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After busting in NE for the second time in a week I decided to shoot for number 3 down in OK. This day was being talked up by most. My plan was to stay in KS the night before and then get data at a library in OK on the 19th. This is a view of the Kingfisher OK library :( . Blackwell had this same look to it, closed-damn holiday weekends. I can thank Steve Peterson, who was back at home in Nebraska and Amos Magliocco who was sw of OKC, for passing along useful info via cell phone. I owe them many a cell phone minutes.
Through the whole afternoon the best convection seemed to be nw of here. As I drove east the entire area was nothing but tcu everywhere. I lost cell service for a bit at this point. So, it was completely visual now. After crossing I-35 at Guthrie I decided I'd venture north. As I got north of Stillwater the atmosphere changed quite dramatically. I called Amos back and asked where they were(they were now on the Tulsa storm). I told them something was happening here but I wasn't sure what as it was. I noted that it was now dark everywhere to my nw and there seemed to be some very intense moiture pooling here.
While trying to beat this one base to my east option this funnel formed.
Radar at time of this image. Now that is a small storm.
I cannot confirm it touched down as some did. No one was any closer than I was at this point, unless someone was walking in those trees. With the wet ground it wouldn't easily kick up dirt, so it was likely down in some fashion here.
It was very brief.
I'm turning that corner to go east towards Ralston. The funnel is lifting, nearly overhead, to the ne.
Intersection of 18 and 20 east of Ralston looking nw.
The speed of this storm and the road options made it close to impossible to chase. It's moving ne at 40 and my current option is either due north or se, nice. There were some good motions in this wall cloud.
This was so cool. The clouds at base level were basically condensing right infront of your eyes, ripping nw into the storm.
This did not take long to get this far from the storm, having to drive se as it moved ne. The winds aloft had to have been quite strong. You could watch one area billow up and very quickly move ne. Radar at time of this image as it approaced Pawhuska
Heading north on 99 toward Pawhuska.
Just outside Pawhuska looking north, trying to get north to head east.
Heading east towards Bartlesville.
Rain/hail wrapping around the meso with a nice horse shoe at this point, just west of Bartlesville.
This really sucked, entering Bartlesville and listening to spotters report 3 tornadoes on the ground near Dewey(JUST north of Bartlesville). I wondered about the 3 thing figuring they were watching scunadoes along the gustfront. Well they weren't.
Tornado happening right now as I head north out of Bartlesville.
Still in Bartlesville moving north as the tornadic supercell continues.
I must have just beat the road block the radios were reporting was about to take place here. They had a huge heads up on this storm and emergency vehicles were already everywhere as I came through.
New wall cloud with good rotation west of Wann now(on highway 10).
Others ahead of me opted to drive under this as we moved east. View was fine on this side anway, likely better than the other.
I didn't sit here but 20 seconds and took off east again, forgetting to use my still cam...again! There wasn't a whole lot of time for much of anything.
Ah and it moves north again and I'm stuck south of it.
Nice horse shoe continuing. This gust front trailed south for a long ways. It was pretty amazing how far sw it stretched.
Now I'm east of Coffyville KS, once again catching up with it. I think I did this routine 6 seperate times from north of Stillwater to far se KS.
East of Coffyville I decide to keep blasting east instead of taking the first couple north options, in hopes of some sturcture. The contrast was horrid and I didn't have time to stop and shoot stills.
The last attempt to head north, west of Oswego KS.
It was still a very nice looking supercell.
I blasted north one final time, yet again never gaining anything on this. Overall it was an extremely frustrating chase. Traffic was horrid at the wrong times. People in left lanes making a running road block with the car in the right lane should be shot on the spot. Many didn't want anything to do with the storm so they'd just go 30mph down the highway instead of pulling over. Oh yes and the "spotters", police, emergency vehicles, etc watching the storm need to learn a bit more. I think everywhere I encountered them they were watching the gust front way south along it.