April 1st looked like a decent day for tornadic supercells in southeast Oklahoma. By the end of the day, it would greatly disappoint a lot of storm chasers. Storms had problems with entrainment and undercutting all day long. We were able to get on two tornado warned cells near I-35 not far from Madill and points east. The storm pictured above, rode an outflow boundary and did all it could to produce, but in the end just couldn’t do it due to outflow problems.
April 7th, 2008 Northern Texas Supercellfest
April 7th was a decent looking day with a strong dryline/warm front intersection over western Oklahoma and north Texas. We arrived mid afternoon as a tornadic supercell developed west of Wichita Falls. SPC issued a PDS tornado watch and upgraded to Moderate Risk. We witnessed a brief tornado in the occluded mesocyclone, and then had great photo ops for two other lpish supercells. We also encountered tennisball to baseball sized hail with all three storms. Check out the photos below.
March 31st, 2008 Southwest Oklahoma Supercells
March 31st was one of those potential bust days with a strong cap in place across western Oklahoma. The ingredients were there, now we just needed enough forcing and convergence to get a storm to form. And they did! A beautiful classic/lpish supercell developed not far from Hobart and tracked all the way to Oklahoma City, being Tornado Warned the entire time. It came close a couple of times, but the low level flow was just not strong enough to produce a tornado. What we did encounter was baseball sized hail that shattered my windshield. Check out the photos below.
March 2nd, 2008 Western Oklahoma Supercells
I couldn’t resist my first chase of the season into Oklahoma Sunday March 2nd. The set up was good for supercells, but less than ideal for tornadoes. A fairly strong trough was moving in from the Rocky Mountains, with a surface low developing near Childress, Texas and decent southerly flow bringing mid to upper 50s dewpoints into Oklahoma. A strong cold front would help fire off storms with strong lift, but could also rapidly undercut them as it advanced southeastward.
By mid afternoon I was in Altus, Oklahoma waiting, watching high based towers go up along the advancing dryline. Soon a few disorganized cells formed, while the better storms were well north along to the cold front. By late afternoon, storms became better organized as shear became much better, however surface winds started veering, thus diminishing the tornado threat. I caught several storms, two nice supercells, and one was tornado warned near Gotebo, Oklahoma, pictured above. Check out the rest of the pics below.
October 5-7th, 2007 Taipei, Taiwan Super Typhoon Krosa
After much deliberation, my friend Stuart Robinson from England and I headed to the far east to chase our first typhoon, Super Typhoon Krosa (which means “crane”). All indications were that it would make landfall as a Category 4 storm, somewhere near Taiwan. We jumped on our planes and flew there to get into place before flights were cancelled. As I flew into Taiwan, we flew over the northern portion of the typhoon. It was a bumpy flight I’ll not soon forget!
Our plan was to head to the eastern coast and get into the northern eyewall and then the eye as it made landfall. On the morning of the 6th, we did just that. Unfortunately as the typhoon made landfall, it was deflected south, the back out to sea and then across the northern tip of Taiwan. The deflection took its toll on the typhoon. We had winds up to 120 MPH gust, sustained in the 95-100 MPH range. A serious weakening indeed. Nonetheless, it was an experience I will not soon forget. Taiwan is a beautiful island off the coast of China with a grand history and beautiful scenery. They escaped a potentially serious storm with only crop and ag damage, with some damage to buildings and power lines.
April 23, 2007 Texas Panhandle LP Storm
April 23rd was a very disappointing day for me. I had two targets, one in southwest Kansas and the other in the Texas panhandle. I chose the wrong one, the Texas panhandle. A nice rotating storm that was tornado warned developed south of Amarillo and moved northeast. What I failed to anaylize was that earlier convection spewed out cold air that was pulled into this storm, thus never allowing it to become as intense as it could have. It stayed in the LP state for its entire life, while two other storms in western Kansas became tornadic. Just goes to show you that you win some and you lose some!
September 6th, 2007 South Central Nebraska Supercell
Good shear, great moisture and instability, and a boundary would set the stage for severe storms in Nebraska September 6th. I headed out to my target of Lexington, NE and arrived by mid afternoon. Cells tried and tried to form, each time getting choked by the cap. Finally early evening, several supercells formed. The storm shown above was tornado warned and at times ther appeared to be funnels back in the notch of this HP. One time a cone shaped funnel extended halfway to the ground, but I could not confirm any tornadic touchdown. We did encounter hail golfball size with this activity.
August 23rd, 2007 Colorado Supercells
August 23rd featured decent shear with upslope surface winds in Colorado and 35 knots mid level flow. My plan was to play the Palmer Divide and then follow storms as the built southeast. Morning stratus hindered surface heating. Cells developed in a cool surface environment where intense shear was coupled with good moisture but limited instability. Two supercells formed that I chased, both producing large hail. The first supercell was also tornado warned.
August 22nd, 2007 Wyoming Supercells
August 22nd was a day that showed promise. Two plays existed. You could either play the upslope where better shear was present in southeast Wyoming, or you played the front where better instability and moisture existed. I chose the upslope being much closer to home. By early afternoon, I headed out to play cells that were developing in the upslope regime along the Laramie Range. The first cell was a classic supercell, with rotation and golf ball size hail. Low level shear just wasn’t strong enough to produce a tornado. Late afternoon, another cell emerged out of a line and developed pretty structure. It was also severe with golf ball size hail. Scariest thing occurred as I was southwest of Kimball, out of my van and filming the second storm. While taking still photos a bolt of lightning hit a telephone pole about 500 feet away from me and literally jolted me. One of the closest experiences I have had!
August 14th, 2007 Southwest Nebraska Supercells
August 14th was a day that I was hoping would provide for a great nighttime lightning opportunity. A short wave was timed so that intense thunderstorm development would occur during the early evening. I was not disappointed. Great moisture and instability would couple with lift along a stationary boundary to provide intense supercell thunderstorms. The storm pictured here produced golfball sized hail, 75 MPH winds and two funnel clouds that I saw.
