May 19th Central Oklahoma Chase
May 19th 2010 Stormchase in Central Oklahoma
From Zack Biggs:
We (Colin Miller and I) encountered a Supercell that started near Lawton and went all the way to Purcell (near I 35) and beyond. This was not one of the tornadic storms of the day which explains why the traffic was not near as bad as what other chasers had experienced near the more organized storms.
James was not able to come due to other commitments but was a big time help with giving us updated information.
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A low developed near the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas pulling a warm front that basically stretched from the Oklahoma panhandle southeastward into northeast Texas. A dry line developed along the Texas panhandle Oklahoma boarder and eventually pushed east in the late afternoon. We originally picked the area round Whichita Falls Texas and Lawton Oklahoma for our starting point since the NAM indicated the dry line would be positioned just west of there in the mid afternoon with a very weak cap. We were tempted to shoot for Central Oklahoma but made a last minute decision for the southwest side of the risk area.
We left Plano around 12:00pm and took I 35 up to Highway 82 which we took west, then took Highway 81 north to Duncan Oklahoma. We then sat on a small road east of Duncan and waited for storms to initiate. After a while of this we decided that since winds were backed more out of the southeast to our north and east closer to the warm front that perhaps we should head further north since storms hadn't initiated south of I 40 yet. We headed up to Chickasha Oklahoma, but decided to continue on northward. We took highway 62 out of Chickasha towards Oklahoma City and that is when things finally started to get interesting. James informed us that a cell had developed west of Lawton and was moving to the north-north-east and would approach the town of Chickasha... the town we had just left!
So, we get off of 62 and take 39 back into Chickasha.
The storm was rather weeny to start with, but really began to strengthen as it approached Chickasha. Small cells were firing all over the place at this point making for an absolutely gorgeous sky. We sat on the eastern edge of Chickasha while the main cell passed by to the northwest by only a few miles. We noted some rotation to the storm's base and an inflow band/beavertail feature right overhead feeding into a nice rain free base while an impressive wall of heavy rain and hail was sitting just north and west of us.
All would've been great except that another cell was developing on the storms flanking line and beginning to get increasingly strong with supercellular characteristics also showing up under its base. While the main cell was moving slowly to the east-north-east the new cell was moving north-north-east and would merge with the main cell right over our heads.
While this process was taking place a rotating wall cloud appeared just west of us and, although it would've probably passed just to our north, looked to come too close for comfort. We decided to go a head and core punch the merging southern cell before the rotation area got too close. During this experience we received intermitted hail, probably around quarter size (though there is some debate on that) and very heavy rain. Thankfully the cell was small and we were in it for only a minute or two.
All was clear behind the storms and we had an excellent view of the backside of the boiling clouds that seemed to explode upwards like an erupting volcano. From this side we could still see under the flanking line and part of the rain free base of the storm. We did see at least one well defined wall cloud that pun up and produced small funnels, but never did any more than that.
As we fallowed the storm along highway 39 we were able to see the Rear Flank Downdraft (RFD) off to our northeast with anti-cyclonic rotation on the southern side of it with cyclonic rotation on the northern side of it. This was absolutely fascinating to watch and we pulled off for a bit and just watched it.
Eventually we decided to get out a head of the storm again so that we could see what was going on where the larger scale rotation was taking place. This took us all the way across I 35 and probably 5-10 miles east of it. We watched a more organized area of rotation spin up and get wrapped up in rain right over Purcell. It was here that I saw probably some of the most significant rotation I have ever seen in a wall cloud up to this point and it even formed a brief funnel. But, from what I can tell no tornadic damage was reported from this storm.
After this we were hit with very cold outflow and watched the entire base of the storm fall apart while new updrafts rapidly developed to our east and formed the new flanking line that feed into a new mesocyclone just to our northeast. Since the terrain was becoming less chaser friendly and I didn’t want to keep going all the way to 75 I decided to break off the chase and head back down towards I 35. On our way home we photographed some amazing lightning from a storm that crossed I 35 to our south near Davis and became tornadic overnight off to the east of us while we watched from a scenic overlook near Ardmore.
All in all it was an amazing chase with lots of storm features observed and photographed.
