Wild Day In SW OK
Today, I am proud to announce that my tornado-less curse in SW OK has been lifted. Not only did I see a tornado (technically speaking), the ground circulation actually formed only about 25 yards in front of me on the east side of Hollis. It was more like a very strong dustdevil as tumbleweeds were spinning around wildly across the road. Two more little vortices would spin up in front of me as well....including some wildly shifting, strong winds that bufeted my vehicle. All of this underneath a pretty good rotating wall cloud with a tight, rapid circulation overhead. Needless to say it made for a tense few moments as I jumped east to gain some safety margin.
I watched the nicely rotating wall cloud as it lumbered NNE from Hollis. The clear notch worked in nicely and "isolated" the wall cloud as it underwnet slow occlusion. Soon, a nice funnel formed and began to descend, but didn't touch down as far as I could tell...although rain curtains were roataing around pretty good underneath it. Jay McCoy confirmed that he saw it on my streaming video. A HUGE kudo goes to Jay for informaing me of problems with my stream thanks to some weak and very spotty cellular data connectivity. I got up and running just in time!!! LOL!! In fact, Jay has been instrumental in several instances this year with some connectivity issues. Thanks, Jay! :-)
This was sweet success for me because I drove straight from work stopping only twice...to fill with gas and one stop about 45 seconds to watch a storm near Shamrock. Other than that, the intercept strategy worked out exceptionally well....along with some luck and a cooperative storm. :-) It was by far the best and most intense rotation I've seen this year in a storm base and wall cloud. In fact, if we would have had a little more CAPE in my opinion, this storm would have produced a very nice tornado. The odd thing is that this storm had very little hail and what I encountered was pretty small...dimes or less. I was in the hook too.
I ended the day with a McDonalds feast in Altus with my Oklahoma counterpart Steve Miller, Shane Adams, his main squeeze Bridget Geaughan, and Scott Bennet. It was fun visit, albeit a brief one. It's another aspect of chasing that I really enjoy.
I'm posting some pics, but these were dressed up on my laptop computer with a screen that is not calibrated properly. It's difficult to tweak photos to see what they actually look like on most monitors. So, if they look kinda wierd or out-of-whack, you'll know. :-) I'll redo them later along with loading some video (which is better)...probably Sunday/Monday.
Funnel cloud.
See the bowl-shaped lowering that was rotating very strongly. You can see the entire rotating wall cloud becoming isolated as it occludes.
The last gasp of a funnel cloud.
RANT:
Oh, did I mention that fact that the NWS OUN DID NOT issue a tornado warning for this storm? Yeppers, you got it. Despite streaming video (at the very least my nice, distinctive funnel cloud), Spotter Network reports by Jeff P. of a brief tornado and my funnel cloud report...AND some nice rotation couplets at least on GR3....no tornado warning. I know there were other chasers streaming too. No mention of a tornado (so far) in the LSR either. I have a feeling that it won't either. I'll be happy to be proven wrong of course.
The reason for my skepticism is my past dealings with NWS OUN and the fiasco a few weeks ago on March 27 where both mine and Jeff P's (again...what are the odds? lol) reports of a bonafied tornado were ignored by the NWS. The warning on that came out about 25 minutes after the fact and I believe were based on other reports not related to the one we reported. Throw in some stories I've heard from a couple of other chasers' reports being ignored despite video and photo evidence, then a very disturbing trend is emerging. I've tried on a few occasions make a phone report of severe weather to OUN only to have it received in a condenscending manner or at the least a very disinterested manner as in I'm just wasting their time and annoying them. Those reports I made were NOT recorded either.
So, anybody from the NWS reading this, what the hell is going on here? I have had zero problems with the LBB and AMA offices and I certainly am not aware of any negative reputation that may have been falsely spread around concerning the validity of my storm reports. Why are reports from well seasoned and reputable chasers being dismissed/ignored? Yeah, I consider myself one of several. ;-) It certainly does not motivate me to make any more effort in the future to make reports anymore. Doing so has cost me some good video footage...not to mention all of the money I spend in order to submit those reports. NWS OUN is pretty much off my list from now on for making reports. It's local 911 from here on out if I feel there is a tornado threatening a town. I really hate to be that way, but what should they expect? I guess they have an overwhelming amount of spotter and media chaser information feeding into them. I dunno. [shrug]
Anyway, rant over with. I feel much better now. LOL! I'm crashing out in Vernon for a trip down to McKinney/Plano tomorrow for some personal business. There is a chance of something popping up down there worthy of a chase. But, I'm sitting it out unless my previously made plans are cancelled on me for some reason.
