6/12/09 NOW: OK/TX

[Andrew Francis]

That is a monster west of DFW~!


Im looking for streams of ppl on it.

 

[Jacob Ferden]

Confirmed tornado just east of Gratford, as of 6:28

 

[David Draun]

I love watching isolated supercells and the things they do on radar. Notice how there are maybe 2 dominant updrafts, which are persistently tornadic, one W of the Metroplex and another one farther south. Each storm has blasted off several different faster moving left splits every so often. Also they are moving SE into the direction of their own inflow source, which is perfect for maximizing their relative helicities. Any chaser down there has got to be getting some structure/tornado shows once they can get out of the precipitation. Lots of mesocyclone hand-offs going on with the two main cells which are each in excess of 60Kft high! Hopefully the V2 crew has chosen central Texas to work for their last day.

Ok, the northern cell has just broken 70kft, insane!!

EDIT: Mesoanalysis really shows a decent argument against the use of the Bulk Richardson Number in forecasting. Lots of values in excess of 70, when ideal supercell BRNs are of 10-40. Of course this could be due to the insane instability values in the area which is throwing off the BRN calculation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Dave Kaplow]

Bill Tabor is on southern cell:

http://www.severestudios.com/cgi-bin/player.pl?username=bill.tabor&uid=40

 

[Chris Allington]

Grapefruit sized hail is now being mentioned in the warning text.

 

[Jeff Duda]

EDIT: Mesoanalysis really shows a decent argument against the use of the Bulk Richardson Number in forecasting. Lots of values in excess of 70, when ideal supercell BRNs are of 10-40. Of course this could be due to the insane instability values in the area which is throwing off the BRN calculation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you're right about the reason the BRNs are where they are, but keep in mind that the purpose of the BRN is to calculate some number that represents the balance between shear and instability. I think there is some leeway in the ranges of BRNs that favor supercells, so although supercells most commonly occur with BRNs of 10-40, that doesn't mean they can't occur when the BRN is >40 or <10, just that they've statistically been shown to be less common. A BRN of 70 really isn't that far out of range. If you got them above 100 or so, then you'd be really discouraged from forecasting supercells.

And come on, this is Texas...everything is bigger in Texas. These parameters probably can be adjusted to fit atypical situations such as this one, as deep layer shear in this region is a little less than typically needed for supercell storms. But this is probably one of those situations where insane CAPE values are compensating for less than ideal shear.

 

[Danny Neal]

Well this is indeed interesting for all you Norman-ites out there

 

[Billy Griffin]

Where's the live streaming out of OKC, where's the reports coming out of OUN ?????
Pretty amazing all is quiet and this thing has popped up right over Norman !!!

Finally got hold of our neighbors in Norman and they're at 24th East, saying it's already east of them... near 48th and Alameda.

Small couplet, but very pronounced. Still rather surprised no station is streaming.

 

[Elinor McLennon]

KFOR and KOCO and KWTV are on the air doing live coverage.

 

[Danny Neal]

Where's the live streaming out of OKC, where's the reports coming out of OUN ?????
Pretty amazing all is quiet and this thing has popped up right over Norman !!!

I am hearing unconfirmed reports of a tornado NE of NWC in East Norman right now

http://www.chasertv.com/index.php?o...ott-nordstrom&catid=20:chaser-pages&Itemid=82

Live Stream not seeing anything yet.

EDIT: From Facebook

Greg Stumpf They have NOT blown the sirens n Norman, and we are watching the tornado on the ground near 48th and SE Lindsey NOW.

Greg Stumpf Meso cycling. Tornado to ENE of NWC roping out, new meso due east. Also on radar.


Anyone friends with Greg on facebook he posting live updates there.

 

[CZandbergen]

Latest scan doesn't look like much. Weak couplet at best.

 

[Billy Griffin]

KOCO streaming......... 'bout damn time !!!
Although it appears to be weakening, still could recycle. Hopefully not.

Looks to be SE side of Norman and rapidly weakening.

 

[Angie Norris]

Best I could see from my place about 1/2 mille west of the Weather Center was a fairly blocky wall cloud about 10:15ish or so and a fair amount of rising scud. It took them forever to blow the sirens...at least 10 minutes after the warning came out, maybe longer. What time did Greg see the tornado?

 

[CZandbergen]

They just warned a cell near Henryetta south of Tulsa. No idea why they warned it. Again one very weak couplet on one scan. Local news continues to go on and on about it.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Saw the tornado as well, was about 1 mile from it or so. It was a small cone from what I saw...probably around 10:30-10:40 or so near 48th and Lindsey. A brief damage survey on the way back through revealed some downed tree limbs and fences. Powerlines were also downed in the Highlands neighborhood as well from a report I got. Looked to be rather weak damage overall from my brief observation. Will probably go down as an EF0 or weak EF1 from the initial reports.

Unfortunately, absolutely no pictures. The lightning was terrible (ie very little) and you could barely make out the cone thanks to the city lights.