5/7/07 REPORTS: TX, OK

[James Langford]

I thought I would start a reports thread for yesterday. I was chasing the storm that started over Denton. I got there kind of late, so I missed the wall cloud. I chased the storm east on 380, then north up 377. Just north of Pilot Point, I stopped to shoot some lightning as the storms were dieing:

After coming home to Garland and going back to bed, I got woken up around 1 am to more storms firing in the Dallas area. I got back up, and shot for a few hours:

Thanks,

James

Langford Photography
http://www.langfordphotography.com

 

[Paul Stofer]

My photos aren't nearly as nice as James', but here's what I got. I went north on 35 and intercepted the storm just north of denton that had a really nasty rain and hail core. I observed some slight rotation and rising scud in the lowerings pictured below as well as some amazing lightning and heavy rains. Once this decayed a bit, I went west on 380 and got the storm in Decatur right before it disappeared from radar as well.. here are some video captures from my camcorder. Sorry about the poor quality, my transfer software is aweful..

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Paul
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[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi,

We were inside the core of the storm tha began in Denton county and chased it northeast to Sherman. Made a wrong turn and missed the wall cloud. Some incredible lightning "cannon" and power transformer glows here. Now what was interesting was one transformer glow that lasted about 5 seconds over a few hundred metre length. Was it strong winds? It was near the shear region within the storm although can't tell exactly.

Had driven in hail to less than the size of golf balls in the core and torrential rain.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Dan Robinson]

Here are some screen grabs and video from tower lightning in OKC on May 7.

http://stormhighway.com/may72007.shtml

For the second time, I observed 'incomplete leaders' eminating from the towers during anvil crawlers overhead. These were the 'start' of upward lightning discharges that did not make it to full connection in the cloud. Anvil crawlers seem to be the main triggers for tower lightning, as they 'pull' leaders off of the towers below. Some leaders make it, others don't.

If you watch the video on the above page, you can clearly hear the short, abruptly-ending thunder from the leaders, followed by the main thunder from the anvil crawlers.

Hopefully the 35mm slides will show these leaders, the slides will be developed next week.