5/8/05 REPORTS: Plains

[B Ozanne]

We chased the severe warned cell that went up over Lawton, OK. Intercepted just northeast of Lawton and moved ahead of the system on I-44. There were reports of golf ball sized hall, but we only ran into some pea-sized stuff on the interstate. A dangerous amount of drivers were pulled over beneath the underpasses on both the left and right shoulders.

The storms all lined up and started moving east then southeast. We dropped the chase around Purcell, OK when the light started to fade. Best part of the chase was some amazing mammatus that lit up as we pulled into Norman around 8pm. Hope everybody in Norman caught a glimpse of those.

 

[Shane Adams]

We busted in a different part of Texas today, opting for NW TX near Henrietta. Best part was that we setup south of there on 148, and waited an hour on our puny little cell to develop while watching two areas of severe convection 50 miles either side of us north/south. We finally gave up and left, only to have a new cell develop behind us as we drove north back to Petrolia. Except we didn't notice it until we were in Petrolia. So we went back and watched the severe-warned storm die quickly after we returned (to the same spot we'd been).

Another frustrating day in a frustrating season.

 

[Jason Montano]

Lance Maxwell and I chased the storm in S. Central OK. We got on the storm kinda late b/c we were debating whether to go or not until 1700. We headed south on I-35 to Purcell and headed West and South again. The storm looked like it was cycling a couple times but could not get its act together. I think part of the problem was the DL stalled again today. We watched some great looking cloud structure that formed from the storm outflow. Soon later the couple of cells in the area merged into a line and we headed back to Norman. We also got a few shots of the sweet mammatus along I-35.

Staying in Norman again tonight and hoping for a change in the models for tomorrow.

 

[Sam Sagnella]

Full report to be added later...

Went southwest from Norman via I-44 to Chickasha, then E/SE eventually taking us to Pauls Valley. Though no severe weather was seen, intense lightning (pics later) and an amazing sunset and rainbow (below) made this chase a success. No adjustments have been made to the coloring in any of the photos.











EDIT: Tried to make a panorama of the rainbow in Pauls Valley and here is the result.

 

[Scott Olson]

Chased East Central South Dakota. Intercepted about five mariginally severe cells before tailing a cell that was showing some mid-level rotation. After about 30 minutes it looked to be falling apart. Ten minutes after leaving it got much stronger/well organized and a tornado warning was issued for it. Got back to it quickly and there was some persistent rotation. Stayed with the cell for the next hour. Didn't see a tornado but got some pictures/film of both a wall cloud and funnel cloud. It was also neat to see so many scuds forming right on the surface.

-Scott.

 

[Jeff Wear]

Saw a spectacular multilayered shelf cloud between Pauls Valley and Ada. Pictures here....

May 8, 2005

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

Got a bit of a late start today after mowing the lawn and doing a few other chores. I was going to venture west to Salina and then south to get ahead of the storms that eventually went tornado warned near McPherson, KS, but I got sidetracked by some cells developing SE of the thunderstorm hotbed known as Concordia, lol.

I sat east of Clay Center while the storm developed into what would be an HP hailer. The first shot is of a couple of towers that went up as the storm continued to back build to the SW. I paralleled the storm for quite a bit while it continued to dump rain and hail. The largest report from our county was one-inch hail that covered the ground outside one of the fire stations on the north end of the county. I didn't go anywhere near the core as I could see clearly that it was dropping hail that I wanted nothing to do with. It quickly became outflow dominant and provided a pretty good light show. As I type this I still hear some thunder outside. A precurser to more days to come...............







Great pictures you guys posted above!

Tim

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Like many others... I ventured out of OUN to check out the multcellular crap-fantastic. Actually, at the time I left, it was 2 isolated storms SW of here with an OFB moving west on a collision course.... how could I not go out!?

End result was a ok shelf cloud/gust front near Pauls Valley and some very nice mammatus back in OUN.

http://www.convectionconnection.com/STORM-050805/

[Broken External Image]:http://ww2.convectionconnection.com:8080/STORM-050805/img_2501_thm.jpg

Aaron

 

[Philip Flory]

Sat in Grant county in NW OK today for about 3-4 hours. Around 4-5pm noticed while sitting in Harper a developing area of more enhanced CU to my SW. Considering the dryline buldge was in the general region, along with 80/60 SFC conidtions I figured init would likely take place there. In short, a storm developed in the SW portion of the county early on and rapidly weakened after reaching about 55 dbz on radar. Several other updrafts attempted to survive over the next hour to no avail. Finally, a storm developed around 7:30pm and actually took on some pretty decent structure for a short while, NWS OUN also issued a SVR on the cell at the time. Figured that with OFB nearby and obs out of PNC and Stillwater showing ESE winds and 80/63 or so, we were in buisness. Well, after about 30min this storm proceeded to rapidly fall apart as well. End of story.

