Chase Log: May 04th, 2003

Click on any of the SPC products below (Convective Outlooks, Watches, or MCDs) to see the SPC's "Severe Thunderstorm Events" page pertaining to this event.

MAP

Total Distance: 560 miles
Target Area: Tulsa to Bartlesville, OK
Chase Area: Bartlesville to Vinita, OK, to Neosho, MO
Maximum SPC Risk category: High
Watches: PDS Tornado Watches 231, 232, 234, 237, and 243
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs): 726, 727, 732, 733, 734, 735, 737, 738, 740, 741, 742, and 748

Major tornado outbreak expected as very moist warm sector (tds >70) undercut very strong flow at all levels. The threat for tornadic supercells covered a large portion of OK, KS, and MO, but the northeastern part of OK looked excellent to me. Kim and I sat in Tulsa until a storm initiated in Osage count, at which time we darted northward to meet up with it.

Well, we shouldn't have tried to meet up with it while it was still developing, since we got behind it (largely due to road options). We finally caught up with it near Vinita, after missing a couple of reported tornadoes. The storm was moving at a moderately fast clip, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to stop and watch it. We made it northeast of Neosho, at which time we needed to make a huge decision -- continue following the supercell or cut our losses and head home. Since the storm hadn't produced much up to this time, and we both had morning final exams the next day, we opted to call off the chase as the mesocyclone past over Granby. Of course, the supercell proceeded to produce a long-track, multi-vortex F4 tornado that started as we were leaving it. All that drive and nothing to show. {Rolls eyes}...