Interesting day. I had taken the day off in anticipation of chasing. I slept in a little, and was awaken at 8:45 by my NOAA All Hazards Radio. The SPC issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Watch that ran until 6:00 PM CST. This is unprecedented as a watch is a medium fuse product that usually runs 2-4 hours. This was the first real planned full equipment chase day. Chase partners were Bob and Karen Hall (parents). The day did not pan out as any of the models or forecast really suggested. Storms that should cleared out were firing around 1:00 PM. I got the vehicle loaded and headed to KTUL to pickup some new gear. Swing by the parental’s at 11:00 AM and head for Ponca City, OK. We grab a McLunch in Ponca and get a little north and west of the city and get ready to watch the initial storm run over Ponca. It was not very exciting nor was it supposed to be. This was the initial round that should not be severe, it was the second round of storms that would have the dynamics to work with. I can see an impressive looking (round 1) storm near Stillwater. Joel Genung had arrived a NWS Tulsa and was getting up to speed and had not put the repeater network into weather net mode.
There is some very subtle language in his update that tells me Pawnee and Osage counties are going to be of interest. I decide to check in and let him know where I am. About one minute later I get a call on the repeater network that suggests that Burbank, Fairfax, and Ralston are going to be of interest in 45 minutes. The storm that was over Ponca is Tracking NE along 60. 60 East is the road option Burbank and 11 which is the North/South option that hits all of the target cities. We decide to push through this storm with heavy rain and sustained 45 mph winds to get to our intercept (great driving Dad). We reach the intersection of 60 an 11 and have data on large hill so we hold up and I check in with WX5TUL. Joel still likes the plan so we head south to Ralston. Just as we get to the Arkansas river the storm is looking impressive and someone is reporting a lowering. There are a bunch of trees and we just can’t see. Joel cautions not to cross the Arkansas river as there are no road options. We hold Just north and are able to report a sustained lowering with persistent rotation. We chase this north and east through Fairfax and then some county roads towards Strohm. Several times the storm got its act together and about 5 NE of Fairfax, there were several lowerings that converged and the clear slot became very bright. This is about as close as you can come to a funnel and then maybe a tornado. We stand down and head back to the hill on 11 and 60. Very spotty data and no cell. I desperately try to get video back to KTUL to no avail. We still expect the real storms to fire between 4 and 6 PM.
I am able to borrow a Cingular cell and call Joel on a land line. He suggests I target a bit farther south as this air has been too worked over. Joel is a really experienced chaser and I greatly respect this advice. We head to Pawnee and camp for several hours at a gas station that has a casino inside. We are in incredible air, but the cap seems to be holding. We stay on station and see some impressive cumulus with lots of anvil zit lightening and call it in. Lightening dissipates so we call it quits and head back to T-Town.
Mom cooks up some pizza rolls and Dad whips up some Sangria. The real 50 watt mobile ham radio is amazing. I was hitting every repeater all day. This is a first, as my HT was never very good in rural areas. Most of the technology stack worked flawlessly. Still working on video capture and APRS.
GREAT CHASE DAY!!!!!!!!
