It was a fun trip, but we left wanting more.

Sorry we didn't provide a final post sooner. We had some unexpected car trials and tribulations and that made our last few days in the midwest a bit more hectic than we had planned, despite there being no storms to chase. Thursday-Sunday turned out to be beautiful days, which for us of course was a bad thing.

We learned a lot on our trip. For a storm chaser, it's all about logistics. We talked a lot about how we could have done things better (of course hindsight is 20/20). We felt we weren't aggressive enough at times, and too aggressive at other times. All in all we saw some pretty incredible sights. The tornado damage we saw near Picher, Oklahoma was nothing short of breathtaking, in a bad way. We came away that day with a much greater appreciation for nature's destruction. We put ourselves in front of an impressive line of storms on Tuesday which produced some amazing lightning and an onslaught of small hail. On Wednesday we raced into central Texas only to be pummeled by a supercell of which strength neither of us had ever seen. We just recently watched some of the raw video we took from that night and couldn't believe what we had tried to drive through (we came to our senses and pulled off eventually). We will be editing the video over the summer, so please let us know if you would like us to send you the final product once we are through. Because of how hard it was raining, it was hard to judge the hail size from that storm but we concluded based on the sound it made hitting the car, it was probably close to nickel or quarter sized. We didn't dare try to open the car door to find out first hand. The water on the main road through the town and its side streets was 2-3 feet deep in some places - something we were totally unaccustomed to and certainly not expecting to see.

Overall we had a lot of fun and are hoping to do a repeat trip next summer. The quest to see the almighty tornado will have to wait for a year, unless of course we can manage to get one here in North Carolina. Lately that has seemed very possible, so we will see. Thank you for keeping up with our blog. It was great knowing that a lot of people were checking in, and we apologize for not being more regular with posts and providing some better content. Again, let us know if you would like a copy of some video footage. We will probably have some more still photos downloaded and available as well.

Thanks,
Stanton and Robert

Trip totals

We are now back in North Carolina after an exciting week in Oklahoma. Unfortunately we never saw a tornado but we came close. Despite no tornadoes we still saw some very cool convective weather. We are still working on pictures and videos but since Stanton and I start new jobs today in Charlotte and Raleigh we are both strapped for time. Some trip totals we drove about 2600 miles and flew about the same. Went through about 3 supercells some of them twice. Of course the supercell that hit us in Lampasas dropped multiple tornadoes, but at the time, over Lampasas it was slightly weakening through a phase change.

This is deffinately not our last storm chase and look to the future for many more.

more pictures

most of the previous pictures came from our friend Sandy who was positioned in Brady. more of our pictures later.

Storm report

Yesterday after sleeping in, we drove from east central Oklahoma(Salisaw) to almost dead central Texas(Lampasas) from about 10:30 a.m to 7:00 pm(around 500 miles). Our goal was to intercept the storm closer to Brady, a town we actually stopped in on Monday, but ran out of time. The town of Brady received a tornado in the Supercell we eventually intercepted in Lampasas. We received reports from a fellow chasing group of wall clouds, funnel clouds, and dustnado: likely a tornado. The Supercell that drop that tornado hit us about 25 minutes later. In Lampasas we received damaging winds, torrential rainfall and about penny size hail. The torrential rainfall actually hurt us in the end because of major flash flooding. We were surrounded in a parking lot with all roads impassable. The hail size was a little disappointing with reports of Vil around 80. But the heavy rain probably encompassed alot of that. It was very encouraging to see the cell to start to hook over Brady but at the same time we wish we could have been there earlier. We took some screen shots of the doppler around the time when we think the Supercell was tornadoing. We also included some pictures of the Super cell from our point of view and borrowed some pictures from a friend who was in the Brady area.

A major lesson we are learning in this trip is core punching a Supercell is not the best or safe thing to do. However due to time constraints and road locations core punching the supercells was our only option in seeing the storm. Using updated imagery we felt that both storms weren't conducive of producing a tornado at that time or location so we felt that weren't endangering our selfs too much.

We our taking it easy tonight so more pictures and video up later.

About last night

Yesterday evening we intercepted a mini-supercell that transposed into a line when it got to us. We set up our cameras in Rentiesville Ok, near the intersection of Hwy 69 and 40 (same road that goes through NC). Going by information given to us by the storm prediction center we were located dead center in the high-risk area for potential supercell development. We probably changed our position 5 times before deciding on a location as the storm approached. Unfortunately the storm’s slow movement put the center on top of us just after dusk. However, the lightning was incredible with designs similar to a spider web engulfing the entire sky. This lightning allowed for us to see the immense cloud structures and a possible wall cloud. It is a pretty frightening experience to be in a supercell after dark and having to rely on the lightning to show what’s coming your way. It was very unsettling to see clouds dropping down low in every flash of the lightning. In all we received pea size hail for about 10-15 minutes, severe lightning, rain (probably the strongest I have ever seen), and strong to damaging winds. The storm did weaken and we missed out on larger size hail that was reported west of us.