I watched the nicely rotating wall cloud as it lumbered NNE from Hollis. The clear notch worked in nicely and "isolated" the wall cloud as it underwnet slow occlusion. Soon, a nice funnel formed and began to descend, but didn't touch down as far as I could tell...although rain curtains were roataing around pretty good underneath it. Jay McCoy confirmed that he saw it on my streaming video. A HUGE kudo goes to Jay for informaing me of problems with my stream thanks to some weak and very spotty cellular data connectivity. I got up and running just in time!!! LOL!! In fact, Jay has been instrumental in several instances this year with some connectivity issues. Thanks, Jay! :-)
This was sweet success for me because I drove straight from work stopping only twice...to fill with gas and one stop about 45 seconds to watch a storm near Shamrock. Other than that, the intercept strategy worked out exceptionally well....along with some luck and a cooperative storm. :-) It was by far the best and most intense rotation I've seen this year in a storm base and wall cloud. In fact, if we would have had a little more CAPE in my opinion, this storm would have produced a very nice tornado. The odd thing is that this storm had very little hail and what I encountered was pretty small...dimes or less. I was in the hook too.
I ended the day with a McDonalds feast in Altus with my Oklahoma counterpart Steve Miller, Shane Adams, his main squeeze Bridget Geaughan, and Scott Bennet. It was fun visit, albeit a brief one. It's another aspect of chasing that I really enjoy.
I'm posting some pics, but these were dressed up on my laptop computer with a screen that is not calibrated properly. It's difficult to tweak photos to see what they actually look like on most monitors. So, if they look kinda wierd or out-of-whack, you'll know. :-) I'll redo them later along with loading some video (which is better)...probably Sunday/Monday.
Funnel cloud.
See the bowl-shaped lowering that was rotating very strongly. You can see the entire rotating wall cloud becoming isolated as it occludes.
The last gasp of a funnel cloud.
RANT:
Oh, did I mention that fact that the NWS OUN DID NOT issue a tornado warning for this storm? Yeppers, you got it. Despite streaming video (at the very least my nice, distinctive funnel cloud), Spotter Network reports by Jeff P. of a brief tornado and my funnel cloud report...AND some nice rotation couplets at least on GR3....no tornado warning. I know there were other chasers streaming too. No mention of a tornado (so far) in the LSR either. I have a feeling that it won't either. I'll be happy to be proven wrong of course.
The reason for my skepticism is my past dealings with NWS OUN and the fiasco a few weeks ago on March 27 where both mine and Jeff P's (again...what are the odds? lol) reports of a bonafied tornado were ignored by the NWS. The warning on that came out about 25 minutes after the fact and I believe were based on other reports not related to the one we reported. Throw in some stories I've heard from a couple of other chasers' reports being ignored despite video and photo evidence, then a very disturbing trend is emerging. I've tried on a few occasions make a phone report of severe weather to OUN only to have it received in a condenscending manner or at the least a very disinterested manner as in I'm just wasting their time and annoying them. Those reports I made were NOT recorded either.
So, anybody from the NWS reading this, what the hell is going on here? I have had zero problems with the LBB and AMA offices and I certainly am not aware of any negative reputation that may have been falsely spread around concerning the validity of my storm reports. Why are reports from well seasoned and reputable chasers being dismissed/ignored? Yeah, I consider myself one of several. ;-) It certainly does not motivate me to make any more effort in the future to make reports anymore. Doing so has cost me some good video footage...not to mention all of the money I spend in order to submit those reports. NWS OUN is pretty much off my list from now on for making reports. It's local 911 from here on out if I feel there is a tornado threatening a town. I really hate to be that way, but what should they expect? I guess they have an overwhelming amount of spotter and media chaser information feeding into them. I dunno. [shrug]
Anyway, rant over with. I feel much better now. LOL! I'm crashing out in Vernon for a trip down to McKinney/Plano tomorrow for some personal business. There is a chance of something popping up down there worthy of a chase. But, I'm sitting it out unless my previously made plans are cancelled on me for some reason.
posted by Steve Miller TX at 4/17/2009 11:32:00 PM
4 Comments:
Beautiful photos; nice storm man! We just snow here in Colorado!
Hey Steve. I too have noticed the trend you mentioned with the NWS OUN. In fact, I have noticed that their watches and warnings are usually at least 1 1/2 hours behind what is actually happening, in many cases.
When chasing in that area last year, I could not rely on NOAA Weather Radio at all because their updates were too far behind. Not an issue anymore, since I have an iPhone, but as you have noted yourself, data coverage is spotty in many areas of western OK and sometimes all we have is Weather Radio and HAM Radio.
Definitely a disturbing trend.
I too have had issues with reports being offered to OUN. Is it just pure ego or do they just not care? Either way a major change of attitude and hopefully personel is forthcoming. I guess unless its an EF3 about to wipe out norman they could care less about actual reports from seasoned chasers. I will now only deal with AMA, LBB, and DDC. I wont even bother with the others.
"I've tried on a few occasions make a phone report of severe weather to OUN only to have it received in a condenscending manner or at the least a very disinterested manner as in I'm just wasting their time and annoying them. Those reports I made were NOT recorded either." I run into the same problem. My rotating wall cloud, described by me as having weak rotation was received with a disgustingly condescending tone. Well, the radar doesn't support that. Well, my f#@^&%$ eyes do monkey butt, and I just left a hail core... I don't know what their problem. Maybe they were over quota. Stupid. So much for the protection of life and property. Makes you proud to be a spotter, eh?
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