Day 6 Chase 4 Summary

HP Supercell, Large Hail, Lightning, Multiple Lowerings

Durant, OK to Ardmore, OK to Dodge City, KS to Kinsley, KS to Lewis, KS to Fellsburgh, KS to Pratt, KS (overnight)


View Larger Map


We carried on up toward the OK panhandle with the intention of intercepting storms coming east from New Mexico along the KS/OK border.

We noticed (during our very infrequent internet access windows) that a large cell had fired to the north west of Dodge. We could see this cell from north of Woodward, OK - over 100 miles away. As we watched, SPC laid a Tornado Watch on the storm.

We had decisions to make - this cell looked by far the best thing around, but was a long drive away to intercept. It was nearing 5 o'clock, and we didn't have a lot of daylight time left. We were also unsure of the exact motion and speed of the storm as we were running blind on data for much of the time.

But the cells in NM weren't looking too impressive, so we bit the bullet and ran north toward Dodge, planning for a intercept near Spearville to the ENE with hopefully enough daylight to see something. After yesterday's run for a Tornado Watched cell busted out on us, we were obviously somewhat apprehensive of the storm winding down and us being left high and dry once more.

Turned out to be our best decision yet.

The storm kept its integrity as we moved north out of Dodge, and started to look like a classic huge HP supercell. As we neared with a few miles from the main precipitation area, GRLevel3 showed about 6 Mesos with 3 inch hail being generated.

The storm loomed up toward us, but luckily we had a perfectly orientated road to parallel it as it moved east.

We were just in the right place - a zero precipitation area just to the south of multiple meso lowerings and wall clouds.

These wall clouds were producing so many really good looking lowerings that we were sure something must happen. The lightning was also getting constant, but what concerned us was another line of big cells that were catching us from behind. We stopped several times to take a look at this Beast, each time bombing up the road afterward to keep up with those rotating meso areas.

During one of these stops we came upon fresh large hail on the ground - around 2.5" diameter - so we didn't drive on too quickly!

More lowerings followed, but no identifiable tornado. By now the rear line of storms was catching us fast, and heavy rain mixed with hail started, and we were losing visability. We decided to bomb south to get into clearer air - but it was now getting dark quite quickly. Given what was going on around us, we didn't want to be chasing in the dark when a tornado was quite possible at any time. The road to the south we were on was not ideal, however - it was a gravel/dirt road that could easily flood if the rain caught up with us, and we could easily get stuck in mud or flood water. Added to which it was not on the map, we had no Google maps due to internet blackout, and the rear line of storms moving in from the west was about to do a pincer movement on us with the main storm to our north/north east.

Lightning was by now dancing all around us, anvil crawlers, anvil zits, CGs, CCs, the whole deal. I could make out cloud structure in the dark during each lightning strike in the important area behind us, whilst Sam was checking to our right in case anything was on the ground there as well. We could make out frequent lowerings from a wall cloud advancing toward our location from the west.

About 15 minutes down this road I noticed a wedge-shaped lowering lit up in the lightning about a half-mile or so behind us. The terrain was flat, and it wasn't hidden behind any trees, and it seemed to me to be in contact with the ground. I suggested to Neil that we should push on a bit quicker - luckily we then hit a main road (the 54), but not before a painfully slow traverse of some railroad tracks before the juntion. We pulled out eastbound on the 54. I could still make out some churing low clouds behind during lightning flashes, but we quickly pulled clear of this area.

I'm not sure what this was - I suspect a large lowering that wasn't a tornado, but this evening I've noticed Spotters have confirmed at least one tornado associated with this storm.
Anyway, after that it was on into Pratt (yes, yes very funny), and Days Inn for a lightning show as the storm system finally crossed us.
A great day - oh, and its now officially my 40th birthday in USA time as well as BST. Quite a birthday present...

Tomorrow looks like a leisurely drive eastward to position east of I-35 for Saturday's action. There's a bit of potential tomorrow, and if it comes across our path I dare say we'll chase it...

Pics and vids to follow from today. Sleep now....

Edit:

As promsied - some vids.

Warning! Some contain bad language!

Vid 1 of 3:

Vid 2 of 3:

Vid 3 of 3: