2008 Galleries

May 22nd, 2008 : Zack Biggs and I chase a large HP supercell near the town of Clinton, Oklahoma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zack and I were without our chase partner Colin for this storm. We were itching for some chasing after the storm on the 1st set our hopes high, so we decided to go up into Oklahoma again. Conditions looked favorable for supercell development, and we initially targetted the Oklahoma City area. After getting through some very heavy traffic in OKC, Colin informed us of large cells coming out of the Texas Panhandle and into Western Oklahoma. We decided to head that direction. Soon we were under the huge anvil of the storms ahead of us, and the visibility was not that great. As we approached the town of Clinton, the wall of the HP cell loomed up before us. It was tough to make out much structure, but there were incredible mammatus clouds in the anvil overhead. We went North out of Clinton and found a nice hill to observe the storms for a while. While there, we had a discussion with the local Emergency Manager about the storms. He spent a bit of time checking out our radar on my Centro. The storms were streaming to the North and East, but making very little actual progress to the East. At one point, a very clear "Cow Catcher" shape formed, and I was able to get pictures of it. There was a lot of lightning in the cells, but most were buried back in the storm and not visible. The line of storms finally started pushing East, and so did we. We dropped back 30 miles or so to our East, and again stopped to film the lightning. We only had a few minutes before needing to move again. We headed south on a little road back towards I40, and stopped one last time to shoot lightning. The lightning instensity was really picking up at this point, and we were able to get some neat pictures of CG strikes under the base of the storms. The drive back to Dallas was quite long, and it was close to 2 am by the time we got home. It was an excellent and fun chase.

May 22nd, 2008

Zack Biggs and I chase a large HP supercell near the town of Clinton, Oklahoma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zack and I were without our chase partner Colin for this storm. We were itching for some chasing after the storm on the 1st set our hopes high, so we decided to go up into O ...

Updated: Feb 16, 2009 6:00pm PST

May 1st, 2008 : Zack Biggs and I chase a beautiful LP Supercell from near Norman Oklahoma to North East of Oklahoma City. My favorite chase of all time! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zack and I had been looking forward to chasing on May 1st for a few days. We got a late start due to my work committments, and were worried we would miss the action. We intially targetted the Ardmore Oklahoma area, as we observed a lot of clearing on the visibile satellite. Shortly after crossing over the Red River, we started to clear out of the low clouds we had been in since leaving Dallas. Also, the humidity level was very high, with the air feeling juiced with energy. Arriving in the Ardmore area, we were dissappointed to see no organized activity what so ever. Occassionally cells would shoot up, but they were very high based and died quickly. We decided to head up into the Arbuckly Mountains about an hour to the North so we could at least get some pictures. As we got further the North, Zack noticed what appeared to be explosive development on the horizon. Thinking at first that we were seeing things, we soon realized that a large supercell was forming before our eyes. We found out later that the dry line, which had been retreating, bulged out East and gave us what we needed for our storm to form. We passed through Paul's Valley, and into Norman as the cell continued to build. The updraft was amazing, and was churning up very quickly. When we got into Norman, we were able to see the rain free base of the storm. The storm also started taking on a very LP look, and was very striated. It was incredibly beautiful. We passed into Oklahoma City, continuing to tail the storm as it moved slowly to the North East. We took I240, and then I40 so that we could get East of the storm and into a better viewing position. During this time, the storm was exhibiting a well defined rotating wall cloud. RFD winds would occassionally wrap around the storm causing us to think a tornado was imminent. However, as far as we could tell, one never did form. We turned off of I40 North on 102 to catch up with the storm. The structure at this point was amazing, and I'm not sure that I will ever see anything quite as beautiful again. We stopped in a large field of wheat to film time lapse video and take photos. Unfortunately, I did not have the focus on my video camera locked, so it went in and out of focus. We continued North on 102 to stay with the storm. As we crested a hill with very little visiblity, we encountered a chaser hoard of at least 50 vehicles. Many people were standing in the middle of the road with no awareness of traffic coming at them. We pulled a bit beyond the hoard and stopped again to take pictures. The sun was hitting the storm and creating some wonderful lighting. After this last stop, we turned off of 102 and onto I44, hoping to get some lightning pictures. The storm was at first very active, but we could not find anywhere to stop and shoot. When we did finally find a place to stop, the storm had died. All in all, an amazing chase, and one that will be hard to top.

May 1st, 2008

Zack Biggs and I chase a beautiful LP Supercell from near Norman Oklahoma to North East of Oklahoma City. My favorite chase of all time! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zack and I had been looking forward to chasing on May 1st for a few days. We got a late start due to my work committ ...

Updated: Feb 16, 2009 5:47pm PST

March 28th, 2008 : Zack Biggs and I chase storms from North East of Dallas up to Durant, Oklahoma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was the first storm of the season for Zack and I. Zack called me around 2 pm to say that storms were firing to the North East of us, and so we took off chasing them. We didn't really have a clear destination, we were just following the storms as they moved north. Eventually we ended up in Durant Oklahoma, along highway 75. We filmed from a large empty parking lot as the departing storms were illuminated by the setting sun. All in all, it was a great chase. We were able to test out the new HV-20 video camera as well.

March 28th, 2008

Zack Biggs and I chase storms from North East of Dallas up to Durant, Oklahoma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was the first storm of the season for Zack and I. Zack called me around 2 pm to say that storms were firing to the North East of us, and so we took off chasing them. ...

Updated: Feb 12, 2009 12:30pm PST

April 3rd, 2008 : Colin Miller, Zack Biggs and I chase storms from near Ardmore Oklahoma all the way East to Paris, TX. The evening ended with an amazing lightning show just North of Paris. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Left Dallas with Zack and Colin around 1 pm. We intiially targetted the Red River area just north of Gainsville, as there was a lot of instability and clearing in this area. We arrived in Marietta, just north of the Red River, as a messy HP storm was racing East overhead. We oberved a small mesocyclone, and a load of other chasers in the area. The storm moved rapidly to our East, and formed into a large line as it approached Durant. We decided to tail the HP mess to the East, and so we shot East on 32/70 towards Durant. When we arrived in Durant, we were greeted with a messy view of the backside of the cells to our East. They weren't very organized, but the turbulance of the clouds made for some really neat pictures. We photographed here for a while before again deciding to head East on 70 towards Hugo. We were hoping to capture some lightning shots of the storms as they moved away. The drive along 70 was fun, with almost continuous lightning in front of us on the horizon. When we reached Hugo, we did a radar check and saw a severe warned cluster of storms that was heading right towards Paris. The wording on the severe warning mentioned "Extreme Lightning" activity, so we shot South on 271 into Paris. Arriving there, we were greeted with one of the most amazing light shows I have ever witnessed (video below). The lightning was insane, but there was no thunder at all. It was earily beautiful to watch. We filmed for close to 15 minutes before meeting and talking to a friendly LEO. They told us of a spot a bit further to the East with good visibility, so we headed there and shot some lightning. A very long chase day with an amazing ending. :)

April 3rd, 2008

Colin Miller, Zack Biggs and I chase storms from near Ardmore Oklahoma all the way East to Paris, TX. The evening ended with an amazing lightning show just North of Paris. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Left Dallas with Zack and Colin around 1 pm. We intiially targetted the Red Riv ...

Updated: Feb 12, 2009 11:24am PST

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