Guthrie Tornado May 24, 2011 Intercept by Team Vortex

May 24th 2011 Chase Log (Coming soon)

Check back soon for this incredible account.

May 22, 2011 Chase Log

A dryline extended from southeast Kansas into southwest Oklahoma on the afternoon of May 22, 2011.  An extremely unstable airmass, with CAPE values near 5000 j/kg, was in place ahead of the dryline across eastern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. In anticipation, we decided to head out together as a family to do a little storm spotting.  My kids are heaving into my chasing, as well as my wife Diane whos a seasonal chaser as well. We decided to head up into S.E Kansas and position ourselves waiting for the dryline to fire that afternoon.


 
 Diane monitored the skies while I continued to get the latest updays from the national weather service and SPC.  We continued to watch strong updrafts explode towards the west over Osage County, Oklahoma and Butler County Kansas as the cap slowly began to erode.

Turkey towers of Cumulus clouds started to spring up to our south and west.  We decided to reposition ourselves farther east into Kansas. The motion of the storms were to the northeast around 20-25 mph which made it very easy to stay ahead of the cells as they began to build. We rode along highway 166 heading for Coffeville, KS.

 By 4:30 pm, the first signs that the storms were intensifying was the occasional alert of Severe Thunderstorm warnings going out for Chautaugua and Montgomery counties.  We decided to head northward towards the one dominating cell that began to erode the other cells around it.

 North of Coffeville, we turned again along highway 160 towards Mound Valley and Altamont.  This storm began showing signs of rotation which peaked our interest.  I have to say, this was one of the easiest cells to follow given its speed and ENE direction.  The photo to the left represents the storm as it came into Mound Valley, KS.

 As we continued to drive slowly east towards Altamont, a tornado warning was issued and we searched hard for a funnel cloud underneath the base of the wall cloud.  We came in contact with other chasers following this impressive storm.

There was alot of rotation with this storm and some calls went out of a tornado touching down, but we never saw anything even though the rain curtain was light in nature and the structure was still visually seen.

By the end of the chase of our short chase, we had to leave the cells behind as it was getting late and the kids had school in the morning.  We shot down 59 south back into Oklahoma and rounded Grand Lake only to find out we missed a waterspout cross over the lake.  Heading back on 60 through Vinita and Nowata, the call came out that the cell we left behind was headed towards Joplin, MO and it was Tornado warned.  Pulling off to the side of the road, we got a chance to see the formation of supercells including the one over Joplin.  No doubt that we were witnessing it as the tornado torn through Joplin.  Out of the several supercells lines up to our east and south, three had overshooting tops which was very impressive to see at such a distance.  Total trip: 212 miles.  Time: 4 hours. 

Added: Later that night, I headed back out to capture some lightning shots from the cells as they were crossing into Missouri and Arkansas.

May 11, 2011 Chase Log

MOST SIGNIFICANT/CONCENTRATED SVR POTENTIAL STILL APPEARS TO BE JUST AHEAD OF DRYLINE FROM NEAR SFC LOW SEWD AND SWD OVER OK AND PORTIONS CENTRAL TX...THOUGH SOME CAVEATS COMPLICATE POTENTIAL IN EACH OF THREE MAIN AREAS OUTLINED BELOW.  IN GENERAL...BROAD MOIST SECTOR. CHARACTERIZED BY MID-UPPER 60S AND LOW-70S SFC DEW POINTS
   AND INTENSIFYING BULK SHEAR...WILL FAVOR RATHER BROAD SVR TSTM POTENTIAL LIKELY ASSOCIATED WITH 3 PHASES...EACH WITH SOME SPATIAL OVERLAP. 

1. EARLIEST DEVELOPMENT MAY OCCUR FROM MID-LATE MORNING THROUGH EARLY AFTERNOON IN ASSOCIATION WITH LEADING/SRN-STREAM PERTURBATION OVER PORTIONS CENTRAL/SRN TX...AHEAD OF DRYLINE IN ZONE OF WEAKENED CINH.  ENVIRONMENT WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY INCREASINGLY SFC-BASED EFFECTIVE INFLOW PARCELS AND STRENGTHENING DEEP-LAYER SHEAR CAUSED BY EJECTING SWRN CONUS WAVE.  HODOGRAPHS SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT FOR THREAT OF SUPERCELLS AND PERHAPS TORNADOES.  POSSIBLE EVOLUTION TO MESSY CONVECTIVE MODES AND LACK OF STRONGER DIABATIC HEATING MAY BE LIMITING FACTORS...GIVEN POTENTIAL FOR EARLY ONSET OF CONVECTION AND SPREAD OF RELATED CLOUD COVER/PRECIP.

2. NEXT EARLIEST DEVELOPMENT IS LIKELY MIDDAY INTO MID-AFTERNOON NEAR SFC LOW AND ADJACENT PORTIONS OF FRONT AND DRYLINE ARC OVER KS...WHERE DEEP-LAYER FORCING WILL BE STRONGEST SOONEST WITHIN GREAT-PLAINS CORRIDOR.  RATHER LENGTHY HODOGRAPHS PROGGED IN NARROW
   WARM SECTOR MAY SUPPORT SPLITTING STORMS AS WELL.  SUPERCELLS WITH LARGE HAIL...SVR GUSTS AND TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE.  CAPPING WILL BE STRONGER FARTHER NE ALONG FRONT AND SE/S ALONG DRYLINE...BUT SVR POTENTIAL SHOULD BRANCH OUT ALONG THOSE CORRIDORS DURING AFTERNOON.
 
3. AHEAD OF DRYLINE OVER PORTIONS SRN KS...OK AND N TX.  DEEP-LAYER SHEAR AND MEAN-WIND VECTORS SHOULD BE PROGRESSIVELY MORE ORTHOGONAL TO DRYLINE WITH SWD EXTENT AND WITH TIME...CONTRIBUTING TO GREATER POTENTIAL FOR RELATIVELY DISCRETE MODES TO LAST LONGER.     HOWEVER...PRESENCE OF CLOUD COVER FROM WARM-SECTOR CONVECTION MAY RESULT IN NARROW OR RESTRICTED AREA OF AFTERNOON DESTABILIZATION. SOME MASS ADJUSTMENT OF MID-UPPER LEVEL WIND FIELDS ALSO MAY OCCUR...RELATED TO EARLIER PERTURBATION AND PRESENCE OF CONVECTION FARTHER SOUTH. THAT COULD LEAD TO AREAS OF BACKING WITH HEIGHT ALOFT...AND POTENTIALLY COMPLEX CONVECTIVE MODES.