June 15, 2009
Storm Chase
Texas Panhandle
Editor: Putnam E. Reiter
Forecast/Setup -
Risk Area: Slight Risk
Initial Target Area: Shattuck, Oklahoma
SPC Products:
SWODY1
16:30z -
Local
Storm Reports
NAM 12z - 12 hr forecast:
Surface Pressure
- Dewpoints -
CAPE
- MLCAPE
- CIN
- 0-3 Km Helicity -
Surface Temperature
-
850mb Dewpoints
- 850mb Vertical Velocity -
850mb Wind
-
700mb Wind
- 700mb Vertical
Velocity -
700mb Relative Humidity
- 500mb Wind
-
500mb Vertical
Velocity -
500mb Relative Humidify
- 500mb Vorticity -
250mb Wind
- 250mb Relative
Humidity NAM 00z
Initialization:
Surface Pressure
- Dewpoints -
CAPE
- MLCAPE
- CIN
- 0-3 Km Helicity -
Surface Temperature
-
850mb Dewpoints
- 850mb Vertical Velocity -
850mb Wind
-
700mb Wind
- 700mb Vertical
Velocity -
700mb Relative Humidity
- 500mb Temperature
- 500mb Wind
-
500mb Vertical
Velocity -
500mb Relative Humidify
- 500mb Vorticity -
250mb Wind
- 250mb Relative
Humidity-
00z Dodge City -
00z Norman
Sounding
SPC Case Review
This setup was not much different than what we saw
on the 9th. The ridge was still in-place over
Texas and had nudged into Oklahoma. A southern
stream longwave trof was positioned just off the
southern California coast. This kept stronger
500mb flow across the region.
Presence of seasonable heat and humidity led to
afternoon CAPE values above 4000 J/Kg across much of
Oklahoma into Kansas. Kansas had several
rounds of severe weather leading up to this day.
A well defined shortwave trof was progged to eject
northeast during the day, at a favorable time for
afternoon thunderstorms. Models
did not handle moisture fields well and hence
dryline movement. Several of the models showed
the dryline into Oklahoma by mid-afternoon and
erroneous drying in Texas advecting into Oklahoma.
Neither of these occurred, the dryline remained in
the central Texas panhandle.
Models did indicate that storms would develop during
the mid/late afternoon hours along the dryline from
western Kansas southward into the Texas panhandle as
the 500mb shortwave trof ejected northeast.
This did occur with initial development in Kansas.
SPC quickly issued a tornado watch from Dodge City
to near Lubbock. Additional storms developed
near and north of Amarillo. The storms near
Dodge City produced a few tornadoes and the activity
near and northeast of Amarillo mainly produced
destructive hail.
A pair of supercells developed just east of Wichita,
Kansas, most likely on an old frontal boundary, and
both produced tornadoes. These were probably the
best storms of the day as they were isolated from
the activity to the west. There were only a
few severe thunderstorm warnings for Oklahoma on
this day and not significant occurred.
The Chase -
Team 1 - Rob Ferguson, Brett LaBar,
and Putnam Reiter
Miles Driven - 430 - Gas spent $40.00
Departure Time - 14:00 CDT
Return Time - 22:30 CDT
Track
We left Oklahoma City and headed west on I-40 to HWY 281 up to
Watonga and then back west on HWY 3. We got to Woodward and dropped by
Walmart to get a charger for Rob. I got the equipment setup and we headed
on into Woodward to grab some grub. As we got close we heard word of
storms in the panhandle, so thought itw as best we headed on west. Finally
got grub and gas, then headed southwest to Shattuck on HWY 15. I really
couldn't make up my mind on whether to go north or south at Shattuck, but the
storm's rapid movement east (relative for June) made me want to go south.
So, we went south on HWY 283 to HWY 60 and went west. We had storm scale
features at this point, even though we were 20 miles away from the storm.
We got into Higgins, Texas, and
went west on HWY 213. We drove to HWY 305 just
south of Lipsomb and just sat there. At this
poiint we had a good view on the storm as it was
just to our northwest. The lightning was
impressive and Rob got some decent pictures of it.
The rainfree base was well defined but wall cloud
cycles were inconsistent and there weren't any well
defined RFD cycles.
As the storm got to our north it
started to lose some surface features and sure
enough a quick look at radar indicated it was
weakening. But, never fear another storm had
developed along the dryline just southwest of our
current storm. We watched it a little bit
longer and then continued west on a dirt road for
about a mile. Finding a good hill, not a hard
thing to do in the panhandle, we setup to watch the
storm. As the storm approach, we noticed a
well defined wall cloud and saw a RFD cycle. I
talked with Jay and Andy, finding out a tornado
warning had been issued on this storm. We
tried to drive farther west but the road was closed
as it went private.
We drove back to our hill and
watch some more. A funnel developed for a
brief time as the RFD cycle appeared to finish.
Once this happened the storm developed a new
lowering and we continued to watch it. A short
time later we noticed that this storm was also
losing features. Radar confirmed the storm was
weakening, but we stayed with it. Eventually
the rain shaft decreased and the storm was nothing
more than a residual updraft. It was
interesting to see a storm go from warranting a
tornado warning to a mere updraft in 20-30 minutes.
Albeit tough since it didn't produce a tornado.
We drove north a little on HWY 305
thinking we were going to intercept a third storm in
Oklahoma but after looking at radar we decided it
wasn't worth it. We headed back south on HWY
305 and got a few more pictures. Note, I think
there were 800 pictures between Rob and Brett, not
including the 33 minutes of HD video.
We then got to HWY 213 and went
east through Higgins and then on HWY 60 east to
Seiling. As we neared Seiling, another storm
had developed and started to decay. Rob and
Brett got a few more pictures of the sun through the
decaying rain shaft. After that we got into
Seiling for some fuel, food, and walk around.
We headed southeast on HWY 3 to Watonga and south on
HWY 281 to I-40 and then back to OKC.
With this chase,
Lessons
Learned -
- This is about as good as it gets. We did
everything right, just didn't have the luck.
Multimedia
-
South of Lipscomb:
- Storm 1: Lightning and Wallcloud -
1,2
- Storm 2: Funnel -
1,
2 (looinig west),
Updraft
1,
decaying updraft
1
Lipscomb: Decaying Storm, looking
west-northwest -
1
Seiling: Decaying storm,
looking northwest -
1
Amarillo RADAR
- WMV Format
Enid RADAR - WMV format
Encounters
-
Engaged
Storm: South Lipscomb
Tornado: No
Funnel: No
Hail (larger than 0.75 inches): No
Wall Cloud: Yes
Wind (above 57.4 mph): No
Engaged
Storm: West of Lipscomb
Tornado: No
Funnel: Yes
Hail (larger than 0.75 inches): No
Wall Cloud: Yes
Wind (above 57.4 mph): No
