3/20/04 Reports

[mrobinson]

discuss

 

[Dan Robinson]

I embarked on my first long-haul lightning chase of the season on Saturday, ending up in Portsmouth, Ohio at around 4:00PM. Total mileage ~198 & 6 hours of driving.

Targeted Portsmouth to try and intercept the crest of a slight bowing line segment in a broken line of cells stretching from Lexington KY to near Columbus. Some beautiful high-based CG activity in the distance as I approached Portsmouth, but the line suddenly overran me with heavy precip and I had to turn around. I tried hard but never got back ahead of the line all the way to Charleston, 99 miles later. Didn't get anything but flashes of light on video.

Dan

 

[Scott Blair]

Jason Politte and I observed a couple of severe storms across northeast Arkansas on March 20. With a lack of speed and directional shear, we certainly didn't expect anything significant, but with a strong cold front pushing in and it being a Saturday, why not chase?

The first storm observed near Cave City, AR displayed brief supercellular characteristics as a lowering/psuedo wall cloud developed and persisted for a few minutes before being heavily affected by outflow and engulfed in precip.

With the Cave City cell weakening, we shifted our focus to White County and a developing storm in the prefrontal convection associated with the moisture axis. A severe warning was soon issued for the cell as it pushed off to the southeast. Towards sunset, the storm turned a hazy orange with an odd display of crepuscular rays opposite of the sun and a fairly intense display of lightning. We pulled ahead of the cell east of Des Arc and observed the lightning-illuminated storm bowing outward before ending the day near Brinkley.

Scott Blair
http://www.targetarea.net


Photo: severe storm with bowing shelf crossing the road east of Des Arc, AR.

 

[Kevin Scharfenberg]

Had a very pleasant solo drive down to Lake Murray (near Ardmore, OK) to watch the TCUs form over the lake and then the CBs as they went up just to the south in the hour preceeding sunset.

