Brief: Three tornadoes near Arapaho/Okarche, OK (was only counting one originally until I conversed with other chasers in the same area), spectacular March structure, and (for me) the ideal chase weekend!
Video Stills:
http://www.mammatus.com/3272004/
Main Summary... note... Lengthy!
Following an excellent series of presentations at the Iowa NWA severe storms and doppler radar conference in Des Moines on Thursday, March 26 and Friday, March 27; Keith Brown, Tony Laubach, Tim Samaras, Carl Young, and myself skipped out on the final day (Saturday) of the conference to chase south into Western Oklahoma. Tim was kind enough to share his portable WiFi setup on his laptop at lunch, to which a group of us began favoring the Clinton, OK area. Elapsing past the extremely interesting presentation on "The Blob" by Dr. Eric Rassmussen, Keith and I debated whether or not to wait for the 00Z ETA. Allowing a thin piece of silver to dictate departure, we flipped a quarter. President Washington suggested staying around for the 00Z runs, however we disregarded our former leader and began to pack up.
Tim and Carl departed DSM around 9pm CT, while Keith and I became distracted by pre-chase chit chatter and a crash course in ebonics by Mr. Kiesling. A 45 minute wx. data powwow ensued with Jon Davies, The Twister Sisters (Mel and Peg), Doug Kiesling, and a slurry of St. Cloud State MET students before Keith, Tony, and I packed our vehicles and bid our farewells.
Making our way south to Wichita (ITC) for the night, we arrived at the Park City, KS Super 8 motel at 4:10am CT... checked in, briefly looked at the DY1, and quickly zonked out into chaser dreamland. Four hours elapsed before we were back in front of Tony's laptop with TWC blaring moderately. Tim and Carl hit the road (once again) an hour before we did, alas, Keith, Tony and I didn't depart ITC until around 11am. Neither of us were thrilled at the surface obs, however held some hope for clearing across SW OK by 21/22Z. Left ITC after accidentally driving the wrong way on 135 (north instead of south - whoops), and drove south on I35 through stratocrap grunge. Target still holding at Clinton.
Tones and TOR box issued until 6pm CT for our target region upon arriving at Ponca City around 1:30pm CT. Clearing noted as we continued towards OKC. Unaware of the northern storms (no mobile data aside from NOAA WXR and local TV) until we were at Edmond, we shot W on I40 towards a developing supercell near Elk City. Making good time westbound, Keith and I (in my vehicle) and Tony aka "Dr. WXNERD" (in his own car) arrived at Clinton just as a TOR warning was issued for Custer Co at 3:52pm CT. Headed north on HW183, a thin rope tornado rapidly developed (3:58pm CT) six miles (or so) to our NW immediately upon clearing Clinton. Tony relayed this report to OUN, and we proceeded N. Tripoded north of Arapaho on 183, watched slow rotating rain curtains under the meso before continuing north. East on HW33, a chaser circus ensued (as expected on a weekend in OK) as we pursued the meso northeast. The storm attempted a few more spinups, and yet another brief tornado N of Custer City. Sirens sounded upon entering Thomas, yet our attention became drawn to a new cell SW of Weatherford.
Dropped south on 54, skirting the core of the Weatherford supercell. We lost Tony briefly in the madness of the masses, and came upon a gorgeous meso at Weatherford. Passsing numerous OU folks standing in awe and being beamed with small hail, we pulled off 54 and tripoded. Meso was nearly overhead as a concerning area of rotation kicked up at cloud base. Dropped S then E on several unmarked dirt roads. Twisting east to south to north to east, we arrived back to I-40 near Hydro... meeting back up with Dr. WXNERD along with Tim and Carl. Headed east and followed this meso northeast towards Okarche. Once again, exhibiting the *greatest* structure I've encountered in March to date, we navigated more unmarked dirt roads west of HW3, eventually pulling off at a high point to capture the structure before nightfall.
Perfect timing allowed for tripoded documentation of the twin funnel clouds (from what I've read, these were indeed tornadoes) so... will call this [or these] a tornado(es). The funnels/tornado lasted for about a minute before dissipating. Hungry, exhausted, and darkness blanketing the landscape we called off the chase and headed to OKC for dinner at Chilis. Lured Tim and Carl down after they became bamboozled by food establishments (or lack there of) in Guthrie. Shared video, laughs, and post-convective conversation over burgers and Dr. Pepper (excluding Keith's margurita(s).... a perfect conclusion to the day!
I'd like to thank my chase partners, Keith Brown and Tony Laubach, for the great company and the excellent job navagating/phoning in reports to OUN/911. Tim Samaras, Karl Young, and Mel Metz whom provided several nowcasts (unfortunately my Nextel service is non-exsistant W of OKC!). To Paul Ritter and all the OU folks I bumped into on the road... and of course, fellow Midwesterner Amos Magliocco... great to formally meet you while under the meso!
Grabbed some video stills from the 27-March-2004 OK chase and placed them on my server:
http://www.mammatus.com/3272004/
..Blake..
Blake W. Naftel - KC8VPG
[email protected]
www.mammatus.com
