2009 Chase Logs


The 2009 chase season is winding down for southern plains chasers after relatively trainquil (i.e. boring) conditions such up for much of May. The combination of relatively poor moisture and extremely weak flow/shear aloft resulted in an abysmal May for many chasers across the central U.S.. June improved slightly, but the poor timing meant there was relatively limited data collected in tornadic supercells for the 1st year of VORTEX 2.

My noteable chases in 2009:

indicates that a chase route map is available
indicates pictures from the chase are available
indicates video from the chase is available



February 10th -- Central OK   

Total Distance: 220 miles
Target Area: Denton - Sherman - Gainesville, TX
Chase Area: Around and In Oklahoma City, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, Jana Houser, and I punted around with the OKC area storms today. Though my initial target was N TX (Gainesville to Denton area, chasing eastward from there), we noticed a few storms developing SW of OKC by the time we got out o... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



March 07th -- South-central KS   

Total Distance: 530 miles
Target Area: W of Wichita, KS
Chase Area: Around Hesston, KS, and SW of Wichita, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Gabe Garfield and I headed to southern Kansas today, initially targeting anything along the boundary/front, with a preference for activity farthest east (where the better moisture resided). The obs at P28 and nearby were pretty bad, and I wasn't expecting ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



March 09th -- S KS / N OK   

Total Distance: 315 miles
Target Area: Fairview to Ponca City, OK
Chase Area: Medford, OK, to E of South Haven, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Note a lot to write... Gabe Garfield and I (with a couple other cars following) targeted the warm front (outflow reinforced) across the central OK/KS border region. This chase ended up being quite typical of early season chases characterized by high shear... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



March 23rd -- S KS / N OK      

Total Distance: 305 miles
Target Area: Enid, OK
Chase Area: Arkansas City, KS, to Stillwater, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate



March 26th -- Northern TX   

Total Distance: 360 miles
Target Area: Decatur, TX
Chase Area: Nocona to Gainesville, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Original target was pretty much near Decatur (west of GLE-DTO line). I was concerned about the limited extent (spatially) of the instability, but I figured it would be worth a shot driving down to at least ADM to check things out. I left OUN around 2:30 pm... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



April 09th -- Northeastern OK   

Total Distance: 450 miles
Target Area: Along the OK/KS border in far northeastern OK
Chase Area: Bartlesville to Miama, OK - bust
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

Really not much to report. Gabe Garfield, Jana Houser, I, and several others played around far northeastern Oklahoma today. I had been a bit concerned about a lack of shear in the 2-6 km layer (the hodograph basically sat on itself through that layer in mo... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



April 18th -- Northwestern OK   

Total Distance: 220 miles
Target Area: Ill-defined (NW Oklahoma)
Chase Area: Near Okeene and Fairview, OK,
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Really not much about which to write... I didn't have enough time to get up to the KS area, nor did I have enough time to make it to Alva. So, I played with the weak storm that appeared to have decent updraft structure from time to time. Low-level inflow w... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



April 25th -- Western OK      

Total Distance: 300 miles
Target Area: Elk City, OK
Chase Area: Foss to Weatherford, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate



April 26th -- Northwestern OK         

Total Distance: 480 miles
Target Area: Sayre, OK
Chase Area: Sweetwater to Vici, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: High

Dan D., Robin T., Corey P., Mike F., Jen ., and I chased the lone tornadic supercell that tracked north of Roll, OK, this afternoon. We were originally hoping to initiation down near Childress since we liked the environment in southwestern OK and towards I... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



April 30th -- W and C Oklahoma

Total Distance: 405 miles
Target Area: Near Hennessey, OK
Chase Area: W of Clinton and near OKC
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight



May 05th -- Northcentral Texas

Total Distance: 600 miles
Target Area: Throckmorton, TX
Chase Area: Breckenridge to Stephenville, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

This is borrowed from Dan:

We, unfortunately, *were* with the hordes that got hammered by hail on I-20 near the highway 108 exit. However, we weren't trying to get *to* the meso at the time, we were instead driving away from the meso trying to ge... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



May 08th -- Southern OK

Total Distance: 155 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Davis to Ardmore, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

A lazy chase to make sure the radars deployed correctly, etc. Multicells with embedded and/or transient supercell characteristics occurred across a large portion of south-central Oklahoma, though one relatively persistent supercell did track south of SPS ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



May 12th -- Southeastern TX Panhandle   

Total Distance: 480 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Silveton to Paducah, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

A bunch of high-based convection formed in western Texas and developed extensive outflow before hitting the deep moisture to the east. A supercell did develop southwest of Childress during the mid-evening time.



May 13th -- Northwestern and Central OK      

Total Distance: 420 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Canton to Geary, OK; Norman, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight



May 15th -- Northwestern OK      

Total Distance: 440 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Near Renfrow, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category:

A weak squall line developed along a cold front to our northwest and moved by without much consequence. Shear was very weak, so tornado probabilities were low.



May 19th -- Southwestern NE      

Total Distance: 735 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Near Sidney, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: General

Very low dewpoints and resultant high dewpoint depressions meant weak, high-based showers were all that we could get...



May 20th -- Western NE      

Total Distance: 300 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Hemingford to Hyannis, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: General

Relatively low dewpoints (and resultant weak CAPE) and moderate shear resulted in some messy multicells save for one relatively short window of supercell action N of Alliance, NE. The supercell had a wall-cloud and strong RFD... The most notable thing we ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



May 22nd -- Southwestern SD   

Total Distance: 165 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Edgemont to Hot Springs, SD
Maximum SPC Risk category: General

Another sub-marginal day that resulted in nothing substantial. The highlight of my day was my GPS tripping out (which also happened one 2 subsequent chases); the GPS was reporting that we were moving 220-290 km/hr (that's 130-160 mph) through the Black Hi... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



May 23rd -- Southwestern NE

Total Distance: 320 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: SE of Ogallala, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: General

More submarginal chasing conditions as relatively poor moisture and very weak shear yielded multicell trash.



