7/5/2004 REPORTS OK

[Jeff Wear]

Saw a nice supercell today near Covington OK. Structure was decent - had an LPish appearance before evolving into more of a classic supercell. Had a wall cloud that at times got pretty close to the ground. Updraft was drawing in smoke from a small fire the south - which may have been ignited by a CG from an earlier storm. Prominent RFD clear slot appeared, then was followed by rain and hail curtains wrapping around the meso - after which the storm met a quick demise. After this I drove into Covington for an "Easter Egg Hunt" (i.e. a search for large hail). Many hailstones were littering the ground just to the south and all throughout the town of Covington...the largest I found were 1.5" in diameter (measured). All of these stones had probably been on the ground for at least 10 minutes - and one 1.5" stone was actually a fragment of a larger stone that was probably 2" in diameter or greater. Talked with a local resident who said that he had seen hail almost the size of baseballs. New storms continued to fire off to the NW of the old cells, and are continuing to do so in northern OK as I type (12:30am).

EDIT 5:18am.....got some pics up on my site........

http://www.theperksofchasing.com/accounts/...5/pix040705.htm

 

[JR Hehnly]

Just wanted to drop a note before going to bed. Same storm as Jeff, pretty much same report.
Pictures are at http://www2.okstorms.com:8080/2004_chases.htm#20040705

I'll add captions later.

 

[KMcCallister]

Nice little drive to north central Oklahoma to see a couple different "structured" storms that were high based ice machines. I posted a couple of pics from the low end digital cam I had with me for now.

http://www.weatherenthusiast.com/chases/20...0705/index.html

Low expectations and short drive with a couple nice storms...exceeded expectations for sure.

(Another early evening watching things that fascinate me with no hordes, herds, or road blocks.)

 

[John Diel]

Covington

I approached this storm from the north. Watched it for a while and it's parent storm further east. I sat on US77 and OK 15 for a while debating which way I should go. Covington is a bit out of our coverage area, but at that time, it was the only game in town.

Anyway, Took I-35 south to US412/64, then west to OK15 (again). South on this until I was just north (2 miles) of Covington where I met up with some moderate rainfall and some nickel size hail. Watched a beautiful updraft core churn away for a bit, before starting to creak up and dissipate. Made my report into the station and turned back north to Lamont to keep an eye on the storm that was slowly (5 mph!) north up US81 to the Medford area. We did have another crew on the southeast section of the storm core and they did report seeing a small rope funnel that never made it to the ground. On my journy down US412, I noticed a couple of small lowerings in that section of the storm, but was too far away to confirm rotation. Our controller did confirm a short lived TVS icon on radar about the same time the second crew was reporting the funnel.

I went on to Medford from Lamont and basically watched a pretty large (and localized) rain/hail event for up. I did get the Wakita turn off on OK 11 and ended up turning back as the storm wasn't really moving anywhere and would soon be chewed up by the MCS moving in from Kansas. Finally made it home around midnite.

3:30 7-6-04
Recieved a call from the Controller that the MCS complex was in the Medford area. Moved weat from Ponca City on Hubbard road with the intention on sitting at I-35 and intercepting this storm there. Well, the best layed plans of this mouse went awry when I met up with the gust front fromthe MCS at US177. Debated briefly if I were to continue or move to Tonkawa. Decided Tonkawa was the best bet. Sat at US60 & US177 until the front had overtaken me. I recorded wind gusts up to 63 mph and sustained winds of 45 mph. Couldn't see a darn thing between blowing dust ( you wouldn't have thought that, but it was there) and the light rain falling. Lots of close by CG strikes (2 within 1/4 mile). Moved east to OK156 & US60 and let the storm overtake me again here. Winds were no more than 45 mph with little rain. Moved again to Kaw Dam Road and US 60 where I found lots of very dry pavement and winds about 17 mph. Storm warning were going up east of me at this point and went on back home.

John

 

[Jeff Whitworth]

We watched the cell near Orlando from I-35 exit 174 at hwy. 51. Looking WSW, there did appear to be a slight lowering under the storm's rain-free base, but never any evidence of organized rotation (not that we really expected it). We did see some great CG bolts.

We also noticed the TVS closer to Covington after we had left the weakening Orlando storm and gone home. Wish we had gotten a look at that funnel.