Southwestern Oklahoma: April 3, 2019
I started the chase near Turkey, TX, as I observed agitated cumulus along the dryline relatively early. There was one robust storm north of I-40, otherwise some other convection was ongoing just to the north of Turkey. I wanted to see if anything would go up farther south along the dryline, but that didn’t happen.
Early on in the storm cycle, there was a bit of mammatus to see, so I stopped for a few photos. I had a feeling it would be a bit longer before storms encountered a more favorable environment closer to sunset. As it turns out, one storm in the cluster, near Memphis, quickly became a dominant supercell.
It was around this time that I set myself up near Newlin, TX (just southwest of Memphis), as I noted a lot of blowing dust in the distance. I got up close and dusty fields were in the inflow region, sending plumes of dust northward into the storm. I couldn’t get much footage without turning myself and my car into a dusty mess, so I quickly shifted east to try to stay ahead of the storm. Prior to leaving, I did broadcast this brief livestream on Periscope:
From Newlin, I took an iffy road “K” east, hoping that I could make it to US-62 before the storm turned right, and/or road conditions became unmanageable. The dirt road worked out okay. I’ve certainly encountered worse roads in Oklahoma before. Once at US-62, I had to make a decision. There was no real way to get east of the storm without driving through the hail core and to go south would involve going all the way to Childress. After some hesitation, it was clear that the better photo opportunities for structure would probably be to the south. If the tornado threat had been more substantial, I may have tried to stay farther north, but that wasn’t the case.
The next stop was just east of Childress, watching the storm over the Red River in southwestern Oklahoma. I saw very few chasers at all down there, as most seemed to favor being farther north. This gave me a relatively unique vantage point and I had the luxury of watching the system organize from a distance. It was a well-organized supercell, despite boundary layer moisture being modest at best.
I drove southeast to Quanah, and then turned north on TX-6, with an opporunity to finally get in front of the storm. I had really good timing with making it to the Oklahoma border as structure became very pronounced from my vantage point. The only thing I wish I had done was use my new camera more, so this photo (one of my favorites from any chase I’ve had in Oklahoma) and most of the others in this post were from my iPhone.
Once in Oklahoma, I went up into Eldorado to get a closer look at the storm. Structure had more or less peaked by this time and I was fairly certain that the tornado threat wasn’t worthwhile enough to hang back too close. I took rural roads east to Elmer for a few more photo opportunities before sunset.
Mid-level rotation was very pronounced on radar, but low-level rotation was never all that impressive. There were a few times that it looked like, just maybe, a wall cloud was trying to get organized, but fairly dry conditions in the lowest 1km above ground level (AGL) were not very favorable for tornadoes.
With that said, moisture return was pretty much right on par with what the 12z HRRR guidance was showing. The 12z HRRR showed 53-56F dew-points in southwestern Oklahoma at 00z and that’s what verified. Still, the moisture wasn’t substantial enough to support a bonafide tornado threat.
Overall, this was actually one of my better chases in Oklahoma, even though it was barely in Oklahoma. I haven’t seen a lot of really great structure in the state, but interestingly enough, one of my previous favorite chases in Oklahoma was only a couple of towns east of today’s action, in Tipton…
As far as expectations went, I figured there was probably going to be an isolated supercell or two today. Wind profiles were highly favorable for supercells and capping was enough to keep storms fairly isolated. I’d say expectations were met, if not slightly exceeded.
