GoBoB Chasing

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I’ve been on the provider side of virtual chasing since APRS. Today I decided to be a consumer and follow Steve Miller (OK) and Aaron Cunningham. The following images will automatically get watermarked as part of my posting software. All images and technologies are property of their respective owners. At about 7:45 PM CDT their chase got interesting. Special thanks to ChaserTV.com and Spotter Network for making these technologies available.

About 30 minutes worth of daylight left and so far I’m not regretting chasing. The chaser convergence as seen on the second graphic from Spotter Network show how many people are on these storms, No stories of a bunch of chasers getting hit by the hail cores (yet).

A couple of tornado warnings issued so far hail is most impressive. Looks like quite a convergence circus on Spotter Network.

So far the event is playing out as forecast. One very small spin-up noted by some folks in Texas but not on SPC yet. I have not seen anything tornado warned either,

Ultimately, I was unable to convince myself that I’d be able to chase a tornado until after dark. Storms should start to fire in western Oklahoma/Texas panhandle between 5:00-6:00 CDT, but I don’t anticipate tornadoes until after dark. The fact that I chose to sit this one out virtually assures that I will be wrong and everyone will capture stunning photos and video. There should be plenty of baseball sized hail.

After an enjoyable day on the lake, I’m trying to decide if Saturday is a chase day. Saturday is looking like the first real chase day of the 2009 season. Models have come into better agreement. Deep layer sheer looks reasonable with effective shear 0f 40-45 knots. Mixed CAPE looks good between 1500-2000 J/Kg. More impressively the 0-1km storm relative helicities of 150-250 m^2/S^2 before 7:00 PM CDT. The problem is the lower level jet stream doesn’t really kick in till after dark. There will be strong tornadoes but nobody may see them; and let’s not forget lots of hail. Every chaser in the world will be out there so this will just add to the fun.