3/30/08 Report & Pics

Jay McCoy and I teamed up and headed into Oklahoma. It became evident by about noon that my target of the Texola area was too far W and NW. My earlier morning target of Mangum was the better choice after all. I had a high level of confidence that storms would pop well before dark. The boundary layer convergence was way too strong not too in the absence of any sort of subsidence.

Carefully analyzing the surface plots and radar loops, it was quite obvious the triple point was in far SW OK. As we headed south from Elk City, we crossed the front into the warm sector and noticed a very sharp change in wind direction and dewpoints. Cu was getting agitated indicating we were in the perfect spot sitting up near Granite.

We chatted via cell with David Drummond who had a great view of the towering Cu above us from the south (thanks David!). It wasn't long before the first blips on radar started showing up within a couple of miles of us. :-) We watched the cells erupt and die with several orphan anvils. The updrafts looked mushy at first...but not for long. Just to our NNE, I witnessed one of the most rapid developments of an explosive supercell storm I've seen. Mushy updrafts to rock solid cauliflower updrafts in mere minutes. The party is ON!! I busted some moves performing the "Sacred Forbidden Dance Of Chaser Merriment"!!!

We intercepted the cell NW of Hobart thanks to slow storm motions (amazing for late March!!). It was a beautiful classic supercell. It went SVR and we stayed with it as a stronger storm was looming to our SW back near Mangum/Granite. As we feared, the strom we were on started getting seeded heavily and diminishing in appearence. So, we busted SW to the other storm...which was starting to develop a nice wall cloud.

We got to it and setup nicely and watched it try to wrap up a couple of times even producing a couple of brief, weak funnels. It seemed that the RFD was just abit too strong and cold...likely because of shallow moisture. Once again just NW of Hobart, it tried to wrap up again and produced a decent funnel cloud briefly....the one I think David had on his streaming video. But, the storm's base just seemed a bit too high allowing the cold outflow to undercut it. I think this due to a shallow moisture layer over the area. There had been alot of SW flow in that area prior to the backing flow and convective initiation.

We played with it for awhile and watched a couple of more brief funnels, including one almost overhead north of Hobart. At this time, David caught up with us and we caravaned most of the rest of the evening. We started noticing an intensifying storm further WNW sporting a nice, broad lowering. We decided to go play with this one since it was getting dark and it was towards Amarillo (had to work the next day). We watched this storm slowly get its act together and sport a hookish pattern on radar. So, we hung with it for a while near Cordell. Things started chaning with the first tornado warning issued for the storm we just left. LOL!!

We stuck with the western cell though. It started to appear that is getting smacked with alot of cold outflow from the eastern cell. So, we started to head home. As we did, I noticed the storm visually started looking better. A look at the radar was astounding....a flying eagle signature with a bit of a hook! Wow! To heck with going home. :-)

We headed east on 152 paralleling the intensifying storm as it approached Corn...yep...Corn, Oklahoma. :-) It was about this time a TOR was issued for it. Woohoo!! We headed north on 54 to get in front of it. We kept seeing an ominous lowering embedded in the notch and hook. The inflow was really picking up pretty seriously. We ended up stopping just east of Colony with David joining us.

We tried to get out, but the inflow was so strong, it made it a struggle to open the door. Incredible! It was at least 50-60mph sustained with higher gusts. We could almost lean into it. This was an apparent inflow jet correlated nicely with the deep notch on radar. The lights went out in Colony which really had us thinking a tornado was in the storm somewhere. We were getting a bit ancy as it approached us. We were intently scanning for power flashes and didn't see any.

We could make out some whitish clouds along the edge of the storm moving at a good clip south to north perpendicular to us and the inflow. It was about this time that the inflow duddenly increased even more....probably 70-80mph in my estimate. It was INTENSE!!!! With all of the trees and power lines howling, it made it all the more errie. We all reacted instantly and fled to the vehicles and got the hell out of there!

We got to 58 and headed south back towards 152. By this time, it was getting real late and Jay and I both desperately needed to get on the road. Determining that this storm still hadn't produced a discernable tornado with all of that massive inflow, we decided to head home. We waited south of the cell on 58 waiting for it to pass. In true fashion, we heard the spotters reporting a brief tornado near Sickles WNW of Lookeba. Rats. We were on the wrong side of the hook and couldn't see it. Too late now.

So, we stayed in place and then proceeded north to I-40 as the cell moved away. As we got a couple of miles from I-40, we encounted some minor roadway flooding where a Doppler estimated 7 inches fell. Then, we encounted MAJOR hail on the ground up to 3 inches deep in drifts. Everywhere we looked, it was white! It looked like a snow or sleet storm from winter...complete with fog. There were a couple of vehicles actually stuck on the road becasue they could not get traction. Jay had to engage the 4x4 so we could make it through. It was incredible!!

That's it. Arrived in Amarillo at about 2:30am. Ugh. Now some pics!!!!!