Distance:

Target area: Near the OK/KS border in northwestern OK

Chase area: Fairview - Mooreland - Waynoka - Cherokee, OK

I expected time to be a very difficult chase, largely because of the fast storm motions forecast (40-50 mph) moving at a bad angle relative to the nice N/S - E/W road grid system. I (with Howie B., Dan D., Robin T., etc.) targeted far northwestern Oklahoma, willing to head into southcentral KS if needed. We ended up chasing 3 supercells that developed southwest of Woodward through the afternoon and evening. It was actually the first time that I was able to employ, to near perfect [ :) ] the "hop down the line" chase strategy. Although I intended to be able do this before, it has never worked out so well. The storms developed near or just west of the OK / TX panhandle border every couple of hours and moved off the NE. Each time, we'd drop the existing supercell (or it was leave us in its wake as it plowed northeastward), drive southward a little, and wait for the next supercell to approach.

We saw a lot of nice low-level mesocyclones and rapidly-rotating wall-clouds, but something was apparently "missing" with the environment during the first the time we were on supercells #1 and #2. The third supercell was the "tail end Charlie" of the train of supercells and became a prolific tornado producer. It's difficult to come up with a tornado tally, since it not always clear where one tornado ends and another begins (e.g. with the first and third supercells, we saw "tornadoes" >5 mins apart from what appears to have been the same low-level mesocyclone -- are these separate tornadoes? One could argue either way, I think). The best opportunity to get nice, close-proximity video of a tornado would have occurred with the first two supercells. We never had the chance to get close enough to supercell #3 to get any good video of the circulation at the ground. To do so, you tend to need to have some luck on your side or be presented the opportunity to make a good decision at the perfect time. The storms didn't cooperate when we were close, but that's the name of the game when storms move as quickly as they did Saturday (and when road options may be limited).

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Distance:

Target area: Near Fort Supply, OK

Chase area: Woodward to S of Camargo, OK

I was on the fence today, but I opted to give it a shot since the low-level hodographs were progged to be very nicely shaped (nearly a 1/2 circle of radius 15-20 kts) and there was sufficient CAPE and upper-tropospheric flow to get me out the door. I left my house on the north side of the OKC area around 2:15, with an initial target of Fort Supply. By the time I made it to Kingfisher, the first storm developed near Buffalo (+/- 20 miles), and I was worried I was going to be late for the first part of what I hoped would be "the show". I ended up near Mooreland with a decision -- do I head N from Woodward to get a view of the northern supercell, which looked decent on radar and was near the sfc boundary, or do I stick with the southern supercell and hope for the best? I didn't think the boundary was going to be the "make or break" feature for the case, so I went with my chasing gut and opted for the storm with the best uninterrupted inflow; the cells were quite close together, so I thought that the outflow from the FFD of the southern storm would end up in the inflow of the northern storm. I was chasing solo today, which I used to love to do, but it was difficult today since I have a new laptop that doesn't fit on my laptop "desk" in the car, and the S-SSE storm motion meant I ended up with the storm in the rear-view mirror a lot as I drove southward ahead of the mesos (structure wasn't rotated 60-90 degrees like we tend to see with NW flow events).

The first reported wall cloud on SpotterNet looked more like an outflow feature to me. The slope was incorrect (it was pointed downward away from the FFD into the inflow), and it had the appearance of being pushed upward by outflow instead of being pulled upward by an updraft (that's probably not the best way to describe it, but I'm sure we've all seen the differences before). The rain-free and structure improved with time, though (Pic 1 Pic 1 and Pic 2). I stayed just E of Woodward in very strong inflow (Woodward mesonet site gusted up to 50 mph, which I certainly believe) watching the storm get more organized with time. With a relatively slow SSE motion, I opted to head southward a few miles. By the time I got to 34-183 intersection, I could see a nearly-opaque precip "dump" in the RFD region, and a tornado soon revealed itself to me (contrast-enhanced video still here). Unfortunately, there was a rather large tree right where the tornado was, so I had limited opportunities to get vid/pics of it. Time was ~5:25 pm. This tornado dissipated, and, IIRC, a new precip "dump" (DRC, whatever) occurred near 5:30, shortly after which time a nice funnel cloud developed and got ~50% of the way to the ground (video still here). I couldn't see a ground circulation, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a tornado associated with that funnel. I moved southward when golfball-sized hail started coming down.

Mentally, I was still chasing as if I was in a radar truck, so I was planning for 15-30 minute "stops". As a result, I ended up too far ahead of the storm, and some tall trees and hills blocked my view of what looked to be at least a low wall cloud, if it wasn't an actual tornado. There were at least a couple of lowerings that drew my attention during this time (e.g. Pic here). I took E510 E from Sharon to watch the storm. The low-level meso got very intense around 6 pm, with very impressive rotation and awesome motion in the near-surface condensation material. I have no idea if there was a tornado in there, but I fully anticipated that there was a large tornado tucked under all of that while I was watching the low-level meso several miles E of Sharon (e.g. see contrast-enhanced and cropped video still here of suspicious condensation material that appears to be at and extremely close to the ground). Very, very awesome stuff regardless. I had to bug out eastward when the RFD reached my latitude, though that put me in some of the core. I crept along at ~5-10 mph in blinding hail and rain (vis was ~50-100 ft;this is exactly what I saw as I drove), and the hail accumulated on the road several inches deep in places. Admittently, I would have been in trouble if the storm happened to surge eastward at that time. Of course, I wouldn't have been in that location in the first place if I suspect a faster E or SE motion.

At any rate, I made it to US 183, finally cleared the copious hailfall and rainfall, and dropped S from Mutual. Storm structure was pretty good at this time, but I wanted to get ahead of it enough to get tripoded video for 15+ minutes. I ended up along US60 between Cestos and Vici. The storm looked ok, but I couldn't get a good view of the "action area" / low-level meso thanks to abundant precip in the RFD. By this time, the RFD had surged southward, and I was in cool/cold outflow for most of that time. There was a tornado reported near Cestos about the time I was in Cestos, but I didn't see anything. Again, though, there was quite a bit of precip around the meso. I jumped westward to Vici, then southward towards Camargo to get a view of the W supercell. It looked decent at times, but it had a southward-surging RFD and forward-flank gust front; intermittent lowerings that looked like wall clouds were evident (e.g. Pic here). The character of the clouds in the inflow was distinctly different by this time (much more stratiform in nature), and there was very little inflow in the areas I trekked (in very stark contrast to the first supercell), so I suspect the storm was slightly elevated. I ended up dropping the storm near Rhea when I didn't think it'd transition away from the HP structure and pose a significant tornadic threat again.

Not sure how many tornadoes I saw. I saw the first one on the SE of Woodward, and I suspect the nice funnel 5-6 mins after that tornado was also a tornado. I then saw a lot of "that's a very low funnel/wall cloud, but the trees and hills are blocking where the ground circulation would be"-type features. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a tornado when the storm was ENE of Sharon, where I saw very impressive low-level rotation and cloud motion. After that, who knows. My eyeballs were probably pointed at a tornado or two afterwards (if the prelim reports in the SVSs/warnings are correct), but I didn't recognize any tornadoes well enough to confirm them.

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I have uploaded a bunch of pictures from our July/August 2011 trip to the beautiful state of Washington.  The ranked as one of the top two vacations we've had, and it was a perfect get-away from the inferno that was Oklahoma.

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