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.