The last 2 days have been very frustrating, convective initiation has taken place yet the convection has failed to mature, making it all the more frustrating especially considering both days had decent/good conditions in place.

Drove back to Wichita and observed some very nice CG along the line of storms in SC KS. I also encountered some pea sized hail while in ICT driving home, some excitment at least!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by Aaron Kennedy
Like many others... I ventured out of OUN to check out the multcellular crap-fantastic. Actually, at the time I left, it was 2 isolated storms SW of here with an OFB moving west on a collision course.... how could I not go out!?

End result was a ok shelf cloud/gust front near Pauls Valley and some very nice mammatus back in OUN.

http://www.convectionconnection.com/STORM-050805/

[Broken External Image]:http://ww2.convectionconnection.com:8080/STORM-050805/img_2501_thm.jpg

Aaron

I'd be repeating Aaron's story, so I'll just quote him above... Squall line, shelf cloud, wind, very small hail, and some nice mammatus... All in 100 miles or so.

 

[Jason A.C. Brock]

I chased in and around Wichita Falls today after busting near Turkey Texas Yesterday. Today wasnt much better but did get some quarter size hail in Wichita Falls. Also had to actually STOP and wait out a traffic jam of idiots blocking U.S. 287. I couldnt believe people were BLOCKING the highway for what was at worst quarter size hail.
I pulled up behind the blockers and hit the horn till people moved out of the way to let the people who wanted to get going do just that.
This traffic jam could have easily been an accident waiting to happen.......Many semis had to hit the brakes to keep from plowing over people. I am wondering if they shouldnt post signs on overpasses now warning people not to block the highways during storms. Emergency vehicles would not have been able to get through if something more serious had been going on.
It was good to get out today and yesterday tho and alot of jovial chasers were out and about. It was nice to meet James from the DFW area as well as a couple other chasers we met in Childress who were from Houston.
Didnt see as many chasers today as most people stayed North.
The cell near Bowie was actually quite pretty but mainly a big shelf cloud and lots of outflow.
Other than 287 being blocked by a bunch of dummies for a bit it was a better chase day than yesterday. Still havent seen that great severe weather day for Western north Texas yet tho. Of course thats been nearly years in the making.

 

[Damon Scott Hynes]

Took my oldest daughter on her first chase today. She can now tell her classmates the definition of "High-Based $h!t..."

Omaha to Spink, SD to Le Mars, IA to back home.

Ran into only one other chaser today--couple of guys in a Colorado Chrysler minivan with a Skywarn sticker, at the big rest area as the corner of I-29 and SD-50. Wandered over to say hi and they wouldn't roll down their windows for anything.

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Four bases lined up, doing nothing...

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Must be 10,000 feet off the ground...

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Tight little precip shaft east of Le Mars.

 

[Darin Brunin]

Chased in South Central Kansas in the Moundridge area. Today was one of those days when everything that could have went wrong did. To keep this short. Within a 30 minute time span I ran over a two way radio, got my windshield cracked by two inch hail, and hit a dog while traveling 65mph. Those things combined with the unimpressive storms themselves made the day one that I will want to soon forget. Though, on the way home I was treated to beautiful double rainbow just outside of Hillsboro, KS.

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I cell hopped in South Dakota. Despite the great number of cells to play with, none were very attractive visually
despite dropping copious amounts of hail. The only remotely interesting pic was taken about half way between
Watertown and Sisseton where a lowering developed.
[Broken External Image]:http://snrs.unl.edu/amet898/turcotte/Summit.jpg
I was able to test out Pilot MyCast and it worked fine where Verizon offers digital service and best with more bars.
Here is a screen shot of the Grand Forks radar zoomed to the county level.
http://snrs.unl.edu/amet898/turcotte/pilot_radar.jpg

 

[David Schuttler]

Stayed in the Nortern part of Oklahoma. More to watch (not saying much) than yesterday's panhandle trip.

Grabed this from video taken just north of Nash , Ok. off hwy 132 about 7:18 pm , just before the cell was severe warned.

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It was a small and snakey but it looked better thru 10x50 binoculars though....

Few other pics from hwy 11 east of 132 .
[Broken External Image]:http://stormdriven.web.aplus.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/img8123735.jpg

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have a few other pics up here http://www.stormdriven.com/050805pictures.html More to add later this week