May 7, 2002

Storm Chase

Western Oklahoma

Editor:  Putnam Reiter

Forecast/Setup -

Risk Area:  Moderate
Initial Target Area:  Watonga - Western Oklahoma

The Chase -

Team 1 - Rob Ferguson and Putnam Reiter
Miles Driven - 250
Departure Time - 15:00 CDT
Return Time - 19:00 CDT

This day seemed very favorable, given our previous problems or busts.  We left Oklahoma City and headed up the northwest passage through Kingfisher to Watonga.  We went just west of Watonga and hung out.  From our point of view we could see a favored area regularly producing towering cumulus.  This made us hopeful that something would happen today.  We did watch storms develop in Kansas along the cold front.

We watched the TCU develop and then get cutoff for about an hour.  Shortly there after the vertical development stopped and all the cumulus clouds disappeared.  The storms to our north looked very impressive.  The argument among us was whether or not to chase cold front storms.  We elected not to do this.

So, after sitting around for several hours, we turned around and came home.

Lessons Learned -

For what we set out to do, our positioning was very good.  We ended up in the best surface convergence area and it showed.  Our main failure was not noticing mid-level features.

Encounters -

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