May 9, 2003
Storm Chase
Southwest Oklahoma
Editor:
Putnam E. Reiter
Forecast/Setup -
Risk Area: Moderate Risk
- 10% hatched area on tornado graphic.
Initial Target Area: Snyder, Oklahoma
Odd weather day across the
region. Thick moisture and smoke from Old Mexico continued make visibility
awful. Seeing much more than five miles was nearly impossible. The
surface pattern was very complex across the region due to convection on the 8th.
Additionally, during the afternoon the dryline slowly moved east and ended up
from near Oklahoma City to Lawton and then southwest. As winds across
southwest Oklahoma became southeasterly, the dryline started to surge west
around 16:00 CDT. This westward surge continued during the late afternoon
and the dryline ended up near the SW OK/TX panhandle border.
The upper system was progged to
move into the region during the afternoon with good directional/speed shear in
place across the region. The cap was progged to strengthen, but degree of
lift and heating would be sufficient to overcome said cap. The surface
pattern was the most complex issue of the day, as noted above.
While storm did develop, the
rather strong cap kept down much of the atmosphere.
SPC Products:
SWO Day 1 Graphics:
Risk Area
-
Tornado Prob -
Damaging Wind Prob -
Hail Prob
Surface Maps:
Temperature
- Dewpoint -
Wind Speed -
CAPE -
LI
GFS 00z Initialization:
Surface Pressure -
Surface Temperature -
Precipitable Water -
850mb Wind -
700mb Temperature
- 700mb
Wind -
500mb
Vorticity -
500mb
Wind -
300mb Wind
- 250mb Wind
Text Products:
Watches -
Mesoscale Discussions
- Local Storm Reports -
Tornado Warnings -
Misc
The Chase -
Team 1 - Jamie and Putnam Reiter
Miles Driven - 425
Departure Time - 13:00 CDT
Return Time - 23:30 CDT
We left Lawton around 14:00 CDT
and went southwest to Grandfield. We sat in this area for about an hour
watching towering CU. We could tell that the dryline was moving westward.
The hard part was seeing the TCU develop and then if it had a base. Much
of it was getting sheared apart. Finally, we noticed one near Tipton and
drove to Frederick to intercept it. We drove north out of Frederick
towards Highway 62, where we got on this storm. It had decent low level
features and very slow rotation. We watched it for about twenty minutes as
we moved east on Highway 62 and then north on Highway 49. About this time
the storm started to lose its low level features and took off from us. It
apparently had gotten caught up in the 850mb jet, as it took off at 50mph.
We left this storm and headed back west on Highway 62 to Altus.
As we got to Altus around 18:00
CDT we heard of more develop in Greer County, additionally we could see the
storm. Seeing that we had nothing to lose, we headed north on Highway 283,
we reached Highway 44 and went north to Lone Wolf. Visibility was still
awful, so we went just east and a little north of Highway 9. The storm
came up to us and we were able to make out decent features. The rotation
area went just north of us. It didn't do anything major, but sure tried.
We went north on Highway 44 and then east on Highway 55 through Rocky. The
storm had passed Rocky before we got there, so we called in the decreasing
rotation on the flanking line as the business end. Getting east of Rocky
we got back in the inflow region. This storm had to be viewed from the SSE
to east, anything other and you got nothing.
We continued to follow the
storm towards Binger, zigzagging on section line roads. Eventually
nighttime came and we decided to call it a day. The storm was still going
strong, but with all the low hanging scud, it wasn't something we wanted to be
working at night. This storm was rather difficult as multiple RFD cycles
left a variety of rotating areas in the atmosphere. We headed back to
Lawton via Highways 146 and 281. The storm did spin-up a few brief
tornadoes as it got east of Binger. Eventually it moved into the Oklahoma
City region where it produced a few small tornadoes and then an F3 at Britton
and Eastern. The storm move northeast along the turnpike (I-44) to
Chandler/Stroud. The F3 tornado was only a limited event, with much of the
damage F0.
I drove home via I-44 and
toured OKC a little. From the media coverage you'd think that half the
town was gone. I found no damage and only one area without power, this was
NW 50th and Hefner Parkway. A small tornado did go through this area.
The major damage was Britton and Eastern, points east.
Lessons Learned -
- Storm features got a
little confusing as several areas "appeared" to be rotating. Much of the
rotation was around the flanking line and of no threat. It was kind of
difficult to locate main rotation areas that had been cutoff by the RFD.
The wall cloud was low hanging during much of this chase. We left the
storm at dark, per rule about chasing at night.
Multimedia -
- In western Oklahoma, driving
north out of Altus.
Clip 1
- In western Oklahoma, driving east on Highway 152 near Binger.
Clip 2
Encounters -
Storm 1: Tipton, Oklahoma
Tornado: No
Funnel: No
Hail (larger than 0.75 inches): No
Wall Cloud: Brief
Wind (above 57.4 mph): No
Storm 2: Lone Wolf,
Oklahoma
Tornado: No
Funnel: No - maybe...but brief.
Hail (larger than 0.75 inches): No
Wall Cloud: Yes
Wind (above 57.4 mph): No
