5/30/06 REPORTS: KS / OK / TX

[cdcollura]

Good day everyone...

I was right UNDER the meso looking up at the funnel cloud!

 

[Martin Kucera]

Was on the cell that moved to SSW on the east TX panhandle border. The cell seemed to pulse a lot and showed some signs of rotation later in the afternoon. Great display of lightning followed shorly before dark. .

[attachmentid=356]

Follow the link for more photos here :

http://www.floridalightning.com/Midwest_2006.html

Martin Kucera
FloridaLightning.com

 

[Bob Schafer]

My target was provisionally Dalhart, but low Td's were keeping everything high-based in that area after initiation. Also, other parameters seemed to preclude discrete storms, so I drove under the convection to Pampa, where the arc of storms were at least being fed some light backing winds. Then I went to S of Panhandle, because there was some rotation evident there, where the I ran into David Hoadley, and we nearly got a tube:



David and I decided to get a bit closer, and I drove right up to the base while he hung back just a bit. I jumped out of the truck only to be rudely greeted by some damn cold outflow. Here I was on an already-moist dirt road, so I quickly snapped this, then went back to talk to David again:



(click for larger versions)

We safely got the heck out of there before getting caught in mud and the collapsing storm. Nice to run into David for the first time since Denver 2003.

Bob

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

We targetted the region in SE Colorado and extreme western Oklahoma Panhandle. But we got side tracked by developing storms that were I thought would moveg into some moisture that mixed out in the central Texas Panhandle. The outflow boundary produced strong gusts and also spun up a probable landspout near Spearman. Finally having enough, we raced towards the Oklahoma supercell with an eye on any interaction of the outflow boundary on the cells near Pampa.

We finally made it through east of Wheeler and south with and ahead of the Roberts County cell. We decided in the end to play this cell and what a barrage of lightning it let go south of Sayre. This coincided with a reorganisation of the meso or a new meso. I don't believe the outflow was always interferring with the updraft given the alignment of the cell and its motion. The late evening lightning was near Mangum as indicated by Hank above. Incredible! (Hank, we were in the process of putting the tripods in the car when that bolt you took hit behind us).

Some pictures:

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Bill Hark]

I expected May 30th to be the most promising chase day during my vacation. There was a front across Nebraska and Kansas down to Clayton, New Mexico and a dryline from Boise City, Oklahoma down to Amarillo and Midland, Texas. There was decent flow aloft and backed (southeasterly) winds at the surface. We were also watching an outflow boundary across western Oklahoma. I was chasing with Jason Persoff. Our starting point was Salina, Kansas and our target area was the Guymon, OK to Perryton, TX area at the triple point.

We headed southwest through Great Bend and Dodge City, Kansas then south to Beaver in the Oklahoma Panhandle. There was a line of storms to our east and south firing along an outflow boundary. We expected more storms to fire in our region south into the northern part of the Texas Panhandle. Amazingly, we were able to find Wi-Fi in Beaver. We waited and watched the sky along with checking weather data. We also talked with Charles Edwards of Cloud 9 Tours who was a few miles to the south. I was concerned that the best developing towering cumulus was to our south. Storms soon developed in the Dumas to Pampa area but they were disorganized. We also watched a storm at the southerly end of a line of storms in western Oklahoma become more isolated. This storm was near Gage, Oklahoma and it was drifting southward into an area of better moisture. When it became clear that the Gage storm was the main storm, we blasted south from Beaver, then south from Canadian, Texas on 83. Road options were limited to cross the Texas-Oklahoma border. We turned east on 2124 at 4:45PM which becomes 47 in Oklahoma. The storm was almost due East when we reached the town of Reydon. We dropped south on 30 due to a detour (washed out bridge), skirting the core, then we could see a briefly rotating wall cloud by 5:10PM. We turned east, then south following the storm. At 5:23PM, it formed another nice wall cloud. The storm would vary between appearing outflowish, then rotation would increase and inflow would start. The storm would lose organization and the cycle would repeat. No tornado. We passed hundreds of storm-starved chasers. Jason and I ran into Tim Marshall and Stu Robinson traveling with Silver Lining Tours. We crossed I-40 at 6:40PM and found a dirt road for viewing. The storm was now disorganized but was sending out multiple lightning bolts which provided a great opportunity for photography. We watched a herd of cows run as lightning struck nearby. Two cows stayed behind and butted heads as more lightning flashed in the background. Smoke rose from distant brushfires. We ended up near the Salt Fork Red River Valley and watched numerous CG’s (cloud to ground lighting) strike the surrounding hills. A brush and structure fire was started and Jason called in an emergency report via HAM radio. After dark, we drove through driving rain to reach the Big Texan in Amarillo, Texas.

No tornadoes but a fun and successful storm chase. The supercell tried on multiple occasions but could not quite produce a tornado. I suspect the upper level winds were not strong enough.

IMAGES

Wall cloud
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006wallcloud.jpg

Wall cloud tightening with increased rotation
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006wallcloudtight.jpg

I'm watching the storm
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006bill.jpg

Another wall cloud forms
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006anotherwall.jpg

Jason and I viewing the storm
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006viewingthestorm.jpg

Cows and storm
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006cowsstorm.jpg

Close-up of cows
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006cowsclose.jpg

Cows and lightning
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006cowslightning.jpg

Cows rutting with lightning
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006cowsrutting.jpg

Lightning in loop with rutting cows and distant fire
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006lightningloop.jpg

Close lightning strike
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006lightningclose.jpg

Brush fire
http://www.harkphoto.com/053006fire.jpg

Bill Hark

 

[Angie Norris]

Game plan for the day was to play off the outflow boundaries from Monday evening's storm in Woods County, so preliminary target was Woodward, OK, with a backup plan to go west to Beaver, OK if things didn't look good in Woodward. Needless to say, I didn't have to use plan B.
I left Norman at 11:00, going solo, with partner Jo Radel acting as nowcaster. I headed west on I-40, then north on Hwy 183 out of Clinton. When I got to about the Putnam area, I could see the tower that would become the Roger Mills storm going up to the west. I called Jo to let her know what I was seeing, and headed on north to the Hwy 183/60 intersection which was the next west option. The storm was quickly growing and the first severe warning came out for Roger Mills/Ellis counties. I headed west towards Vici (to get a quck fill up on gas AND to get on Hwy 34 as my south option). Just as I got to the gas station in Vici (and turned off the camera), a huge CG hit less than a block from where I was, just as the rain and hail moved in.
I then moved south on Hwy 34, and ran parallel with the storms all afternoon, watching many attempts to produce funnels. At one point, when I was somewhere near Camargo, one lowering off to my sothwest was VERY suspicious. I was too far away to know for sure if it was on the ground, but I was definitely pleased with how the day was going at this point. A little further south near Hammon, I had pulled off the road to watch another suspicious area, and briefly talked with one of the locals, who was also out enjoying the weather.
I headed on south to Elk City, then west on I-40 to Sayre, where I watched tail end Charley put forth the best effort of the day. Finally, there was some weak inflow, and a wall cloud struggled with some brief rotation and attempted a couple of lowerings. I sat back for a bit and simply enjoyed the lightning show before heading back to Norman.
It's amazing how one afternoon with bring an entire season out of the basement. BIG thanks to Jo for nowcasting for me and BIG thanks to Mom Nature for the delightful afternoon!!!