5/27 REPORTS: OK/TX

[cdcollura]

I took my chances and decided to investigate the area near Altus Oklahoma for possible supercells. Outflow boundaries and a 3500 CAPE bullseye were in place, but upper air winds were weak this time.

Left Kansas and made the target of Altus by about 5 PM, much later than I would have liked to because I was pulled over and held by a deputy and given a stuff $150 citation for "unsafe windshield" (from the hail on 5-26 near Greensbirg, KS). I tried to tell the deputy I was going to get it fixed, but he handed me the ticket and apologized for "wasting my time". I continued on to Altus, catching the tail end of a supercell's life-cycle there.

Above: Radar presentation of Altus, OK supercell.

Above: Approaching the storm from the NE.

Above: Interesting storm structure before it weakens.

Full chase log can be seen at the link below...

http://www.sky-chaser.com/mwcl2008.htm#MAY19

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Jack Kertzie, Ron Gravelle, company and I targeted the Altus supercell as well. We intercepted the storm from the southeast and managed to get some nice structure shots. We watched the RFD come down and it picked up dust in a field. We got ahead of the storm again and watched an area of rising scud of what we thought would be the wall cloud but it quickly fell apart before even attaching itself to the base. Winds were blowing away from the storm, cutting off any inflow to it. No feeder inflow bands leading into the storm that I have noticed either... well, they were there, but too far away from the storm due to the outflow. We abandoned the storm after realizing it was weakening and becoming outflow dominant.

Later in the day at sunset, we photographed sunset lit mammatus in Childress, TX, which was the nicest mammatus photos I've ever taken. All in all, not a bad day, just wish the storm sucked in more inflow to get it going better.

 

[Jason Branz]

Targeted Frederick OK, arriving there as storms were starting to pop. Went after the first severe-warned storm in Hardeman county TX, but it weakened, so I headed back north toward the now-gorgeous Altus storm. It sure was pretty, and it took on a UFO-type appearance after it became outflow-dominant.

Had a bit of photographic good luck on the way to OUN too. A large roll-cloud type feature was located just south of Lawton, with a stable-wave cloud on the top of it, almost like pileus. Luckily, I found a small field of wildflowers to use as foregrounds for the mammatus and the unique cloud formations. Overall, not too bad for a low-expectations day.