Chase Log: March 30th, 2008
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.
Total Distance: 300 miles
Target Area: Clinton, OK
Chase Area: E. of Cordell to El Reno, OK
Maximum SPC Risk category: Moderate
Watches:
Mesoscale Discussions (MCDs):
Dan Dawson, Robin Tanamachi, Gabe Garfield, and I stayed primarily on the northern supercell from not long after initiation to sunset. We successfully played a "split the difference" deal for a while, with bases of both supercells in view, though we opted to stay closer to the northern storm given it's rather beautiful appearance at times. The structure of this storm seemed to improve nicely by about 8 pm, and a blocky wall cloud and tiered low-level structure developed shortly thereafter. Unfortunately for us, though, cell interaction with the supercell to the southwest proved detrimental to the storm we had been following. As such, as dropped south and east to get a spot southeast of Binger that provided a good view to the west. We saw rapid wall-cloud motion between Binger and Cogar not long after, and we measured a 51 kt (not 51 mph, as the LSR indicated) inflow wind a few miles W of Cogar as this 2nd supercell lifted northeastward. With a 3rd supercell to the immediate west, we jumped back towards Binger to get a better view, and we ended up following this one through Union City (were we saw 2" hail on the ground) before calling it a night (near 11:45 or midnight).
I then made it home about 1:15 am (home in extreme northwestern Arcadia) to see a very large, what-I-thought-to-be elevated supercell to the southwest over far NW OKC, Piedmond, and Edmond areas. A tornado warning was soon issued, and we lost power at my house immediatley after one of the TV mets reported a tornado on the ground near the Edmond/OKC border. It certainly looked as though the rotation was weakening as it passed through Edmond, and it looked as though it'd pass to the north, but I played it safe and opted to take a drive southeastward with the wife and pets to make sure we were out of the path. OG&E restored power to my area around 5:45a, I think.
Overall, it was a pretty good chase, enhanced by the slow storm motion, 2+ hours of daylight supercell action, a supercell that fluctuated between classic and wet LP type, and 3 different times of severe (51kt measured inflow W of Cogar, 2" hail in Union city, 0.88" hail in Yukon, all reported via ham radio or espotter). Given that the primary concern was daylight initiation, I can't complain too much. The northern supercell we chased from 4:45p (-ish) to sundown had some nice structure, but it never appeared to be imminently tornadic; cloud-base motion wasn't ever terribly impressive to me. The 3rd supercell (the 2nd one to go near/through Binger) seemed to barf out cold outflow some ways ahead of the precip that constituted the hook/appendage/whatever which may have had something to do with the problems it had tightening up the low-level meso.
03-30-2008 Chase Pictures
Click on any photo to see a larger version
