Day 16 Report

[Gorky]

Well, I'm not sure the other guys have much to report so I'll start this.

Started the day in Stillwater Ok, with plans of heading up to KS to play that game. The SPC's risks kept me in Stillwater for quite some time. I eventually decided to head down to Paul's Valley to play the triple point, only to have storms fire behind me just East of Stillwater. I sat east of Paul's Valley for an hour or so until my net connection dropped (I wasn't moving and had had it for an hour!) and after that it never really came back. I was at least 30 minutes behind on radar most times and so almost all the chasing today was done my sight and my weather radio (Invaluable!).

I headed back to Paul's Valley and got a radar update from a motel, before heading off to intercept storms I could see billowing to my NW. It was already getting fairly late with the sun decending behind the gowing clouds.

Havnig left Paul's valley I was without data again and I made my way to Wanette passing by several tours and a small army of chasers on pretty much every driveway they could park. I had one storm North, which I couldn't see through the rain, and one NE as shown below.

I drove out of the town and headed NW a little where I bumped into a chaser called Hank,who actually chases with Lorraine from UKWW and Dave Ewoldt. I took a look at his Barons, and the Cell to the east was actually moving due east now rather than the NNE before and coming straight at us. Again, it isnt the best looking storm, but after a day sitting around, I was happy to see something!

The rain started coming down hard so I had to leave. I jumped East ahead of the storm but the terrain was abysmal. I took a few photos as and when I could, but over time it died a death. Soon it was only a rain shower. I got a few 'structure' shtos as it died but nothing impressive..

I'd heard the warning for the northern cell had been cancelled as it had weakened, but something drove me to go North and see if I could get some lightning before it too died. As I was about 4 miles North East of Konawa, the radio blared a Severe thunderstorm warning for a storm located 4 miles NE of Konawa, and right on queue, the heavens opened and I was driving in torrential rain in the core of the cell. The cell reversed it's weakening trend and is actually still warned now 3 hours later.... Ironically, the exact time I got into the core, was when my Internet connection returned and updated to show me how nice the cell looked.

I pulled up after gtting through the rain, found one of the few places where hills and trees weren't a huge problem and took some photos of the lightning. At first, it was mainly CC lightning, but after a few minutes, and it getting a further away than I would have liked, it started spitting out CG's. No real order to the photos below, just the coolest looking shots I managed.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

-Nathan

[MAF]

Some great shots there Nathe. glad you stuck with your instinct and got some quality pictures

[*Stormforce~beka*]

Nice one!! Ooooh I am jelous! When you back on British soil?

[Louby]

I would kill to get pictures like that! *looks round for someone to kill*

[Stu]

Yesterday was a bust - lack of H500 / H850 shear meant that any storm that formed was a liner string bean - more over the cap was strong and early day cloud cover over South central Oklahoma stopped storm formation. The best storm formed right in my original target area KS/OK/MO tri state area - why I left this area I will never know - I was suckered by the mod risk area...

I did managed to take a peek at the same storm that Gorky was one (at one stage I was just 1/2 mile to his south observing the storm) while the storm did show some sturcture it was not a supercell - what a waste of low 70's Dew points - worst is...this was the last chases now for a number of days..

[NL]

Great lightning shots Nathan at least you got something in what became an epic bust yesterday, i stayed up until

1:30(BST) and watched those cells on the brink of something big then gone..!! What happened????, seems tornadoes

only want to appear around dusk or just after dark these days, chance today around southern/eastern Texarse into

Louisiana with a 10% tornado probability... Good luck all ye chasers today.

[Nick F]

Well, we and many other chasers like Stu thought we were playing the best risk area yesterday, but despite nearly everything falling into place - apparently the dry line which intersected the cold front near our target area decided to retreat west just as things were looking promising with towering cumulus bubbling up in front of us near Elmore City west of the I-35 in south central OK. So in the end the towers collapsed - but the cold front further north near OK City did trigger some non-supercellular storms SE/E of the City. We decided not to chase these storms as they were north and we needed to be south for today's risk in TX.

Anyway, a shot of the TCu bubbling up near Elmore City around 6pm yesterday evening:

Some sunset shots from Decatur, TX:

Hopefully things will go our way today!

[Cookie]

some great images guys :o

[grab my graupel]

Just seen these...Simply fantastic picture's there Nathan The atmosphere and the feel is superb.

I love the last one with the the two strikes at the same times.

Nice pics also Nick...Those sun sets are very peaceful looking :o