May 5, 2002

Storm Chase

Southwest Oklahoma

Editor:  Putnam Reiter

The Chase -

Team 1 - Dana Beverly, Rob Ferguson, and Putnam Reiter
Miles Driven - 340
Departure Time - 12:00 CDT
Return Time - 21:00 CDT

Left Oklahoma City around 12:00 CDT and drove to Lawton.  Reviewed latest data and move west to Altus.   There were two schools of thought yesterday 1) the dryline and 2) the warm front.  Early on conditions seemed most favorable for storms along the warm front, especially of the tornadic variety.

Clouds moved into the warm front area in SW OK/NW TX in the early afternoon and essentially stopped afternoon heating.  Additionally the warm front, while still around, was not able to produce sufficient convergence to break the cap.

Looking west, storms developed in the Texas panhandle around 15:30 CDT.  Two long-lived supercells came out of the mess.  One of them produced a destructive tornado in Happy, Texas around 18:00 CDT.  The current count is two dead and four critically injured.

We stayed in Altus until about 18:00 CDT and then returned home, stopping by Lawton for a second.  We got home around 21:00 CDT.

One of the long-lived supercells moved into SW OK just long enough to say 'hi' and then dissipated.  The other supercell moved into west-central/NW OK and produced a tornado in Seiling, destroying a mobile home.

Lessons Learned -

If you're going to chase, you should be prepared to drive.  We elected not to drive to the Texas Panhandle and yet again missed a good storm.  This is the Happy, Texas, day and there is plenty of good pictures from that supercell.  We sat in Oklahoma and watched the fun to our west.

Encounters -

Engaged Storm:  No
Tornado:  No
Funnel:  No
Hail (larger than 0.75 inches):  No
Wall Cloud:  No
Wind (above 57.4 mph):  No