Photo here: http://weather.ou.edu/~kscharf/20mar.png

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

HERE ARE THE PICS WE GOT OF THE SEVERE STORMS THAT JUST BRUSHED TEXHOMA YESTERDAY DUE TO A DECNT COOL FRONT THAT PARADED ACCROSS THE AREA. SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNINGS WERE ISSUED FOR PALO PINTO & WISE COUNTIES OF TEXHOMA. OTHER COUNTIES JUST OUTSIDE THE AREA THAT SAW WARNINGS WERE DENTON, SHACKLEFORD, JONES, TAYLOR, STEPEHENS (OF TEXAS), FISHER, NOLANM COLLINS, & TARRANT. THE LARGEST HAIL REPORTS CAN FROM NEAR ROSCOE TEXAS IN NOLAN COUNTY WHICH REPORTED GOLFBALLS. THE DFW AREA SAW MAINLY NICKELS TO QUARTERS. THE HIGHEST WIND REPORT CAMOE FROM HOOD COUNTY OF 69 MPH. WHILE THESE STORMS WERE NOT TERRIBLY SEVERE THEY DID HAVE SOME DECENT LIGHTNING & DURING THEIR INITIAL FORMATION THEY SHOULD VER IMPRESSIVE GROWING UPDRAFT STRUCTURES. THEY WOULD RISE NEARLY STRAIGHT VERTICALLY THEY FALL APART, LEAN OVER OR LOOK AS THEY THEY COLLAPSED. IT TOOK AWHILE FOR THE STORMS TO GET GOING AS WELL DUE TO A STRONG CAP. THE STORMS ALSO MOVED IN AN UNUASUALT WAY BECAUSE OF VERY WEAK STEERING WINDS. THE STORMS MOVED SOUTHWEST TO SOUTH RIDING ALONG THE FRONT AS THEIR ONLY GUIDE. THEY ALSO MOVED AT SPEEDS OF ONLY AROUND 20 MPH AT BEST. WE LEFT OUT TO CHASE AROUND 4:30PM NOTING STORMS FIRING IN SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA BUT ALSO JUST NORTHWEST OF ABILIENE. FEARING IT WOULD GET DARK SOON AND ALSO THAT WE MIGHT NOT SEE ANYTHING IF WE DIDNT HEAD OUT WE DECIDED TO GET JUST ALONG THE FRONT AS IT WAS MOVING TOWARDS OLNEY TEXAS. WE WERE HOPING SOMETHING WOULD FORM NEAR US ALONG THE WAY BUT INSTEAD WE TURNED OUR ATTENTION TO ACELL FORMING IN SOUTHWEST JACK COUNTY MOVING TOWARDS THE POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE AREA IN PALO PINTO COUNTY. THIS CELL WOULD TRACK WEST SOMETIMES EVEN NORTHWEST ALONG THE EXTREME SOUTHERN PART OF YOUG COUNTY MOVING JUST SOUTH OF GRAHAM NEWCASTLE & FORT BELKNAPP. WE WOULD STOP AND FILM THE STORM FROM TIME TO TIME ALONG HWY 79 ALL THE WAY TOWARDS NEWCASTE BUT THEN HUNG AROUND THE NEWCASTE AREA AWHILE UNTIL SUNSET. WE THEN DECIDED TO TRY TO GET IN A GOOD POSITION FOR LIGHTNING PHOTOS BUT THE STORM WE WERE ON WAS NOT SEVERE AND WASNT PUTTING OUT MUCH LIGHTNING. WE THEN DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE A SEVERE STORM OVER SHACKELEFORD COUNTY THAT JUST BASICALLY SATYED IN THE SAME AREA. WE APPROACHED THIS STORM FROM THE NORTHEAST AND GOT ON THE BACKSIDE OF THE STORM TO SHOOT SOME WHAT WAS AT TIMES SOME VERY NICE ANVIL CRAWLER LIGHTNING. THE STORM BACKBUILT SLIGHTLY BUT WE STAYED OUR GROUND AND ALSO SHOWED OFF OUR XM SAT RADAR SYSTEM AND CAMERAS TO SOME CURIOUS RACOON HUNTERS WHO WERE WONDERING WHAT THE STRANGE LIGHTS WERE COMING FROM OUR CHASE VEHICLE. THE STORM WER WERE ON THEN DIED OUT AND WE HEADED TOWARDS ROUNDTIMBER TEXAS TO MEET SOME OF THE FAMILY WHO WERE SPENDING SPRING BREAK VACATION THEIR DOING SOME MINOR REPAIRS OF SOME DAMAGE WE SUSTAINED ON OUR FARM HOUSE BACK ON 3/4/04. WE HUNG SOME SHUDDERS BUT ALSO WERE KEEPING AN EYE ON SOME NEW SMALL THUNDERSTORMS TRYING TO GO UP NEAR SEYMOUR & OLNEY. THESE STORMS NEVER GOT TOGETHER NHOWEVER SO WE LOADED UP A FOUR WHEELER WE HAD LEFT AT THE RANCH A WEEK EARLIER AND HEADED BACK TO WICHITA FALLS. WE ARRIVED HOME AT CLOSE TO 1AM WITH A TOTAL CHASE NUMBER OF 211 MILES. I ALSO GOT TO CHECK OUT SOUTHWESTERN YOUNG COUNTY WHICH I HADNT DONE MUCH BEFORE IN THE PAST. ITS A BEAUTIFUL PART OF THE BRAZOS RIVER VALLEY WITH GOOD AREAS TO HUNT FOSSILS AND MANY PEACH & PLUM TREES THAT WERE IN FULL BLOOM MAKING THE ENTIRE COUNTRY SIDE SMELL AMAZING. ONLY BAD THING ON THIS CHASE WAS ALMOST CREAMING TWO DEER AROUND MIDNIGHT JUST OUTSIDE MEGARGEL AND ALSO MY CHASE PARTNER BECOMING A LITTLE TO DISTRACTED WITHT HE LAPTOP TRYING TO FIGURE OUT SOME THINGS ON THE XM BARON RADAR SYSTEM (WHICH WAS GOOD BECUASE WE DO NEED TO FAMILIARIZE OURSELVES WITH IT) BUT I HAD TO MAKE HIM SHUT IT DOWN AND FORCE HIM TO ENJOY THE BEAUTIFUL ANVIL CRAWLER LIGHTNING I WS FILMING. ON A SIDE NOTE THE OTHER STORM THAT MOVED INTO DENTON TEXAS AND FORMED JUST ALONG THE RED RIVER I BELIEVE ACTUALLY MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO MEXICO LAST NIGHT! IT WAS A VERY PERSISTENT STORM. I BET IT WAS SOME GOOD LIGHTNING AS WELL. I DID HEAR OF SOEM POSSIBLE QUARTER SIZE HAIL NEAR FLOWER MOUND TEXAS. CHASED BY JASON BROCK & JEFF PAPAK NOWCASTED BY MARK PAPAK PAMELA WARD KENNETH MCCALLISTER & JEREMIAH KEENAN PHOTOS & VIDCAPS BY JASON BROCK TOTAL CHASE MILES 211.

ALL THE PICS CAN BE FOUNDT AT http://www.texhomastormchasers.com/page6.html
AS WELL AS SOME PICS FROM ST. PATTYS DAY

 

[S.P. McCool]

er...Jason, is your caps lock stuck? :shock:

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Are you "Shouting"??

Jason,

Speaking of Caps Stuck, did you know that typing a e-mail message in all CAPS is considering "shouting"?? Plus the fact you did not break down your posting into paragraphs would make you a great assistant editor that stormtrack.org is looking for...LOL. Next time, KISS. (Keep it short and sweet). 8) LJK.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

Again as I have stated in the past I talk to my grandfather online via AOL IM and also post my chase reports on my website in all caps. This is becase he has a hard time seeing. So if I forget and post in caps in the future please just bare with me.

Jay

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Let's keep the tone civil, guys. We'll all be chasing and out of our cyber-prisons soon enough.

Amos