9 May 2015 - NW Texas/S OK

9 May 2015

Initial Target: Elk City, OK
Actual Target: Vernon, TX
Starting Point (SP): Yukon, OK 1200 9 May
Ending Point (ENDEX): Midwest City, OK 2250 9 May
Storm Intercepts: Near Vernon, TX; Electra, TX; Waurika, OK; Loco, OK
Tornadoes: 0
Hail: Pea size
Wind: Unknown
Miles: 456

Summary: Second chase of the year. Targeted dryline in W OK. Re-evaluated upon reaching target area and went south to target NW Texas near a secondary surface low. Encountered severe warned cells, unable to follow cell that became tornado warned near Burkburnett. Watched tail end Charlie try to produce before moving north into Oklahoma via one of the few river crossings in order to ahead of that cell. Chased down cell near Waurika, decided to get ahead of it near Loco before calling it a chase as cells merged into MCS.

Crew:
No chase partner

Equipment:
Vehicle: 2009 Nissan Titan SE 4x4
Cameras: Sony Handicam DCR-DVD610
Other Electronics:Dell Latitude D610 running Ubuntu, Apple iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Map:


Details:

A very active pattern had taken hold over the southern plains during the first full week of May. Early in the week, models started to indicate potential for every day from Wednesday through Sunday. On Wednesday, I was at work when tornadoes hit the OKC Metro, which were followed by floods as several inches of rain fell that evening in addition to the rain that had fallen that previous morning. Thursday was quiet for the Metro, and Friday had a few storms as well. By Wednesday, I was planning to go out, and was initially targeting Watonga. I held firm to that target until Friday night after work, when I decided on Elk City. As soon as I woke up, I left for Elk City. Had I looked things over before I left, I probably would have gone south towards Texas immediately, but I still thought Elk City would be a viable target.

I met up with Chris Campbell, who had made the trek from Wisconsin, and we convoyed to Elk City, where we looked things over while we decided where we would go. The night before, I'd finally been able to get the SHARPpy program to work with Python on my Ubuntu laptop, which simplified my looking at the models. Thanks to Chris, I was able to use his power inverter since my laptop had "woken" from it's hibernation state during the drive and the battery had died by the time we stopped. I decided at that point to change my target to Vernon, TX. Chris wasn't prepared to head that far south, so we parted ways. I saw a couple other chasers at the truck stop we were at as well, but I'm not sure where they went from there.

I went south on OK-6, which turned out to be a very nice road with a 65mph speed limit on all but the portions in the small towns. I refuelled in Altus before continuing south, this time on US-283. Upon leaving Altus, I saw a tower go up quickly to the south. It was close enough that I knew I wasn't going to be late to the party like I was on 24 April.

Crossing the Red River, it was apparent (see above picture) that the cell was gaining strength, albeit in an elongated state. As I approached Vernon, TX, the cell went severe warned. I turned onto US-287 and crossed the northern end of the storm. I came out on the other side west of Electra, TX, I stopped to observe the cell, as radar indicated that it was trying to hook as it split from the portion of the cell behind it.

My view from Business 287 on the west side of Electra

It didn't seem to be organizing much past that, and, with the tail end cell (aka Tail End Charlie) trying to hook as well, I decided to move on. I went further east, and then south on TX-25. Found a good vantage point, and watched tail end Charlie try again and again to get organized. Briefly saw a wall cloud, but it fell apart within minutes.

Here it's trying to pull itself together

This is the best I was able to see out of it.

By this point, the first cell had gone tornado warned near Burkburnett. Because of the road network (or lack thereof) north of US-287, I didn't attempt to make a potentially risky play on that storm. I wouldn't have been able to reach I-44 in time to cross the Red River ahead of the storm. So I continued to watch the cell I was on. Once it crossed US-287, I darted east to Wichita Falls, where I took I-44 across the river to wait for the storm. The storm started falling apart, and a cell northwest of Waurika, OK was quickly gaining strength, so I went east on US-70.

After arriving in Waurika, I decided to try to get ahead and find another place to get north in front of it, as it was over US-81 at that time. By the time I was able to get north to Loco, it was getting dark, and the storm was weakening. I called it a chase, made my way north to Velma where I picked up OK-7, and went east to I-35 to make my way back to the Metro. I ended my trip by stopping at Old Chicago in Midwest City for food and drink.

