March 27th Suprise Supercells

Well, I started the day early in Stillwater, with no intention of chasing supercells. I thought if I make it back to Tulsa in time, I could film some BS storms for KTUL. So I headed to the KGB house in Edmond, to setup my new Tahoe, and get her ready for the chase season ahead. Randy Rhea stopped by on his afternoon lunch break, we had some pizza, then he went back to work. I was about to head back towards Tulsa when randy called an informed me of towers off to the East. Hmm. Looked East, then pulled over to get "white lightning" ready for her first chase. Supercell in Okfuskee County moving at a whopping 22 MPH. So I break a few laws trying to get there, a "large tornado" which was probably just rainwrapped scud was reported. The coldfront was to the north, and Dicky McG suggested i catch the storm that went up just S of the tornadic cell. She was a beaut, dropping random golfballs out of the anvil canopy onto my new car. I caught the cell near Eufala and got very close to the disorganized(but TorWarned) wall cloud, got stuck in some mud, and decided to head E a little. More quarter sized hail with a few golfballs mixed in. Filmed some crappy video for KTUL and went to Glenpool.

256 miles.

March 17th NW TX "chase"

Well, I started the day in Glenpool, woke up early, and met Ryan Warford and Randy Rhea at the KGB house in Edmond. We Headed out for Wichita Falls around noon. A little late, but it didn't matter. When we got to Wichita Falls, we decided to keep going to Seymour. Ran into Jeff Snyder, said hello. We held our ground there as storms struggled to sustain themselves. One storm near Abilene went TORwarned and another cell went up just S of us neat Throckmorton. We busted S to intercept. when we got there, it had a bit on an elongate updraft, but it did have a wallcloud with some rising motion. we followed it down a dead end county road (thanks delorme) and by the time we got back to our highway. it had split and the left split had accelerated towards OK. We could make out 2 wall clouds on that cell for a few minutes as we tried to follow it. As we went through Seymour, we decided it was a lost cause and were debating on heading 200 miles east into the new watch. I chased SE OK last week for KTUL video, and I will never do it again. Those hills and highways are hell for a chaser. So we chased a pack of wild boar, and Steve Miller pulled up. Said hello, then we headed North towards home. Mike Ratliff passed us, then i called him to let him know I wasn't a copper. We tried to stop and take a few lightning shots, but the rain always overtook us. Then we got home(Edmond), and I went to bed knowing that the next day I would spend alot of the next day filming flooding in southern Tulsa county.

822 miles

March 2nd W OK chase

Well, I started my day in Edmond, and had a list of things to get done before I left. I woke up late (imagine that) and needed to do some serious cleaning, wire 3 cig-plugs in my car, and build a new laptop mount. I finished around 1 and headed toward Lawton on 44. Today would be good as I would finally get to test my Sprint card and all my programs and see how well I can chase by myself. Watched some storms in NW OK get TorWarned but new that the cold front would blast through within the hour, so I stuck to my Southerly target. Talked to Chris Wilburn. He said he was headed towards Hobart to wait on some cells firing on the Red River. I broke W to intercept near the town of Snyder. I could see 2 interesting areas on the base of the storm, but the southern area quickly stole the show. It played around with some disorganized wall clouds for about 20 minutes, but as I neared Roosevelt, the whole Meso had lowered from the base and was putting on quite a show. I set up and watched an amazing wall cloud cycle and occlude, then headed E to re-position. Then she really got cranking. The 10 minutes I spent watching this mothership spin is why I get up in the morning. Even though she didn't tornado, that 10 minutes made the whole day worth it. It was amazing. Heres a timelapse from this spot.



From there on she transitioned into a High Precip beauty, so I punched it once for fun, then turned around and went back to Roosevelt to catch the next "cell" which was embedded in a line segment. Decent wall cloud, but very disorganized. I headed home to get back into the KTUL viewing area so I can get some video for them. I gassed up in Wellston where Matt Hagy, Randy Rhea, and Jessica Sager met up with me. We headed S into a new watch-box where some new SUPs were trying to develop. They never happened and we parted ways near Tecumseh. The next 2 hours I spent trying to get ahead of the line and avoid my biggest fear and a Chasers' worst enemy... hydroplaning. Well, I suck so it didn't work and I almost ran someone off the road. Maybe they won't drive in people's blind spot from now on. Anyways, I slowly crept home(Glenpool) and got a good nights rest. The end.

466miles.

I feel that I chased very well with few mistakes. It was also nice to chase storms that were moving less than 50 mph! This was just one of those days where you chase by yourself with no expectations and get rewarded. It's days like this that make all the BS days worth it.

A few chasers that played further north were rewarded with a brief but nice tube. However, the structure wasn't near as pretty as the storm I was on so I don't feel that I missed anything. Also, I'm pissed that mother nature rewarded people to the north when it was obvious that the cold front would intervene. Whatever.


Also, I would like to thank my bosses for letting me bribe them with subway. I buy them lunch so that they let me chase on days that I should be at work. Thanks Eagle and Kev!