3/31/08 REPORTS: IA/IL/MO/OK/AR/TN/TX/LA

[Dustin Wilcox]

What a tough chase to document... short and sweet for now. Started out near Ardmore, dropped south into the Sherman TX area just about as storms were getting going. We initially wanted to get to the FT. Worth storm but thankfully didn't try. We ended up intercepting the Tornado warned storm coming out of the Lewisville area. We had to fight traffic and anvil precip before we got a good view of the base, but once we got a view we were quite impressed, and even for a while for the second time in two days, we began to think we were getting ready to witness a tornado (only this time over a populated area). However shortly after our arrival that storm weakened, as another updraft began to rain on it. From there we raced North and intercepted the S OK storm, near Caddo. We followed it East to the Indian nation Turnpike before calling it a day. We were treated to a spectacular sunset on the backside of the storms.

View of Wall Cloud moving over NE Dallas Metro area, City of Frisco TX.

View of what once was promising storm, now being drowned to death. Looking West

Just a couple shots of the Cold looking unorganized base near and East of Caddo OK.
Looking East at Caddo

Looking South East of Caddo

Our Awesome Sunset on the empty Indian Nation Turnpike.

More pictures on my site this weekend

 

[Brian Stertz]

Rich & Ryan Thies and I spent a frustrating Monday chasing (2) t-warned supercells... only to watch their demise minutes after getting within eyeshot of the updraft and base. The Denton/Collin Co. TX supercell showed some promise but then turned into a pile of N.Texas oversized towering cu garbage as it moved northeast. We abandoned this dying storm and headed north to the large supercell that tracked from Marshall and Johnston Co. OK into Bryan and Atoka Co. OK. Upon our reaching the supercell, it had done a pretty sizeable blow out and structure looked on the coldish side with weakening inflow and strengthening cold outflow. We tried to keep up with it as it headed into SE Oklahoma no-mans land and a very poor road network. We ditched this storm. We headed north and caught an outflow dominated hailstorm near Wapanucka (Johnston Co.). Finally we could confirm this was in fact a severe storm as we had been skunked earlier on any form of severe wx. We measured hail in a decent swath 1 to 2 miles south of the town of Wapanucka. The largest of the hailstones was 1.5" with a variety of shapes and sizes...and the good ole' hailfog. Saw some pretty major stream flooding in Coal Co. OK on the way home. More or less a bust, but did manage to chase two t-warned supercells so not a complete "clear air" bust. Certainly my guess is that the first wave that lifted out left way too much subsidence to support the long lived supercells as expected/hoped for. A long drive back to KC made this one sting a bit. So 2008 starts off 1 for 2....lets just hope my May/June batting avg. for the season can stay at .500 !! (Yeah right )

 

[matt patterson]

Well after chasing all day Sunday and not havinig much more to report than everyone else on the group of supercells SW of OKC. I along with some others followed them back across I 35 and watched them cycle and try to tornado over and over again. The inflow was incredible (im guessing because of the LLJ) and for some reason they never seemed to loose their strength. We had a bit of a close call in Perkins Ok where a potential tornadic cirulation passed right over us. We had a violent change of wind direction 3 times if i remember correctly. After the lead SUP moved into Osage County it went TOR warned. I followed it for a while and it never did anything other than hail and produce several decent wall clouds. Now approaching 5 AM another cell formed back to the west. I intercepted them just west of HWY 75 about 14 miles south of Bartlesville OK. The storm put a cone tornado down at about 7:20 AM about 1/2 mile west of hwy 75 and was on the ground for about 1 minute. It followed with hail near golf ball size and some 40-50 mph winds. After being up for nearly 30 hours straight i decided to call it quits before starting all over again to bust in the afternoon. Here is a link to the video
http://s138.photobucket.com/albums/q243/mattpatt1/?action=view&current=mattpattersonmarch31.flv

If the Mods wish to move this post please feel free.

 

[mike scantlin]

matt, i think your report should be in the march 30th thread.

 

[Paul Redmond]

non chase beats a bust chase

It turns out, that I stayed at work too long. By 1:30 I had realized that the cap had broke and that the dryline was racing east, and too far east at that. My plan had been to go up the 281 corridor. But since it was too late to leave now, it became an armchair/office chase. I Watched some interesting rotational cells in Llanno, San Saba, and Earath counties race to the east and northeast at 30 mph and then diminish east of I35. Oh what a chase it could have been if I had left earlier. I had already baptized the chase vehicle last saterday night in Atascosa county and I am looking forward to north texas on 4/03/08, so I am not crying in my beer.

 

[Mike Mezeul II]

Left Collin County around 2:30PM, tempted to blast south towards the Johnson County storm but opted instead to give the Denton storm a chance as it started to shape up. Got in between the Lewisville / Frisco area on Hwy 121 as the storm became tornado warned. It had some pretty impressive structure, and a nice large, blocky wall cloud which at times exhibited some pretty strong rotation. Some brief funnels really made me think that I was going to see a tornado over a populated area, but luckily Frisco dodged a big bullet. Followed the storm to northern Collin County and finally called off the chase as the storm crapped out pretty quickly. All in all, not a bad little close to home chase. Hopefully tomorrow will produce better results.

 

[Tony Laubach]

http://www.tornadoeskick.com/logs080331.html

Intercepted a handful of storms and again enjoyed a great hailstorm! Started in Oklahoma and made a quick trip into Texas before flying back into Oklahoma. Carl Young chased with me for this day. Full report on my website...

 

[Steve_Stuck]

I'd been at work in Plano, chomping at the bit most of the afternoon to get out and chase. Finally left to catch the wall cloud in Frisco from the mall parking lot (video, no stills). Went east with the storm until it fell apart. Then zoomed north on 75, crossing into Oklahoma. Lost radar on my phone.

Shortly after Durant, I stopped on the road with this storm to the east:

And this one to the west, moving east:

My wife got home from her job and nowcasted for me. She said the storm to the west was coming out of Ardmore and had a hook. Decision made, went further north on 75 to watch it cross in front of me.

Between Caddo & Caney:

Finally went back home with no tornadoes, but it sure was fun! I probably saw several of you without realizing it. I was driving a red explorer.