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This was only me second chase of the year, since the Oklahoma season
was being so crappy. Either the setup was bad, or I could never find a
chase partner. Anyway, this setup actually looked pretty good a few
days out. Ample moisture was in place along with a dryline/triple
point in SW OK/N TX. I managed to snag a chase partner from my Kappa
Kappa Psi chapter. We were both graduating, but decided to skip
commencemnt.
It appeared a dryline bulge would develop somewhere
around SW OK/N TX. Wind fields were very supportive, so we decided to
head out.
Target: Altus, OK
Chase Partners:
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Matt McDonald
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Location:
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Western North Texas
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Miles Travelled:
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475
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Total Time:
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10 Hours |
2:30pm (1930 UTC)
My chase partner, Matt McDonald, and I left Norman and headed for
Altus, OK. After arriving in Altus, we went to the library to check
some data. Storms were beginning to rapdly develop just across the
OK/TX border near Childress. The southern-most storm appeared to be
much more dominant. It was also somewhat more separated and isolated
from the activity to the north and was moving slowly eastward. We
decided to drop south into Texas to intercept. After arriving in
Vernon, TX, we made another data check. The storm had a Tornado
Warning on it and was quickly developing into a large HP supercell. As
we headed east for the intercept, we dropped south on Farm-to-Market
(FM) Road 267 near Thalia, TX.
We travelled south to the intersection of FM-1919
to observe the storm to our east. We saw several funnel clouds and a
couple of very well-defined wall clouds develop and dissipate. It
appeared the storm was cycling between classic and HP mode, with a
tendency to stay HP. We also started receiving reports of 4" diameter
hail in the storm. At the same time, the storm began takng a hard
right turn and began moving to the SE. Road options were somewhat
limited. We made the decision to stay way out ahead of the storm in
hopes of getting south of it, so we dropped SE on FM-1919 towards
Seymour, TX. In retrospect, we probably should have stayed on FM-267
through Benjamin and Knox City. We would have had a great view.
Once in Seymour, we headed SE on US-277 towards
Munday, TX. The storm was still moving SE and a new Tornado Warning
was issued with baseball-size hail reported in it.  Next, we headed
south towards Haskell, TX. We finally were south of the storm and had
a good view of it. At one point, a tornado was reported four miles
west of Weinert, TX, only about five miles to our north. We were in
great position with good contrast, but we couldn't see anything. If
something was there, it must have been rain-wrapped. I snapped some
more pictures as the RFD passed by, which cooled temperatures quite a
bit.
A cluster of storms then developed that we had to
punch through on our way back home. We encountered some dime-sized
hail and very heavy rains, but that was about it. We finally arrived
back at my apartment in Norman to catch the last two hours of a
post-graduation party....that I had no idea was planned. But, it was
still fun.
SUMMARY:
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We chased the storm of the day. Unfortunately, it was an HP beast that
was next to impossible to find a good position to view, so we really
didn't see much. We did see some impressive storm structure while we
tried to intercept it, but that was all. Still, for only my second
chase in a really weird and slow season, it was a success. I didn't
bust out. I found the right storm. My only other chase was also on a
tornadic supercell in April east of Oklahoma City, but I didn't get
anything with that either.
So far, May is not turning out a lot. Hopefully, June will bring some better luck.
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