Monthly Archives: April 2014

26 April 2014 / SW Oklahoma Storms

Looking northwest from 4.0 miles south southeast of Friendship, OK (8:22 pm CDT)

Looking northwest from 4.0 miles south southeast of Friendship, OK (8:22 pm CDT)

We didn’t have real high hopes for the day, and that kept us from being disappointed.  Storms were expected to form across Northwest Texas and Southwest Oklahoma during the evening hours.  These were expected to have issues with limited moisture and be fairly high based, but there was a chance at more sunset lightning.  We first drove to Mount Scott and waited for a considerable amount of time before first storms started to appear in Northwest Texas.

We drove west on Highway 62 and made a couple of stops – one of which was used to shoot images of an old farm house to the south southeast of Friendship.

We were finally introduced to storms in Jackson County, and we followed these north and east as they produced a considerable amount of lightning at times.  The show was short-lived and we only ended up with a couple of lightning captures from the event.

23 April 2014 / Supercell and lightning

Looking northwest from 6.1 miles north of Mountain Park, OK (8:12 pm CDT)

Looking northwest from 6.1 miles north of Mountain Park, OK (8:12 pm CDT)

The target area for us this day was a fairly small one – over the extreme Southeast Texas Panhandle and far Southwest Oklahoma.  Low level moisture return wasn’t that impressive, but it still appeared that storms would move off the dryline during the late afternoon hours.  Given the degree of instability and deep layer shear, some supercell structure was expected.

Our first stop was in Shamrock, Texas where we monitored radar for a short time, observing storms that were forming to our west and south.  We decided to target a storm that was north of Memphis, Texas that was rapidly intensifying.  About midway between Shamrock and Wellington, the storm split and we watched the impressive left mover peel away from the main storm.

We stopped about a mile north of Wellington and watched the storm to our west and southwest take on supercell characteristics.  For a brief time, there was a rotating wall cloud to our west southwest.  It didn’t take long before a surge of outflow undercut this feature and blasted us with 50 mph winds and blowing dirt.  This was not a surprise given the very high temperature/dewpoint spreads and high base of the storm.

We moved to Highway 30 in Western Oklahoma and shot a few more images of the storm while it still looked supercellular.  Its appearance looked more and more pitiful as we drove east and northeast through Reed and Brinkman.

Since it appeared that there would be little in the way of a tornado threat, and little in the way of decent structure with the storms in our immediate area, we began searching for a place to shoot lightning.  We stopped near Lone Wolf and captured a few lightning images, then moved to just east of Tom Steed Reservoir.  The lightning picked up and the setting sun helped frame some wonderful images at this location.

2 April 2014 / Anthony, Kansas Supercell

Looking west from 3.6 miles east of Anthony, KS (7:09 pm CDT)

Looking west from 3.6 miles east of Anthony, KS (7:09 pm CDT)

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cng9yc21HRA

After a drive south on Highway 81 the day before, I figured it was time to head north.   A warm front which extended from Southern Kansas to Northwest Oklahoma was going to be the focus for late afternoon thunderstorm development.  I drove north of Enid and sat at a favorite turn out, the road to Kremlin.  From about 4:30 to 5 pm, I watched towering cumulus steadily organize until it was clear we had young storms.  I continued north and crossed into Kansas at Caldwell, and then worked northwest to just east of Anthony.

From a few miles east of Anthony, I observed a supercell storm to the west, send off a left split which had a large hail threat.   For about 20 minutes after the storm had split, the right mover displayed some very nice structure.

A downburst is visible near the end of the time lapse video I have put together.  That downburst signaled the start of rapid weakening.  Other storms in the area were less interesting and I started home after making sure there wasn’t another play in the neighborhood.

1 April 2014 / Slow out of the gate

Looking west from 3.8 miles south southeast of Comanche, OK (5:38 pm CDT)

Looking west from 3.8 miles south southeast of Comanche, OK (5:38 pm CDT)

A warm front was located across far Southern Oklahoma, and there were consistent signals from short range models suggesting late afternoon/evening storm development.   Additionally, there were signals that storms in Texas would move northeast and cross the Red River.   Both scenarios came up just a bit short.  I drove south on Highway 81 and spent some time around Comanche, watching towering cumulus west and north.  Some of these pulsed high enough to produce radar echoes, and a little bit of rain.  That was the extent of the convection for the day.