GoBoB Chasing

Early round of convection went through Tulsa this morning with prolific amounts of small hail and heavy rain. This should set the stage for a potentially significant event this afternoon/evening. On the road to Enid, OK and the potentially points west

Sitting in Kinsley, KS and waiting for storms

Thursday was interesting to say the least. Warm moist air from the Gulf streamed into Oklahoma and Kansas like a race car. April was the wettest on record in parts of OK and surely the evaporation of some of this moisture contributed to the increasing dew points and offset some of the mixing that would normally dry the atmosphere out. This was a classic chase problem day with a very strong warm dry layer of air aloft that acts as a capping layer. Think of this as a lid on a pressure cooker, so long as it holds nothing can really happen. The question was fairly simple, can we add enough sunshine, moisture, and a forcing mechanism to blow the lid.

Most chasers were negative, but with the opportunity to chase within 125 miles of home, I had to take the chance. I hit the road with chase partner Aaron Cunningham and we decided to head for Bartlesville, OK and then possibly the KS state line if necessary. As we ventured north, there was some favorable bubbling cumulus that is usually a good sign. Aaron spotted a tower going up near Sedan, KS. We danced with this storm for the next three hours. It was a beautiful storm. We were able to avoid the hail and stay under the rain free base. It came very close to wrapping up a tornado several times, but the Rear Flank Downdraft winds seemed too cold as we were continually greeted with cool inflow air just as the storm was showing the best shear/rotation.

In all, it was a 261 mile trip that has go down in the grade book as no worse than B-. We were in cell phone hell, so once again streaming was not all I hopped for. About 8:00 PM we met some other chasers from Norman, OK, they mentioned storms had fired in Oklahoma. The models and synoptic data analysis did NOT indicate that storms would be likely in OK. As Aaron and I crossed the Oklahoma border, these relatively long track impressive storms immediately died. I watched the news on Friday evening, and was amazed at the nice video some of the local chasers got. I have to leave the state of Oklahoma for anything interesting to happen.

Wednesday May 7th is looking interesting across Kansas.

Thursday looks like an incredible waste of thermodynamic potential.