Chase Log: May 22nd, 2007
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: 410 miles
Target Area: Dodge City, KS
Chase Area: Near WaKeeney, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight
Watches:
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs):
Me and others in my group (i.e. Howie Bluestein, Andy Pazmany, Robin Tanamachi, Mike French, Jana Houser, and Matt M.) left OUN around 1130am. We made it to DDC by late afternoon and dropped into the DDC NWSFO for a few minutes. With prospects of dryline initiation vanishing, we decided to bolt northward towards Wakeeny. We deployed the mobile phased array south of Wakeeny and collected volume scans every 15 seconds for about 90 minutes, while the dual-pol Xband group set up north of Wakeeny. Unfortunately, by the time we got set up, the supercell was beginning to fall apart a bit as linear convection developed WSW of Wakeeny. We experienced dime and nickle hail about 4 mi S of Wakeeny at 0130 and 0148 UTC (respectively) at our location, along with very strong winds. The amount of lightning with this QLCS / squall line was amazing!
It's interesting that storms didn't form along the dryline near DDC... The 00z DDC sounding shows a nearly uncapped environment, and the convergence along the dryline W and SW of DDC looked to be quite strong through the afternoon. I have to imagine that we were very, very close to initiation down there. Another 1 or 2 F to the Td could have been enough to initiate, at least per what I'm seeing in the DDC sounding.
05-22-2007 Chase Pictures
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