Currently we are driving back to Texas to intercept a dryline forming in central Texas. There is some severe weather that is pushing through eastern Texas at this time, but our lack of sleep the past few days took a toll on us and we missed out on early morning severe weather in Texas. We are hoping that as this storm pushes through clearing will allow for daytime heating increasing instability once again and initiate supercell development. We will be better with completing our next update tonight as we will have a more dependable internet connection and hopefully some pictures to show as well.

Quick Tuesday Update

It's about 1pm local time and we are sitting and waiting in Coalgate, OK which is almost 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. Currently skies are overcast but we have a temp/dew of 72/70 with strong winds out of the south. We are waiting for storms to be initiated after a dryline comes through giving us some clearing and surface heating. Mid-level lapse rates are steep and are most unstable parcels have over 3000 j/kg. The shear profile is supportive of supercells, so we think we have a good hail threat. As this threat moves east, we're hoping there could be more of a tornado threat as well. Our plan is to wait for storm initiation here in Coalgate because we found a good high spot with lots of visibility. As the storms get passed us we will attempt to follow them. This will likely take us into western Missouri later on tonight.

more photos

some more photos

Foundation wall of former federal building, acts as wall for the memorial site today.
Victim's daughter has left her mom a birthday card
150 empty chairs varying in size symbolize each victim
American Elm tree, lone tree to survive the blast. Now known as the survivor tree, it is used as memorial site icon on banners and signs.
spray painted by rescue worker on the day of the blast.
"We search for the truth
we seek justice
The courts require it.
The victims cry for it.
and God demands it!"

Back to the plains

Tomorrow we will be heading back to Oklahoma after a disappointing day in Texas. Today's storms in South Western Texas took a little longer to develop than expected. We were positioned in Mason, Texas but made a decision to leave and head towards Austin to see some friends for the night. A decent storm that may have had severe qualities didn't move into west Texas until after 11:00 pm(see radar image above).
Tomorrow we plan to leave Austin early and head back to eastern Oklahoma. the forecast shows that a strong cold front will move southward from Kansas to central Oklahoma while a surface low migrates northeaster ward. This front looks to cross into eastern Oklahoma in the afternoon. Soundings show that areas east of triple point are capable of producing supercells supporting very large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes.

(above are some pictures from the Oklahoma City national memorial)

Oklahoma City Memorial/ Heading south

We paid a visit to the Oklahoma City Memorial this morning on our way out of town. It's a really nice tribute to the victims of the Federal Building bombing and it was pretty incredible to see so many people visiting 13 years later. There is a museum on site as well but we didn't have time to go through it. If you're ever in Oklahoma City the memorial is a must see.

It's currently nearing 4pm local time as I'm writing this (mobile internet is sparse out here, so the posting time could be considerably later). We're about 60 miles south of Wichita Falls, TX and heading due south. We're banking on the unstable air to our south being realized with some forcing from some upslope flow and continual warm advection. Shear values are favorable for some supercell development as well. The SPC slight risk area is a bit south of where we will be able to make it, but we feel good about being able to get into south central Texas as things start firing. It's pretty dry at the surface so the convection that occurs will be elevated. Our primary threat will be large hail and strong winds with the storms that form. We paid extra for a hail damage waiver for our rental car, so we're hoping to find that large hail. Hopefully after tonight we'll have some good pictures. We'll also post some from the Ok City memorial later tonight.

Some photos of the damage near Picher, OK

We arrived in the Picher, OK area around 3PM local time today and as we expected, were not allowed to get close to the actual downtown area. We decided to park nearby and walk down some railroad tracks a few miles from the town. We found an area where it appeared a second or secondary touchdown had taken place. Unfortunately one house took a direct hit and was a total loss and at least one other house was heavily damaged. Neither of us had ever seen tornado damage in person, and it was a truly unsettling sight. The randomness of a tornado is cruel and unjust. Just 200 yards away from the house that was a total loss, an elementary school was virtually unharmed. We were amazed at the apparent force of the tornado which shredded trees and left branches stuck deep in the ground like darts. It really makes you respect the power these tornadoes have. We're attaching a few of the pictures we took. We'll make more available later.




The general plan for tomorrow (Monday) is to wait and see if things in south Texas become promising enough to make us want to head that way. Initially, it looks like a strong cap will be in place despite some decent instability. Because of this it seems most likely that if storms break out, it won't be until around sunset so our plan will be to take the morning to figure out if we should head that way.

Day 1: Damage report

Today we have flown into Oklahoma City, where we have found mild weather and clear skies. We are currently on are way to Picher OK, the location of a massive tornado that struck last night around 5:42 pm. Picher is located about 200 miles North East of Oklahoma city. We will be taking video footage as well as pictures from this area.