Any Day Now!

354 PM CDT MON MAY 12 2008

ALL INDICATIONS ARE THAT SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP RAPIDLY ALONG THE DRY LINE AS THE COLD FRONT OVERTAKES IT… BEGINNING BETWEEN CUSHING AND NORMAN BY 5 PM. ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS LIKELY SOUTHWARD TO THE RED RIVER REGION BETWEEN WAURIKA AND HENRIETTA. WITH HIGHLY UNSTABLE CONDITIONS PRESENT… AND STRONG VERTICAL WIND SHEAR… ORGANIZED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND SUPERCELLS WILL BE LIKELY. VERY LARGE HAIL… POSSIBLY TO BASEBALL SIZE OR LARGER… WILL BE THE MAIN CONCERN ALONG WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES

Still in Waurika. Still Waiting for T-Storms to develop.

We are not alone. Here is a map of all of the storm chasers that are in our area.

This data of chaser GPS locations are aggregated by Spotter Network

We probably won’t move until we see something develop on the radar. We are in a very nice internet hotspot right here. If you are ever in Waurika and need to check you email, or take a shower, this is the place.

Andy

The line of storms is just barely getting started in our area. I made this map from my Gibson Ridge Radar software. You can see that we are in the right spot. I am still thinking that the storms start to pop up in the next 60 minutes.

Avi and I are still sitting at the Waurika Travel Stop in Waurika, OK

Tornado Watch was just issued for our area and we are starting to see some clouds building over us….

We will probably move at some point in the next 30 minutes.

Currently we are in Waurika, OK and we are a few hours early. We found a good place to get data at the corner of US70 and US 81.

Storms are expected to pop up in the 3-4PM time frame.

Camera is up and running.

Avi and I are in Wichita Falls, TX and gearing up for another big chase day. The past few days the weather has been very quiet, and now it’s time to get back to what we came here to do.

The Severe Prediction Center has issued a moderate risk of severe weather for areas of Central and Eastern Oklahoma. This is much better chasing country than our hilly, tree-filled experience on Saturday.

I expect the area where the storms with the best potential will initiate just northeast of us. So Avi and I picked a good place to spend the night.

Our plan is wait a little while and kick up the interstate into Oklahoma a little bit. We will then move east and try to stay just ahead of the dryline as it moves to the east.

What is the dryline?

Well, here is the Wikipedia article on it…. but I’ll try to explain it myself. Continue reading →

Another day has passed without any major weather phenomena. So, what does Andy want me to do? Golf. We had a little trouble finding a nice (any) golf course in Wichita Falls. Finally we came to a lovely place called Hawk Ridge. Although I haven’t played in years Andy strictly enforced USGA governing rules and I didn’t do half bad. We played 9 holes and Andy won 57 to 74 but I was a good sport. Tomorrow we should have something better for you but for now enjoy a few t-shots.

(As usual, click to enlarge photos.)

…went to a baseball game! For some divine reason our favorite baseball team, the Oakland A’s seem to follow us in storm chase country. Yesterday, the A’s played the Rangers here in Arlington and we got some decent seats. The A’s won 12-6 and we went home happy. Plus, a foul ball almost hit Andy while he was eating a smoked turkey leg. After the game we got a much needed opportunity to catch up on some sleep and woke up re-energized and ready to head north. We are currently driving to Wichita Falls, Texas where we will get set up for some severe weather potential tomorrow. Expect a forecast update from Andy (as soon as he is not driving) to follow. In the meantime enjoy some photos from the game.

(Click photos to enlarge.)

Sleep….. that was a good thing.

After a long day and a half traveling from Wisconsin to Arkansas Friday, and chasing from 8AM to 11PM yesterday, a good 9 hour sleep was well deserved.

Every single time I have gone out chasing storms, I’ve learned some piece of knowledge that will help me in future chases.

Yesterday’s lesson was: Chasing in Arkansas is not like chasing in the Oklahoma or Kansas. Before the chase I was reading a post on a storm chaser forum Stormtrack.org, and many of the chasers were commenting that even though the best setup was in Western Arkansas, they didn’t want to chase there. Now I know why.

Hills and Trees.

It was somewhat chaotic as we got on the cell, because you could not see anything. When Avi and I have chased in the plains, it is great because you can see around you for miles and miles. Anyway, it made things very hard.

Chase Synopsis:
We woke up in Cape Girardeau, MO at 7:30AM and headed for an initial target of Texarkana, AR, where the best conditions were to set up. We expected to arrive just in time for the storms to start and we would track them East over Arkansas. After a couple of pit stops we pulled into Prescott, AR (which is a little northeast of Texarkana) around 2:30.

Storms had been ongoing well north of us in NW Arkansas, and we decided to be patient and wait for storms to develop in our area, which had more favorable conditions for rotating storms. So we waited in Prescott for around 2 hours for the storms to develop. We received many comments from our friends about the Hardee’s that we had on the webcam at that point.

Around 4:30-5PM a cluster of storms started to develop to our North near Mena, AR. I was very reluctant to go after this cluster because that would be taking us into the mountains. But eventually the cluster started to come together and we decided that it was good enough for us to move.

Continue reading →