4/9/04 REPORTS: OK

[Jeff Wear]

Went up I-35 to check out the persistent cell in Kingfisher/Logan County that at times was showing a hook on radar. By the time I got to Frontier City got hit by the cold (and I mean COLD) surge heading SW and the storm had weakened. Then decided to go east to try to catch storms further east - but got caught in bad traffic at I-40/I-240 interchange so headed home.

 

[Shane Adams]

We were in two cars: Chad Lawson, Susan Walling, and my woman Jo were in Susan's ride, Mickey Ptak and I followed in his ride. We left around noonish and went to Springer, OK. We sat there for over 3 hours watching storms develop along the front, but nothing was really getting its act together (then). I was commited to west of 35 all day, never waivering (which ended up a bad thing I guess).

As the day wore on, I kept thinking the show would be further east, if at all, but we'd commited the entire day to our target and leaving to race east (away from home) into bad terrain didn't set well with the group. Looks like the RUC nailed this one.

Missing out on the jungle love right now, but the good news is my target verified early on, as western Pontotoc Co was severe-warned for a cell near Ada. Of course as that was happening, I was in Springer.....so there's really nothing good about any of it, lol.

I had a feeling this day required attention till dark, but it looked pretty hopeless by 4pm and I wasn't about to suggest we race east after commiting to 35 all damn day. I dunno what it is about me, but I get burned on these marginal boundary days everytime. Hopefully I'll learn my lesson this go round.

Thanks to Dwain Warner for the awesome nowcasting.
_________________

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Well Shane... sounds familiar. We patrolled the the 35/81 corridor throughout the afternoon. Around 2-3pm.. it appeared like stuff was about to go up around Ardmore... but it didn't. We too decided to stick with our target and not venture into the jungle. Oh well.

Aaron

 

[Jason Montano]

todays runaround

Yeah sounds familiar here too. I headed down to Ardmore early, around 1130 and arrived at around 1300. I went to go download some new maps and stuff at the Ardmore library but.....it was good Friday. So, I went to the Hampton Inn instead. I downloaded the latest satellite image and noticed the cu fields going up west of Ardmore, I headed that way and raked those for a while heading west to about Waurika when I heard a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Pontatoc Co. I turned around and raced for that storm getting within 20 miles of it when the Warning was canceled prematurley. Being discouraged by this, I preceded to head for the new Warning area in Lincoln and Pottawatamie Co. I headed home soon after.

Leaving the Pontatoc Co. storm was a terrible decision being that it is the storm that eventually would be associated with numerous tornado warnings. Oh well, I at least learned something from today and that is to judge your visual observations rather than what the NWS is interpreting with radar.

I hope someone was on that storm I would like to see some pics of the tornado.

 

[Melissa Moon]

I went out not really expecting to see much; today was definitely a "convenience chase"; it was close and it was Friday so why not! And sure enough, I really didn't see too much; just some not-too-impressive anvils out in the jungle that we didn't really bother to venture into. But yeah, not disappointed at all cause I didn't even have my hopes that high to begin with.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I headed East out of Wichita Falls and set myself up in Gainesville. I hoped some of the weak cells South of Lake Texhoma would get their acto together. Was tempted to chase the bryan county storm but with it getting dark I decided against it. Only got some pics of the storm towers which never became severe but did take some time lapse of them forming which may turn out ok. It was basically a bust today for me but it was Friday & I had nothing better to do & my be the last chance to chase till next weekend. Hoping to get some lightning pics as the front moves through the Falls in the wee hours but I doubt it.
Ill post the pics I took later on the website at http://www.texhomastormchasers.com/page6.html but may be after the holiday. Speaking of which everyone have a good one.

