Chase Log: May 09th, 2006
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.
Total Distance: 275 miles
Target Area: Seminole to McAlester, OK
Chase Area: Wewoka to Stuart to Atoka, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate
Watches:
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs):
Went out with the Windom students again. The first day of true Gulf moisture in the area, with low-mid 70s dewpoints, a nice outflow boundary near and just south of I40, and decent shear led to pretty good optimism about chase prospects. And yeah, and CAPE was >5500 j/kg in places. Initiation was a concern early in the day, but 18z and 19z soundings indicated that this was not going to be a substantial issue.
Initiation occurred by mid-late afternoon just east of OKC. Numerous cells exploded in Hughes county (and surrounding counties), while another developed in southern Coal county. The cells we tracked in Hughes and Pittsburg counties were struggling due to numerous storm interactions, and we jetted south from Stuart to get on the Coal county cell (which was tornado-warned and had decent rotation on radar). Well, by the time we made it to Coalgate and Atoka, it certainly looked like it was gusting out. Mesoanalysis indicated extreme CAPE in place, with strong low-level shear (>300 0-3km SRH) ahead of the Coal county cell. However, the abundant cell interactions likely prohibited mesocyclone organization. I have a few other possibilities as to why these storms didn't produce (and weren't entirely discrete or impressive, given the CAPE), but I'll leave that for sometime else.
It was lovely to see supercells in the TX panhandle. By lovely I mean garbage. The convection there was supposed to be MCS-ish, while the se OK convection was expected to be supercellular. Go figure.