After Action Review:

Once again, model changes the morning of rendered my initial target a no go. However, since I took the time to look things over after reaching my target, I was able to go south and cross into Texas just as storms were beginning to fire. Once there, I picked the wrong storm. I should have made my way east to I-44 to get in front of the first cell, but I stayed back, thinking tail end charlie would wrap itself up and produce. While the first storm pulled the boundary layer in, the second storm did not.

Had I looked at everything before I left home, I would have gone straight to Texas, and maybe had a shot at the better cells further south. That said, I still put myself in a decent position, but picked the wrong storm. With the lack of road options north of US-287, I had no chance at the first cell once it pulled itself together.

Sustains and Improves:
1. Reviewing data at the target area allowed a change of plans and prevented what would have been a blue sky bust.
2. The SHARPpy program is an invaluable program when trying to quickly look at models.
3. After change of plans, I ended up right where storms were firing.
4. When you see a storm pull in a boundary layer, stay on it because it's probably going to produce.
5. Data (and roads) are very spotty in the US-70 corridor in southern Oklahoma, and there are also very few river crossings between Texas and Oklahoma to the west of I-35.
6. I need to improve my reading of soundings and sounding models. I get the gist of it, but there's still a good deal that I don't understand.

24 April 2015 - Central Kansas

24 April 2015

Initial Target: Hutchinson, KS
Starting Point (SP): Yukon, OK 1115 24Apr2015
Ending Point (ENDEX): Yukon, OK 0035 25Apr2015
Storm Intercepts: Ellsworth, KS
Tornadoes: 0
Hail: 1.0" (quarter size)
Wind: 50mph estimated
Miles: 642

Summary:
First chase of the year. Went for the Triple Point in Kansas. Initial target was too far to the east. With storm motions being drastically slower, coupled with some brief indecision on our part, we weren't able to make our way north and west quickly enough to intercept a tornadic cell paralleling Interstate 70. Ended up intercepting that same storm near Ellsworth just as the last tornado warning was allowed to expire and encountered severe hail and winds likely just under severe limits.

Crew:
Chase Partner: April Cullers

Equipment:
Vehicle: 2009 Nissan Titan SE 4x4
Cameras: Fujifilm FinePixS2700HD, Sony Handicam DCR-DVD610
Other Electronics: Dell Lattitude D610 running Ubuntu, Apple iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

Map:



Details:
Having missed out on the March and early April setups, I was itching to get out. Work has been slow (meaning lower income), so with my tax return deposited, I needed to get a chase in while I still could. I initially planned a SE KS target in the Coffeyville/Altamont/Independence area, being able to easily shift north/south (via US-169 and 75) or east/west (via US-166, 160, and 400), and being far enough downstream to have time to make those adjustments. Model runs on Thursday shifted the dryline to the west, so I shifted my target west accrodingly, to the Enid area. Finally, early Friday morning showed a slowing in storm motions, and less potential south of Central Kansas, so I shifted my target north, to my "final" initial target of Hutchinson, Kansas. SPC had dropped the Enhanced risk (they later put the Enhanced back in for hail), the 10% tornado probability, as well as the hatched area that went along with the 10%, but I still felt better about my chances near the triple point than I did down the dryline in Texas.

I work a 2nd shift job, and had to work the evening prior, so I wasn't able to get out nearly as early as I would have liked. I also had to make a slight detour (about 50 miles when all said and done but it cost me an hour) to handle some other stuff. I filled up with fuel on the north side of the Metro, and was on I-35 north by 1140. After my detour, I was back on I-35 north from SH-51 by 1400. As I crossed the Oklahoma/Kansas line, April Cullers contacted me and asked me to meet her in Wichita. Up until this point, I'd been planning to run solo, but I was game to at least meet up with other chasers if not convoy. I reached Wichita around 1530. After a fuel/coffee/latrine stop, April and I decided that we'd both go in my truck, with her offering to pay for the fuel. I had already made up my mind on Hutchinson, and April was fine with that so off we went. As we turned north onto KS-14, April noticed the Hays storm go tornado warned. We arrived in Hutchinson and stopped to reload on coffee (me) and energy drinks (April) and plot our next move.


We watched the Hays storm on radar as well as two others. We initially felt that we wouldn't be able to catch the Hays storm, so we focused our attention on the other two out ahead of the main line, one southwest of Greensburg, the other southwest of Great Bend. We were stopped for about 30 minutes before deciding to head for Great Bend. We felt that the cell near there would get more organized as it moved into a better environment, and we would still retain the option to drop south on US-281 if the cell near Greensburg turned out to be a better option. Plan in place, we went north on KS-14. As we neared Lyons, where we planned to turn west on US-56, we realized we had a chance at the still tornado warned storm that was paralleling I-70.