 

[Jay McCoy]

I and my partner headed toward south central Ok but after most of the CU fell apart we headed to the storm in north/NW OK that was playing the front. It mostly fell apart soon after we caught up to it around Thomas but beautiful shelf cloud. Headed back to Amarillo to run into the best storms of the night. heavy rain, tons of lightning, and dime size hail. One of the local tv stations caught a nice wall cloud and funnel NW of Amarillo along with quarter size hail. I sure wasnt expecting to drive 550 miles to end up with the severe wx hitting my house as i got home :shock: !! big waste of gas on this one but I dont think anybody expected severe wx in the western and central panhandle.

Thanks to David Drummond for some nowcasting.

 

[JR Hehnly]

Jim Webb and I drove down to Ardmore, met up with Chris Sokol. Stayed there debating on blasting toward cells to the northeast, but finally got something coming up from the south. Intercepted it east of Ardmore, witnessed some rotation on a wall cloud east of Madill. CGs got intense as we videoed (sp?) the wall cloud producing a few small funnels. Seemed to be coming right toward us, then made a move to the left. The entire storm was diving south, suprising us when the rain/hail core caught us from behind. We didn't have any good south road options and continued east until we arrived at Hugo, giving up as darkness fell.

A few pictures are up at:
http://www.okstorms.com/2004_chases.htm#20040409
Their size has not been reduced yet, so full-size images are not dial-up friendly.

I'll try and post some video of the funnels sometime this weekend.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

The photos make this storm appear fairly high based ... any ideas about the altitude of the cloud base yesterday?

Impressive for the storm to make that hard of a turn -

 

[Melissa Moon]

Everything was high-based yesterday from what I saw.

 

[Kevin Scharfenberg]

Saw several wedges Friday. They were potato wedges at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore -- the next best thing to that other kind of wedge!

Before dinner, here's what happened: A supercell developed about 2 miles northwest of my office about 2:50pm and moved across the north side of Norman. Went up to the east side of OKC and got caught in the same traffic jam as Jeff, but got to watch a nice CB tower as it went up just to our east. Then went up to the north side of Edmond to watch the supercell in southern Logan county gust out. Finally, went up to Watonga to watch the northwestern storm gust out. Got back to the city in time for some great wings at BWW!

 

[KMcCallister]

Chase to the Forest

Somedays, you just can't quite get anywhere in time. Friday was about 4 of those days.

Anyway, we ended up in Talahina, Oklahoma at the end of the effort. This was a few minutes after the sheriff's deputy in Le Flore county reported the tornado on that storm.

For anybody interested, the much more detailed summary: http://www.weatherenthusiast.com/chases/2004_0409

The only pictures on the page is a timelapse for all you TL fans.

Kenneth

 

[Melissa Moon]

Originally posted by Kevin Scharfenberg
Saw several wedges Friday. They were potato wedges at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore -- the next best thing to that other kind of wedge!

Before dinner, here's what happened: A supercell developed about 2 miles northwest of my office about 2:50pm and moved across the north side of Norman. Went up to the east side of OKC and got caught in the same traffic jam as Jeff, but got to watch a nice CB tower as it went up just to our east. Then went up to the north side of Edmond to watch the supercell in southern Logan county gust out. Finally, went up to Watonga to watch the northwestern storm gust out. Got back to the city in time for some great wings at BWW!

Sorry, this is a little off topic , but is that place really all it's cracked up to be? the other night I drove by there and there were 2 rows of cars parked on the grass in addition to having the parking lot completely full.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Here is my summary for the masses concerning my jaunt to Oklahoma on Friday, April 9, 2004... feel free to read, delete, and or mock:

It's crunch time at Western Michigan University as the semester winds down/or up (depending on how one looks at it), regardless of that fact, the temptation to chase on my four day weekend (FRI-MON) off from work began stirring following Wednesday's 12Z ETA run. My friend Chris Koetters contacted me around the same time, he whom also had FRI-SUN off from work, was interested in a Friday marathon chase to the Sooner state.