Read MoreFrom Zack Biggs:
We (Colin Miller and I) encountered a Supercell that started near Lawton and went all the way to Purcell (near I 35) and beyond. This was not one of the tornadic storms of the day which explains why the traffic was not near as bad as what other chasers had experienced near the more organized storms.
James was not able to come due to other commitments but was a big time help with giving us updated information.
**********************************************************************************************************
A low developed near the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas pulling a warm front that basically stretched from the Oklahoma panhandle southeastward into northeast Texas. A dry line developed along the Texas panhandle Oklahoma boarder and eventually pushed east in the late afternoon. We originally picked the area round Whichita Falls Texas and Lawton Oklahoma for our starting point since the NAM indicated the dry line would be positioned just west of there in the mid afternoon with a very weak cap. We were tempted to shoot for Central Oklahoma but made a last minute decision for the southwest side of the risk area.
We left Plano around 12:00pm and took I 35 up to Highway 82 which we took west, then took Highway 81 north to Duncan Oklahoma. We then sat on a small road east of Duncan and waited for storms to initiate. After a while of this we decided that since winds were backed more out of the southeast to our north and east closer to the warm front that perhaps we should head further north since storms hadn't initiated south of I 40 yet. We headed up to Chickasha Oklahoma, but decided to continue on northward. We took highway 62 out of Chickasha towards Oklahoma City and that is when things finally started to get interesting. James informed us that a cell had developed west of Lawton and was moving to the north-north-east and would approach the town of Chickasha... the town we had just left!
So, we get off of 62 and take 39 back into Chickasha.
The storm was rather weeny to start with, but really began to strengthen as it approached Chickasha. Small cells were firing all over the place at this point making for an absolutely gorgeous sky. We sat on the eastern edge of Chickasha while the main cell passed by to the northwest by only a few miles. We noted some rotation to the storm's base and an inflow band/beavertail feature right overhead feeding into a nice rain free base while an impressive wall of heavy rain and hail was sitting just north and west of us.
All would've been great except that another cell was developing on the storms flanking line and beginning to get increasingly strong with supercellular characteristics also showing up under its base. While the main cell was moving slowly to the east-north-east the new cell was moving north-north-east and would merge with the main cell right over our heads.
While this process was taking place a rotating wall cloud appeared just west of us and, although it would've probably passed just to our north, looked to come too close for comfort. We decided to go a head and core punch the merging southern cell before the rotation area got too close. During this experience we received intermitted hail, probably around quarter size (though there is some debate on that) and very heavy rain. Thankfully the cell was small and we were in it for only a minute or two.
All was clear behind the storms and we had an excellent view of the backside of the boiling clouds that seemed to explode upwards like an erupting volcano. From this side we could still see under the flanking line and part of the rain free base of the storm. We did see at least one well defined wall cloud that pun up and produced small funnels, but never did any more than that.
As we fallowed the storm along highway 39 we were able to see the Rear Flank Downdraft (RFD) off to our northeast with anti-cyclonic rotation on the southern side of it with cyclonic rotation on the northern side of it. This was absolutely fascinating to watch and we pulled off for a bit and just watched it.
Eventually we decided to get out a head of the storm again so that we could see what was going on where the larger scale rotation was taking place. This took us all the way across I 35 and probably 5-10 miles east of it. We watched a more organized area of rotation spin up and get wrapped up in rain right over Purcell. It was here that I saw probably some of the most significant rotation I have ever seen in a wall cloud up to this point and it even formed a brief funnel. But, from what I can tell no tornadic damage was reported from this storm.
After this we were hit with very cold outflow and watched the entire base of the storm fall apart while new updrafts rapidly developed to our east and formed the new flanking line that feed into a new mesocyclone just to our northeast. Since the terrain was becoming less chaser friendly and I didn’t want to keep going all the way to 75 I decided to break off the chase and head back down towards I 35. On our way home we photographed some amazing lightning from a storm that crossed I 35 to our south near Davis and became tornadic overnight off to the east of us while we watched from a scenic overlook near Ardmore.
All in all it was an amazing chase with lots of storm features observed and photographed.
