Chase Log: June 16th, 2008
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: 425 miles
Target Area: Clinton to Hobart, OK
Chase Area: Hobart to south of Vernon, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight
Watches:
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs):
I'm stealing this from Dan Dawson's chase report, since he was in my car (and, thus, we saw the same things):
We saw the same two supercells as the CoD crew, and indeed saw them a couple of times (along with another chase tour group that I was too far away from to identify). Jeff, Gabe, some others, and I headed west from Norman in mid-afternoon. We initially targeted the easternmost supercell, heading west on 152. To stay ahead of it, we had to drop south to Fort Cobb and head back west on 9. About this time, it was clear that this storm was dead, as no updraft base was visible, so we kept going west to the formerly tornado-warned supercell near Hobart. We dropped south out of Gotebo and then west to 183 north of Snyder, where we were treated to spectacular HP (at times edging closer to classic) supercell updraft with intense CG activity. We also saw the large fire lighting up the base of the updraft. It was particularly interesting to watch the smoke rise up into the updraft, and a few small pyrocumulus even formed near the top of the rising smoke plume. Now, only if a firewhirl would have formed and connected with the updraft of the supercell, would it have been legitimately considered a tornado? But I digress... The fire was quickly diminished by the approaching rain to the north, and we continued down 183 to stay ahead of the rain and lightning.
South of Snyder, we met up with Robin and Pei, who got a late start but managed to make it in time to witness the peak of the storm. We then decided to continue south toward Vernon to intercept the westernmost supercell. On the way, we crossed several dusty inflow bands which reduced the visibility to near zero at times. At one point, near Vernon, Robin came over the radio asking when we started chasing on Mars smile.gif. This storm, per radar, looked like it was trying to catch up with the WNW-ESE southward moving boundary, but never did quite make it before the storm croaked. The triple point, as it were, of it's RFD and the boundary seemed like it was always just a bit south of the updraft. South of Vernon, while initially just as spectacular as the previous storm, the updraft base became progressively more ragged and undercut by outflow, so we called it a night and headed back to Norman.
06-16-2008 Chase Pictures
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