Timelapse video of May 27th, 2001 OK gust front

[Paul Knightley]

Well, now I've started to get the YouTube bug - here's a timelapse of the huge gust front over NW Oklahoma on May 27th, 2001...near Shattuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqqCESro-rc

For those who do not know the set-up that day:

Initially, several supercells developed in Kansas, but with a NW'erly flow aloft and strong cold pool generation within the various cells they soon began to propogate south-eastwards. They raked much of Oklahoma with high winds, up to 100mph in places, and rain/hail.

What you can see here is the RFD of an HP supercell, and at times (e.g. at the start), you can see the "notch" where inflow is going into the supercell. The video ends as the gust front is about to pass over - we legged it south and end, but it caught up with us at Arnett, and we experienced high winds and heavy rain. The laminar look is because the boundary layer is generally stable, and as it's lifted up over the colder wedge of rain cooled air the moisture condenses just like with a lenticular cloud. It is then further lifted until it reaches its level of free convection and then explodes upwards as the storm.

 

[Jeremy Bower]

Great video from that day Paul!

That particular storm for me as special meaning as that day was my first storm chase ever in the Plains. The group I was a part of was a bit further north than Paul and we watched the gust front near Meade, KS and trying to stay ahead of it all the way to Woodward, OK that night. A little outside Woodward, we were nearly stopped by the Highway Patrol as a tractor-trailer was upside down on the side of the road.

I still to this day rank this among my top 5 all time chases due mostly to the incredible structure of the gust front.

 

[Johnathan Brouwer]

nice job on the video. Can you tell me how what your setting where on your TL...

What I mean is did you run the camera for a set period and then edit the time lapse together, or is it a internal setting on your video camera...

 

[Jason Foster]

watermark

If you using a video editor, don't forget to add a watermark (copyright) note on your video to keep it from being used by other people.

The video looks cool. I've got to get my video from the plains up on my site soon.

 

[Jon Person]

Great job on this timelapse, Paul! We were also on this Derecho storm up in Kansas, but we got caught by its powerful winds and the back windshield was destroyed. Like a moron, I chose the only place in that open range which looked anything like shelter... a gravel pile.

 

[Bob Schafer]

Jon, I'm quite certain I parked on the S side of that exact same gravel pile. S of Meade where the "main" highway turns W?

 

[Paul Knightley]

Cheers for the replies!

Jonathan - it's just a Digital 8 video which I imported into Windows Movie Maker and then sped up.

Jason - I would have put a watermark on had it been a higher res version than YouTube.

It is one of my favourite chases too - I was still rather wet behind the ears in 2001, so kind of picked the wrong spot for initiation. We were actually rather dejected for a time but then saw the anvils beginning to spread from the north and started hearing reports on both WX radio and the excellent K101 out of Woodward...we parked up and the rest is history!

 

[David Poch]

Nice video! If that is the same line of storms I am thinking of it was my first storm experience after I moved to Oklahoma. It would have been around the same time of year and it hit OKC during the night.

 

[Jimmy Deguara]

The timelapse shows well the icnredible structure and enormous size of this beast. One can only look in awe at the event.

David Croan and I chased this day but when it approached, we remained ahead rather than experience the winds inside the event. We have some spectacular lightning bolts ahead of storm from the extensive anvil shield mostly from one charged region!

Listed further down this page:
http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/tornado_alley_videos.htm

Nevertheless, we successfully remained ahead and were chased by this massive system all the way to near Lawton. We made a dash eastwards but the storm hit and were buffetted by powerful winds and we parked under a bridge until the main powerful gusts past. Unfortunately, one lady from memory was killed in Lawton possibly when a powerpole was blown down.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

 

[Cameron Redwine]

Holy cow! Great video, Paul. Where have I been? Geez, I chased that day and was on the initial derecho in Kansas with some friends, but after the leading edge chased us into OK, we headed back to AMA for the night.

It looked cool when we saw it, but it was mostly the wall of dust/wind under the shelf that many chasers observed. We even saw a telephone pole snap as it advanced not too far behind our vehicle, but I just don't recall structure like that! I don't know if it was because we were too close or whether we saw it much earlier in its life, but I wish we'd have stayed with it. Smart man to stay with it, well done!

 

[Cameron Redwine]

Great job on this timelapse, Paul! We were also on this Derecho storm up in Kansas, but we got caught by its powerful winds and the back windshield was destroyed. Like a moron, I chose the only place in that open range which looked anything like shelter... a gravel pile.

After looking at the pics on Jon's page, we were in a similar position around the same time. In fact, we may have been a bit farther east because I have shots of that initial lowering before all of the outflow started.

 

[Bobby Eddins]

Paul, we must have crossed paths somewhere. We just kept ahead of it southbound. Note: I know this is not really a "haboob" but a derecho. Just used loosely here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFW7PABbJYQ

 

[Craig Maire II]

As a big fan of the shelf cloud I would like to say well done! Also, did anyone see any gustnados with this storm?

 

[Paul Knightley]

Paul, we must have crossed paths somewhere. We just kept ahead of it southbound. Note: I know this is not really a "haboob" but a derecho. Just used loosely here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFW7PABbJYQ

Yes - we must have been very close! It looks almost identical in parts! What were you driving? I should look back at the rest of the day's footage to see if you're on there! We were in some kind of Mitsubishi SUV.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all...

Wow! Nice video...

Where was I?

LOL ... I was INSIDE that thing with Eric Nguyen when he still had his small white car clocking the near 80-MPH+ gusts!

Above: Eric Fighting the winds (May 27, 2001) near OK / KS border.