4/30/09 REPORTS : OK

[Kurt Hulst]

Nick and I started From Grand Rapids and and got about 2 hours of sleep. We stopped in Perry to observe the morning convection and stay with the OFB. However with further analysis we decided to sit in western OKC, and waited and watched chaser after chaser on SN go past us and again when we moved to El Reno several chasers passed. I tried to call some on the HAM 146.55. After some time we decided to head further west to Weatherford. When we arrived the MD's had been issued and we decided to head north.

From Seiling we dropped south and caught the initiation of the storm of the day and a brief LP. Witnessed a low large wall cloud West of Butler. The hail started to fall and we drooped south and stopped to observe a beautiful striated supercell over Foss Lake/Resivor.

I was able to post a few more on my blog

Will have a full account up and more pictures later next week.

We encountered softball size hail one completed the crack across my windshield.

 

[nickgrillo]

I watched the supercell of the day grow from it's birth to death. No time to write an in-depth report.

Some video captures of the supercell at it's peak strength:

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Geez, talk about running around... Initially targeted the OFB in north-central Oklahoma, spending much of the late afternoon and very early evening hours in Hennessey. The Cu did look decent at times, but never got to the TCu stage from my perspective. At any rate, around 7:45-7:55 pm, I decided to make a jump at the convection initiating in western Oklahoma. I blasted west towards Canton, stopping very momentarily to check out the very small storm(s) in Dewey Co. The updrafts were quite "mushy", so I continued southwestward towards Clinton. I didn't think I'd be able to beat the core across I40 to get a view of the base, so I dropped south from I40 on N2200 Rd that leads southward a few miles W of Bessie. Well, it turns from pavement to red dirt a couple/few miles S of I40. Fortunately, I wasn't yet in the main FFD precip, but I was getting some light 'big drop' precipitation on the very forward fringe of the FFD. This, along with, I assume, the heavy rains of the past week, turned the red dirt red into slime. There were two points during that trip to find a paved road that I nearly slid off into the ditch (driving ~20 mph). I knew I needed to keep going fast enough such that when I hit a particularly muddy place, my forward momentum would help pull me through it, yet many attempts to stay near the center of the road failed as gravity tried relentlessly to pull my car into the ditch. I eventually made it to a decent paved road to get back onto a primary highway (Webb St that leads west into Burns Flat) with white knuckles and a much reduced desire to follow this storm in the dark. Then again, I wouldn't even have that option, as the storm completely collapsed right as I pulled into Burns Flat. Great.

I did make a trip to Foss and near Stafford (Hwys 44 and 73) to try to find some hail, but no dice. So, I started to make the drive back home on I40 eastbound. Lo and behold, a decent-looking supercell developed west of Kingfisher, and the lightning flash rate increased rapidly as I neared El Reno. I opted to head N out of Yukon to see if I could get some lightning shots. At this time, Gabe Garfield and a couple others were in another vehicle near Okarche, watching a large wall cloud on the supercell that tracked south and southeast of Kingfisher. A new storm gained intensity to this one's west, and eventually killed off the eastern supercell. The structure on both of these was pretty good, and, at times, excellent. I ended up watching the western supercell as it turned southeastward between Okarche and Piedmont from a few rural roads just northwest of Yukon (on the NW fringe of Yukon). I took a few pics from my vehicle, but I don't have time (nor desire) to review them right now. It was now some time after midnight, so I decided to finally make the jog back home, stopping in Yukon first to see if I could get some hail. Alas, much like the Foss storm, it very rapidly got munched by the cap (per radar data), and it completely disappeared from radar not more than 25-30 minutes after.

It was nice to see some structure, but I didn't make it to the Foss storm in time to see the updraft in all but its dissipation stage. I probably should have just called off the chase and headed home at 7:45 pm when I came to my "decision time", as I ended up with a ~350 mile chase instead of a ~120 mile chase. Oh well.

 

[William Reid]

Foss Reservoir supercell

Bob Conzemius and I caught the nice supercell near Butler and the Foss Reservoir at sunset on Thursday. Here is a short account and some pics:


http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2009/04/30/april-30-2009-foss-reservoir-ok-supercell/


Bill Reid

 

[Brandon Headley]

Here is a pic looking west from OKC.

Check out the blog if the pic isn't working.

 

[Jane Herbert]

Our first day of chasing gave us a brilliant intro to US weather...and a taste of the next few weeks to come.....

http://www.stormchasers.au.com/usa300409.htm

 

[Brian Press]

I was in Austin Tx, for a wedding Cinematography conference and I saw that things were looking pretty good so off I went. Drove to Dallas to stay with Steve Levine (own of Tornado Alley Safari). Then it was off to OK, for some action.

Was sitting in El Reno most of the day and I honestly thought it was gona be a bust, then saw a little blip and off I went. These are a few of my favs..

The was the Butler storm that everyone else was on. I did get some golf balls, maybe a few bigger ones in there. This storm was rocking!! It was nice to get out on the road. Living in So. Cal. It's pretty dang boring all the time.

The lighting was going off on this thing as it neared El Reno. I love this shot. It looks like a robot with it's arms cut off with lightning.

I'll be coming out in a few more weeks!!

Bp.

 

[Kurt Hulst]

I had deleted this shot from the post but will repost this shot because it interesting to see similar shots but from slightly different angels.

 

[Stephen Locke]

The Foss Lake Supercell

Photographs, account, timelapse. In color!