We continued up KS-14 to Ellsworth, and then continued north off of the hardball onto an unpaved county road, then west on another unpaved road. Considering our starting point, we could not have timed it better, as we were able to pull off to the side of the road on top of a hill that we could see for miles from, as the storm churned away about ten miles to the west. We stopped and took in the view both to the west and to the north, where two separate areas of rotation were showing up on radar. By this time, the storm had lost its discreet characteristics and was evolving into an MCS. Cells to the south had cut the storm off from its warm inflow, and I noted a temperature drop from 73 to 56 degrees in a matter of minutes. The following picture was taken by April shortly before we started moving again.

As we stood there watching, a local volunteer firefighter who was also a trained spotter pulled up and we chatted for a few minutes, watching my radar screens and listening to the volunteer's radio as his main base relayed what he was seeing on the radar. I would venture that he knew we were chasers from the moment he saw us. He departed, heading into the storm, and we turned back the way we came, seeing a hook developing on radar to our SW. After turning back to the south on the road we had come north on, I decided to stop as it seemed to me that the storm had accelerated. At this point, the final tornado warning on the cell had been allowed to expire, but I wasn't willing to take a chance of driving into the hook. We waited as the core passed overhead and dropped quarter size hail on us along with strong, but likely not severe, winds.


I set the camcorder on my dash, but later found out that it kept focusing on the raindrops on my windshield instead of the road in front of us. After the main core passed, we went back down the road to I-70 and pulled into a gas station to wait for the storm to get farther east and north. By this time it was congealing into a QLCS, and we ENDEXed at this point, making our way back to Wichita where I would drop her off and complete my journey home.


After Action Review:
This was only my second chase having someone else with me, but communication was never an issue. April is a Firefighter/EMT and, with me being prior military, we both think and communicate in a similar manner. As a result, we were able to comfortably able to bounce ideas off each other and come up with a plan, as well as agree on changes to those plans on the fly. We agreed after the chase that we need to pair up on a regular basis. We quickly found that we make an excellent team. She's not as experienced, but shares my prowess at land nav, as well as the instincts.

We badly botched our initial target though, and the slow storm motion only compounded this issue. In addition, we burned several minutes in Hutchinson deciding on our next course of action. This cost us a chance to see the storm when it was still a discreet cell, but we rallied to put ourselves in an excellent position with flawless maneuvering as we raced north for the intercept. My only regret on the latter is that I saw several opportunities to take pictures of old barns and windmills that, due to time being of the essence, I was unable to take advantage of.

I need to invest in better video equipment as well as a ruggedized laptop. Sadly, what little radar software is available for Linux-based systems is not adequate, and I was forced to rely on RadarScope on my phone and (while I was stopped) my iPad. While RadarScope is an excellent app, GRLevel3 would be more useful due to better road overlays (RadarScope only overlays US highways and Interstates), as well as the larger screen. I could do without the better road overlays if RadarScoper were adapted for Linux, however. That said, I would not have had a way to submit video to my broker on my Linux-based system due to not having a good video editor. Unfortunately, I would have to resort to either Windows or Mac for that.


This was also my first long range chase in the Nissan Titan that I bought last November. The truck performed admirably, getting better than expected fuel mileage, and the VK56DE DOHC V8 had more than enough power to propel the 5300 lb (plus people, gear, and fuel) truck up to speed quickly after we left each small town. It really shined once we left the hardball. Nissan trucks are known for their off-road prowess, and it showed, especially when the dirt roads became rain soaked.

On a side note, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority hit a home run when they negotiated deals with the Kansas Turnpike Authority and North Texas Toll Authority to allow our PikePass to be used on their systems. 

It wasn't the most successful chase, but it was fun. As with any chase, there's always something to be learned, both from the positives and negatives.


Sustains and Improves:
1. Take the time to re-evaluate the target when you arrive in the area.
2. Arrive at the target area early enough to conduct such re-evaluation.
3. Don't rule out a good storm until you know without a doubt that you cannot catch up with it.
4. Even if you botch some aspect of the chase, excellent navigation can salvage what would otherwise have been a complete bust.
5. I definitely need to invest in better equipment going forward.
6. I've almost always chased solo, but I now have a dependable partner when we both can get out at the same time.