guys playing storms south near Altus but they are mostly giving up now as it is rapidly l;ining out and weakening. The front is finally catching up and undercutting the storms. Looks like next area will be North Texas and southern Ok along I-35 where there is still good instability.

Temp has dropped almost 30 degrees in amarillo since 2pm with winds of 35+ from the north. Blizzard conditions to our NW near Clayton, NM. LOw clouds moving in rapidly.. should start snowing here in a few hrs.

SPC only indicates those severe weather events that are reported via the LSR's. So, if the local offices don't send an LSR including the report, SPC will not have it on their list of storm events.

 

[HAltschule]

A tornado warning has been issued for Oklahoma City, OK. Doppler radar scans show nice rotation at the ground aloft. Certainly there's a wall cloud or possible even a funnel cloud about to push through OKC based on the rotation and BR1 imagery showing a slight hook.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I just got off the phone with Chris Wilburn who is just barely ahead of it, if not directly under it on I-40 and he says visibility is too poor and preventing him from seeing much but I could hear the sirens and 911 vehicles in the back ground.

 

[Jay McCoy]

SPC only indicates those severe weather events that are reported via the LSR's. So, if the local offices don't send an LSR including the report, SPC will not have it on their list of storm events.

I knew that. I was just surprised that OUN didnt have a report considering the extensive tv coverage. Figured somebody would have calld it in.

Ok city storm doesnt look as impressive but still showing a bit of shear near Choctaw.

 

[Angie Norris]

Currently in OUN...
Got a delightful thnderstorm in progress...very frequent lightning, very heavy rain, gusty wind (NW at 21 with gusts to 32), pea sized hail, and the temp has dropped 22 degrees in less than an hour .
Spring is off to a good start!

 

[Jay McCoy]

Wish I could report thunder but instead on the backside of this front its 30 with heavy snow and winds of 41mph with gusts of 60!! blizzard like conditions in amarillo right now. At 2pm today we were 74 with sunny skies and winds of less than 10mph.. dropped 44 degress in 7 hrs and went from spring to deep winter.

Next person who says spring has arrived gets slapped upside the head