Parameters were marginal for the most part, yet still enough force me to summon the strength and write a single-spaced two page paper on "how to prepare South American potatoes" (for my GEOG 381 course - that's a whole other tale), walk Skyler, my parents Carin Terrier ("toto" style dog), and pack up/depart for Quincy, IL at 6pm ET on April 8. Arrived at Chris's apartment around 11:30pm CT, glanced at email/data, and departed for our overnight quest to Tulsa. While on the road, Chris was treated to my bizarre taste in music, to which I believe once again, I've created yet another Wall of Voodoo fan (Chris I suggest purchasing the album "Call of the West" for your precarious "Mexican Radio" jingle).

Six hours later we arrived in Tulsa after alternating driving back n' fourth, and inhaling some sickly Denny's "Grand Slam" action in Joplin. The decision to forgo a motel for the morning vanished like water vapor, and we continued pressing SW towards Norman. Upon entering northern OKC, I phoned friend and local Norman'ite Bob Conzemius, whom welcomed us to his home for data, coffee, and some light gardening. Arrived at Bobcat's abode around 10am, and began feasting on "YUC"/surface data. Elevated convection blossomed to the S/SE of Norman, which was nice to view while I brushed my teeth using the "water bottle/brush/spit the frothy residue behind Bob's fence" method.

Friend and occasional feline admirer Melissa Moon called me, inquiring about the days chase/and if she and another OU student could chase with Chris and I. This was fine, as we could make the pending days bust into one big intervan shindig, alas; following her 11:30am class... Melissa and Dan the OU mesoscale meteorology man (sorry, your last name escapes me attm) arrived. More data crunching ensued, yet Sydney (Bob's cat) was convinced SPS to Ardmore would be the sweet spot of the day. It was early midday, so lunch transpired ... followed by the most surreal life changing experience I've encountered in Norman to date.

http://www.mammatus.com/TEMPPHOTOS/TAP2.jpg

After physically touching the holy grail of tornado research - "TAP2" - and grabbing a brief photo opp, Chris, Mel, Dan, and I headed back to Bob's. Aight... cut to the chase Naftel...

Summing up, we ping-ponged from Norman to Purcell to Norman to Pauls Valley following SVR warned convection along the warm front. Sat and viewed hazy CU and percolating "beasts" (j/k) to the east of I-35. A tornadic supercell went up approximately 40 miles to our NE near McAlester, but since we were not pulling in Tulsa NWR, and our random nowcasters remained silent, we remained unaware of it's existence until Melissa phoned Scott Blair. We followed a line of high-based CBs east to Ada; then upon realizing catching up to the cell (now moving into Arkansas) would be futile; called the chase off and headed back to Norman.

Bidding our farewells to Mel, Dan, and Bob C, Chris and I "marathoned" it back NE to Quincy overnight.. arriving around 6:30am. Crashed for three hours, then proceeded back to Kalamazoo - arriving at 6pm ET Saturday, 36-hours and 2264.8 miles (RT) to the point where I had left off at on Thursday.

Not disappointed by this chase one bit! It was great to see friends I hadn't visited with in seven months, plus, just being in the presence of "TAP2" must be the same feeling Catholics get when meeting Pope John Paul II.

Many thanks to Scott Weberpal, Doug Kiesling, Bob Conzemius, Mark Sefried, and Scott Blair for nowcast support.

Will Iowa be in my future for next weekend? If I do set foot in the Hawkeye state, chasers far and wide must be forewarned that they will experience a bust if within a 200-mile radius of my presence.

..Blake..

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Nothing much to report -- Bill Tabor, David Douglas, and myself chased northward from Austin, with a target of Mineral Wells. We adjusted northeast, and ended up in Gainesville near a promising but short-lived tower. We hung around Whitesboro for about half an hour before calling it quits and heading back home, after stopping briefly for a Tex-Mex dinner at a local place in Waco.

Bill Tabor had nearly continuous Internet access through Ositech and Verizon... geez, we were spoiled rotten by all the realtime Weathertap. Roger Jensen would be rolling over in his grave.

Tim