Drifting Back to Oklahoma
Today’s severe weather setup drifts back toward Oklahoma. The surface setup features an area of low pressure over the Oklahoma/Texas panhandles, which will be moving slowly eastward through the day. South of the low...
Monthly Archive: May 2018
Uncertain Prospects
Usually by early afternoon on a storm chase, I have a fairly good idea about where I’m going. It’s not always a slam dunk, but usually there’s a target in mind and reasonable confidence...
Modifying Outflow
An outflow boundary is draped from near the Red River in southern Oklahoma, northwestward into the eastern portion of the Texas panhandle this morning. Ongoing convection in central to eastern Oklahoma will tend to...
Transient Supercells: May 23, 2018
Another panhandle chase, this time in the Nebraska panhandle, featured transient supercells, passing from northeastern Colorado into western/central Nebraska. Multiple isolated storms developed in northeastern Colorado during the afternoon, but it took some time...
Texas Panhandle Storms: May 18, 2018
The day started in Dodge City to keep multiple chase targets in range, but it became clear fairly quickly that I was going to favor the Oklahoma/Texas panhandles. The moist axis verified well and...
Similar Setup
The setup is similar to yesterday, with the only noteworthy differences being a slight eastward shift of a surface low and somewhat stronger mid and upper level forcing. The surface low should be positioned...
Wandering the High Plains
Today’s storm prospects are focusing in on eastern Colorado into southwestern Kansas, as an area of low pressure spins over the Front Range. Climatology says that northeastern Colorado is the tornado hotspot of this...
Cimarron County, Oklahoma: May 16, 2018
An isolated thunderstorm developed over the western portion of the Oklahoma Panhandle yesterday. While the thunderstorm was not particularly intense, it did moved fairly slowly, allowing for me to sit in one location and...
Fire-Induced Supercell: May 11, 2018
This was one of the most interesting chase days in my career and it seems fitting that it would happen in the Texas panhandle. Due to the variety of storms I’ve seen in the...
Nebraska Supercell: May 10, 2018
The “southern strategy” paid off on Thursday, as I chased a relatively isolated supercell from far northeastern Colorado into southwestern Nebraska. Around mid-afternoon, multiple thunderstorms developed in the northeastern Colorado vicinity, but it took...
Panhandle of the North
As May carries on, poleward moisture transport is beginning to support storm chases farther north. Although it’s not completely unheard-of, it is still a bit early (climatologically speaking) to be chasing in the Nebraska...
Outflow Dominance: May 9, 2018
Not every successful storm chase requires a tornado and sometimes the least impressive looking atmospheric setups produce some photogenic storms. Today’s storm chase featured very low confidence that anything impressive would form, as the...
Oklahoma Opportunities
The day’s severe threat is focused on western Oklahoma and the ingredients are coming into place for what could be a very active late afternoon. A dryline across the eastern portion of the Texas...
Back to Kansas
May is here and today’s storm chase features a return to Kansas. Overall, the chase itself is fairly straightforward. Low pressure in the western half of Kansas will be the focus for thunderstorm development...