May 25th -- SW OK / TX PH   

Total Distance: 1035 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Hollis to N of Hobart, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Brief supercells that never lasted long enough for us to collect data.



May 26th -- Northern Texas

Total Distance: 510 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Denton to Forestburg, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

FINALLY, good low-level moisture yielded strong instability in an environment of pretty strong low-level shear near an outflow boundary from overnight convection. Storms developed in the lower-RH air behind a weak dryline in an area of stronger heating an... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



May 29th -- Central Nebraska      

Total Distance: 850 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Around Taylor, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

The target storm was dissipating by the time we deployed between Taylor and Rose, NE, off Hwy 183. More vigorous, multicell convection was sustaining itself to the S through ESE of the deployment location.



May 31st -- Extreme southwestern Iowa      

Total Distance: 275 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Sidney to Shenandoah, IA
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

A couple of storms developed in extreme southeastern NE and tracked into southwestern IA. We deployed a couple of times near Sidney, but the storms didn't really impress by any means.



June 01st -- Central KS/NE Border

Total Distance: 280 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Around Hebron, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Multicellular convection moved NNEward out of Kansas, and we never really got initiation closer to the stronger low-level shear near I80. We had radar antenna / positioner problems that required us to return to Norman the next day.



June 04th -- Extreme SE WY / NE CO      

Total Distance: 1195 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Cheyenne, WY, to Hereford, CO
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

We were aiming for anything N of Denver, where strong low-level shear forecast by morning model runs. However, only weak convection persisted in this area, which significantly reduced CAPE for later convection. So, we trekked into southeastern Wyoming to g... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 05th -- Southeastern WY         

Total Distance: 505 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: La Grange, WY, to Gurley, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category:

Intercepted a beautiful tornadic supercell west of La Grange, WY, with a long-lived tornado that was perhaps the most sampled tornado in history. We followed this supercell eastward with time, with several more deployments along the way.



June 06th -- Central NE      

Total Distance: 380 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Mullen - Thedford - North Platte, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Hopes weren't too high, but we did intercept that tracked from SW of Mullen to near Thedford, NE, before it moved into an area of weaker destabilization and cooler air north of an outflow boundary. We dropped south towards North Platte to attempt another d... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 07th -- Northwestern Missouri      

Total Distance: 540 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Forest City to NE of Cameron, MO
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

Another good shear, high instability chase day that ultimately resulted in an extremely intense, yet largely non-tornadic, supercell that moved across far northwestern Missouri. We collected data on the intensifying, non-tornadic (at least at the time of ... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 09th -- Southwestern Kansas      

Total Distance: 370 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: E of Dodge City to Greensburg, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

The forecast of a substantial tornado event devolved into messy and tornado-unfriendly forecast as winds south of a southward-sagging OFB veered heavily. A supercell did develop W of Dodge City, and it had spectacular structure between DDC and Greensburg.... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 10th -- Southwestern Kansas      

Total Distance: 425 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Johnson City - Hugoton - Liberal, KS
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Largely multicells in drier air...



June 11th -- Southeastern Colorado      

Total Distance: 490 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: La Junta, CO
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

A tough forecast that caused some problems in targetting... There was an extremely high-CAPE, moderate shear setup western Texas, and another low-moderate CAPE upslope setup in eastern Colorado. After a brief jaunt into the Texas panhandle, we turned arou... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 12th -- Oklahoma / N Texas Panhandles   

Total Distance: 300 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: BUSTOLA
Maximum SPC Risk category: General

Clear-sky bust, though not terribly surprising as a strong cap moved in to inhibit initiation.



June 13th -- Texas Panhandle      

Total Distance: 395 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Amarillo to Panhandle, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

Well, we had seen several days of flow aloft that was respectable by June standards and moisture that was equally nice in the OK/TX panhandles without much in the way of tornado occurrence. This was one more day of the same... The left-splits actually per... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 14th -- Texas Panhandle      

Total Distance: 400 miles
Target Area:
Chase Area: Childress, TX
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

Some hope remained for one last day with the radar, despite the fact that the project was officially over for the year. Overnight through early-afternoon elevated convection and cloud-cover really put a damper on the original target of northeastern TX pan... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



June 17th -- Southern Nebraska         

Total Distance: 880 miles
Target Area: Hebron - Beatrice, NE
Chase Area: Kearney to York, NE
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

I was really on the fence about this day, since I had just gotten back from a solid 5 weeks of chasing as a part of VORTEX 2. However, the setup looked good enough to make me want to drive to southeastern Nebraska; Dan... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



July 20th -- Northern Oklahoma      

Total Distance: 140 miles
Target Area: Impromptu
Chase Area: Hennessey to Kingfisher, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate

I wasn't planning on chasing today, but I couldn't resist a short trip towards Enid to get a view of a nice supercell that was moving southward in unseasonably strong flow aloft. By the time I got within a good viewing distance of my target supercell, it w... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!



August 19th -- Northern Oklahoma   

Total Distance: 180 miles
Target Area: Enid to Ponca City, OK
Chase Area: Around Enid, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Slight

What looked to be a fantastic chase for this time of year in this part of the country ended up being a bust of sorts. Not much to report... I really liked the OFB located across central to northwestern Oklahoma, particularly since areas on the immediate c... CLICK HERE FOR MORE!