Chase Log: June 10th, 2005


Click on any of the SPC products below (Convective Outlooks, Watches, or MCDs) to see the SPC's "Severe Thunderstorm Events" page pertaining to this event.


MAP

Total Distance: 300 miles
Target Area: McLean, TX
Chase Area: Elk City to Watonga, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate
Watches: Tornado Watches 449 and 453, Severe Watches 451, 452, 454, 455, and 456
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs): 1276, 1279, 1281, 1282, 1284, 1286, 1287, 1288, 1290, and 1291

As noted in the 6/9/05 log, I had planned on chasing this day since early week. As it happened, a morning MCS swiped through much of the target area, laying down cold, cloudy outflow air that killed any hopes of developing any significant instability across most of the target area. I was chasing with Dan Dawson this day, and we recognized that this was happening, thankfully, before driving all the way to the target area. Instead, we sat in Clinton for several hours, waiting to see what would happen. A few storms did develop in western OK during the mid-late afternoon, though most dissipated rather quickly. We did chase a storm to Watonga, and it did show intermittent supercell structures. Overall, however, we got hosed by a morning MCS that came through too early to ingest any significant instability, and too late to allow the target area to clear by afternoon.

06-10-2005 Chase Pictures

Click on any photo to see a larger version

The mid- and low-levels of the storm looked nice and solid, but the upper-levels looked horrible. In fact, the upper part of the storm actually began to 'lean' to the southwest. I surmise that this is because the storm-relative upper-level winds were actually northeasterly owing to the fact that mid-level flow was stronger than upper-level flow. Regardless, it's all we had, so we followed. This storm exhibited intermittent supercell structures, as the shear was borderline for multicell vs. supercell convective mode. Here is a little wallcloud that tried to get going. There also was a nice inflow band that stretched eastward from the storm. Even the cattle were disappointed with the way the day turned out. Moooo.